Cartwheels, Hand Stands, and Back Handsprings

After Kaitlynn wrapped up her cheer season last fall, she decided she was probably done with cheering for a while. Instead, she was begging for me to enroll her in gymnastics and tumbling because she was learning how to do cartwheels from her friends and thought it was so much fun. Once the new year started, I finally agreed to let Kaitlynn take some classes.

We decided to enroll in Westwood Gymnastics where the kids often attend events like Parents Night Out. At first I was confused on the difference between gymnastics and tumbling. After Kaitlynn began taking 1 class of both, she very quickly decided that she preferred the tumbling side of things which is just the floor exercises like cartwheels, round-offs, etc. whereas gymnastics includes work on the bars and beam.

Kaitlynn took so quickly to tumbling and just loved every single second of it. She was SO focused on learning how to do various tricks, and it seemed like she was always practicing her cartwheels and handstands everywhere she went. As she perfected her cartwheel, she moved up from the beginner level to the intermediate level of tumbling in about a month. Then she set her sights on learning how to do a back handspring, and within another month she had progressed enough to move up to the accelerated level. She continued learning new tricks every week, including a backbend bridge, bridge kick-over, and soon began doing running back handsprings on the mat. Jeff and I couldn't believe her quick progress, but we have had so much fun watching her improve and set new goals for herself to achieve.

Our little tumbler

Kaitlynn doing a bridge. Connor cringes when she does this!

Here she is stretching into her splits in the yard.

Connor cringes even more when she does THIS! Ha!

Getting some pointers from one of the coaches at the gym.

Kaitlynn recently decided to switch to a different gym, Adrenaline, where the coaches are pushing her even harder. Although she sometimes feels nervous about trying new things outside of her comfort zone, she loves that she is improving with the tougher coaches. In her accelerated classes, Kaitlynn is usually the smallest kiddo in the class and tumbling side-by-side with girls much older and bigger than she is. We are so proud of her hard work and goal-setting and can't wait to see what she achieves next!

As I was looking back through the videos of Kaitlynn's progress through the months, it's amazing to see how far she has come. I decided to make this compilation video to show her how much she has accomplished in such a short time.





So proud of our girl!!