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Tumbling and Trampoline Duo  Share
Some kids like to read and other kids like to play video games. A number of kids like softball and a few like to bowl. Here's a couple of girls - sisters, no less - who love to tumble - tumbling and trampoline to be exact. Courtney and Caitlyn Holetzky love to play Wii, softball, bowl and to read but they have chosen tumbling to be their main activity; and as a result, their ability is soaring. After a summer of camps, the girls had a two-week break from tumbling. Courtney was preparing for school. She will be a fifth grade student at Monee Elementary, while her sister, Caitlyn, will enter fourth grade. Last year, Courtney made the high honor roll with straight A's on her report card. She prefers math class, while Caitlyn's favorite subject is spelling. Caitlyn also is successful in school, making the honor roll with all A's and only one B. But school is not the only area where the girls shine. The two have been competing on a tumbling and trampoline team for the past four years with TwistStars, a gym located in Tinley Park. Tumbling differs from gymnastics, which is beam, bars, vault, and a square floor routine as in the Olympics.
Tumbling, however, occurs on a raised floor about 100 feet long and five feet wide. The athletes perform on this strip of mat. For trampoline, the athlete starts on the trampoline and performs her routine. The final event is double-mini in which a trampolinist performs on two square 5-x 5-feet trampolines. In this competition, the athlete runs and jumps on the angled trampoline and then lands on the flat trampoline, where she performs a couple skills. Courtney and Caitlyn have always loved sports, playing softball and bowling like their parents. But one day, a friend noticed Courtney rolling around in the softball field and suggested that she visit TwistStars. The then-first grader started on the trampoline at her first meet and was encouraged to try a floor routine. Courtney continued her beginner year rolling down the floor. At the start of her second year, she moved past advanced beginner and entered the sub-novice level. By the third year, she skipped novice and moved into intermediate. Her fourth year, she competed sub-advanced. This next season, Courtney will be competing in the advanced division and, additionally, will be trying out for the, United States Tumbling and Trampoline Association (USTA) national team, which only chooses 100 students throughout the U.S. Caitlyn joined TwistStars while in kindergarten, about a month after Courtney began to tumble. Of all the sports that Caitlyn has tried, she announced that she loves tumbling ''because I get the best scores in that!'' In each of Caitlyn's first three years, she advanced through the skill levels. This past season, Caitlyn skipped novice level and now is competing against intermediate level tumblers and trampolinists. Courtney and Caitlyn both practice three nights a week faithfully, along with a Saturday team practice. About 7-8 meets are held for tumbling and trampoline throughout the regular season. Every January, the USTA holds the St. Jude Meet at the Peoria Civic Center. All proceeds benefit St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Once the seasonal meets end, the state competition is held in April. Tumblers advance to Nationals in June if they are ranked in the top 10 of their category at State. Courtney has qualified to advance to the National competition each of her four years of tumbling and trampoline. She has visited Kentucky, Florida, Ohio, and Texas in the past summers as a result of her scores. Caitlyn also has been to the past three Nationals as a competitor. The Holetzky family arranges its own transportation to the meets, which can be a traveling adventure. Caitlyn recalls being ''stuck in a tornado'' on the way to Amarillo, Texas, this summer. But the sisters' mom recalls a whole van of crying girls, since she was also transporting several teammates to the competition. Overall, the trip was a success with Courtney becoming a three-time National Champion in the sub-advanced division. This means she took first place in trampoline, double-mini, and synchro-trampoline, an event held only at Nationals. In synchro-trampoline, two jumpers must perform the same routine in unison. Judges base scores not only on the competitors' ability to perform skills but also on their ability to stay in harmony. Courtney also received a fourth place on her floor routine. Caitlyn finished with a second place on floor in sub-novice and 15th place with her trampoline and double-mini routines. Although tumbling and trampoline come naturally for Courtney, this does not discourage her little sister. Caitlyn declared, ''It's fun. I like to do new stuff!'' She is motivated to try increasingly more difficult skills, and she finds success as she progresses. In 2008, Caitlyn received a National Champion win on trampoline at the novice level. Both Courtney and Caitlyn master their own set of tumbling and trampoline routines, but together, they love to share the athletic experience. Dawn Wolf is a reporter for Russell Publications.
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