'It's a challenge'

TRI-LAKES AREA — Kayla Johnson admits to being a little nervous about starting a new school, but her background and success in gymnastics have given her self-confidence that she can do just about anything.

Kayla, 10, started sixth grade at Bryant Middle School last week. She's a state champion in her age group in Level 5, having won the all-around and beam titles in the United States Association of Gymnastics Arkansas State Meet and finishing second in bars, third on vault and fourth in floor exercise last spring.

Her attitude toward her sport is a good one for life - including starting a new school.

"I think it's really fun and it's challenging, but I like that," said Kayla, daughter of Derek and Kim Johnson of Bryant. "It makes me really excited. If you learn a new move it starts to get easier and easier, but it's a challenge at first. I'm just loving it more all the time, because I'm learning more and more things that are really fun."

Kayla doesn't have to look far for inspiration in her sport. Her friend Deborah Shaw won state titles on the beam, bars, vault and floor exercise as well as the all-around title in 8-year-old Level 6 in March.

Deborah said they helped each other.

"She's good," Deborah said of Kayla. "She can do some stuff that I can't do."

The Bryant girls work out four days a week at River City Gymnastics in Little Rock. The minimum four-hour practices are intense and go year-round.

Kim Johnson said her daughter had benefited from gymnastics in several ways.

"No. 1, responsibility," she said. "She has learned to be able to juggle homework, home life, chores and gymnastics all in one. And perseverance. It has taught her that there are so many rewards when you do things to the best of your ability.

"And it teaches her to be a team player and to work hard individually as well. It is a team - you don't rely on each other for your scores, but you do have your team scores. The gym girls get along really well. At school, it's a little different environment. Here, they have a common goal," Johnson said.

Kayla said she'd learned lots of lessons from her gymnastics.

"I've learned that you cannot play around," she said. "You have to be serious and you have to concentrate on gym."

Kim Johnson started her daughter in gymnastics when Kayla was 6. That first year was spent in Hot Springs before the family moved to Bryant. Kayla has been at River City since she was 7.

Kim Johnson said the family had no gymnastics connection prior to Kayla.

"She was just doing the flips at a really youngage, and I thought, 'If she's going to do it, she should be doing it right,'" Johnson said. "Pretty early, we were told she had some competition potential. She's got strength, which gives her the ability to do certain things better. Her weakness is her flexibility. But Kayla practices and can control her moves well because she has to work at it."

Kayla said, though, that her flexibility was improving as she has advanced.

"They work me really hard, and I've been doing much, much better with my flexibility," she said. "I really like to practice."

Johnson, now 4 feet, 6 inches and 68 pounds, said her best events were beam and bars.

"On floor and vault, I'm pretty good," she said. "On bars, I'm not really afraid of anything. It's just that I'm really good at it, so I don't really know to be afraid. On beam, I'm kind of scared on back handsprings, but I'm just now learning them, so that will get better."

The competition season will run from December through the state meet in March. Kim Johnson said coaches had told her Kayla would likely move up to Level 7 for the new season. USA Gymnastics features 10 levels. Gymnasts advance to the next level only when they master the set of required skills.

"All these girls that are competing are handselected by their coaches," Kim Johnson said. "They all deserve praise because they're all good gymnasts."

With the commitment requirement of competitive gymnastics, Kayla hasn't dabbled much in other sports except for a season of soccer and one year of swimming with the Bryant Barracudas - where she originally met Deborah. Through gymnastics, they've become good friends.

"She knows how to do stuff that I do, so if I do something wrong, she'll tell me, like when my knee is bent," Kayla said. "There's a lot of good gymnasts out there, and I know I'm probably one of them, but sometimes I can accidentally have a little mess-up and others can do better."

Kim Johnson said the girls were cheerleaders for each other.

Little brother Peyton, 4, dabbles in gymnastics at home, but Kim said his future likely wasn't in that sport.

"He likes doing it with his sister, but Kayla kind of took to it," she said. "He just does it because she does it."

In any case, Kayla will bring a unique playground talent to her new school.

"I play with my friends a lot and do cartwheels and splits," she said of her usual recess activities. "I don't do things like back handsprings, because I can really hurt myself. But in fourth grade, I had a crowd of fifth-graders around me one time because I was doing cartwheels and splits and stuff."

She should fit in just fine.