The Kip: Perfect Balance Gymnastics Series, #5

By Melisa Torres

Meet Marissa and her teammates; strong diverse girls reaching their goals!

Marissa is a gymnast, violinist, and chess player. This summer she is busy in an orchestra, chess tournament, and learning her Level 4 gymnastics skills. In the past, doing all three activities has been a snap for Marissa. She is hardworking and smart. But this summer she can't seem to get her kip, a difficult skill on bars. If she doesn't learn a kip she won't be competing Level 4 in the fall with her friends at Perfect Balance Gymnastics Academy. As the summer progresses, it's not looking good. Everyone else is getting their kip except for Marissa. What will she do if her friends move on without her?

Perfect Balance Gymnastics Books teach girls to be kind to each other, flexible in life, courageous, strong, and most of all, confident. The books set the reader in the world of gymnastics. The characters are relatable and have age-appropriate challenges. Each book explores a major life lesson that empowers girls to understand their own inner strengths.

Perfect Balance Gymnastics Books increase reading level from 2nd grade to 6th grade as the series progresses. The Kip is the 5th book in the series and is a 3rd/4th grade reading level. The Kip appeals to 8-12 year-olds. Perfect Balance Gymnastics Books are chronological, but each story can stand alone.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melisa Torres
• Release date: Jul 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781958613030

Book preview

Also by Melisa Torres

PERFECT BALANCE GYMNASTICS SERIES

I’ve Got This

Nothing Better Than Gym Friends

Dance is the Secret Event

Brothers Have Talent, Too

The Kip

Score Out

Courage to Fly

Season of Change

PERFECT BALANCE GYMNASTICS OPTIONALS

New Challenges

PERFECT BALANCE GYMNASTICS WORKBOOKS

Goal Setting Journal

Overcoming Mental Blocks

Perfect Balance Gymnastics Coloring Book

MOM AND DAVE LOVE ME SERIES

Mom and Dave Love Me the Same

What if Santa Can’t Find Us?

The Kip

Illustrated by Zachary J. Christensen

Copyright © 2017 Melisa Torres

All rights reserved.

Written by Melisa Torres

Cover art and illustrations by Zachary Christensen

Edited by Patricia Hoopes Professional Editing

Edited by Clara Somers Editing Services

ISBN ebook: 978-1-958613-03-0

This book is dedicated to every child who has had the perseverance to learn a kip

Chapter 1

Glide Kip on Bars

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For warms-ups today, I want you to go to bars and work kips until I get there, James instructs.

We nod at him as we stuff our sweatshirts into cubbies in the lobby of Perfect Balance Gymnastics Academy.

It’s my first day of Level 4 gymnastics practice. My teammates and I finished our Level 3 competition season last fall. In January, we had our awards banquet which was when we found out that we all moved up to Level 4. Moving up means we get to workout three days a week instead of just two. Even though we knew we were going to be Level 4s, our training schedule didn’t change until now. Katie, the owner of Perfect Balance, wanted to wait until all the competition seasons were over to move up kids and change workout schedules. The optionals season (Levels 6-10) is over now that it’s May. So today is our first official Level 4 workout.

If we learn all the required Level 4 skills, we get to compete Level 4 in the fall.

When you get your kip you can use the cubbies upstairs, James says to us before he disappears back into the office.

Marissa, do you know what he’s talking about? Savannah asks me.

No, I say, I’ve never noticed special cubbies before.

Do we have time to check it out? Trista asks.

Technically, we have 3 minutes before class starts. We can run up and look, Paige says.

We run over to the stairs and head up to the second floor of PBGA. At the top of the stairs, the dance studio is on the right, the parent viewing area is to the front and left of us. Along the entire back wall of the parent viewing there are cubbies They are similar to the ones downstairs, only there are names on each one. We walk over and see that small items have been left in the cubbies like grips, tape, and hair bands. Some of them have notebooks decorated with pictures of famous gymnasts.

Wow, Trista sighs, this is cool. Their own cubby to leave stuff in.

Kip Club, Savannah reads. I look up, and see that above the cubbies are the words Kip Club.

All these girls can do their kip? Trista asks.

How have we never seen this before? I wonder.

I guess we always just go straight into the dance studio when we get to the top of the stairs, Paige says.

I’ve seen it before, Alexis says, But I didn’t know we couldn’t use them if we didn’t have our kip.

Hey, you guys, have you ever been in here, we hear Trista say from the far left wall. She is standing in front of the brown double doors that say Optionals Study Room across both doors in bright pink and black letters. What do you think is in here?

