L10 Floor Scoring Question

[gym law mom]

LMV, this young lady is so fortunate to be part of your family and I pray that the adoption will go quickly. As others have said she is incredibly talented and maybe at this point its just see what falls into place for L10. Many girls do a 1st season of only 2-3 events, so no shame in not doing a floor routine in the beginning of the season or at all.
Best wishes and keep us posted!

 

[LMV]

Gymdog,
Thanks for your thoughts. You’re right, in addition to her actual nightmares this whole situation has been a bit of a figurative one as well. I keep telling myself that she will get through this and I really do believe that. She truly is a great kid so I hold onto the brighter moments and try to help her go forward.

Honestly, some of the credit needs to go to her caseworker who really pushed for therapeutic foster care instead of residential which brought her to us in the first place. She has subsequently helped us a lot in getting things approved [including permission to do this out of state partial program].

GymLawMom,
Thanks! I think maybe I just need to take a step back and see where she is in another month. Then I guess that if she’s still at a point where she can go out and flip through a few tumbling passes with a leap series interspersed in between then perhaps we have another conversation about what she really wants to do [and emphasize that she can do only three events and that would be fine] and if she really wants to go out and tumble then maybe we let her try it for a meet and see.

 

[LMV]

the more you write the more i learn about your situation. it's remarkable to me that she can still train/focus and do just some of the skills that she is doing.

There is so much I don’t know because we didn’t know her when the worst of this was happening, however, my sense is that gymnastics was her escape. I’m not convinced that her first gym was a completely positive environment but I think it was clearly a better environment than home was at that time and I think it became at least a relative safe haven for her. I still think she is probably more comfortable in the gym than anywhere [I’d like to say except our home but I’m not sure that’s truly the case]. She really is a much different child there. It’s like she gets into this gymnastic zone and it flips a switch or something. I think that focusing on staying tight or punching or whatever helps ground her sometimes. Additionally, there are actually some kind of soft science theories that being upside down and swinging movements can be therapeutic and calming for kids dealing with trauma so perhaps that plays into it as well. I admit I’m not totally sold on the science behind this and I don’t think we would have looked into these kind of things for her if she wasn’t already getting them through gymnastics.

I still have my moments of wishing she was into something else instead of gymnastics [I guess I’m my mother in law’s daughter in law]. But she isn’t, so, I guess we just try to go with this as much as we can.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

believe in the "soft science theories". many of us can give testament to this. we'll meet someday and discuss.

 

[CoachGoofy]

LMV,

Whenever I read your posts about your daughter I simultaneously lose hope for humanity & have it restored again. It sounds like she has had some miserable excuses for human beings in her life...and then some really amazing people.

Based on what you've said about her coach, that's who I want to be like when I grow up.

 

[mumoftwogymnasts]

^^^^^ Ditto what coach goofy said!!!

 

[LMV]

believe in the "soft science theories". many of us can give testament to this. we'll meet someday and discuss.

That would be cool. I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences. While I may not be completely sold [ie. I don’t think I would have sought out gymnastics for her to help her process the trauma or recommend that to someone else if she wasn‘t already a gymnast] I do see how her gym experiences support these theories to an extent. For this reason, we’re loosely considering gymnastics an adjunctive therapy.

 

[LMV]

Yes, she definitely went through a lot that she never should have had to go through [no child should] but our continued hope and prayer is that she will get to a point where she really can heal from all of that and enjoy that which is still to come.

Her coach is definitely a good person. It took a little while for us all to get on the same page and there were some things he really didn’t understand as much as he thought he did. He has acknowledged that now and, even in the past, I do believe that he really was trying to do what he thought was best for her.

Thank you also to everyone here for your continued support and advice.

 

[LMV]

To update:

She has been back home since shortly before Thanksgiving and having the whole family back together has been great. She is still dealing with some nightmares but they are a lot better and we're able to manage at home.

On the gymnastics front, she survived her first L10 meet! Her floor routine was basically four tumbling passes with a leap series in between but it was long enough to avoid the undertime penalty [probably just barely] and she did it. Her coach has decided that until she asks to redo her floor routine she will just use what she has. He understands that she may not be able to ask any time soon and he is ok with that.

On a positive note she rocked her bars [no Christmas bonuses from the judges either so she was really proud of scoring above a 9] and got to do her Tsuk layout full which looked good to me. Her beam routine had solid acro but seemed tentative and a bit rough around the edges. I think is probably par for the course for an early season meet. She identified working on the dynamics of her leaps as one of her goals for the next meets which fits with this as well.

 

[gymgurl]

Its great to hear that she is improving in both her gymnastics and the PTSD, Hopefully she continues to improve and can put her past behind her and turn a new page It sounds like you have been a fantastic mother to this girl and your support probably (I say probably because I don't know her but it does I'm sure) means the world to her. She sounds like a lovely girl who loves the sport and is really trying to get past all of this. Wishing you and her luck in her gymnastics and treatment

 

[LMV]

Its great to hear that she is improving in both her gymnastics and the PTSD, Hopefully she continues to improve and can put her past behind her and turn a new page It sounds like you have been a fantastic mother to this girl and your support probably (I say probably because I don't know her but it does I'm sure) means the world to her. She sounds like a lovely girl who loves the sport and is really trying to get past all of this. Wishing you and her luck in her gymnastics and treatment

Thank you for your kind words! She really is a great kid in spite of all of her struggles.

 

[gymmomtoo]

Sounds like she's doing great! Can't wait to hear more updates as the season progresses.