I don't remember when I started to do gymnastics which must mean I've been doing it a long time. It's always just been the thing I had to go to after school. I don't even remember learning how to do different tricks. Like back-handsprings on floor. Or giants on high bar. Or circles on pommel horse. I watch all the young kids in the gym getting frustrated trying to learn them and I know that must have been me at some point. But I don't remember it. I'm not a prodigy. I've never won a single meet. I've never even won an event at a meet. All my medals are the crappy colors you get when you place 2 through 10. I've just always been pretty good at gymnastics.
My sister is very good at gymnastics. She wanted to move to Allentown so she could be excellent at it. She has lots of gold medals and trophies. She has so many they're not even in her room anymore. They're in a box in the closet. Ever since she was 9 or 10 we've been travelling all over the country to watch her compete. We have pictures of us and all the other gymnastics families in places like Albuquerque, Atlanta, San Francisco. I'm the only brother that travels to these meets so I'm sort of like the little brother to the whole team. Before the competitions we usually go see the sights and buy souvenirs. There's a lot of pictures of me surrounded by girl gymnasts doing handstands and splits. I'm usually wearing something I "needed" like a dumb new cowboy hat or a pair of mocassins.
Jen will probably go to the Olympics. She wants to go, and she usually gets what she wants because she's got big giant balls so she'll probably go. Guys don't go to the Olympics until they're in college or after so I have a while to think about it. Some kids my age are thinking about it already though. 13 is when you start trying out for Junior National Team and supposedly Larry the coach wants me to train for it this year. I'll be at practice 6 days a week starting the day we get to Allentown. 6 to 9 at night, and 9 to 12 on Saturdays. No more tennis or diving for me anymore, either. Just gymnastics.
It's the first time I'll be working out with older guys too. I've seen the guys on Larry's team at meets. They're huge. They're men. Two of the guys have those ripped bicep/tricep combo packs that don't fit into normal t-shirts. One guy's name is Skip and the other is named Mike. They're not that good but they're strong as fuck. Ugly too. Pimples all over their cheeks and shoulders and Mike looks like someone smashed his face with a frying pan. He struts around meets like he's all that. A short, muscle-bound Fonzy in tights. Neither of them are on the National Team though. They're strong but they suck.
Larry's a big guy too. Probably 6 foot 2, 230. No way that dude was ever less than 180 and no way he ever did gymnastics. His legs are like trees. He can barely fit socks around the bottoms and he squishes his feet into these poor little trainers that look so sad and unlucky to have to be under this giant. He's also hairy as a Sasquatch with a shiny bald head. He has those long wisps of hair growing near his ears that curl around his dome like trained tape worms. He's got a temper too. He screams at his guys like a mother fucker and doesn't care who hears him. Spit flying, crazy curses, and the other coaches just smirk like, there goes ol' Larry again! I've never held up well under that kind of abuse so I either have to get on his good side fast or toughen up. It's hard to toughen up though when you just don't give a rat's ass.
That's my attitude talking. I do give a rat's ass. I just don't give as much of a rat's ass as the guys who win all the meets. I know them. I've been competing against them for years. They're stronger and faster and concentrate harder and fight more to do better than everyone else. You can see it in their eyes before they start their routines at meets. This look on their faces like they're going to eat the pommel horse. When they fall off they get mad and curse. They finish up and throw their grips in their bags like getting anything less than a gold medal is an epic fail. That's how my sister is too. She doesn't throw a fit, but she's got that look. She doesn't like to lose. I'm not like that. When I fall at a meet, I just get embarrassed. I want to apologize to the judge and my coach. I pray I won't fall again before the routine is over, so I won't be even more embarrassed. And nothing good ever came from trying to avoid embarrassment. Besides having avoided embarrassment, which no one ever notices.
No comments:
Post a Comment