Gymnastics 

Gymnastics is a fun sport that requires great balance, strength, flexibility, agility and coordination.  The balance and coordination a gymnast develops to jump on a balance beam is the same skill needed for other sports.  The sport of gymnastics involves exercises on floor, balance beam, vault and uneven bars for women, and horizontal and parallel bars, rings, floor and pommel horse for men. Gymnasts use their bodies to jump, twist, turn and flip in order to perform a skill.

I was three years old when I started doing my first cartwheel.  I knew I wanted to join the gymnastics team when I watched the Olympics.  I saw those athletes perform some of the most dangerous skills in front of hundreds of people and gracefully throw their bodies in the air.  I competed for many years and when I retired I became a gymnastics coach and taught girls ranging from ages three to fourteen.  Gymnastics is by far one of the best sports I have done and it has taught me great mental and physical discipline.     

Vocabulary: 

1. Gymnastics: the practice art, or competitive sport of gymnastic exercises

2. Balance Beam: a competitive gymnastic event for women in which such an apparatus is used.

3. Uneven bars: a pair of parallel bars set at different heights, used in women's gymnastics

4. Vault: is an apparatus on which gymnastics perform, as well as the skill performed using that apparatus

5. Sport: an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. 

6. Balance: an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.

Vocabulary Exercise: Complete the crossword puzzle below.


Grammar Point: Verbs
Verbs are words that describe an action.  In the reading above, there are several verbs: jump, twist, turn... Write three sentences about your favorite sport of the adjectives from the paragraph above. 

Vocabulary Words:
Gymnastics, Balance beam, vault, sport, uneven bars