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Lehr sisters are tumbling their way into a promising future alongside their coach/mom
The Lehr family (left to right), Kacie, Tricia, Kevin, Kierra, Tyler. (Courtesy: Heather Spiva)

Lehr sisters are tumbling their way into a promising future alongside their coach/mom

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif. — When it comes to gymnastics, for the Lehrs, the whole family is involved! Find out how these two young dynamic sisters are tumbling their way into a promising gymnastic future alongside their gymnastic coach mom.

Kacie Lehr

Meet Kacie Lehr. Kacie is nine years old and is a gymnast currently training 16 hours a week at Technique Gymnastics. Her ultimate goal would be to make it to the Los Angeles Olympics, 2028, and get a full-ride scholarship to UCLA. Kacie loves going to competitions and performing and her favorite event is floor. She loves to get out there and show what she can do.

Pictured is Kacie. (Courtesy: Heather Spiva)

While the sport is always a good challenge, she can struggle with the fear of new skills. “Most skills come physically very easy to me,” says Kacie. “But getting in the correct mindset to go for it is a struggle. I have amazing coaches that know how to push me without putting me in a bad mindset. Usually, after I go for new skills a few times I’m fine.” The best advice she’s received from a coach is, “No one is perfect, just do your best and that is enough.”

Once, Kacie fell at the beginning of her routine and instead of giving up, she tried even harder to make the rest of her routine her best. Kacie loves to swim and play outside with her brother, and have sleepovers with her teammates.

Kacie is currently competing in the USA Gymnastics Developmental program level 5 and is training to move to Level 7 in January. She will get to be in the same training group as her sister again. Kacie currently holds the level 4 Beam score record for her gym and was the 2019 Level 3 All Around, Vault, Bars, and Beam State Champion. (Fun fact: Her bars coach is her cousin who was a collegiate level gymnast!)

Kierra Lehr

Meet Kierra (Kiki) Lehr, who is 10 years old and is currently training 20 hours a week at Technique Gymnastics. Kierra has huge goals of competing through level 10 in the USA Gymnastics Developmental program and then get a full-ride scholarship to UCLA or Michigan.

Pictured is Kierra. (Courtesy: Heather Spiva)

Kierra’s biggest challenge physically is her flexibility. “I have a lot of muscle but not much flexibility to balance it out,” she says, “So it makes some skills harder to learn. Emotionally, my perfectionism challenges me. I have a hard time when skills take longer or when I have rough days in the gym. I work with a mindset coach who gives me tricks and tools to get out of negative mind spaces.”

But, some of the best advice she’s received from a coach is to push through the bad days because that makes the good days even better.

Kierra and her sister both have a playlist of girl power songs they listen to on the way to competitions. Her go-to pump-me-up song is Carrie Underwood’s “Champion.” She loves to stay active (when not training) with bike riding, rock climbing, skateboarding anything outdoor, and adventurous.

Being a member of a team has taught her to lean on her teammates during the rough days and to remember that she is her own person. She shouldn’t compare herself to others. Just push to be the best she can be.

Kierra is currently Training USA Gymnastics Level 7 and will start competing in December. She competed for level 4 earlier this year and was scored out of level 5. She advanced 3 levels in 1 year…which is huge! She was the 2019 Level All-Around and Vault State champion for her age group. (Fun fact: She is now coached by three of the same coaches that coached her mom!)

Pictured are Kierra and Kacie. (Courtesy: Heather Spiva)

Tricia Lehr, Coach

Meet Tricia Lehr. Tricia has over 20 years of coaching experience and was a competitive gymnast as a kid/young adult and trained at the gym that she now works at (Technique Gymnastics.) She has now been in the sport for over 30 years.

The key to her teams’ success is lots of repetition for muscle memory and working with teammates to accomplish goals together. She also tries to make sure that she sees each child for who they are: all of their individual strengths and weaknesses, as well as helping them become their best, not necessarily the best.

As a coach, she feels most accomplished when a child has been struggling with a specific skill and they finally get it. Tricia says, “I know a lot of people enjoy coaching the uber-talented, easy-to-coach kids who get the skills easy or perfect, but I think it’s more rewarding to coach those kids who work their butts off and might not always get first place or might not look perfect but the excitement and pride they have when they do well for them is the best. It’s way more rewarding to be a part of their process when you have to put more work into it with them.”

Disappointment is also part of the whole process. Using that disappointment to motivate them in practice afterward is essential. Breaking down their mistakes and finding ways to improve is key to growth. And she reminds them that a fall on an event isn’t going to happen the same every time. “You have to move past it and fight for it next time,” says Tricia. “ Losing helps you grow. I think everyone needs to have bad days or bad competitions to be their best.”

A great quote Tricia likes to refer to is from Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas is “Hard days are the best because that’s when champions are made.”

One of Tricia’s memorable events was when both of her girls won All Around for the age group at State Championships, even though she wasn’t their full-time coach at the time. To have one gymnast win All Around is huge but to have two winners, and have them be sisters, is unheard of.

Coach Tricia also hopes to leave a lasting legacy. She says, “I hope when girls I coach think of me they remember that even though I am a strict coach, they know it was because I cared about them. I hope they think gymnastics was a lot of fun mixed in with all that hard work. I always tell the kids I am a fun coach; I’ll dance around and make jokes as long as they are working hard and being respectful. Now if the respect and hard work aren’t there, then the fun will disappear. It’s their choice and I’ll coach off of those choices. Gymnastics is so much more than just a sport. It’s a lifestyle… it lays the foundation for a successful life. It takes much discipline, respect, hard work, and commitment to be a competitive gymnast. If you can succeed in this sport, you will be set for life after.”

Tricia coached full-time until Kacie was two years old. After that, she stepped back into being part-time and helping out with the team as needed. She usually fills in for any of the team coaches who are out on vacations and she coaches conditioning rotations and assists with the larger groups who need multiple coaches. Most of all, she doesn’t want to take credit for her girls’ success. That’s all the hard work done by their coaches:

  • Kacie’s coaches – Maria Traggio-Rivera, Carl Meader, and Alexis Scott
  • Kierra’s coaches – Lisa Poarch, Tara Gilmore, and Rick Newman

Tricia Lehr is also an accredited USA Gymnastics Judge. She has been judging since Kacie was one and enjoys traveling all over Northern California to judge competitions.

This is an unedited user writing submission. The views, information, or opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Best Version Media or its employees.