Chapter 10: 10. Ch 10- First Apparatus Practice
(A/N: little disclaimer that I probably should've mentioned before: I don't really know that much about how gymnastics training works, so most of what I know is from research. If any of what I write in that regard seems unrealistic, my apologies.
Also, you guys are blowing my mind already- this is only the tenth chapter, and this is already my most followed story, an my second most reviewed! I don't know why, but you guys love this, and I'm so truly grateful. Thank you for reading this, and enjoy!)
The next day came around, and school was finally over. As the teachers dismissed their students, the kids of all ages eagerly left their seats, collected their things and headed to their lockers. "So, I heard Flip's serving a new Flippee today," Rusty said to the guys. "Who's up for heading down and checking it out?"
"I sure am!" Liam responded.
"Same here," Zach added next, followed by a "me too" from Clyde.
"I'll have to check it out another time," Lincoln said, pulling his gym bag out of the locker. "I have practice."
"Again?" Rusty asked. "I thought that was on Sunday?"
"It's three times a week, guys." He saw the surprised look on their faces and chuckles. "Come on. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't enjoy it, you know."
"Sure, but… three times a week for dodgeball? That sounds excessive."
Lincoln merely shrugged. "Gotta practice. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow."
He waved goodbye to them as he walked away, heading towards the school exit. He knew Girl Jordan and the others would meet him there, since he asked her before school started, so he decided to just sit on the steps until they arrived. While he was waiting, however, he heard a car horn, followed by someone shouting his name. Looking ahead, he saw Vanzilla was parked up front, with his sisters waving him over. "Get over here, Lincoln!" Lori called.
With a sigh, he got up and walked over to the old van, looking his eldest sister in the eye. "What is it, Lori? You know I have practice today."
"I know you do," she responded, her grin not faltering, "so we decided we would drop you off."
"Thanks, but I'm good. I'm walking there with-"
"We know you are, so we figured that we could drop her off too."
The eager twitters of his sisters behind the driver did not go unnoticed by the boy, who rolled her eyes. "Okay, two things. First- she's just a friend, end of. Besides, I'll be walking with the others too, and Vanzilla doesn't have room for all ten of you plus another seven."
"Wait, seven?" Lynn asked, clambering over Lucy- who became quite miffed by this- to speak with her brother. "Who else is there?"
"Lincoln!" They heard Girl Jordan call, the boy turning around to see her and her friends approaching. "Sorry, had to use the bathroom. You ready?"
"Yep." He looked back at the seventeen-year-old with a serious expression hidden behind a smile. "I'll see you at home."
With that, he and his friends began walking off, leaving Lori to huff in annoyance when they were a fair distance away. "Well, so much for that plan."
"What are you complaining about? Just follow them!" Lola suggested, waving her arms in the air to exaggerate her point. "It's not like we haven't done it before!"
"Because mom needs the car to visit Pop-Pop in an hour, and I'm supposed to drive to her work so she can take Vanzilla, drop us at home and go. I was going to use the whole dropping Lincoln off at dodgeball thing as an excuse."
"Well, looks like we're heading on home," Luna sighed, stretching her arms behind her head and leaning back in her seat.
"Yep. Make sure you're all buckled in."
So, while Lori drove the rest of her sisters to mom, Lincoln walked with the others towards the sports centre, enjoying the calming breeze that passed them by. Once they arrived, they headed straight inside, gave their cash to the instructor and headed into the changing rooms to get changed. At half three, when everyone was there, Chris led them through the warm up and stretches. Lincoln, looking around, noticed that there were a couple less people there, though he figured that some of the first timers from the taster session decided it was not for them.
"Okay, everyone!" Chris announced, prompting everyone to stop stretching. "Now that we're ready to go, we're going to do some practice with apparatus. For those who are new and joined us for the first time on Sunday, there are six apparatuses for men, and four for women." He saw one new girl raise her hand up. "Yes?"
"Why are there more for men than for women?" She asked.
"That's a fair question. The answer is that, in competition, men's disciplines focus on strength while women's disciplines focus on tumbling."
Confused slightly, Lincoln raised his hand up. "Isn't that a bit wrong?" He asked. "I mean, wouldn't men and women be equally good at either?"
"About time a guy asked that question," Mollie blurted out, eliciting laughter from those around her.
"Thank you, Mollie," Chris told her with a chuckle, before looking back at Lincoln. "That's an admirable thing to say, Lincoln. I think you're quite right there. That being said, some of the apparatus dates back more than two hundred years, and competitive gymnastics has been around more than a hundred years, so I suspect the reason is to do with tradition." Satisfied by the answer, Lincoln nodded and allowed Chris to continue. "Now, there are two pieces of apparatus that are used by both men and women, which will be what we look at today- the floor, and the vault. We'll spend the first half of today with the floor, and the second half with the vault, so let's get started!" He gestured for everyone to get to their feet, and led them onto the large square floor. "Okay, the way I like to teach gymnastics is this- I'll show you the move I want you to try, then in pairs you'll practice that. I'll keep an eye in case anyone's struggling, and since for some of you, this'll be your first session, I'd like the more experienced members here to pair up with the newer ones."
Artie turned to Lincoln and nudged him with his elbow, gaining the other boy's attention. "Hey, Lincoln," he said, "you want to pair up with me?"
"Sure," the white-haired boy replied. The two then stood next to each other, and once everyone was paired up as Chris had requested, the instructor spoke again.
