But I was also excited (though not to the point of exploding as Tali was) because my older sister had decided throw her youngest daughter a gymnastics birthday party, which for all you doubters out there, I hadn't suggested. No, seriously. Just because I like to hold her upside down and show her how to do a forward roll, doesn't mean that I was slipping her subliminal messages so that she would ask for such a party. I would never do that.
Salute the judges!
I never had a gymnastics birthday party and I don't think I ever attended one. Not that I would've wanted to have a party at the gym I attended- it was held in the basement of a Jewish center and the equipment was so old, it hearkened back to Olga Korbut's heyday in the early 70s.
So Tali's was the first gymnastics birthday party I had ever been invited to. I wore my stretchy jeans so I would have sufficient mobility to do flips and jump on the trampoline but when I arrived the gym staff informed me that I would not be able to participate. Only the children would be allowed on the equipment. My mother tried explaining to them that I was a child in a 27 year old's body but to no avail. I would have to watch from the sidelines.
Which I did until the very end. I had been taking pictures and through my digital camera saw that one of the children, my niece's first cousin in fact, had pressed into a front support on the low bar. He was in the perfect position to flip.s, a 7 year old boy, press into a support on the low bar. Hey kid, wanna do a flip over the bar? I asked, like I was offering him illicit drugs. He, a seven year old boy, explained that he didn't know how. Well I could spot you. This one is free but the next one will cost you.
Moving in closer to the apparatus, I told him to tuck his head and roll forward and that I would support his back. He rolled to the mat easily and then proceeded to do it over and over again until he was shepherded from the gym for birthday cake, which was quite excellent if you were able to eat around the Hannah Montana frosting.
I suppose that coaching wasn't the intervention I had had in mind before I got to the gym, but it was the best this former gymnast could do. Besides, I'm 27. I'm way too old to do gymnastics.
So Tali's was the first gymnastics birthday party I had ever been invited to. I wore my stretchy jeans so I would have sufficient mobility to do flips and jump on the trampoline but when I arrived the gym staff informed me that I would not be able to participate. Only the children would be allowed on the equipment. My mother tried explaining to them that I was a child in a 27 year old's body but to no avail. I would have to watch from the sidelines.
Which I did until the very end. I had been taking pictures and through my digital camera saw that one of the children, my niece's first cousin in fact, had pressed into a front support on the low bar. He was in the perfect position to flip.s, a 7 year old boy, press into a support on the low bar. Hey kid, wanna do a flip over the bar? I asked, like I was offering him illicit drugs. He, a seven year old boy, explained that he didn't know how. Well I could spot you. This one is free but the next one will cost you.
Moving in closer to the apparatus, I told him to tuck his head and roll forward and that I would support his back. He rolled to the mat easily and then proceeded to do it over and over again until he was shepherded from the gym for birthday cake, which was quite excellent if you were able to eat around the Hannah Montana frosting.
I suppose that coaching wasn't the intervention I had had in mind before I got to the gym, but it was the best this former gymnast could do. Besides, I'm 27. I'm way too old to do gymnastics.
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