... Jurassic Classic

I am home now from a week long training camp and the Jurassic Classic competition. I had a really good experience. I learned a lot and I am ready to have a great year!

The training camp wasn't as hard as I thought that it would be. We had a mock competition on Tuesday and it went quite well. I nailed my floor routine and vault. I had one fall on pommels, but my routine is the best that it has been in a long time and I am really enjoying training and competing this event. High Bar was OK, but I had a couple of little mistakes here and there and I scored a 9.1. I have worked my routine up to a 9.8 start value and with a lot of hard work and repetitions I can make this routine very consistent and I should be able to score a 9.4 or 9.5 by Nationals. I have a feeling that High Bar is going to be my next "Big" event. I just have to keep on pushing and doing routines.

We competed on Friday and Saturday night at the Jurassic Classic. On Friday we had a duel meet with team USA. We placed second, but it was pretty close. I competed on Floor, Pommels, Vault and High bar. I was happy with my performance, but there was definitely room for improvement. We started on floor and I had a good routine. I took a hop on my dismount and this was my biggest error. I really need to work on sticking my last line. This is going to make the difference between 4th and 1st at all of the big meets. Pommel horse was my second event. I didn't fall off! This was a huge accomplishment! I wasn't even nervous before I competed this event. Usually I think about all the bad things that can happen, but here I was relaxed and I knew that if I was aggressive and relaxed then I would hit and get a decent score. I need to clean things up a bit for Nationals, but I still have a lot of time. Again, I just need to do millions of routines to make this event clean and consistent. After Pommels we went to rings, but I didn't compete this event because of the recent shoulder problems that I have had. I haven't done too many routines on this event and so I elected to scratch this event. Vault was next and I did alright. I really wanted to stick my vault and so I was pretty disappointed when I took a step. I have been doing Yurchenko 2 1/2 for quite a few years now and I think it is time that I stick it every time in competition. The next event was P-bars. I didn't do this event either. I did compete high bar though. I was so mad after my performance! I was last up for the team because I had the potential to do something great, but in reality I did something really crappy! I missed my first connection and then I fell on my def. I haven't fallen on this move in such a long time. Then I screwed up my endo's and I just wanted to get off the bar and so I did my dismount. I was angry about this because I wanted to show the audience, team and Edouard (the National Coach) that I am capable of hitting this routine when the pressure is on. It was the first time I competed it in competition, but I wanted to make the first time a good time!

On Saturday we competed again. I did the same four events with mixed results again. We started on pommel horse and I was so ready to nail my routine. I got tired at the end and sort of just flopped off of the horse! I jumped up again and did a perfect dismount, but I scored really low. This just reaffirmed that I need to do more routines on this event! After Pommels I competed Vault. I did my first vault and it was sooooo bad! I was really mad at myself. I took at huge hop over to the side and it was probably the worst vault that I have done in 3 years. For some reason my legs just weren't there when I needed them. I did my second vault good though and I ended up winning this event. It was a tainted win though because I had higher expectations of myself than a gold medal. I wanted to stick my first vault and it didn't happen. It will happen soon though! After vault I competed high bar. This went better than the day before, but it still wasn't right. I again screwed up my first combo, but I continued on and caught my def. I had a little problem on my piked endo to healy combo, but then I stuck my dismount so I was happy. This got me in the zone for floor. A funny thing happened when I was warming up on this event. My legs were burning and I wasn't rebounding as well as I normally do. Edouard came up to me and he said something that made my brain turn on. He said "you have to pretend that this is finals and you must be really focused and do this routine perfect". I guess that worked because I did a pretty good routine. I was definitely visibly tired, but I fought hard for everything and I ended up winning this event too. It was a good way to end the weekend.

Now I am leaving for Germany tomorrow. I am competing on floor and vault and I am going for the win! I will not be disappointed if I do my best and end up not placing first, but it would be really great to come home with a couple of golds! I think that this is going to be a really great trip and it is at the perfect time. I am so motivated right now and I just want to keep on competing and improving!

I will let you know how I did when I get home. I will be home next week so check back then for an update!

Wish me luck!

Kyle