Gymnastics is a sport that requires many things from you,character wise and physically. You need to have discipline and dedication in order to have good stamina during practice and during conditioning. You also need these traits because it is a very difficult sport that is very draining and if you don’t truly love the sport it can be easy to give up. For example, if you are trying to land a back walkover there are many aspects of it and if you get an aspect wrong the whole skill is ruined. Sometimes skils take a lot of time to perfect and land, that can be really frustrating especially when a lot of your teammates are moving on to higher level skills. Gymnastics also requires a lot of mental strength and bravery. For example a side ariel is a very difficult skill, not physically but mentally. You have to allow yourself to fly through the air without putting your hands on the matt. Even though gymnastics requires a lot of mental strength it also requires a lot of physical strength as well. To excel in gymnastics you need to really be strong and flexible. You need to be flexible for things like the splits, both front and middle. You also need to be strong for a skill like a front handspring or to do well in an event such as bar. If you have only flexibility it is going to be very difficult for you to land skills and events. If you have only strength you must have A LOT of full body strength to be able to make up for your lack of flexibility and even if you did have a lot of full body strength you would still suffer a lot. If you have flexibility you can’t only have flexibility in one part of your body like your hands you need to have it everywhere. For example you need to have it in your back, your legs, and in between your legs in order to be a good gymnast. The same applies for strength, you can’t have strong arms only, you need to have strength everywhere. For example, your legs, core, lower back, and upper body. You also need strength because in most skills and events during gymnastics you need to put all of your bodies weight on you hands. You also have to put a lot of force in to your jump or push off in order to do skills in the that are in the air. For example, before you do a backflip you need to push of the ground with as much force as you can in order to send your body into a backwards flipping motion in the air. The same thing applies for flexibility, you need it in most events. For example, in order to do a backflip you need to be able to arch your back to a certain point in order to perform the skill at it’s highest standard. Another example is, I am a flexible gymnast but I am not very strong, while my team mate is extremely strong but not flexible at all. This makes some skills harder for me than for her or some skills harder for her than for me. Every gymnast has their strengths and weaknesses.