Hello Texas Twirl Fans!
Today we have a special interview for you. This blog was created to celebrate and share the achievements of our Texas Twirlers, and this past summer was a record-breaking experience for one of our own. This decorated twirler already has a crazy impressive resume, especially for her age, but this summer alone she got to add more titles to that list than many elite twirlers achieve in an entire career.
Collyn Lambeck is an 11-year-old Sixth Grader from Stockdale, Texas. She is coached by Catherine Lattimore, Lori Watters, and Kathy Forsythe. This past competition season she competed as a 10-year-old, the youngest in the PreTeen (10-12) division. Between February & August of 2024, she put in the work and was able to achieve all seven of these outstanding titles:
- 2024 PreTeen Miss Majorette of America
- 2024 PreTeen Grand National Twirling Champion
- 2024 PreTeen National & World Open Solo Champion
- 2024 PreTeen National & World Open X-Strut Champion
- 2024 PreTeen National & World Open Two Baton Champion
- 2024 Junior Rhythmic Qualifier for the IBTF World Championship
- 2024 IBTF World Championship Junior Rhythmic Finalist
The adventure began this February when Collyn added the 2024 Junior Rhythmic Qualifier for the IBTF World Championship to this list, making her a member of the 2024 Team USA at just 11 years old. We asked Collyn what she did to prepare for the rhythmic qualifier?
"To prepare for the qualifier, not only did I practice A LOT, but I also had Mrs. Kathy and Mrs. Catherine come to my town to work with me!!!! It was so much fun showing them around my small town!!!"
The moment it was announced that Collyn had secured her spot on Team USA had to be a core memory. We asked her what was going through her head when she found out she made the team?
After earning her spot on Team USA, Collyn had just five months until the back-to-back Nationals and World. With two big events on the line, we wanted to know how she was able to prepare for both.
"I practiced both my nationals routines and my rhythmic almost every day, which made for really long practices, up until about two weeks before nationals. During those two weeks, especially at summer boot camp, I focused only on my nationals routines. But as soon as nationals was over, I had one day off to travel home, then I practiced my rhythmic for almost 4 hours a day plus multiple zoom lessons with Mrs. Kathy and Mrs. Catherine, up until the day we left for worlds!"
Just like all twirlers, Nationals had its ups and downs for Collyn, but she kept focus on her goals.
"Going into nationals I knew that I had to keep realistic expectations for myself throughout the week as one of the youngest in my age division. I knew I had prepared enough to do well. Even though my pageant solo didn’t go as planned, Mrs. Catherine reminded me that solo was only one part of the pageant and that I still had a whole week of twirling ahead of me. She also told me that I had to not let that solo get to me in order to do my best for the rest of the week. Heading into awards I didn’t really have time to be nervous because I only had about 20 minutes to change into my dress and curl my hair from event finals! (When awards started), I was very happy find out that I tied for 1st in modeling, because one week prior I had spent basically my whole week on zoom with Mrs. Lori working on modeling! It was torture to me as I don’t like modeling at all!! But I knew that all that work for modeling had paid off as it is my weakest event!! Realizing I had won was one thing, but hearing my name being called out and “From Texas!” was truly the best part!! In that moment, I was so glad to have been standing next to my friend and fellow Team Texas member, Lily. For a minute, all I heard was her cheering for me and we actually got a picture of it which was the funniest thing ever!"
With so many outstanding moments happening for Collyn at Nationals, she had to have lots of favorites, but we wanted to know which moment at Nationals was her very favorite.
"My favorite moment at nationals was hearing my name being called out as Pre-Teen Grand National Twirling Champion!! It was a goal of mine this past season after getting second for two years in a row, so getting the opportunity to win that title as well as Pre-Teen Miss Majorette of America was just so amazing!!
Earning the title of Miss Majorette of America or Grand National Champion is a huge deal in the twirling world and leads to many wonderful experiences and memories during their year with the title. We asked Collyn what she was looking forward to the most over the next year during her reign.
"One thing I am most looking forward to as Pre-Teen MMOA and Grand National Twirling Champion is attending Northeast Regionals in the spring!! Northeast Regionals is such a fun competition to host and compete at, and I also love to participate in the Boston Bean Pot Twirl Off!! I also love signing autographs at the autograph table that they have there. I love meeting new twirlers to become friends with!!"
These titles also come with a lot of responsibility. We asked Collyn to share a little more about that...
"A lot of people may not know this, but with winning these positions, comes a lot of responsibility to be a good representative of our sport, and a good role model to other twirlers that I know and meet. This involves so much more than twirling, but also being involved with my community and other activities so that people come to know who I am and appreciate the positive impact that twirling has on my life."
Once Nationals was over, it was a quick turnaround to Worlds! With all the excitement, it had to be a challenging to shift her focus back to competition, but she knew it would be worth the work!
