After years of battling with my athletic trainer, I am now safely halfway around the world where she can't possibly catch me doing things I'm not "supposed" to do. Now I know that she always had my best interests at heart, but we often times butted heads because of our differing opinions about what I should/should not be allowed to do in the gym. And yes, I am now talking about the gymnastics gym, and yes I did find my way to one last night :)
Gymnastics was my first true love and unfortunately in college I was not able to do it (physically) as much as I had hoped. So when the opportunity found its way into my lap last week, I dove at it. Even though I'm 22 and have dedicated the majority of my life to the sport, it still excites me and makes me happy when I get the chance to do it. And last night, I got that chance. It just so happens that last week I stumbled upon someone carrying around keys on a "Gymnastics Australia" lanyard and after asking him about it, I found out that a gym about 7km away offers adult gymnastics classes three times per week in the evening for a couple of hours. I actually first attempted at going on Monday, but got very, very lost, so I ended up turning around and just heading home. Last night, I was successful, though the journey didn't go flawlessly. I almost gave up when I looked up and saw a ring tower through some glass doors, so I knew I had to be in the right place.
I walked through the doors and felt the chalk entering my lungs; it was a wonderful feeling. I got acquainted with the coach of the class and met some of the members. I wasn't expecting anything...I just wanted the opportunity to flip around and play. But the class was actually pretty structured, with rotations and everything. After moving through some basics, I found that things actually came back to me pretty quickly. I didn't even really see too many stars. The highlight of the night was pulling out some front tumbling. The coach was great...not holding me back, but allowing me to do things even if no one else was doing it. And I had the added bonus of not having to look over my shoulder every two seconds to make sure that no athletic trainer or coach would see me and cast me a stern "what do you think you're doing" look.
If I'm being honest, I have to say that my joints were feeling it by the end of the night (I don't think my ankle has been put through that much range of motion in about 15 months)...but after two surgeries and for my first time back, I think it went pretty well.
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