My Gymnastic Life Y.H. Doshisha International Jr/Sr High School, Kyoto, Japan

There was a time once when I aimed to become a professional gymnast. I used to take gymnastic lessons for more than six years, both in America and Japan. Gymnastics had been the central part of my life. It was my first priority over all other schedules and plans.

Five out of my six years of my gymnastics life had been in America. I started gymnastics when I was nine years old in Japan. A two day experiencing program at the sports gym was the start. I joined this program by my mother's recommendation. I heard later on that my mother simply wanted me out of the house because I had been dragging on without anything specific to do during the summer vacation. It's a real wonder when I think about it today, because if it hadn't been for my mother chasing me out of the house to get some free quiet time for herself, I would never have considered starting gymnastics. I still appreciate my mother for recommending me to do gymnastics even if it was for such a cause. Anyways, within this two day experience, I completely fell in love with gymnastics.

My very first competition took place in Kobe. Since my gymnastics team was new, I was a part of the competitive team which was practically the "BEST" and the only members of our team. In other words, we were all that our Sumire Gymnastics Team had, who were good enough to compete in any competition. I was worried about my beam performance because I had fallen off the night before during practices. It was a pretty bad fall on a skill called back-walkover, which I thought I had completely mastered. I had lost all my confidence with this single fall.

When my name was called up and I saluted to the judges, I glanced at my coach and he nodded back. With this single eye contact with him, for some reason I regained my confidence. Somehow, I knew I could do it. Maybe it was due to the long practice hours and hard work that finally paid off. This feeling of confidence won over my worries that once seemed to crush me. I got up on the beam, put my hands straight up besides my ears, pointed my feet straight up towards the ceiling and flipped my body over. As my right foot landed straight on the beam followed by the left foot, I had a huge smile on my face. It was one of the moments that allowed me to reassure my affection towards gymnastics.

Three months later, I was practicing in a whole new environment with new sets of friends and coaches. It had taken me three months to decide whether to continue gymnastics in a new country where I couldn't speak its language. The three month absence in practices had made me uncertain about skills I had mastered in Japan. At the beginning, I had troubles communicating even the very simple matters such as the name of the skill. However, I gradually got used to the new environment as my communication skills improved a bit at a time.

Back then, a two hour lesson seemed tremendously long since I had no one to depend on. Yet, most of my memories are from much later years when gymnastics had literally become my life. This seemed strange to me because now when I think back at the four years in America, the last half seemed to fly by compared to beginning when each practice felt so long and bothering. As I improved my skills and advanced on to higher levels, practice hours increased a great deal. By the time I had entered junior high school, I had been practicing four hours a day, five days a week. My life was a repetition of going to school, going to practice, and going home. In addition, there were competitions about every two weeks during seasons.

Although the long practice hours may sound like a big pain, I never felt that way about it. I think that is because there were so many things I gained from gymnastics. First of all, there is no doubt that my English skills improved very quickly because of it. Communication between gymnasts and between coaches was a very important aspect due to the dangers that comes along with this sports. Proper understandings among each other was indispensable. Therefor, I naturally learned to express my feelings and ideas in English.

The second large aspect was the great friendship which grew from long hours of practices. I was able to make as many friends at gym as I did at school. I had spent so much time together with friends at gym that they had become one of my closest friends. In addition, since we were all aiming for the same goals, to perform well at competitions, we naturally felt a close relationship among each other. Competitions especially brought us closely together. A possible reason may be because we often traveled far away to new gyms we had never been to before. I loved competitions in other gyms because it felt like taking a small trip.

Of all the competitions, the state's championship that took place in Odessa was the most memorable. I flew into Odessa the day before the competition with my friend and my parents. I remember practicing back flips on the bed at the hotel we stayed at. We were saying how our parents would kill us if we did this at home. We were too excited to get much sleep that night. The next morning, my parents took us to eat pancakes before our competition. Ever since then, pancakes have been my lucky item before competitions.

From all the experiences through gymnastics,, I think I learned a lot about getting along with others. Gymnastics may seen like a very individual event, but actually, my team members' encouragement's had a great effect on me. I hope I was the same for others.

The six years of gymnastics seemed like it flew by in joy and laughter. However, there were hard times as well. I have a very weak back which made me visit the doctors almost every month. I found out that I had a problem in the spine which will ache with active movements. It is obvious how active gymnastics can be, which meant I had to bear with the pain throughout practices. I also had an injured knee which made it necessary for me to wear supporters during practices. Gymnastics is a sport full of movements we would never experience in our daily life. Thus, our bodies are not built to move in such ways. Injuries and pain was one of the hardest things I had to face during the six years.

When I came back to Japan three years ago, I made a huge decision to quit gymnastics. To take away something that had occupied most of my personal life wasn't an easy decision. I seriously thought about my future of gymnastics life. It was obvious that with all my injuries, I wasn't going to improve much more. However, the cause to quit was so vague and uncertain compared to my strong will to continue gymnastics, it really took a long time to make this decision. Regarding all the positives and negatives, I finally made up my mind to quit.

The few months after I quit was the hardest to bear. I didn't know how to fill in the excess time everyday. The long hours of spare time made me think back about the time I still practiced gymnastics. When I realized myself looking at photographs of competitions and medals I won, it felt as if I had lost a close friend. I felt a big hole in my life which I had no idea how to fill in. I thought about gymnastics more than ever, and I missed it so much. I guess the amount I missed it reflected the amount of affection I had towards gymnastics.

Gradually, I got used to the life without gymnastics and found out ways to use my new free time. Although I still miss it sometimes, I have found a way to keep in touch with it without actually performing myself; that is to become a judge. That way, I can continue gymnastics as long as I want without having to worry about my injuries. Now that I have a new goal, I have something to work for which can keep me focussed.

Looking back at the six years, I'm truly glad I did gymnastics. There are so many unforgettable memories that I can not express them all. I'm just glad I met this sports and I will always remember the important lessons I learned from it.

Hatta, Yuki (2000). My Gymnastic Life. Retrieved March 25, 2001, from the Doshisha International Jr/Sr High School web site: http://www.intnl.doshisha.ac.jp/projects/3sa/2000/memoir/sa2/e8-yuki.html

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