Maria second from the right with the Tumbling ladies
Meet Maria Maldonado, Provincial 4 Tumbler. Maria first started recreational gymnastics at the age of four at Oakville Gymnastics and began competitive tumbling at the age of 10 when one of her coaches saw a good fit.
Unlike most other sports, Maria sees tumbling as an individual sport which requires improving on your own specific skills and needs by being self disciplined. At the same time, you are working on a team where each gymnast is challenging themselves and trying to improve from their current level, each sharing and learning from each other.
Her motivation is driven by mentoring with her senior group tumblers. Seeing how they accomplish their skills and getting ‘tips’ makes her successful at perfecting her passes and inspires her to be the best she can be. The most difficult part of training is ‘when you have your bad days’. To Maria, ‘It is like you are disappointing yourself but you know you have to keep going’. These challenges of tumbling are minimized by her coaches, Don & Brandon, who are always pointing her in the right direction and offering their personal expertise.
When preparing for competitions, she overcomes her nervousness by relaxing a couple of days before the event and preparing herself mentally by ‘treating it just like another training session’. She tells herself, ‘I’ve done it before and it’s no different’. She focuses on doing her tumbling passes well and ‘competes against herself’ knowing that each pass has room for perfection.
Her success is measured by improving each pass with precision as well as accomplishing new skills, her latest being the double tuck. These are achieved by overcoming fear and doing the tumbling passes over and over again.
To date, her most memorable event in tumbling was her very first provincial competition where she successfully qualified by achieving the provincial score standard. It was also the very first time she won a ribbon. She remembers working very hard and is proud of how she performed at the competition. Maria’s next goal is to compete National 5 and then move onto competing at Junior and Senior Levels so that she can potentially go to World Championships.
Maria is a good juggler when it comes to managing her time required for school and gymnastics. A Grade 10 student at St. Thomas Aquinas, she balances her time between them and does not let the two get in the way of each other. When Maria is not tumbling, she is ‘usually doing homework’ and loves to spend time with her friends on the weekend.
Spending a good 18 hours per week at the gym, it is no doubt that OGC is Maria’s ‘second home’ as she has also been enrolled in CIT (Coach in Training) program for the past two years and will soon be getting her certification.
Maria’s love for gymnastics is visible, as you can easily spot her in the gym as she is always smiling. She sets a prime example as a CIT coach to the younger gymnasts showing them that gymnastics is fun. To her, ‘It’s cool to be flipping around and doing all those tumbling passes which is not that common or well known’, but it is one that she loves. Apart from her mother who supports her talent and abilities in tumbling, OGC is her second family, filled with supportive athletes and coaches who help and cheer each other on. Her coaches describe Maria as an energetic and enthusiastic tumbler setting big goals for herself and enjoying her own path to reaching those goals. She is also an important part of the social fabric of the group as she likes to be a leader and motivator. Be sure to see more of Maria around OGC, as she plans to get her full certification and become a coach.
Maria bringing home a 4th place ribbon at a Tumbling competition in 2017
Author: Oakville Gym