"Alright. First things we're going to work on today are handstands cartwheeling. They're not the most exciting moves, but they are two of the first steps to getting better at gymnastics. It's a pair of skills that help not just with the floor, but with the vault and beam as well, and the bars to an extent. So, first, the cartwheel." He lunged forward with his right leg and threw his arms up. "First, position yourself like this. Then, lower your arms toward the ground and raise your back leg. Place one hand on the ground as you turn sideways, and…" He demonstrated, before placing his other hand further ahead and swinging his other leg up. "Push up!" He then completed the cartwheel, rotating over and landing in a lunge. "Use the momentum to carry you through. Now, I'm gonna show you one more time." He repeated the process, going step-by-step through the process and describing it as he went along. "Okay. Over to you guys. Find a space on the floor, and use the lines as a guide for your movement."
So, the kids began to practice, with Artie turning to Lincoln. "Want me to go first?"
"Actually, I think I'll give it a try first," Lincoln responded.
"Sure thing! Have at it."
Lincoln nodded, then prepared himself. He looked at the line marked on the floor, then lunged forward. He held his arms up, then leaned forward with his arms out in front of him and raised his back leg up, making him shake a little. He put one hand down on the ground and prepared to kick his leg upward, but as he tried to put his other hand down while his legs were kicked up, he felt himself shaking again, and had to go back to his original position, feeling a little defeated. "Dang it."
"Don't worry, Lincoln," Artie assured. "It takes time to get the hang of this stuff." He stood to the side of the line. "Give it another go." Lincoln nodded, then took a deep breath. He got back into lunging position, then leaned forward again, raising his back leg. Placing his hand on the ground, he kicked his legs up again and pressed his other hand down, but he had to put his legs down away from the line instead of complete the cartwheel. He grunted as he stood up straight, feeling a little frustrated. "Hey, that's an improvement. Maybe it would help if you tried doing it all at once instead of step by step."
Lincoln raised an eyebrow. "You think?"
"Maybe. After all, the way a cartwheel works is by using momentum to carry through. Watch me." Lincoln stood to one side and watched as Artie held his hands up in the air, then completed a cartwheel in one fluid motion rather than as a step-by-step process, impressing Lincoln before the dark haired boy faced him again. "You see? Give it a try."
"Okay." Lincoln stood back on the line while Artie stood to one side, flashing Lincoln a thumbs up. Lincoln nodded, then steadied himself and looked back at the line in front of him. Deciding to take Artie's advice, he took a deep breath and raised his arms up, before making his best attempt at reciprocating what Artie had just done. His hand went down against the ground, he kicked his legs up in the air, and before he even knew it, Lincoln had completed the cartwheel, landing back in a lunge position. It took him a second to realise this, before a smile came to his face. "I… I did it."
"Good job, Lincoln!" Artie congratulated.
"Thanks!" Looking at the floor, though he realised that he wasn't on the line anymore, and was instead to the side of it. "Oh."
Knowing straight away what that meant, Artie smiled. "Don't worry about it. It takes a bit of practice to make sure you do it perfectly straight. Once you learn to land it, that comes more easily."
"Okay. Thanks."
After an hour of practicing cartwheels, handstands, and other basic floor moves, plus a small demonstration of a floor run, Chris transitioned the practice towards the vault. "Now, before you can try using the vault horse properly, the first thing you have to do is be able to fall from a handstand on your back," he explained. "What you're going to do is a stretch jump onto the mat, then kick into a hand stand, and fall onto your back. Kat," he said to the raven-haired girl, "would you mind demonstrating?"
"Okay." She walked down to the start of the runway, then ran along it towards the vault, jumping off it and landing with her arms in the air. She then leaned forward, kicking her legs up into a handstand before falling onto her back. She quickly got back up, showing that she was okay.
"Thank you, Kat. Okay, now you've seen how to do it, I want you to one boy one have a go, okay? Line up at the start of the runway."
So, they lined up, with Lincoln taking a spot nearer the back of the line. As Chris called for them one by one to have a go, Jordan, who was just in front of Lincoln, looked at him and noticed he was a little nervous. "You okay?"
"Yeah," he replied. "I just, I didn't do too well at handstands."
She smiled. "Don't worry. It's more about making sure you land okay rather than the handstand."
"Really?" She nodded. "Okay. Yeah, that makes me feel better. Thanks."
She laughed softly. "You do that a lot."
He raised an eyebrow. "Do what?"
"Thank me for things." He gave a chuckle at this, the two of them sharing a laugh before Chris called her name. "Guess I'm up. See you at the other end."
Before he could respond, she took off down the runway, leaving him to watch from afar as she cleanly executed the move. After that, she walked off the mat and Chris called his name. Collecting himself, Lincoln set off down the runway, keeping his pace until the end, where he jumped on the vault and steadily landed the stretch jump. He then leaned forward to place his hands on the mat and kicked his legs up to get into a handstand, but before his legs went all the way up, he felt his balance going again, and his body began to tip to one side before Chris caught him. "Easy there, Lincoln," he said as he steadied the boy back up into the full handstand. When he let go, Lincoln fell onto his back, landing safely without hurting himself. "Don't worry about it, kid. It takes a bit of practice, but you'll get there."
"Thanks," Lincoln replied as he got to his feet, getting off the mat and walking over to Jordan. "Well… that was a bit embarrassing."
"Don't worry about it." She looked over at the others and leaned towards Lincoln. "When Mollie and I first tried it, she misplaced her hands and went face first into the mat."
Lincoln stifled a snort, amused by this anecdote. "Really?!"
"Yeah, but within a couple of weeks or so, she had it nailed down. Don't worry, you'll figure it out."
"Thanks." When she lightly giggled again, he rolled his eyes, but kept a smile on his face. "Oh, har har."
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