My love-hate relationship with gymnastics

For about a year of my life gymnastics was my obsession - I loved it and was good at it. And my mum and dad encouraged it because it meant I wasn't bouncing and swinging off everything at home!

Then the dynamic subtly changed. I was only 9 but all of a sudden you couldn't make mistakes, you couldn't do your own thing, you had to be better than everyone else, you had to learn set routines to win medals for your club. They pushed and pushed and were mean and they drained all the fun and bounciness out of it. I became a sad Tigger. I was never going to be the next Olga Korbut anyway, wish they could have let me be.

Thankfully I have still retained some of my Tiggerness :-)