... training full-time

Things are going really good right now. I am very happy and relatively healthy. I have a little bit of a shoulder injury right now which has bothered me a bit, but I don't think it is too threatening. Some days it hurts more than others. I am working through it though so things are good.

The last time I wrote was a while ago. A lot has gone on since then.

I competed at Elite Canada at the beginning of December. I placed 5th All-Around and had a pretty good meet. I tried a lot of new skills, some more successfully than others, and it was good to get back into the swing of things. I was pretty nervous before hand because of all that went on this summer, but overall the meet was great. At Worlds the guys placed an amazing 12th and this really brought up team morale after I (supposedly) destroyed it! This is a very promising result for Canada because now we know that we can get a full team to the 2004 Games, we just have to get those stat values up and get consistent in performing high difficulty routines.

After Elite Canada I went to Glasgow for a World Cup. Sasha was there with me and it was great. I placed 4th on both floor and vault in the finals and I was 1st and 2nd in the qualifying on these events. I performed a Tsuk double twist for my second vault and I actually only learned this a week prior to leaving. I was very happy to land this! It was nice to see that things haven't changed too much on the circuit. Everyone was very friendly and it was a wonderful competition.

After I returned home from Scotland there was only one week left until Christmas. This week went by quickly because I had a lot of things to catch up on for school.

I had a relaxing Christmas with my family. The holidays ended quickly though. I remember being a kid and getting so excited about Christmas. I was excited this year, but in a different way. I was just happy to be with my family and friends and to have a 2 week break from school!

For New Years Eve I went to a party with some of my best friends and we had a blast. We were up for most of the night and then after a little bit of sleep we went out for breakfast and reminisced about the past years events and what 2002 will bring for us. We are all very positive about the upcoming year!

Now after a month into 2002, I will bring you up to date on what has been happening.

I wrote my last exam last week. It was my physics final. I think I did alright. I studied pretty hard and I knew what I was doing for the most part. I answered every question on the exam and so I am excited to find out my grade. I have to wait for a couple more weeks until I get the results, but I am pleased with how I did.

Now I am training full time. I am going to do this for as long as I can. I trained like this before the Olympics in 2000 and it was very beneficial. The only problem is that I get a little sick of the gym. I feel like gymnastics is the only thing that I am doing and I get tired of being at my gym all of the time. I want to find a job of some sort where I can make a little extra money, but not have it affect my training. I need something with minimal commitment that is very flexible with the hours. If anyone has any ideas let me know! I need to have something to do outside of training because I tend to get caught up with gym and every thing that goes wrong seems like the end of the world. I am not even close to this point yet, but I want to have a back up plan for when I do begin to feel this way.

This is going to be a very exciting year for me. I have the Jurassic Classic Competition in March in Calgary. This is going to be a fun meet because it is at home and it is going to be against team USA. I am not too sure of what events I am going to be competing as of yet, but I think I will only do floor, vault and highbar. I am excited about this competition because all of my friends and family will be able to attend which they don't get to do this very often.

After Jurassic I am going to Germany for a World Cup meet. In April we have a training camp in Colorado Springs with both the Americans and the Australians. This is preparation for Pacific Alliance Championships to be held in Vancouver. I have not been selected to compete at this meet, but I get to do the training camp beforehand which I am sure will be a good experience. After the camp we have Nationals in May and then I am going to California. A friend of mine, Chris Waller, holds a summer camp in Santa Barbara called GymJam. I am going for 2 weeks this year I hope. One of my coaches, Uldi, coaches at this camp. I am going to be training, not coaching, while I am there and it is going to be much fun! I went before the Olympics and I had a blast. After GymJam are the Commonwealth Games. This is my main goal for this year. I really want to be on this team. The Games are in Manchester, England. This is what I am really working for this year! After the Commonwealths are Worlds in Debrecen, Hungary. This is my coach Uldi's home town. I think it would be great to compete there too. They are an individual event worlds and so I think I have a very good chance of being there. If I get the opportunity then I think I can do very well on floor, vault and highbar.

This brings me to the next thing I want to talk about. Highbar. This event is going so great for me right now. I have constructed a 10 start value routine on this event and it isn't that hard for me to hit. Of course it is difficult, but I have 2 major connections and then a dismount. I think that by the time Nationals and Commonwealth Games come I am going to be able to do this routine in my sleep. It is going to be hard to compete the first few times, but after a few meets practice I should be able to hit it consistently.

The younger boys from my club are going to California this month to compete in the Peter Vidmar International Invitational. I was going to go at first, but then me and my coaches thought that it would be best if I stayed home and trained. I want to wish all of the guys good luck though. Good Luck Matt, Mark, Mike and Brennon. I am cheering for you!

Well, I guess that pretty much updates you on everything that has happened over the past while. I am going to really try and add a training journal atleast once every couple of weeks. Check back often for updates!

I hope the new year has brought you all happiness and I wish you the best in the pursuit of your goals!

Kyle