The Level 4's, Four Feet and Rising

The Level 5's and 6's could happily spend the rest of spring focusing on lacrosse, softball, dance recitals, frolicking at the beach. But the Level 4's still had work to do.

From those extra practices, I came to know the Level 4's: Amy, a very muscular girl who could beat up just about anyone in the gym, but instead feared everything; Alejandra, four feet tall, with no muscles but fabulous flexibility and dance; Christina, silent but a strong balance of strength and flexbility; Chloe, with a squeaky voice, big grin, and frighteningly bendy back; Laurel, wildly unflexible with perpetually bent knees, but very consistent, especially on bars; and Grace, who was in fact better than some of the Level 5's, but had the strange propensity to dart behind mats in the midst of some game in her mind.

Either the same age as or younger than the Level 5's, the 4's were easier to work with (besides when Grace refused to come out from behind the mats). They talked less and practiced without many interruptions. They were also needy: "Can you watch me? Can you watch me now? Can you watch me after her?"

Greg asked if I could come to their meets with him "to figure out that whole beam touch warm-up thing." At one of their earliest meets, I stood near the beam as Christina competed. About halfway through her routine came the tell-tale pause. The uncertain lift of her arms. Then she stood still, trying to remember. She looked at me. I looked back. She did a random skill then dismounted.

Next up, Amy. She saluted the judges. Then she turned to me. "Will you stand there for my dismount?"

Despite half-forgotten routines and talking to their coaches, the Level 4's scored far higher than the Level 5's, even when they stumbled, fell, or performed a bit sloppily. They especially racked up 9.0's on vault. Alejandra, not much taller than the mat she vaulted onto, pulled out a 9.45 at Team Cup.

But apparently the Level 5's had been successful in Level 4. They'd told me that Jamie had scored a 9.7 on floor. In Level 5, she was occasionally in the high 8.0's.

A disparity, indeed.