Archive for month: October, 2021

Employee Spotlight: Once A Gymnast, Always A Gymnast by Corynne Cooper

Corynne Cooper is the General Manager of 111 S. Wacker Fitness Center, managed by FFC. In part three of this three-part series, Corynne shares how her Olympic dreams lead her to collegiate athletics and how the sport of gymnastics has influenced her life.

Having spent so many years training, I of course had dreams of representing my country in the Olympics. However, we all know there are only a select few who make it that far. Nonetheless, I still went as far as I could. I competed nationally and internationally, mostly in the US and Europe. This sport provided a path for me to travel to places I may not have ever seen.

Around age 14, once I realized the Olympics was not in my future, I turned my sights to collegiate athletics. I had no idea of the expense associated with going to college, however, I did know I wanted to get a degree, and I didn’t want my parents to feel obligated to fund it.

Growing up, my parents made it very clear that they would fund our education, no matter what that meant for them in regards to their own lifestyle and retirement. However, while the Olympics did not happen, a college scholarship did. I accepted a full scholarship to the University of Iowa and was a four-year contributor to the gymnastics team. I competed in every single competition during my four year tenure.

It amazed me how different USA gymnastics was from collegiate gymnastics. USA gymnastics is amazingly intense, and in some cases, not team-focused at all. Collegiate gymnastics is more energetic – with fans screaming, school-colored pom-poms and the school’s fight song playing after a stuck landing. While Individual competition is important, collegiate gymnastics is heavily team-focused. We’re all rooting for each other to do well. There’s techno music playing in the background at a collegiate competition, rather than dead silence or elevator music playing at a USA gymnastics competition.

The sport allowed me to travel to different colleges across the country and also solidified a handful of friendships I cannot live without today. I have attended bridal showers and weddings and have even been a Maid-of-Honor on a few occasions. I have attended various baby showers and Christenings, and now that I’m older, I have been a part of so many moments related to their growing families – vow renewals, graduations, and house warmings.

While watching the Tokyo Olympics this past summer – or any Olympics for that matter – I felt a strong sense of nostalgia and competitiveness but also empathy. The life of a competitive gymnast is so difficult but also unbelievably rewarding. When I watch these pretty girls on the TV screen, I’m sure they all want to be there. They have trained countless hours to perform for less than five minutes. Think about that. A vault takes about 10 seconds, a bar routine is about 45 seconds, beam and floor routines are no longer than 90 seconds each. Thousands of hours of work. Repeating skills over and over and over again searching for perfection. All of this time and effort to perform and be judged in five minutes.

During the 2020 Olympics, there was a lot of talk about Simone Biles stepping back from Olympic competition. She was the reigning World and Olympic champion and the medals were there for her taking. How could she step away from the possibility of adding even more medals to her collection?

For those who may be confused by her decision, listen up. One of the main things gymnasts must have is something called “air awareness.” Air awareness is knowing where you are and what your body is doing while in mid air in the midst of doing your skill. The goal with just about every skill is to launch yourself into the air and land on your feet safely. Landing in any other way can result in deductions or injury. If a gymnast loses this awareness, it’s called the “twisties” or being “lost in the air.”

Some say it’s similar to vertigo, and a gymnast has no idea that this will happen. It’s a mental block that slaps you in the face. It’s doubtful a top athlete would plan to have this issue at the Olympic Games. Simone Biles did a vault, and to no fault of her own, she only did 1.5 twists instead of the planned 2.5 twists. Luckily, she landed on her feet, but it was obvious by the positioning of her body in the air and her face when she landed that something was wrong.

When you’re lost in the air, all you can do is hope you land safely and not on your head or neck. Momentum, gravity and prayer are carrying you at that point. Getting lost in the air breaks your confidence, and you don’t know if you can safely do the skill again. Is a medal worth a severe injury? Simone Biles made the decision to preserve her long term health and we have to respect that decision. She has a lot of life ahead of her after the sport of gymnastics ends for her.

