UCLA Gymnastics: Building Another Championship Season
October 28, 2010 | Gymnastics
Oct. 28, 2010
By Lauren Seligman
In working our way up the Pyramid of Success, the next block is Loyalty. Coach Wooden defines loyalty as the force that forges individuals into a team. When teams practice faithfulness to their commitments and obligations, they build a foundation that will contribute to their success. The success of a team relies on a group of individuals working towards a single common goal.
When asked about loyalty, senior Brittani McCullough is quick to say that accountability is key. She believes, "It is important to be loyal and accountable to yourself and to your teammates about both individual and team goals and the plan of action to reach those goals." Brittani is a key example of this because she is in the final year of her nursing major. Nursing takes up the majority of her day, and consequently she is unable to train with her team all of the time.
Brittani gave me an example of loyalty being exhibited in the Bruin's huddle before each event. Between warming up and saluting the judge to compete, the six gymnasts in the line-up convene. They tell each other what cues they are focusing on and their goals for their routine. Brittani adds that the huddle is important because each athlete must be accountable to her teammates by staying positive and using cues while competing.
The Bruin's first weekend intrasquad of the season took place last Saturday. Intrasquads are to gymnastics what the spring game is to football: a chance to experience the competitive atmosphere before you play for wins and losses. Intrasquads intend to get the girls to practice their own competitive cues in a higher-pressure environment than everyday practices. Watching the Bruins compete, it is hard to believe that we are just in the month of October. Although they didn't compete full routines, the skills the girls competed were clean and solid. (They competed vault, first half on bars, acro skill series on beam, and tumbling/dance series on floor.)
My top five highlights from the intrasquad were:
1. "Big Beautiful Gymnastics": Many of the girls have increased their difficulty from last year while keeping very clean execution. Niki Tom has a new middle tumbling pass: front handspring, front full, front half, split jump to punch front. Monique De La Torre has added a whip into her double pike on floor, and Brittani competed a Shaposhnikova to uprise clear-hip Hindorff on bars.
2. Huge Tumbling: Five girls competed double layouts, three did full-ins, and two did Arabian double fronts!
3. Senior Leadership: The seniors are leading by example. Big routines from Brittani McCullough, Allison Taylor, Niki Tom, and Talia Kushynski. Mizuki Sato is still recovering from shoulder surgery that occurred over the summer.
4. Beam Consistency: Solid acro-series from the girls, with very few falls recorded for the day.
5. Freshmen: The freshmen competed dynamic routines on all four events. Their choreography is shaping up to be exquisite.
Players Mentioned
