It's been a couple weeks since my first meet back into competitive gymnastics after over a year and a half off! My last competition was at the 2010 NCAA National Gymnastics Championships in Gainsville, Florida when I competed for Oregon State. If you haven't checked out my website (Laura-AnnChong.com) to see any of my previous blogs, I was soooo nervous about the meet. I put a lot of expectations on myself and wanted to be perfect and nothing else, even though it was early in the season. But, as I woke up on meet day, I remembered that I was just doing this because I loved it and it was time to relax and have fun. It was showtime :) I drove out to the meet (which is about 45 minute drive from my house), blasting my iPod and getting in the zone.

The meet arena was very nice and I was glad that I had made the trip out to the gym the week before so I could get my surroundings down and feel comfortable when I got there. There were only 6 girls competing in the senior category (including myself) and one of them was only doing vault. If it had been just us, and the juniors, the meet would have gone by really fast as it was a warm-up/compete format instead of having timed warm-up on each event first. However, there were also all of the pre-novices competing and a couple other age categories so it brought the total number of competitors to something closer to 40. It took sooo long! I'm not use to club meets anymore, so it felt like a marathon. I was ready to have dinner after the second event :P But, my teammates were there and it was really nice to have them around to cheer each other on and it made it seem just like a training day. I am now training at Flicka Gymnastics with my former coach, David Kenwright and Dorina Stan. A couple of my teammates, Brittany Rogers and Taylor Ricci have decided to call us three BLT just to add a little something to show our support towards each other... yes, originating from a BLT sandwich... don't ask. I swear, training with younger girls has not helped me let go of my inner child!! Haha, but I enjoy the fun and the silliness!

As for my routines, I was quite happy with my results. On vault, I had just learned front front tuck half the week before and I was a little anxious about it because it was so new and I had some difficulties with it a couple days ago. The last time I had competed a vault... or even trained vault was at the beginning of the NCAA gym season my freshman year! However, I managed to control my anxiety and trust that I knew what I needed to do. I was quite pleased with landing it on my feet and scoring a 13.2. Bars was probably the event that I felt most ready on. I knew I'd be able to hit my routine, but I was still nervous! I always get crazy butterflies in my stomach as my adrenaline starts pumping before I present or salute to the judge. However, it wasn't anything I wasn't use to and I managed to put my routine on my feet to score a 13.65. Personally, I felt my routine was a bit rushed and I missed a couple handstands, plus my landing on dismount was a little out of control, but that will all get better as I get into more competition settings and get use to competing again. After bars, we had a bye rotation and had to wait almost 45 minutes before we could compete beam. It was a little rough having to break my momentum from the previous two events, but then I just thought about those extremely long conference meets where you need to wait for your bye to be over. Beam was definitely the event I felt the least prepared for... I've had to change my skills a lot in the last few months due to minor injuries and skills just not being quite ready. It definitely showed that I didn't feel as confident, too. I was quite shaky, but managed to stay on the beam to score a 12.95. I know that there is a lot to improve on before I'm satisfied with my beam. By the time we got to floor, I was relieved. I knew that I'd be able to relax and just have fun and show my floor off. As my college team would say in our break before we started warm ups on floor, it was "SHOWTIME." I've always loved competing floor so I knew that if I just went out and had fun, I'd be able to do what I knew I'd be able to. I hit a pretty solid routine (a few stumbles out of triple turn and double tuck) to score a 13.6! Quite surprising considering my D-Score was a 4.9! I ended up getting a total All-Around score of 53.45. It was the first time I had competed in the All-Around since my freshman year in college in 2007! It felt pretty great :)

Now, it's just about focusing on upgrading my routines and getting that difficulty in! I've got two more meets to get under my belt before Elite Canada so I can't wait to get in the gym and work on those new skills!! Thanks again to everyone for all the support you've given me! And to those old teammates and friends who came out to watch that Sunday, I appreciate it so much and it was so great to see you!!! Hope you can make it out to some more. My next competition is January 21st in VEGAS!!! Anyone in town, stop by the Southpoint Casino & Hotel ;)

I hope everyone had a very happy holidays and was able to spend it with their loved ones. Best wishes to you and your families and friends <3

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