“Practice creates confidence, confidence is empowering”- Simone Biles. Simone Biles has such inspirational quotes and this is one of them. You have to have so much confidence and balance to do beam and it can be very scary to do some skills your coach asks you to try. So i’m gonna be telling you how difficult it is to do beam and why I love it.

Beam is one of the scariest events in gymnastics because you’re standing on a 4 inch piece of wood with a thin layer of padding and you have to do lots of flips and jumps. Also you have to pay attention to where you are in the air because if you are off center by ¼ inch you could fall and get hurt. This video shows you that it can all go well until one little wrong move and you fall. It really shows you how difficult beam is and how easy it is to fall. Falling on beam can potentially end your career because if you fall off and land on your neck it could be deadly.

I love beam. It’s my favorite event because you have to have a lot of patience and balance and I have got 1st on beam at all meets so far this season which is so exciting. My routine is simple because I’m doing the same skills as I did last season, just different dance choreography to match my floor routine. My skills I do are my mount (which is hard to explain but I basically put my hands on the beam and jump up and straddle my legs then swing them back and put my feet on the beam and stand up), a split jump, a handstand (that has to be 45 degrees from vertical) and my dismount (which is where you do a side handstand and do a ¼ turn dismount).

For this story I will be interviewing Addy Moree again to get her opinion about beam.

Q- What do you like about beam?
A- I like how its different from other events like on floor its flat and bars your hanging and beam your balancing.
Q- What is your favorite skill in your beam routine and why?
A- My favorite skill in my routine is my dismount because it’s fun to do.
Q- How do you stay focused when you’re competing on beam?
A- I dont think about it and I just do it and it turns out good and all the line routines we do before we compete helps.
Q- Why do you like (or dislike) beam compared to other events?
A- I don’t dislike beam but it’s not my favorite but it’s my best event and what I like about it is that it’s different from the other events. Also you have more skills and dancing while trying to balance.
Q- Over all what do think about gymnastics
A- I like it because it’s different from all the other sports and its not a contact sport but you get the team aspect of it, yet it’s still competitive but everyone is nice about it.

Thank you so much for letting me interview you again Addy!

In conclusion, the beam is a super hard event in gymnastics. Gymnasts must stay calm and focused while performing difficult skills on beam like flips, turns, and jumps. One small mistake can cause a fall, so balance and concentration is very important.  Dominique Moceanu’s beam routine was so difficult but cool at the 1996 Olympics. Her first acro pass in the video is a backhandspring step-out, layout step-out, layout step-out, layout step-out, which is crazy because the average gymnast can only fit 3 skills in their acro pass. Also it is really hard to do 3 layout step-outs because you have to have a lot of leg strength to be able to push off the beam and have enough height to be able to flip. Here is a link to watch Suni Lee’s crazy save on beam at the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials. Make sure you check out my other stories about gymnastics.