Watching the Winter Olympics this month has had me thinking about the sports I played as a kid. Sports were always a big part of my life. From the time I was in elementary school to now. My siblings and I were always active in something. There was no choice but to be.... We were all in something; baseball, dance and gymnastics.
I will never forget the first time I stepped into Sheila Lindley's World of Performing Arts. I went with my friend's mom to pick her up from class. We were having a sleep over that night but she had her beginners gymnastics class before I could come over. So I sat in the balcony and watched while the older girls flipped on the floor and jumped on the beam. I remember telling my mom I had to join gymnastics and the next year she signed me up.
In first grade, I fell in love with my first sport. I still cherish it to this day. For five years, I did competitive gymnastics. My poor parents... I still do not know how they both did it all. One parent would drive my brother to his travel baseball games and the other parent would drive me half way across the state to get me to my gymnastics meets. (Thank you for sacrificing your weekends for my childhood and allowing me to love this sport.) Then came middle school and I had the opportunity to try out to become a middle school cheerleader. All of my friends were going to try out and I knew I could do the tricks so how hard could it be? I begged my mother to let me try out. She begged me not to and then she made me tell my gymnastics coach I was quitting to try out. They both tried to tell me not to and to stay in gymnastics but I would not listen (this was the start of my rebel phase).
My first practice for try outs was a night I will never forget. We learned a cheer that was mandatory for try outs. After the run through, everyone went to a local gym to continue practicing for the big day at the end of the week. Thursday night, the day before tryouts, I was in a group of girls practicing the cheer with our parents all watching off to the side. The gym owner comes over and starts screaming in my face, "LOUDER! You can do better than that! I can't hear you!" Without stopping I continued my cheer hearing her scream and got louder and sharper and finished the cheer with a smile on my face. The gym owner went over to my mother and said, "On night one, I never would have thought your little girl would make that squad. After tonight, she will DEFINITELY be on the team."
All the other mothers could not believe the owner got in my face and yelled but it was what I needed. I needed that little push or else I would have been the girl that quit gymnastics and did not make the cheer squad. After my first year as a cheerleader, I couldn't get enough. I cheered two years in middle school, one year on the JV team and three years on the varsity team. And finished my senior year as the captain of the team.
My childhood sports led me to loving fitness. We were never allowed to just hang out after school.... that's where trouble brewed. Sports (and my parents) instilled discipline and hard work that in turn helped us become the functioning adults we are today. I am so thankful my parents made me stay with sports throughout my early years. If it wasn't for these first loves I do not know that I would still be in the fitness world that I am today.
What sports did you particpate in as a kid? Did you stay with your sport? How did sports change your life?
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