We walk over to her and stand in front of it for a moment. Trista looks at Paige and Paige shrugs. Trista pushes one of the doors open and we see Kayla sitting at a desk with a math book in front of her. Kayla is a Level 8 that we like watching during practice. She looks up as we peek in.

Hi, she says. It’s awkward for a second before she says, You can come in.

We timidly walk in and look around. On the far wall there’s a window looking outside. On the side walls there are lockers with names on them. Along the wall closest to us there are three desks with lamps. The middle desk has a computer on it. In the center of the room there is an area rug with fluffy chairs and bean bags positioned in a circle around a coffee table.

What is this place? Trista asks.

It’s a study room for the Optionals Team, Kayla answers. We look at her blankly, so she continues, We are here so many hours a week that Katie made us a study room. Like today: I don’t have time to go home before practice, so I come straight here. Then I have time to get a little homework done before practice.

Do you guys hang out here, too? It looks fun, Savannah asks.

Sometimes, especially on Friday and Saturday when we don’t have to rush home, she answers.

How many hours do you train? I ask her.

Well, I’m a Level 8, so I train 19 hours a week. But the Level 9s and 10s are here 24 hours a week.

Wow, Trista sighs. Are you here every day?

Five days a week, she says. What level are you guys? Level 3?

We’re new Level 4s, I answer.

Well, good luck with that kip, she says with a smile.

Is it really that hard? Trista asks.

For me it was. Some kids get it faster. But it’s the first skill that ever gave me serious trouble, she admits. I can’t imagine Kayla having trouble with a kip. I see her doing them all the time in practice.

We better get back; our three minutes are up. James will be wondering what happened to us, Paige says.

Bye guys, see you down there in a bit, Kayla says, and turns back to her math book.

As soon as we are out the door Trista is gushing about how cool it is that they have their own room. We walk past the Kip Club Cubbies and down the stairs. Thankfully, James hasn’t emerged from the offices yet. Knowing we are late, we hurry out to the gym. We walk over to the empty uneven bars and start practicing kips on the low bar.

There are two sets of bars next to each other. Trista, Paige, and Savannah take one set and Alexis and I take another set. Two people take a turn on the low bar while the others wait on the panel mat ready to go as soon as there is space on the bar. James has taught us to go one after the other without wasting time in between.

Hi guys, Carmen says, bouncing up to us. James said to join you on kips.

You’re a Level 4 now? Alexis asks. Carmen didn’t compete Level 3 with us, but she has been working out with us since our competition season ended.

I’m going to train with you guys this spring and summer and see if I can skip Level 3, she explains.

Join our bar, Alexis says, and I move over and make room for Carmen on the panel mat. Alexis jumps to the bar, glides her feet out, pulls her toes to the bar, and swings up trying to end in a support position. But before she gets to a support position on the bar she falls to her feet, not making the kip.

That’s how we’re all doing it. Glide, toes to the bar, swing up, and before we can make it to a support position, we fall back down. I watch my teammates try kips over and over. None of us make it.

But we will, we always learn our new skills.

Chapter 2

Squat-On on Bars

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What was that? my sister asks, looking up from the piano. That was off. Try again, I couldn’t follow. We are in the front room of our house and I’m standing with my violin at my chin and my sister is sitting at the piano. We are trying to play a piece together, but I keep messing up, making it hard for my sister to stay with me.

Start again, she says. I look at the music notes on the stand in front of me, but I can’t concentrate. My mom and dad are at the Perfect Balance Gymnastics Team Parent Meeting and I am dying to know what James is telling them.

I screech through my piece again and my sister stops and looks at me annoyed. Let’s just tell Mom we did it three times through, she says and I gratefully nod in agreement.

I gently set down my violin and sit down in the window seat that looks out into the yard. Spring is finally here. The trees have little white buds on them and the grass is turning green now that the snow is gone. The tulips are coming up along our walkway to the front door. I lean back farther into the window seat and wonder what is taking my parents so long. What could James possibly be telling them?

I sigh and look down, seeing my I Survived book sitting next to me. I pick it up and try to read, but I keep reading the same sentence over and over again. I must have been staring at that sentence for a long time because when I look out the window again the sun has dipped behind the mountains and it is becoming light gray outside.

I hear the door to the garage open. I snap my book shut and wait for my parents to walk in.

As soon as my mom steps through the door I pepper her with questions. How was it? What’d James say? What did Melony say?

It was great, my mom says, looking around. Where is your sister? she asks.

"Umm,