Me, My Life, And Tumbling.

Updated as of June 2012
I am sorry if any of this information is incorrect about anyone.

I started a hair blog and had so much fun with it I decided I would start another blog about my number one love and that's tumbling. First I want to tell you a little about my tumbling history.
I started Tumbling when I was seven years old at Tiffany's Dance Academy. The first day I went in My teacher kept asking me if I had ever taken before. I hadn't and she didn't believe me. When my mom came to pick me up she asked her and she assured her that I've never taken before. My teacher told my mom I was too good for this class and I needed to come to an intermediate class.
After A year at Tiffany's my mom decided she wanted to start me with a different teacher because the teacher I was with was really a dance teacher and not a tumbling teacher and my mom didn't think I was learning as much as I could.
So after a while looking around I started tumbling at "Jill's house" I tumbled with my best friend in Jill's unfinished basement. Jill was a good teacher and I had a blast learning from her in her unfinished basement on that one mat we had until she decided she wasn't going to teach any more.
After another couple of months of looking for a new teacher I started at Flipside Tumbling where I am now with Jill (a different Jill) as my coach. Jill was an Elite world champion. She told us about her last competition she ever went to. It was the in Japan and she took gold. (a good way to end I think)
When I started at flipside we had a few short fold up mat and one short tumble trampoline that comes about up to my knees. After a while we got a spring board that was about half the size of a competition spring board.
I learned my back handspring and was invited onto Flipside's first comp team in 2006. I went to my first competition in October of 2007.
In about 2008 we moved buildings and joined "Lance" (one of my coaches) at his gym down the street. Jill and Lance shared the gym until they decided that Jill should own the gym and she bought him out. Lance still coached for us and was head coach next to Jill.
In 2008 we got a double mini. Most of you are probably wondering what a double mini is. It is a trampoline that has two parts the first part is at an angle and the second part is flat. I've done a couple of posts about equipment so you can look for it.
In 2009 we moved buildings yet again to the building we are in now.

In 2009 we got a competition trampoline. I love that thing It is so bouncy but it makes it really hard to control your body.
There are three events in power tumbling; Floor, Double mini trampoline, and trampoline. I hope this makes sense.

In 2010 I competed level 6 once at regional. Then once this year for my first meet, then moved up to level 7, and I cruised through it. I got the mobility for level 8 and worked on moving up. I moved up to level 7 on Double Mini and competed level 6 on tramp.

2011~ I came to the end of my 2011 season ultimate goal for 2011 was to qualify and compete at my first J.O. National Championships. I started off at level 7 for the first two meets placing 2nd at the January meet and 3rd at the February meet. I moved up to level 8 for the March meet and hit okay passes for my first level 8 meet. At this meet I took 2nd on Double mini at level 7. Then at State Championships (being one of the only two qualifying meets) placed 6th but did not qualify for nationals and was devastated knowing how hard it is to qualify at Regionals. (the other qualifying meet.) At State I placed 3rd on both Double Mini and Trampoline. After State I worked as hard as I possibly could because I knew I only had one more chance to make it to  National Championship. I wrote the number 53.2 (my qualifying score that I had to get) on my wrist with a sharpie and looked at it many times a day in order to keep me focused.
Regional Championships~ I was really nervous for this meet knowing it was my last chance to qualify. I hit good passes but we didn't know how hard the judges where scoring that day. After I competed my coach told me to sit and wait, he then went over to the judging table to look at the scores. Then with no emotion on his face came and asked to look at the number on my arm (I still had 53.2 written on my wrist hidden under my purple leotard.) He looked at it and just said okay and walked away. He went and told my entire family and the other coaches the results and nobody would tell me anything. These few minutes where the longest minutes of my life. We went to awards and my team mate, Kenzie, and I placed first end second respectively, Kenzie taking 1st place. They announce the top score so she knew she qualified but I still had no idea. I then ran over to my coach and he just asked me "do you want to know your score?" and he then told me that I had qualified by 2 tenths of a point scoring a 53.4! I was ecstatic! This was one of the BEST moments of my life knowing how hard I worked and to finally get rewarded for it. I then went on to place 1st on Double Mini becoming Regional Champion! This was awesome and really exciting because I had some tough competition.
Nationals where in July in San Antonio, Texas. I did great for my first year and placed 10th in flight, and 28th overall, and hit good clean passes. I had a blast with my team and just loved every second of it.

2012- In 2012 Lance stopped coaching comp. team and started running our cheer program. In 2012 I was coached by Stephanie on Double Mini, Dawn on trampoline, and Jill and Ashlie on floor. We got a new tumble tramp (this time it is adult sized so us big kids won't bottom out. It is also much longer so we can fit longer passes) So here I am nearing the end of my 2012 season. This year I started off my first meet and realized just how huge my group this year is. At my first three meets I competed against about 20 girls. By the third meet they split us into two flights with 12 in each flight. My first 3 meets I did okay, placing between 6th and 10th at each meet.  I was scared for State because of what had happened the year before. My team mated and coaches got me through it and I qualified at State with a score of 53.7.
I didn’t compete at Regionals in 2012 because I had already qualified at State and so I didn’t need it to qualify. 

Nationals training has been going awesome. My passes are a million times better than they were at state and I am so excited for Nationals! Nationals are in less than a month and I am so ready! Here I come Long