Walking up to the rod floor,
You feel the butterflies swell in your stomach.
You’ve done these skills about 50 times
But still, you feel nervous.
You think,
“What if I fall?”
“What if I mess up?”
“What if I don’t do it?”
Then, once you get on the floor,
the adrenaline rush comes.
It starts when you break out running and hurdle for a round-off,
And continues as you fly through the air.

Tumbling takes much power and strength to be able to do.
You have to work hard for it,
but once you do it right,
It becomes effortless.
You feel the spring of the floor as your feet pound it,
And the way you compress the floor to keep going.
Once in the air you feel weightless,
Like you are in space with no gravity.

It starts from running into a round-off
And continues as you flip yourself through the air.
Using only your feet to propel yourself down the floor,
You must keep your core squeezed tight and knees straight,
Unless you want to kill your power.
Then, once you end the whip and go into a back handspring,
You can finally use your hands to help throw yourself down the floor.

You can feel the power of the floor,
Pounding through your wrists and ankles.
You can hear the “Bang!” of the springs hitting the rods.
You can hear the cheers of your teammates,
And those of the other competitors
But it all fades to background noise.

Finally, you reach the end of your pass.
You know that if you can just hit your end skill,
You will be able to score high.
Your feet pound the floor,
Trying to get a good takeoff.
You feel yourself rise through the air,
And as you flip,
There is a split second where you seem frozen in time.
It feels like you could stay in the air forever,
Yet it is only a little millisecond, and you soon start your rapid descend back down.
You land on the mat,
And take a deep breath
Knowing you just hit a pass.