Chalking his hands, freshman Kyle Abe prepared to sprint down the vault runway and perform his second vault at the Men’s Gymnastics Junior Olympic Nationals in Long Beach last year. He jumped on the springboard, pushed off the vault table with two hands and soared into the air with a double twist.
His face relaxed, beaming with joy as he landed perfectly. This vault earned him second out of 30 athletes.
Abe, whose father is social studies teacher Kirk Abe, has been doing gymnastics since age 2 when his parents signed him up for a baby tumbling class, hoping he could release his boundless energy and hyperness there. He fell in love with the sport.
Abe is a Level 9 gymnast, the second highest level. He spends 18 hours most weeks practicing at the California Sports Center, his second home. There, he perfects his routines for the two or three meets each month during the competition season from December to March.
Most meets require Abe to travel, but luckily they are mainly held during school breaks. In addition, there are a few local meets on the weekends and even some during the school week.
Even though gymnastics is a large time commitment, Abe said the excitement and thrill of flying in the air makes spending innumerable hours of training worthwhile.
“I get a lot of adrenaline before events, especially when I’m on the high bar,” Abe said. “It’s one giant bar, where you can just do crazy things.”
Although meets are exciting for Abe, they can also be physically exhausting and long.
“It’s hard, because if you placed in the top 10 or 15 for an event, you would have to come back the second day to compete again for first to fifth place,” said Abe.
Even with such difficulties, Abe advanced to Nationals in Long Beach last year and placed second out of 30 gymnasts in the vault category, his strongest event. Vaulting requires the athlete to run down the runway, jump on the springboard, place his hands on the vault table and push off while doing flips and twists.
When evaluating this event, judges look for four main phases: the preflight, support, after-flight and landing. In these phases, the gymnasts should display power and speed, while still maintaining precision.
Along with being a skilled vaulter, Abe is able to perform a double front flip on the floor, a high level skill. Skills are ranked in alphabetical order from A to G, where G skills are the most difficult and require the most skill.
“It isn't the scariest, but it is worth a pretty high value, being a D skill,” Abe said.
In addition to his mastery of skills, Abe’s small yet strong and agile build has contributed to the success he has achieved as a gymnast. His high strength-to-mass ratio and his low point of gravity allow him to retain his balance longer and perform full-body rotations on the high bar with ease.
Despite his natural capabilities and dedication, Abe has sometimes been teased for being a male gymnast in a female-dominated sport.
“Occasionally some people will ask, ‘Isn't gymnastics for girls?’ or ‘Isn't that a girls sport?’” he said. “That is always annoying. Men's gymnastics is very tough.”
Regardless of what people may think of the sport, Abe knows that gymnastics is what he loves. Through the support of his family and friends, he hopes by the end of high school he can make it to the national team and continue pursuing his passion in college.
“My family has driven me to practices, made sacrifices in their schedules and given me encouragement,” Abe said. “I appreciate all of the support given to me by friends and family.”