The decision to join my high school's gymnastics team was one of the best I ever made. It led to many friendships, countless life lessons, and some of the best days of my life. Here’s a few common experiences that I know all my fellow gymnasts will understand:
1. Knowing every word to "Stick It"
I'm convinced there’s two types of people in this world: those who know every word to "Stick It" and those who have never even heard of it. Considering you watch it at nearly every team sleepover, bonding night, and on the way to far away meets, gymnasts are definitely in the former group.
2. Being a master at changing
When you only have 15 minutes to change in a cramped locker room with 50+ other girls, you get really good at changing your whole outfit, underwear included, without exposing yourself at all.
3. Being really OK with nudity
Sometimes, when you only have 15 minutes to change in a cramped locker room with 50+ other girls, and your master changing skills fail you, you just gotta do what you gotta do to get ready and lined up as fast as possible. Besides, it’s not like leotards leave much to the imagination in the first place.
4. Chalk will always be your best friend
Yeah, “technically” chalk is used for getting a smoother grip on the equipment, and you do love it for that, but the real most important reason for it is making sure every teammate’s butt has a chalk hand-print on it by the end of each practice.
5. The horror of noticing a hairband on your wrist mid routine
It doesn’t matter how many times each teammate has double- and tripled-checked to make sure nobody has jewelry or hair bands on, at some point in your gymnastics career you will somehow forget. The terror of noticing it half-way through your routine then the worrying if the judge notices and disqualifies you is enough to make sure it only happens once.
6. When you find the perfect bra for your leotard
You don’t want to pull a Mina and get a deduction for having a bra strap showing, so when you find a comfortable bra that doesn’t show straps and isn't visible through your see-through leotard, you cherish that bra.
7. Hating senior night season
After a meet, all you want to do is go shower, eat a lot of food, and go to bed. So those last few weeks when everyone celebrates their seniors, when you have to sit through a million speeches full of inside jokes no one understands, are definitely the worst of the season. Your senior night is obviously awesome, but that's because you know your seniors are actually the best.
8. The after routine wedgie-pick
9. The after-routine face scratch
See #8, but for the hair that fell out of place as soon as you did your first salute and has been faintly itching your forehead the whole routine.
10. Sneakily cheering with commands
Technically, you can’t do cheers that are commands, so you carefully choose ones that are right on the border (Go for it!) just to feel a little rebellious.
11. Feeling bad having people come to your meets
12. Hating every floor song by the end of the season
The week everyone chooses their floor music and makes their routine is one of the best weeks of the season, but after hearing every song on repeat for months, you'll never be able to enjoy those songs again.
13. The rotating hairbands on your wrist
No matter how hard you try to keep track of your hairbands, it seems like at any point in time during the season you could have anywhere from zero to five sitting on your wrist. You have no idea where they came from or where they go, but you never end the season with the same ones you started with.
14. Constantly having calloused or ripped hands
Your hands are constantly either ripped and bloody, or rough and calloused. The best, of course, is when your rips have rips. You almost forget what it feels like to have soft hands until months after the season ends when you can finally shake someone’s hand without apologizing.
15. The support and love you have for your team
There’s something about gymnastics that bonds you closer than you ever thought possible: from team sleepovers, to complaining-fests in the locker room, to hours of practice spent standing in line. Even when you graduate or leave gymnastics, the bond between your teammates never dies.
