Club Gymnastics
Photography by Catherine White.
If you’re reading this, you are more capable than you think you are.
Gymnastics has taught us a lot about what it means to be uncomfortable. You fall, miss skills you thought you had mastered, get frustrated, and sometimes wonder if all the work is worth it. But, being part of a club team has taught us that gymnastics is about so much more than what happens on the floor. It is about the people beside you who remind you what you are capable of, especially on the days when you struggle to see it yourself.
College can feel a lot like gymnastics. There are times when it seems like everyone else has everything figured out while you are just trying to keep up. You might feel behind, overwhelmed, or unsure whether you are doing enough. It is easy to look at the people around you and assume they are succeeding more easily than you are. But, you never know what someone else is going through, and you don’t have to have everything figured out to be moving forward.
We’ve learned that progress in gymnastics rarely happens all at once. Sometimes, it looks like finally landing a skill you’ve been working on for months. Sometimes, it looks like getting back up after a fall and trying again. And sometimes, progress is simply showing up to practice when you’re tired, frustrated, or unsure of yourself. Not every day will feel like a breakthrough, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t growing.
Being part of a team has taught us that we don’t have to navigate those difficult moments alone. Some of the best parts of gymnastics have nothing to do with what happens on the equipment. They happen when teammates cheer you on after a fall, celebrate a skill you finally land, or remind you of how far you’ve come when all you can see is how far you still have left to go. At UVA, we are all learning, adjusting, and trying to find our balance, both in the gym and beyond it. Having people who support you through the setbacks makes the journey a little less overwhelming and reminds you that you belong, even when things don’t go as planned.
So, if you’re reading this on a difficult day, remember that one bad practice doesn’t make you a bad gymnast, and one bad day doesn’t make you a failure. You are allowed to struggle, to make mistakes, and to have moments when you doubt yourself. You don’t have to be perfect to make progress, and you don’t have to have everything figured out to be doing enough. Give yourself the same patience and encouragement you would give a teammate.
And if you can't believe in yourself today, let us believe in you until you can.
Club Gymnastics Executive Board, University of Virginia
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