A Day of a Great Fail

It was the summer of 2019 and my dad had the audacity of signing me up for a tumbling class. For as long as I can remember I have been doing cheer and have been pretty good, but people are starting to advance faster than me. Not saying I am a bad tumbler but I have been stuck in the same place for years and  it is not getting any better. I was certain I would not know anybody and would be the worst in the class or I would fail right in front of their eyes.

30 minutes until tumbling and I was really procrastinating, taking forever to get dressed so I would be late to the class. But here comes my dad yelling, “Emily we are leaving in 2 minutes, you better be ready.” Not wanting to irritate my dad, I quickly ran into my room to get ready and quickly filled up my water bottle. On our way to tumbling I was terrified, I am usually an outgoing person but I really hate being alone and meeting new people. When we arrived at the tumbling place called gymnastics unlimited I was astonished by how big it actually was. From the outside it looked to be quite a small and have a very low ceiling, but on the inside it was a whole nother story. The gym was decked head to toe with beams, bars, mats, tumbling tracks, foam pits, and a green and blue air track right in the middle front of the gym. The air almost looked like a cloud of fog was taking over due to all of the dust and foam particles in the air. I threw my sparkly black cheer bag into the cubbies and shyly put on my white cheer shoes. Girls were all lining up by the entrance in the gym while I was just staying, still looking confused and terrified. 

Then I heard a voice right behind me,, “Are you her tumbling two, my name is Josh and I will be your coach.”  

“Yeah,” I replied anxiously.

“Ok, Join the girls lining up on the floor to start warming up.” 

During warm ups surprisingly I wasn’t completely confused but I for sure did not look confident in anything, then I heard the same voice from early announce everyone to stretch and start tumbling. Stretching all alone the coach came up to me and asked for my name and skill I wanted to work on.

I answered “Hey, my name is Emily and I wanna try to work on my standing back tucks.” 

“OK GREAT, they do call me the master of helping people get their tucks, how about you come over to this mat and I can spot you on some.”

I looked to my left and I saw a green mat that to the looks of it, it was on top of springs to help get power. I walked over to the mat where Josh was standing and started to kick things off with a beautiful back tuck. ¨Wow I am not half bad¨, but then as soon as I look up I see a girl doing tumbling that could have been in the olympics. My self esteem starts to permit thinking of how all the other girls are so amazing and I not so much. “Times ticking we don’t have all day.” I shot. I forgot I was still standing there doing back tucks so I quickly threw another one so people behind me could get spotted.

After I was finished getting spotted I was told to go to the bright green and blue air track to work on my standing trucks, it was going great. My standing tucks were on point and super high but then out of the corner of my eye I see my dad sneakily holding his camera out filming me. I was beyond terrified, thoughts came rushing into my head to try to make it perfect…..¨flex your feet, look up, SET, rotate fast, jump super, etc…¨ But this was far too much than my brain can handle, I quickly brought my hand down into a low V and then clapped, after that my life flashed before my eyes. It was like slow motion, I swung my arms and jumped with all my might bringing me super high but something did not feel quite right. As soon as I reached the peak of my jump I realized my body was not rotating and soon enough I was landing right on my neck falling not being able to get up. At first I felt fine, no pain whatsoever but then as soon as I tried to push myself up an agonizing pain pierced through my chest leaving me to fall right back down. ¨Oh No this couldn’t be happening failing right in front of everyone on my first day! How embarrassing!¨ Then again I heard the same familiar voice, ¨You need help up¨ Shaking my head yes, he reached out and grabbed my hand.

It's been over a year and that failure still haunts me today, Ever since I fell my fear of doing back tucks or any kinds of tumbling have been going down hill, tumbling passes and skills I had for years are I now insist on not doing or even trying them. Even though people are telling me it is fine and you can do it, doesn’t help.  But starting this last month I have been slowly overcoming this fear and I have been working on standing tucks again. Tucks still terrify the life out of me but slowly my confidence has been building up and hopefully in about a month I will achieve such gold in the skill. Mental blocks are nousiencent and I wish for everyone you will never experience it if you do I wish you can soon overcome it just like I how I have been trying to overcome mine.