· April 19, 2004

Hi Everyone -

   I am obviously back from camp. Can't say I'm really happy to be back because that means that I am not in Hawaii competing! I had a good and bad camp. First the good: I am really happy with my bar routine. I did my full-out dismount and got a 9.4 out of a 9.7 start value. As soon as my coach lets me start doing my stalder fulls again, I can get my start value back up and hopefully score even higher. He took them out of my routine a long time ago because that is one of the skills that was hurting my leg. Beam was really good too! Nobody would really think so except me and my coach because I only got an 8.8 but... I got that score with a fall. Okay, so the fall is bad, Marta doesn't like falls to be sure - (well, neither do me or my coach!) But, since I used to only get an 8.8 with a hit routine, that means that my beam must be getting a lot better. I fell on my back handspring to tuck full combination so I think that I lost .8 on the fall because of the full and the connection bonus. I am so excited to go to Classics and hit a beam routine and then see how high I can really score!

   Okay, so now the bad. I feel really stupid because I always say how I want to get back to doing my Yurchenko 1 1/2 vault and I don't like doing the Yurchenko full-on vault because it is just really easy and kind of dumb. Well, so there I am getting ready to do my full-on thinking, "okay, this will be an easy stick". I don't know what happened but I did such a bad vault - I didn't even fall and only got an 8.75. That score is lower than what I should get if I do fall. So, I guess that I will never take being able to do that vault for granted again! The good thing is that I got to start doing my Yurchenko full's again at camp and then as soon as I got back home to my own gym, my coach let me start doing my 1 1/2's again. So, hopefully I can get those back really good and then maybe he'll let me try to get the double full next. Oh, the last event to tell you about, floor. Well, it wasn't really bad but it wasn't any good either. I think I got a 9.15. I am starting to work my full-ins again at my gym and that's another skill that I want by Championships. Maybe I'll be allowed to even do that one at Classics because it's not too hard for me.

   So, that's my camp news. Not great but not too bad either. I guess the only thing I can do is just keep training and working and then when the next assignment comes along, I will get to try again and make that team. The only problem is that I can't imagine going any place better than Hawaii, so I guess I missed that lucky trip! With my luck, we'll go to someplace like Antarctica when I finally get a turn.

   I'll let you know how Classics goes, that is what I am going to focus on right now. Actually, there is a lot of focusing at my gym now, we have one girl who wants to test for pre-elite and two girls who are getting ready for level 10 nationals and then me for Classics. A lot of pressure and some yelling going on to be sure! So, Good luck Tay and good luck to Bernie and Alison! You guys will do awesome!

   Bye - Bye