Ali flips for gymnastics

Ali has been asking to do gymnastics for a long time.  I finally relented at the beginning of July, she goes every Monday for an hour.  Everything she knows about gymnastics, she has taught herself and is really quite a natural at the sport.

Here she is warming up

Yes, her head is all the way down on the floor!

A bridge

On the balance beam

Front handspring on the long trampoline

Pull up on the uneven bars

The higher of the two uneven bars

 A cart wheel on the way back from the vault - she doesn't just walk back, she cart wheels....

Getting ready for the next vault

off the spring board onto the mat - this is a beginning class so they use the mats instead of the actual vault to learn form and so they won't break their necks until they have the flips and things down!
the vault is the little brown thing to the left of the mat

Ali has been having such a great time in this gymnastics class - I guess I should have started her sooner - after only 2 classes, they wanted to move her to the level 2 class.  She is very proud of herself over this and likes to tell people that she is ready to move up after only 2 classes - the teacher tells the other girls to "watch Ali, so you can see how it is supposed to be done" that makes her happy too!  She is still learning the names of the 'tricks' so I have kept her in the level 1 class so she can get the terminology down - when school starts, I will let them move her to level 2.  Since we've been watching gymnastics during the Olympics, she says she wants to get that good!