"When practicing for both Nationals and Worlds, as they were so close together, I spent 4-5 hours a day practicing both my nationals routines and my rhythmic routine for worlds. Thankfully though, I live less than 5 minutes away from our school gym, so access to practice space was never a problem. I am so grateful to be able to practice in that facility with so much space to work with. It’s a true blessing! When I got to summer boot camp at the end of of June, I mostly practiced my nationals routines and only ran my rhythmic about once a day. When we were in South Bend for nationals for a week, I didn’t practice my rhythmic at all! But as soon as nationals was over, I had one traveling day to recover, and then I got back to the grind the day we got home to practice for worlds. Then I spent a very long time each day working on rhythmic up until we left for worlds. My goal was to do 75 no drops before we left for worlds which gave me 11 days to accomplish this tiny challenge I gave myself. The very quick turnaround was very hard and brutal, but in the end, it really paid off!"
This year's IBTF World Rhythmic & Freestyle Championship was held in Sweden! This allowed Collyn and her family to not only get in a great twirling experience, but also see a new country!
"My adventures in Sweden were really fun!!! My favorite thing that I did in Sweden was ride the electric scooters and play in the little soccer field in the backyard of our rental house!! I also enjoyed walking around the small city looking at all the shops around our hotel! After we adventured in Sweden, we went to Copenhagen to see Rosenborg Castle and the Palace that the King of Denmark lives in!! That was the most amazing experience of our adventures! One thing I didn’t expect though is that when you order any beverage, they don’t give you ice with it. It is so funny because they usually look at you weirdly if you ask for ice!! One thing I would want to see again is the Tivoli Gardens amusement park!! It was so fun to go there and ride all of the fun roller coasters with my family!!"
In between the sightseeing and excitement, it was time for Collyn to focus on her Worlds performances. This was a new level of competition for her, and anytime you are on the World stage, there is a lot of pressure. We wanted to know how Collyn kept her composure throughout.
"Worlds was very fun but also nerve wracking. I mentally prepared myself to go into worlds with a positive attitude as I was the youngest competitor. I told myself that this was just something to do for fun and do my best with. The first day I was very nervous, but I got through it by staying very focused and making little goals for myself to accomplish throughout the day and week. These goals were tiny ones such as to do a no drop, or to twirl confidently, something that I can challenge myself with to distract my nerves. When I’m at big competitions like that, I’ll tell my mom something I’ve been wanting from Amazon or something like that and make it my focus - accomplish my little goals so she’ll buy me that one thing! It normally works. After the first day, I wasn’t as nervous and did the same tactics as the first day. Doing all of these things definitely mentally prepared and helped me throughout the week and mentally made me stronger."
Collyn went into round one like she had been there before, earning third place in the prelims! This moved her into the semifinals, where she had another fantastic performance, placing her in 4th and moving her into finals! With only the Top 6 earning a spot in finals, this was a huge deal and understandably her favorite thing about competing at Worlds.
"My favorite part of competing at worlds was making finals. I went into worlds with a goal to make semifinals, so once I realized I had made finals I was so excited that I had exceeded my goal and had the opportunity to represent the USA one more time at my first worlds!!! One moment I would want to relive is my perfect no drop in finals!!!! I was so happy that I had done my personal best for finals and would want to relive that no drop moment over and over again."
While the twiring experiences are why she was there, it is the non-twirling experiences that make some of the best memories when the competition is over. We wanted to know what Collyn's favorite non-twirling moment at Worlds was, and she said it had to be the Athletes Party!
"My favorite non-twirling part of worlds was the athlete's party!!!! It was nothing I expected and was so fun to dance to music and have fun with my fellow USA teammates, as well as make friends from other countries!!!! Being at worlds and going anywhere with your teammates is almost as if it is a team sport. Everyone cheers on everyone no matter what we are doing and even though some of us competed against each other, we still got to support each and every USA member. It made me feel so special and I also loved being with everyone!!! At every event we went to, I got assigned an older person to partner up with since I am only 11. This made even more special friendships that I will cherish forever, especially my friend, Deborah. We were glued at the hip all of worlds and loved being together!!! It was so fun to be able to spend worlds with her as she was one of my special friendships that I had come upon."
With such an outstanding summer, we know Collyn brough home many life lessons with her. We wanted to know what her best advice was to any other twirler chasing their goals.
"My advice for all twirlers is to practice, practice, practice, and to enjoy every moment. Practice is what makes you better, and whatever you do in the gym is what you are going to do on the floor. It is so important to stay motivated and practice as hard as you can each and every day. This will always pay off, even though it might not seem like it sometimes. Make practice fun and challenging by setting little goals throughout your week of practice or something like that to stay motivated (make an Amazon wish list lol). You also need to enjoy every moment because time flies!!! During worlds it seemed like the fastest trip ever!!! But I got to cherish every moment with my USA teammates and all of my accomplishments at Worlds and Nationals, which made it all worth it!!!! I know that my year as Preteen MMOA and Grand National Solo Champion will fly by way too fast."
To wrap things up, we asked Collyn is she had any final thoughts to close out her season to remember.
"Last season was full of ups and downs, but I am so proud of all my accomplishments. I cannot wait for the upcoming season to begin!! I look forward to seeing everyone soon!!!"
We know all of #TeamTexas sends a huge congrats to Collyn for representing the Lone Star State in the biggest ways possible on the biggest stage we have, and we hope she enjoys the upcoming year!
We hope you have enjoyed this blog post. We are always looking for great new stories about Texas twirlers. Do you have an idea or some information we could use to help highlight our sport? Contact us at texastwirlcontact@gmail.com and we would love to hear more about it.
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