As I was sitting in the gym last night I overheard a mother cheer in pure exhilaration about her daughter finally, after a year, getting her back handspring. She went on about how her daughter had a one- hour private a week, she took a tumbling class once a week, she did monthly flip flop shops, and even did open gym every Friday. So I decided to do the math.

Once a week privates for a year totals $3,120. Tumbling classes for a year would be $720. Monthly Flip Flop Shops would be $240. And weekly open gym is $480. So this back handspring took a total of 156 hours and $4,560.

Now, some of you may think that this is ridiculous, but others know that this is actually pretty typical. A cheerleader that needs to get their back handspring for high school try- outs, or who wants to make a specific all star cheer team, it is not uncommon for them to work very hard to get that one skill.

I have coached many kids through their back handspring journey and I can say that when you have a kid finally get their back handspring after all the hard work and after all the money spent, it is simply priceless.