Justus Opens 2011 Gymnastics Season
Justus started the 2011 season by performing at the Valeri Liukin Invitational in Frisco, Texas on December 10th. This is Justus’ first season with his new gym, Houston Gymnastics Academy. This meet marked the culmination of long and tough training over last summer, changing gyms, making new friends, and meeting expectations of new coaching staff.
Justus is repeating Level 7 this year, which was one of the easier decisions. Repeating levels in gymnastics is one of the necessary elements of growing up in the sport. Competitive levels go from four to eleven (referred to as “Elite” for Olympic hopefuls). So, it’s easy to see that a boy starting as a seven year old cannot progress each year to a different level until he reaches Elite – he must repeat levels several times. In Justus’ case, he discovered that going from level six to level seven was a huge jump. And at the end of the season, there were many “bonus” skills that remained untouched. This year will give him an opportunity to compete with many of those bonus skills and continue to work on his fundamentals before leaving the last compulsory level.
The Valeri Liukin Invitational took place at Valeri’s gym, called World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA). This meet has always been a tough one – very competitive and always the first meet of the season. Justus performed well and seemed very relaxed. He came in fourth on rings and 10th in the all-around. Several of his scores were higher than his season highs last year.
Enjoy the video below.