Men's artistic runs in calendar year so Alex is one of the youngest Level 1 boys being an October birthday. This means that there have been times during the last year where he has struggled to keep up with the some of the other lads who have been in the group for longer, pommels being his particular nemesis. Since last year he has been trying on his own pommel mushroom at home and at the gym to complete more than 2 consecutive circles with perfect execution. We've watched him fall and get upset as he desperately tried to keep up with some of the other lads, one of whom he informed me could complete over 100. But gradually things came together with practice and more practice and 2 turned into 6 which turned into 10 and now he's up into the 20's far more than he needed to complete for this set competition.
The boys compete on 7 sections - Rings / Pommels/ HigBar/ Parallel Bars/Floor/Vault/ and PPP which is a set test of flexibility and strength. PPP was a great round for Alex, he's always been good at shoulder dislocations and this routine gave him a chance to show off his skills. Bry and I were both pleased that he had the opportunity to enter and compete and we enjoyed our afternoon watching some fantastic gymnastics and holding our breath when Alex competed. The trouble is at this level everyone is good, unless someone has a fall or doesn't stick a landing it's really quite difficult to know how things are going. We could tell Alex's favourite piece of apparatus, the rings, went particularly well and we found out later he scored a 9.9 out of 10. Bry also noticed however that something went a bit wrong his undershoot on the high bar, although I wouldn't have noticed and a lost a few points to get a 9.25.
We were heartened to see that he completed the day without a fall or more importantly an injury and I think we both secretly wondered if he might have done enough for a bronze. When it came to the presentations and Alex's age group and another team mate was called out in 3rd place I hoped Alex wouldn't be too disappointed and would be pleased with his good performance. I cheered for the lad in 2nd and then when I heard Alex's name as Yorkshire Champion manically searched around my bag for my phone to take a photo completely unprepared.
Bry and I are both very proud of him, he works ridiculously hard at gym 12 hrs , some times 15hrs a week and it's a lot to fit in after school. Although we try to get to all his other activities he often misses out on football training or other events because there simply isn't enough time in the day. It's a lot for an 8yr lad to take on and he does it with a focused determination I'm sometimes quite in awe of.
So now he's off to the Nationals in November. Anything can happen but it's going to be a fantastic experience for him just to be there. It's not such a great experience forking out the huge amount of money for new Yorkshire kit, which is of course completely different colours to the Leeds kit but hey ho.