Physically, gymnasts are strong, powerful, flexible, coordinated and have incredible air awareness. Mentally, gymnasts are disciplined, health-conscious, respectful, humble and hard-working. To this day, the things this amazing sport has taught me are embedded within my soul, as if I were born this way.

This sport, coupled with an amazing upbringing, has made me who I am today. I am respectful to everyone and have never talked back to an adult. And when I make a mistake, I’m still so hard on myself. Physically speaking, the athlete in me is still going strong. I still work out daily, two times per day actually. I will run myself ragged before I ever quit. I am up before 4 AM, seven days per week, and I’m constantly assessing my diet to see how I can become healthier. Once a gymnast, always a gymnast!

Even though my gymnastics career is in my rearview mirror, my competitive spirit is still there! I feel like I still compete every day, either with myself to beat my previous time, weight or reps, or with the oblivious person next to me in a class or on the treadmill. I recently raced my significant other up the bleachers. Well, I was racing…I don’t think he cared either way.

When gymnastics ended after college I relaxed a bit. It felt odd to wake up without a set plan. It was weird to not have a four hour practice every single day. I didn’t know what it felt like to spend a weekend at home, not traveling to a competition. It was difficult for me to adjust to not having every second of my day/week/month planned. While in graduate school, I decided to try powerlifting and Olympic lifting and competed for about five years.

While studying and competing in both of these circuits I took on bodybuilding as well. I won my pro card in bodybuilding in only my second show and competed professionally in bodybuilding for another 10 years! Again, traveling throughout the country doing shows, working booths at fitness events and being hired to do guest posing events. After bodybuilding I took on CrossFit and competed Regionally. I’m proud when I look back on the things I’ve done, but I also still feel unfinished. What’s next?

Corynne Cooper participating at regional Crossfit competition.

Post written by Corynne Cooper, General Manager at 111 S. Wacker Fitness Center – managed by FFC.

Employee Spotlight: Training With The “A” Team by Corynne Cooper

Corynne Cooper is the General Manager of 111 S. Wacker Fitness Center, managed by FFC. In part two of this three-part series, Corynne shares how her career as a gymnast began and the tough love training that accompanies the sport.

As a child, my mother was focused on making sure we were well-rounded in our experiences. From an early age, I was involved in a number of activities – piano lessons, swimming, golf, soccer, softball, volleyball, ballet, and tap dancing. But my sport of choice was gymnastics. In situations where a practice or activity overlapped with gymnastics, gymnastics always won. I would skip any other practice for a chance to do gymnastics.

The story goes, as soon as I took my first steps, I began doing odd flips and jumps, as my mother would call it, around our living room. I turned the couch into a vault by running and launching myself over it, and every curb miraculously became a balance beam. When I knocked over a lamp and broke the glass on the coffee table in our living room, my mother said enough is enough, and she enrolled me in a park district gymnastics program just as I turned two. After about a year at the park district, the instructor pulled my mom aside and told her I was “fearless, oddly strong and gifted,” and she should consider enrolling me in a more structured, results-driven program. My mother did exactly that. She signed me up at a private gym and that began my 20 year gymnastics career.

Once at the private gym, I started taking basic classes one to two times per week as part of the “D team.” Athletes were divided up into A, B, C and D teams, with A being elite and D being beginner. As a youngster, D team practice would end around 4 PM, when the older girls would come in for their practice. I remember asking my mother to pick me up an hour later at 5 PM, after my own practice, so I could stay and watch the older girls on the “A team.” These were the “it” girls who made gymnastics their life. They practiced for 4 hours or more, six days per week, and they either left school early or were homeschooled and competed nationally and even internationally. I hung around their practices for several months and one fateful day, the head coach invited little old me onto the floor to train with the older girls.

After that day, he invited me again…and again…and again. Within just a few months, around age seven or eight, I began training with the coveted “A Team.” Because I was so young, my mother would not allow me to practice six days a week, for four or more hours per day, so she and my coach came up with a plan so I could slowly work my way up to that. The more I trained, the more I fell in love with the sport. There was something about the depth of the sport that kept my attention. The possibilities in regards to skills and choreography were endless. I became obsessed with the daily challenge and felt like each day was a chance to learn something new or perfect something I had been working on.

