In It For The Long Haul

I should have known.

At about eighteen months of age, it began with him jumping off the sofa. I remember distinctly being quite hesitant to discourage this behavior because I had, by this time (3 years into boy-momma-hood and 2 boys deep), realized that boys have more energy to expend than do girls. Not being the outdoorsy type myself, I was also hesitant to spend hours outside supervising said boys. Couch jumping it was.

Of course it didn't stop there. By 2, he had taken to jumping off of the 5-foot-high stone retaining wall that runs the length of our driveway. Of course, I questioned the wisdom of letting him do it, but he seemed to land just fine. I spent considerable mental energy pondering whether boys just have an innate need to propel themselves and other things through the air - something I would never understand as a female - or whether I should protect him from the possibility of injury. In the end, I decided that I would not put a stop to his 5-foot free-falls, so he kept landing them.

Fast forward about 4 years and I experienced the same heartbeat-skipping, mental quandary when my youngest demonstrated his back handspring for me for the first time - in the middle of the living room. Not as part of a running, cart-wheel-propelled stunt, mind you, but from a standing still position! My 6-year-old got enough "air" to do a back handspring in my living room. Yes, I feared for his neck, but not enough to make him stop (on the contrary, we enjoyed showing him off!), so he kept landing them. He did NOT, however, land the spontaneous back flip off the the backyard swing. That one landed him...with a nice, bright orange cast for about 6 weeks.

It was about that time that we decided to "get that boy some training", in order to prevent further injury. My research in and around my rural small town turned up nothing in the way of real gymnastics training, so I had to look a little farther. It took me almost a year to find just the one, but I finally signed Karson up for a gymnastics class during the summer of '07. A few classes into the 8-week session, it was quite obvious that he had something his classmates his age were lacking. I decided to ask his teacher what level I should register him in for the next session. He told me I needed to speak with the owner.

Coach Joe sat me down in his office and straight-forwardly said, "I see a lot of natural talent in your son. We'd like him on our competition team. What's your family situation?"

He pantomimed being shot in the heart with each of my answers. "We live in Staunton (45 minutes from the gym) and we have six kids."

Apparently "team" requires more commitment than was easily compatible with our family situation and Joe knew it. Long story made a bit shorter, we did enroll Karson in some pre-team training (once Joe found enough boys talented enough for and interested in a pre-team) from January to June of '08. Looking, once again, at the "team" commitment for the coming year against the backdrop of the rest of our life, forced us to take Karson out of gymnastics. I cried. Joe assured me that talent like Karson's doesn't fade and that he would take Karson back anytime we could make it work.

Unbeknownst to us, during the next nine months, good things were developing. At an appointment with my chiropractor, I learned that his son had been going to Classics Gymnastics and had been invited to be on their team. "Carpool" lightbulbs went off in my head (my chiropractor and his family live right down the street) and I promised to call Joe up to see if his offer still stood for Karson.

It did! As a member of the Classics Gymnastics boys level 4 team, Karson has been working hard in the gym for 9 hours a week since June. The whole reason I even started this post was to share about his intra-sqad meet last weekend. It was not open to spectators, even parents, so we didn't attend, but our carpool friends were quick to report the results when they brought Karson home. Their son received 2nd place out of all the boys with a score of 79 points. "Guess who got first?" they asked.

Apparently, all the boys received overall scores somewhere in the 70s, save Karson. Karson received an overall score of 89! Congratulations, Karson! We're proud, excited, certain the Lord has given you this talent for His good purposes, and realizing that we're most likely in this for the long-haul.

I should have known.