Spectator Sport

Gymnastics Gym

                The dark colored wooden floors covered the whole room. The walls were painted cream. The girls would come in from the sliding glass door after changing into their flamboyant pink leotards and black shorts. Some of the bigger girls had black leotards.All the girls have to act with decorum. I could see my reflection through the wall covered with mirrors. And adjacent to the large mirrored wall, were the ballet bars newly painted in white, where the girls would stretch their legs while mellow music was being played.

                When the girls were done warming up, the apple green carpets that gave the room a weird smell, would be laid out. At the back corner of the large room was a  brown box filled with gymnastic ribbons in different colors. During the last fifteen minutes of class, we would get to do routines using the ribbon. The ribbons had a long stick at the ends of it and it was made from crepe fabric. Most of the girls liked the blue and pink colored ribbons. And sometimes the back corner of the room would have beautiful decorations from the previous gymnastics performances.

                Though most people may think that a gymnastics gym would have all those equipments like uneven bars, beams and a big floor mat, the gym where I trained at didn't have those professional equipment.  It was just for basic gymnastics. So there wasn't much except for ballet bars. We would usually practice our difficult tumbles and tricks using the walls. Like when we do the 'walkover', which is doing a bridge and then a handstand and standing up, some of the girls felt dubious becuase couldn't balance so they used the wall to help them.

                It is just a huge room with cream walls, and one end of the room was covered with mirrors. The room would smell a bit weird at first but we would all get used to the smell after a while. The room contained both yellow and white lights but mostly the pacific white lights would be turned on. There were two air conditioners. Both would be turned on at first and then in the middle of class while doing our routines, the teacher would turn one off because it would get too cold. There were also ropes that we had to bring whenever we had class, and we would have to do jumps and other tricks that involved the ropes. The little gymnasts were best at the rope tricks because they were small.

 

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 http://www.theroomsabove.org.uk/images/gallery/room-1-mirrors.jpg