Corynne Cooper as a child doing a somersault.

For the next 10 or so years, I trained – hard – and never stopped. I said goodbye to every other sport, as gymnastics became my sole focus. My father built a balance beam for me on our patio so I could practice, and I spent hours on that homemade beam coming up with dance routines and practicing certain flips. I would have teammates come over and we’d pretend to be Olympic gymnasts, competing in front of millions and winning the prestigious gold medal.Of course, there were times when I wanted to quit the sport, but somehow, I found myself packing my gym bag and limping back into the gym the following day.

My coaches, who defected from Germany to open my gymnastics school, were harsh. Very harsh. Practices were closed, meaning parents were not allowed to watch; we were all alone. Talking back or speaking up if you were injured or ill was a death wish. They made you feel guilty or inadequate for missing practice or for not being able to fully participate for any reason – illness, injury, family travel. Constant yelling and name calling, public weigh-ins, and outrageous punishments for missing a skill were the norm. Your punishment could include hundreds of pushups, multiple rope climbs or being kicked out of practice altogether but not being allowed to call your parents to pick you up so you could leave.

We spent so much time together as a team, traveling to various competitions and skill camps, that my teammates became like my sisters. Oddly enough, one of the main summer camps we went to as a team was at a gym in Michigan and was led by the gym’s head coach, John Geddert. Without diving too far into the topic, John Geddert was implicated in the USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal that focused on his long time associate Larry Nassar. Geddert, who was charged with more than 20 criminal charges, committed suicide in February 2021. Larry Nassar was sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for his crimes. The affected are now pressuring the Senate to hold the FBI accountable for botching this investigation which allowed the abuse to continue. The athletes are also asking for all enablers to be held accountable. This includes coaches and United States Association of Gymnastics (USAG) staff who did not act appropriately when they were told of the abuse.

Just as with these athletes, but on a much smaller scale, my teammates and I were in this battle together. Throughout my time in the sport, I saw many people leave due to injury, eating disorders or because they were unable to deal with the constant criticism and pressure. There were plenty of times when I left the gym firmly believing I would never return. Some days I wanted to quit more than anything. I remember one particular day when my coach basically yelled at me for four hours straight. I couldn’t do anything right and I remember feeling worthless. I wondered why I was in a sport that was so cruel. I remember crying to my mother, begging her to let me quit. Her response? “I already paid for this month’s sessions and that money can’t be wasted.” Let’s get one thing straight, due to my parents scarce upbringing, one thing they surely are not is wasteful. When the next month came about my mother would ask if I wanted to continue and by then I was back in love with the sport.

Post written by Corynne Cooper, General Manager at 111 S. Wacker Fitness Center – managed by FFC.

Employee Spotlight: How My Upbringing Shaped Me by Corynne Cooper

Corynne Cooper is the General Manager of 111 S. Wacker Fitness Center, managed by FFC. In part one of this three-part series, Corynne shares her family’s history and describes how her parents were early supporters of her love of sports.

As a former gymnast and current fitness professional, I have been asked many times about my professional, personal and athletic background. There is no doubt that my participation in sports growing up has shaped who I am today, but my upbringing has played an equally – if not more – important role in the way I live my life.

Both of my parents grew up beyond poor. Unarguably impoverished, to be honest. They grew up in South Carolina during a time when they were given used and outdated textbooks in school, had to sit in the back of the bus or give up their seat to a white passenger, had to use a separate unkempt bathroom and water fountain, and they could only use the back alley door to enter businesses. My father, who loves westerns, would go to the movies with his friends, and they would have to use a back entrance and walk up an old creaky stairwell to make their way to the balcony. The entire theater could be empty, but to the balcony they must go, because African Americans were not allowed to touch the premium floor seats.

