Derek Jr's first gymnastics meet
 

I thought I would share this with the community. My son participated in his first ever gymnastics meet this Saturday.

I put together a short video of each one of his events. My wife and I are very proud of him and his team. Derek Jr is 6 and the youngest on the team.

I am also proud of the coaches. They are two younger guys who have worked real hard with the team. When you are working with younger kids if it isn't fun they aren't going to stay interested. Thanks Coach Craig and Coach Jacob for keeping it fun for the kids.

The meet was an AAU sanctioned event and Derek Jr qualified for state with an overall score of 48.4

A couple of fun things from the video.

Jr led off the entire event by being first on the rings. Rings are his strongest event probably based on the fact that we have a set hanging in the garage.

The judge for pommel horse told our coaches that our team did the best out of all the kids competing. Pommel horse is so hard for the little guys both from the required strength stand point and the size required to clear the handles.

The entire team competed as Level 4 and they all did very well. This is a brand new team for the gym and for them to take first overall in their first meet as a team was a great start.

Here is the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvg6bB5XjDk

This is the first video I have ever edited so please bear with me on the quality.

Awesome Derek! I have 2 decades on him and can't do half that stuff. Thanks for sharing and tell him to keep up the good work.

man, i definitely should have done gymnastics was i was young - too much time on my feet, and now pretty hesitant when it comes to gymnastics.

strong work derek - i hope he sticks with it!

Derek Jr. has some nice swings going as well I can see his High Bar skills progressing fast along with his ring skills. He didn't quit on the Horse either which was good stoicism. That was a pleasure to watch.

Very nice!!!

Its funny when your son is learning skills you never learned as a child. I have loved it because I get to learn them right along with him. We will go up to the gym and take turns doing the ring and high bar routines. His form is a lot better than mine on the high bar.;)

I plan on learning the P-bar routine this coming month so we can work on that one together as well.

As a parent I always want to make sure that it is my sons choice to continue doing activities and not mine. He really loves gymnastics and loves to do it with me. So I guess that is a blessing.

Cool video!

I had some questions because I'd like to get my youngest stepson into gymnastics and he has expressed interest.

1. How long has your son been doing it?
2. How many times does he practice per week?
3. Do you pay monthly at the place you go to? Or is it more like little league and you pay per "season"?
4. How did you find the place you go to? I've looked in the area and found a couple but I have no idea how to go about finding out if it's a "good" place or not (talk to me about martial arts schools and I'd have a better idea, gymnastic places not so much).

Thanks for the video again.

On the horse he showed some serious determination for a 6 year old. Awesome!

What a cutie!!!

It's so great that you're encouraging his interest in something he likes so much. Congrats to you both.

Nice...I took gymanstics once at age 10 and got a ribbon cause I could do a cartwheel....the bar has been raised since then it seems!