Fran had her General Level Club Competition at gym today. She’s been much more relaxed about this one but did want to do well; we talked a lot about focusing and staying so through the competition. Fran tends to wander off, fidget and get distracted (and hungry!) and also tends to be last to go (4 times over) in a biggish group, which makes it even harder to keep concentrating. She also planned in her head to think of doing well all round, rather than focusing hopes on one apparatus.

It must have paid off; she looked really controlled all the way round, i could see her watching to see how each other person did before her and she was much more aware of presenting herself nicely. Her group was the biggest and out of the 8 of them, most of them had been squad gymnasts for a while.

Here’s how she got on:-

Beam has been her most hated thing recently – this was head and shoulders better than last time, even with the annoying fall off. And she’s been mostly getting them recently but she knew she’d done far better than she had done a month ago, so was happy.

On bars…

And this was floor. She has loved this routine although it is probably so fast that it just plays to her tendency to rush anyway. Still, as a final use, this was pretty good.

She was happy with herself when she came out but after last time (a 3rd and 3 7ths!) she didn’t want to get her hopes up too much. I didn’t do a film of vault because it is just too hard to catch and was at a funny angle.

However, the results definitely proved she’d had a good day.

Gold on Vault.

Gold on Bars.

Joint 4th on beam, although this wasn’t a competition that counted 4ths but to have improved so much was a massive achievement.

And (for her) the absolute prize – Gold on Floor!

It wasn’t an all round competition but in fact they added up all round scores too and she also got Gold All Round and would still have got 2 Golds and Gold overall if the 13+s (who she trains with and was beaten by last comp) had been in the same group.

She’s a bit happy And i am thrilled for her; it is so great to see her get reward for how hard she works and how dedicated she is. And perhaps, for me, the best thing was that she’d worked to make herself perform that well. It wasn’t even that she had a day where she performed out of her skin to do so well, more that she actually performed as well as she knows she can and while under pressure – and that counts for such a lot i think.