Balance (Off Balance 1)

“Of course. Come, Reagan.”

Reagan scowled. I picked my wedgie and asked, “Where’re they going?”

“We switched.”

My stomach churned, excitement falling from my face. “Oh, okay.”

We stared at each other for a moment, my cheeks beginning to heat. Clearing his throat, Kova rubbed his jaw and said, “Instead of running slower in the beginning, I think you need to just take off at your normal speed. I do not think slowing down will help you. Let us get your round-off right and then we will work on squaring your shoulders and reaching for height.”

I nodded. “I wasn’t crazy about slowing in the beginning either, but I did it anyway.”

“If you do not think it will work, you can always speak up.”

I gave him a droll stare. “Really? You once told me not to question you.” When he didn’t respond to my dig, I said, “I wanted to try it at least, but I didn’t like the feel.”

“What is your starting point?”

“I’m at seventy-five feet.”

Coach contemplated for a minute. “Try starting at seventy-nine feet. You need as much momentum as you can get. And just do the double again.”

I nodded and walked to the seventy-nine feet mark. I did exactly what he said to do, and honestly, I couldn’t tell if I did it right or not.

“Again,” he said.

I did a handful more vaults before he finally said, “I see things I want to do to you—” Coach stopped himself when my eyebrows nearly reached my hairline. “What I meant was...” he trailed off anxiously. His voice cracked and he used his hands to talk. “I think I should be working with you more on this, not just Madeline. There are different techniques you would benefit from.” He exhaled with an exhausted sigh, broken almost, and it made me feel bad. “Let us work on this vault and do some layout timers.”

Coach took me to the other side of the gym where there were huge, thick mats stacked behind a vault. They towered high, just roughly under ten feet and they helped with gaining height. It’s where layout timers came into play. It was a back flip, pin straight body and legs, and instead of landing on my feet, I’d land on my back, rotating with a hollow chest.

“Okay. I am going to spot you and give you a little pop. Just land on your back. Yes?”

“Yes.”

I wasn’t sure if I loved the idea Kova was ignoring our little indiscretion or not. I guess it was a good thing since I was here to train. But I couldn’t help but wonder what was going through his head.

I did my vault with Kova’s help and nearly panicked when my heart jumped from my chest and landed before I did. I had so much air my feet came up and I rotated into a back roll.

“That wasn’t a little pop. You nearly threw me in the air. I could’ve hurt myself.”

He gave me a blank stare. “See the height you got?” he retorted, his voice stern. He ignored my comment, because the truth was, I knew my coach wouldn’t let anything happen to me and he knew it too.

“That is what you need in flight. Do it again and keep your legs tighter. This vault, more than others, must have straight, tight legs and body.”

I was well aware how tight and straight my legs needed to be, not just in this vault, but in so many other skills in gym. Hearing it over and over was annoying. I wished he’d tell me something I didn’t know.

I did the vault, feeling Kova’s pop on my lower back. He wasn’t as hard this time and I felt the difference, I barely landed on my back.

“Feel the difference?”

“Surprisingly, yes.”

Kova paused, not expecting my response, then continued. “The key to the Amanar is height, drive, and power. That is where we start. We do this a thousand times if we have to, until I feel confident you can move on,” Kova said enthusiastically.

A thousand times, like he did with me on bars. At least I wouldn’t get rips on vault. But I could break an ankle if I landed wrong.

I vaulted again, ending with a layout timer. After at least an hour or so, I was worn out and in dire need of food. My calf throbbed fiercely, but there was no way I would speak up. Kova’s help and push really made a difference, so I stored the pain away and focused on the conditioning.

Walking back over to the pit, he placed thick practice mats over the foam squares to practice my landing since I wasn’t ready to land on the floor yet.