Gymnastics. We have a love-hate relationship with the sport. All of our childhood friends never understood why we spent all of our lives in the gym instead of going to all the parties, but we would not have had it any other way. With 17 years of gymnastics under my belt, I have come to realize that there are too many moments that people who are not gymnasts will absolutely never understand. Behold these way too recognizable feelings that, if you have ever been a gymnast, you have more than likely experienced and know very well that no one else understands.
1. The smell of the gym is amazing
Yes, it smells like sweat, chalk, and smelly feet, and non-gymnasts look like they are going to fall over when they walk in. But it is your favorite smell ever, because the gym is your home and you basically live there. Breathing in the smell as you walk into the gym is like breathing in the smell of your own house when coming back from a vacation.
2. People thinking you are super athletic
Everyone knows that gymnasts are the most athletic and talented people on the planet, but that absolutely does not mean we are good at other
sports. We have spent so much time in the gym that we barely have for anything else. People will always pick you for their team in gym class, thinking that if you are a gymnast you must be the most coordinated and athletic person ever, when in reality, if someone throws a ball at you, you will most likely run away from it screaming. Flipping over a four-inch piece of wood? Sign me up. Catching a volleyball? Uh, no thanks, I’ll pass.
3. Sitting in weird positions all the time, and actually feeling comfortable
Being gymnasts, we are used to being in unusual positions—it actually feels unnatural not to be. Therefore, you probably will find yourself in weird positions while doing other things, and often times not even know how you got there. If you are watching a movie, you are probably sitting in a middle split. If you are doing homework, you are probably crunched up into a weird ball. When eating dinner, you may casually just find your leg up next to your head at some points. Everyone thinks you are insane, but really, it would feel insane if you were not sitting like that.
4. Having an urge to tumble, but worrying about being a show-off
Gymnasts are always used to being upside down, and as shown in #3, we sometimes feel out of place if we are not. Therefore, a lot of times we get irresistible urges to do a handstand or pull out a roundoff-back handspring, often in extremely random places. People often think you are showing off, and you have to try to explain to them the gymnast phenomenon that you just have to be upside down 24/7 (but let’s be real, you secretly do like showing off a bit).
5. Everything is a piece of gym equipment
Gymnastics equals life, and therefore everything was most likely made for tumbling or practicing routines on. See a beach or a large field of grass? Move out of the way everyone, you are pulling off your newest tumbling pass! A sidewalk curb? Time to practice your beam routine! Bars at the playground? Good time to perfect those giants you just learned! Oh, and people probably worry all the time that you are going to hurt yourself, which you think is just hilarious.
6. Gymnastics is the only sport you know anything about
When people are
talking about the upcoming
Super Bowl or World Series, you zone out and roll your eyes because you literally have no idea how those sports work or who any of the
athletes are. The only athletes you can name are the members of the Magnificent Seven. You are so excited for the
Summer Olympics because it is the one time in four years that “your” sport actually gets respect and people get excited to watch, and when your favorite gymnast sticks her vault you get as intensely excited as a
football fan when Tom Brady scores a touchdown.
7. When someone asks if you can do a cartwheel
No, I have been training basically my entire life and I have not progressed past doing a cartwheel.
8. When you hear a song from your old floor music
You get super excited and have to let EVERYONE know that you basically own that song because you did a floor routine to it in like, fourth grade.
10. You have an uncountable amount of t-shirts
“You know you’re a gymnast when…” “If gymnastics were easy it would be called football...” “I can’t I have gymnastics..." Not to mention the shirts you got from every single meet you ever went to. You probably do not wear half of them anymore, but you will never get rid of them.
11. "Stick It" will forever and always be your favorite movie
You can quote it from beginning to end.
12. "Make It or Break It" will always be your favorite show
Even if it was extremely unrealistic and even you could do all the skills that got them to the “Olympics.”
13. There are truly only two types of people in the world: gymnasts, and those who wish they were
We are fortunate enough to have become gymnasts. No matter how much it makes you cry or how many blisters it gives you, gymnastics is your life, and you would never give up all those hours in the gym for anything.
