Gymnastics is widely considered one of the most time consuming and taxing sports. That is why there are so few gymnasts around campus, however, senior Sabrina Schwab is one of those few.
“I train six days a week from eight to twelve in the morning and then from four-thirty to six-thirty at night, so I train six hours a day,” senior Sabrina Schwab said. “On Fridays and Saturdays I just train from eight to twelve, and I don’t have to go back in the afternoon.”
There are several challenges that gymnasts face on a daily basis.
“The hardest part about being a gymnast is probably the mental aspects of it. Like we have to have thick skin when our coaches yell at us,” Schwab said. “Our sport also requires us to literally throw ourselves in the air so that is very mentally taxing. Also, we don’t have a normal life because we are always at the gym. We also have to be careful about what we do. For example, I don’t go to parties because I’m afraid that that will damage my UCLA scholarship and I don’t want that taken away.”
To make things even more challenging for Schwab, she’s returning from a back injury.
“I was out for about nine months,” Schwab said. “It was absolute torture trying to get all of my skills back. I mean we go six days a week and not doing anything on Sunday makes Monday quite challenging so nine months off was like almost having to re-teach my body everything. Luckily my body has muscle memory so it remembers some stuff, but the hardest part was just getting my strength back because I lost like all of it, so it took about two months to just get my strength back.”
Even after spending countless hours at the gym Schwab still has to make time for her studies.
“As soon as I get home I eat dinner and then I start my homework and I do it until it’s done and that is usually around 11,” Schwab said. “Even if I’m tired I still do it because I know I have to get it done because in my mind academics are always more important because you only do gymnastics for a short period of time in your life. Even though it sounds like a long time now, your academics stay with you longer, so I try to keep that in mind.”
Although her schedule demands some sacrifices, Schwab has been able to learn from watching one of the world’s best.
“It was cool attending the same gym as Nastia Liukin (2008 Olympic gold medalist),” Schwab said. “However it was different because whenever you think that you are training with some star you think that they don’t have any problems and that their life is perfect and they get every skill. So it was weird to see her go through the same things that we go through like having bad days where you just fall all the time and you can’t do something and you’re getting yelled at, so it was weird seeing such an amazing athlete have bad days. That was probably the weirdest part of it all and it was also nice to have her around to cheer me up when I was having a bad day.”
While gymnastics is very demanding on Schwab, it also greatly impacts her family.
“We have to plan our family vacations around Sabrina’s gymnastics schedule,” Karen Schwab said. “Also, it is demanding in that before Sabrina could drive I would have to wake up and drive her to practice so that she could be there at eight. Then I would go workout and then go home for little while, then I would have to go back to the gym and pick her up and take her to school. I would then have to go work and then pick her up from school and then take her to the gym again. I would have to then race home to make dinner and then I would have to go back and pick her up and then we would get home around seven and eat. I would have to do that five times a week all year long.”
The Olympics are a dream of almost every young gymnast; however, that dream doesn’t always carry on with a gymnast as they get older.
“Going to the Olympics is not in the picture now because my body just can’t take it anymore,” Schwab said. “It really depends on your body. Like some people are really blessed and never get injured and my body just isn’t like that. I’ve damaged it enough already and it just can’t take anymore damage than it already has.”
Gymnastics is unlike that of any sport when it comes to the time spent practicing.
“The biggest difference between gymnastics and more common sports like football or basketball is time,” Schwab said. “For football there is a season and then there is an off season, but for gymnastics you have to constantly be training just as if you were in season all year round because like I said when you take one day off you know you took the day off. It’s weird how your body just reacts to that, so you have to constantly be training to your full potential.”
The day-to-day physical grind associated with gymnastics is unlike that of any other sport.
“My hands hurt constantly,” Schwab said. “I have this candy balm stuff that I put on my hands every night whether they need it or not. My hands hurt so badly like sometimes I can’t even write at school because it hurts to pick up a pencil. I get rips all the time and calluses and then sometimes I split the beam and then I’ll get this horrible rash on my leg. I’ve had so many injuries that I can’t even count them. I’ve had countless MRIs, my back is constantly hurting, and I’ve broken countless bones.”
Throughout Schwab’s life she has had to miss out on a lot because of her schedule.
“Growing up, it was hard [to hang out with Sabrina] because she was always so busy, but she was very good about asking me to hang out when she could in order to make up for the time missed,” senior Maddie Pool said.
Her friends think the many lessons that gymnastics has taught Schwab should carry her far in life.
“I think gymnastics has taught her to be very driven and she will be willing to put in extra work and go above and beyond what’s expected in anything she does in life because that’s what she has needed to do in order to be the great gymnast that she is,” senior Samantha Odom said. “Also, she is not a stranger to hard work and dedication.”
While she is glad to have the chance to receive a scholarship from UCLA, Schwab often reflects on what it’s all meant to her.
“I think about (if I could go back in time and do it all over again) a lot actually because gymnastics takes a toll on your body and it takes a toll on your mind,” Schwab said. “It’s hard seeing my dad and my brother go on vacation all the time and I have to stay home because I just can’t take time off from gym. So I think about that a lot because I wonder if I’ll regret that later on in life like not having a normal childhood. Then again gymnastics has taught me so many life lessons that I know I would have never learned if it weren’t for gymnastics, so I think I would probably still do it just because I’m really thankful for everything it has taught me.”
