- April 25, 2024
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Alison Strasser took two years off from gymnastics. But now she's back, and she finished first at a recent meet.
BY MATT MENCARINI | SPORTS EDITOR
Alison Strasser is standing four feet above the ground on a four inch-wide beam. She kicks her right leg back, leans, then does a full flip backward. She lands on her feet.
She does it again, and again, while being spotted by her coach, George Postell, at the Ormond Beach Gymnastics Center. Repetition is key, says trainer and student.
On this particular day, Strasser works on a few elements — mount, dismount, jumps and handstand — of her balance beam routine, just a few days after taking first place at the AAU State Competition, April 27, in Tampa.
Strasser, a Seabreeze High School sophomore, competed at the Modified Optional level and will soon make the jump to Level 7. The Tampa meet ended her first gymnastics season in two years.
Before she entered high school, she had to choose between band and gymnastics. She chose band.
“I knew I missed (gymnastics) from the very beginning,” Strasser said. “I hated missing all the practices. I liked performing with the marching band, but I just really missed gymnastics.”
The time away grew her maturity, passion and focus, though, she and her coach say.
“Competitions stressed her,” Postell said. “And by taking the time off ... and getting more confident in her skills, (that) took all that stress away.”
Before taking a break from the sport, the stress of waiting all day after finishing her balance beam routine — her best event — to learn the results may have been too much to handle. But since her return, her confidence has led to calmness.
“Once I stuck my landing off of the beam, I just knew it was a really good routine and it was a hit,” Strasser said of the moments after completing her first place routine in Tampa. “When I got my score I knew I was going to place kind of high. ... I wasn’t worried about it. I was just like, ‘Whatever will happen will happen.’”
Strasser, after returning to gymnastics full time in late January, feels back on track and can now refine and expand her skills.
“Physically and psychologically, it’s kind of tough,” Postell said. “Physically ... your body has got to get back into doing all the skills. Psychologically, you don’t know how you’re going to handle the pressure.”
But pressure doesn’t seem to be something on Strasser’s mind anymore. When she’s on a balance beam, going through a routine, she says, mostly, all she feels is excitement.
“When I go to the competitions, I just feel like I’ve done something really great,” she said. “I want to be a gymnastics coach when I graduate college, and so sticking with gymnastics is more in my career line. And it just makes me really happy.”