My father, along with his mother and father and six siblings, grew up in a happy home, but the living situation was minimal. My paternal grandfather was a janitor by day and factory worker by night, and my paternal grandmother was a cook at a social services facility. They had minimal space, furniture and beds and only certain rooms in the house had lights. They could only eat until their stomachs no longer growled — never truly feeling full, fearing they would run out of food. My father witnessed many days when his parents would not eat dinner to make sure their kids were fed.

My mother grew up in what some refer to as “the projects” – meager accommodations, to say the least. Her mother was a nurse’s aid and also ironed clothes for a white family who owned a farm in Charleston. My mother would make her own clothes and spent most of her days studying, knowing she had no intention of staying in her current situation. She was a straight A student, very inquisitive and very smart, but she most certainly could not afford to go to college. It wasn’t until her Pastor learned she would not be going to college that her life changed. My mother worked at the local church and the Pastor, knowing how smart my mother was and what she had to offer the world, said her mind was too great to waste. He offered to pay for her first year of college.

This was their life. When many around them were settling or struggling to get out of a life of poverty and oppression, they both always knew they wanted so much more. My parents are both first generation high school and college graduates. Neither of their parents (or siblings, except for one brother) even finished high school. My parents met in college, married after graduation (and have now been married for 53 years), rented a small bedroom in someone else’s home and took on teaching jobs in chemistry (father) and biology (mother).

My parents had a total of three children, although I am the only surviving child today. After serving in the Army, my father worked at an industrial gases firm (which is what brought them to Illinois) and became their top salesman. My mother stayed home with us while earning her Master’s degree. Once we were older and in school full-time, she went back to teaching. Both of my parents worked their way through their respective professions and both spent many years working in extremely high-level positions within their organizations. My father retired as a Partner and CFO of his firm and my mother retired as a Chairwoman and Senior District Administrator within the school system.

They provided an amazing life for their children. Every single one of our needs were met, and we had the majority of our wants. I have no clue how they did it, but they did. They moved us to safe neighborhoods without hesitation so we could ride our bikes and play basketball outside without worry. They sent us to amazing schools and stressed the importance of education. They took us on vacations so we had a sense of the different cultures and lifestyles in the world. They took us to church but also taught us about all religions so we were aware, unbiased and could decide on our own how/if we wanted to incorporate religion into our lives. We took music lessons and were taught multicultural appreciation in hearing music from different time periods and cultures.

While enforcing education (yes, “enforcing,” my mother was quite serious about our education), my mother always talked to us about being well-rounded, so she also enrolled us in just about every sport known to man – soccer, baseball/softball, swimming, diving, basketball, volleyball, golf, running, football, tennis, and gymnastics just to name a few! This kept us busy. We had zero time to spend loitering at the mall or skating rink. We also had zero time for relationships with the opposite sex. She wanted us to get good grades and pursue Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees, but she also gave us an outlet to exert energy and challenge ourselves physically, not only mentally!

Sports became a massive part of our lives – not only for my brother and me but for my parents as well. Parents, I’m sure you understand – when your child is on a traveling baseball team, for example, it’s a family affair. We had some sporting or music event/practice after school just about every single day and on weekends. By day, my parents were executives and by late afternoon, they became logistically choreographed chauffeurs driving us from practice to practice.

From the time I was 2 to the time I was 21, while running a household and excelling in demanding jobs, my parents did not miss one sporting event or recital. Not one! They were always in attendance no matter where our activities took us, and they were always energetically engaged. My parents were the ones who gave rides home to those whose parents could not attend or waited in the parking lot until the child’s parents arrived. They hosted pre and post game festivities and volunteered for fundraising events whenever possible. Yes, they were “those parents.”

Read Part Two Of Corynne’s Story Here

Post written by Corynne Cooper, General Manager at 111 S. Wacker Fitness Center – managed by FFC.

Employee Spotlight: Once A Gymnast, Always A Gymnast by Corynne Cooper

Employee Spotlight: Training With The “A” Team by Corynne Cooper

Employee Spotlight: How My Upbringing Shaped Me by Corynne Cooper

Interesting links

Pages

Categories

Archive