Owen’s Gymnastics

This summer held a week of baseball camp for Kyle (post here) and gymnastics classes once a week for Owen. Owen, it turns out, is really good at gymnastics. Like, really good. At the start of the summer, when I registered him for class, they asked a bunch of questions about his capabilities. They decided to place him in an advanced beginner class because, although he had never taken any gymnastics/dance/etc. before, he was already doing cartwheels, handstands, etc. He was the youngest in the class and all of the rest of the kids had taken beginner or advanced beginner gymnastics classes already. He was nervous, but he did great. At the end of that first class the teacher came out to talk to me. She said, “It says on your registration form that Owen has never taken gymnastics before. Was that a mistake?” “No,” I said, “he has never taken gymnastics before today.” “Has he ever taken dance? or acrobatics? or anything like that?” “No,” I said. She then proceeded to tell me that Owen was “way too good” for the advanced beginner class, and that she wanted to move him into the intermediate class. The next week we went to the intermediate class. Unlike the advanced beginner class, which was pretty large and included at least half boys, the intermediate class only had only eight kids in it and they were all girls– all of whom had been taking gymnastics for at least a year or longer. Owen wasn’t thrilled about being the only boy, but he did great in the class, and loved it, and for the rest of the summer went on to excel more and more at gymnastics each week. It was clear from watching that he was quickly the best in the class. Last week was the final week of the summer session. After class the week before, his teacher came to talk to me. She invited Owen to join in the highest level class that they offer for his final week. So, on Friday, Owen went to the “Exhibition Team” gymnastics class. Right away you could sense the difference. Again there were no boys, and this group of five girls was serious about gymnastics. They have all been taking gymnastics classes for a long while, and it shows. It was kind of nice for Owen to be in a class where he was not the best. He jumped right in took on the challenge. The class was fast-paced and struck a good balance for Owen– quick but with lots of constructive criticism, and tough but with lots of fun. It was his favorite class yet. After the class the teacher encouraged us to sign Owen up for more gymnastics, and invited Owen to join that “Exhibition Team” group for the fall session. I had been bringing Owen to gymnastics all summer, and had been watching him each week, but luckily Braydon had come for the last 15 minutes of that final class so he got to see just how strong Owen is in gymnastics. We’ve talked a lot about it in the past few days and we both agree that while we don’t want to pigeon-hole him so young (and we want him to explore a whole host of sports and activities), we also don’t feel that we should hold back an obvious talent. So, today I am signing up Owen for the fall session. He’s thrilled. (and Kyle, who has been asking for a year now to play ice hockey — we have no idea how he got that into his head — is going to be taking ice skating class this fall. phew!–navigating the twin terrain with this kind of stuff is –let me tell you– not easy.) We have no clue what will happen with Owen and gymnastics down the road. What we do know is that at least for now he loves it, he is really good at it, and he is incredibly obedient, well-behaved, and never bored in class (which, to us, says a lot). Owen can do cartwheels, round-offs, and is very close to mastering back handsprings. He can do a cartwheel on the balance beam. He is very good at the uneven bars (can do almost perfect dismounts, etc.). And he loves the springboard/vault-type stuff. Owen’s gymnastics teachers tell me that they “show him something once and he picks it up immediately.” But for me, the bottom line is that after after gymnastics class the first thing Owen says to me is, “How long was that? Was that a whole hour?” I say, “Yes, that was a whole hour.” And then he looks shocked and dismayed every time and tells me that  he “can’t believe that was only an hour because it seemed like about five or seven minutes.” We shall see what happens this fall.