This past weekend Leighton got to participate in a gymnastics clinic in Denver with some of the top mens gymnasts in the nation. I found the clinic by accident a few weeks ago when the Gymnastics World Championships were going on and there wasn’t TV coverage of the men’s routines and Leighton wanted to watch them. I found Mikulak Gymnastics Clinic and they had an upcoming clinic in Denver. Sam Mikulak who has won 6 National All Around Championships and won 3rd on the High Bar last year at Worlds started the clinics. It was an amazing weekend, besides Sam Mikulak, Donnell Whittenburg (alternate on the 2016 Olympic Team), Eddie Penev (3x World Cup Champion), Adrian De Los Angeles (Placed in the 2019 US championships on P Bars and Floor), and Kanji Oyama (2018 Pan Am Team Champion) were the other coaches for the boys. They broke the boys up into groups of 7-9 kids and then the kids rotated through all the different events with the coaches and also did some conditioning during one session and a goal planning session as well. The coaches who are all heroes in the kids eyes were very involved and positive and encouraging to all the kids and gave them all sorts of pointers. During the Saturday evening clinic the photographer was gone so Clint filled in and was down on the floor and heard the encouragement and coaching that they were giving. On Saturday afternoon they have about an hour and half of free gym where they could go work on any piece of equipment and Leighton headed to the high bar and worked for over an hour with Sam Mikulak on his Kip. He almost has it and just kept missing it, but he’d fall off into the foam pit and crawl out and grab some chalk and hop right back up there and work at it again. At the end of the day they had a question and answer time that the parents got to be a part of and then they signed autographs for the kids. To be a parent and get to watch some of your kid’s heroes take a weekend to spend pouring into kids and being humble and approachable and real with them was a gift. I’m pretty sure Leighton is going to wear the shirt that they all signed every day this week…
Hiking Mommy 