My heart was pounding in my chest
As we got ready to march in
I saw the gymnasium
Through the dark hallway we were waiting in.
With a yell from the coach the music started
The line of girls began to move
With terror dancing in my stomach
To the floor the line wove
My nerves were over whelming
As the line split into five
We reached our first apparatus
I barely felt alive,
The coaches’ lollies got me ready
For the hours of work ahead
The girls’ heavy breaths around me
After they’d warmed up and stretched unfed
My turn comes as they call my name
And I stare at the empty vault strip
The judges’ hands rise as they
Hold up the green flag, that’s my tip.
I feel my arms automatically rise
And my fingers stretch out to present
My eyes are fixed on that same old vault table
I’d trained with at training; long hours I’d spent
A feeling of rush, power and no choice
Crashes like a breaking wave all over me
Feeling more nervous than I looked
I hear the yell of my gym-mates and coach cheering for me
My hair whips past my face as I start to run
I feel the thin blue carpet beneath my feet
I’ve got to give this all I’ve got
I’ve got 66 girls to beat
My arms shoot up past my ears as I take my last step
Then I jump for the beat board and force my arms down
I feel the spring of the board and my arms go up for the second time
And my whole body flings upside down
Then it seems like all goes wrong
My forehead scarcely misses the surface
And my knee suddenly cracks my chin
And excruciating pain screams all over the place
I taste blood inside my mouth
But force myself to swallow it
I take control of everything again
And lose my focus on what I bit
My palms strike the padded vault table
As my shoulders get the pressure
And push my body into the air again
My hands slap my shins for sure
With my body in perfect shape,
As I spin a Sault in the air,
My hands release my legs,
And my face gets whipped with hair
My legs stretch out in front,
And I try for a half twist,
My chin is flung to my chest,
And realize I’d clenched my fists.
My heels slap the crash mat
And I land with a shudder of relief
My legs begin to get unstable
And I present with disbelief
I try to take a step forward
And nearly topple over
But gain my balance straight away
Glad that it’s all over
Flashes of other gymnasts darting,
On each of the apparatus’s
The scribble of pen to paper,
As the judges make the last word of decisiveness
The judges’ blank faces stare up at me
And show me a fake smile
I walked over to my team
And they congratulated me for a while
We waited for the rest of the girls
And the groups to finish their routines
Then the music player started up again
And the gymnasts started to beam
This poem is about a gymnast on her first apparatus at a gymnastics state competition. It shows how she progresses through the stages of nerves, presenting, performing and then finishing overwhelmed that she had achieved what she had come to do and trained hard for. It shows that nerves are often good signs but don’t let them drag you down because they usually lead to a victory and a great achievement. Nerves are just another way of testing you to see if you’ve got the guts to do something you are determined to do. Even if they don’t lead you to very much of a pleasant surprise, you can still be proud of getting over those butterflies! At least you tried and gave it your all!!! The personification such as ‘Terror dancing in my stomach’ makes you feel like its alive and you feel like you’re there and feeling it right at that moment. It creates a tense atmosphere.
