A look behind the scenes with the Gym'Backs

Gym’Back Intra-Squad October 24, 2008 Recap by René Cook

The Gym’Backs held their second intra-squad of the year on Friday October 24. This intra-squad was slightly more intense than the one in September. The team performed full routines, with some slight modification on floor, in front of a judge. The judge did not flash scores but concentrated on evaluating the composition of the routines.

Here is the link to our October 2008 Intra-Squad:Gym’Back October 2008 Intra-Squad Vault On the first event, vault, the team had eight gymnasts perform. Stacy Bartlett and Molly Lewis are still working toward their 10.0 vaults and performed lesser value vaults in this competition. Mariah Howdeshell and Genny Salvatore are making good progress on their yurchenko layout fulls, but they are still training in the pit with mats. The rest of line-up competed on the resi with soft mats: Sarah Nagashima, Michelle Stout, Jaime Pisani, and Casey Jo Magee. Senior Alex LaChance did not perform in this intra-squad due to a strain in her calves, but currently is back in gym at full participation. Over-all the event was strong. We will now begin to focus on landings, improving dynamics, and landing on harder mats. Bars Bars is the event we have the least amount of depth. As of this time, Amy DeFilippo is back training several days a week and focusing on bars and beam. Her experience will definitely be called upon this year. However in this intra-squad the team had seven gymnasts perform bar routines. Freshman Mariah Howdeshell did compete in the intra-squad but is not on the video. She has a beautiful routine, but had several mistakes in competition. She is making good progress after two years out for injury but is not quite as confident as the rest of the team. She is working hard and we know by January she will be ready to go on this event. As for the rest of the bar line-up, Casey Jo Magee, Sarah Nagashima, and Michelle Stout, are again our core group. Their routines are solid and they are now working on form, handstands, and dismount landings. In this intra-squad Sarah performed a double lay dismount. Look for future intra-squad for her to twist it! Freshman Jaime Pisani will also be a mainstay on this event. She has a nice clean routine with some beautiful toe-on handstand work. Freshman Genny Salvatore has been one of the pre-season highlights, her whole bar routine is new; new combinations, new dismount. Her routine will be one of the strongest in the line-up. Stacy Bartlett competed in the intra-squad and we hope she can add depth to the team. She has a basic routine for now, she is working hard at various other skills and combinations. However, she has really improved her overall execution and strength. Beam Beam was probably the weakest event in the intra-squad. It’s amazing how one judge can make the group a bit nervous! This is also an event we are looking forward to the return of Amy DeFilippo. She adds such stability to the group. Alex Lachance and Stacy Bartlett both competed but both had several major mistakes in their routines. Still, there were some highlights to the event. Freshman Jaime Pisani greatly improved her performance and approach to the event compared to the September intra-squad. Michelle Stout has really been working hard to add some difficulty. While her performance was a bit wobbly, she showed her grit by fighting the entire routine! Freshman Genny Salvatore is really improving and is showing a lot of potential. She is returning from an acl injury prior to arrival and is really impressing everyone. Finally, Sarah Nagashima and Casey Jo Magee are now our veterans. They will be what I call the ‘bookends’- first up and last up. They are both so unique. They really bring something special to the group. Floor Floor was the one event we had some modifications. In order for the girls to get a bit of an extra rest before the last past, Dave has a unique method. The girls will say “Mississippi” for however many breaths he would like. For this event it was 3 “Mississippi”s. Well, it just so happened we were playing Ole Miss this past Saturday in football. So instead of counting with the “Mississippi”s, the team said “Beat Mississippi”. It was fun, although a few of the freshman didn’t get it until Monday’s workout! You’ll hear it on the video. The event had seven competitors. Freshman Mariah Howdeshell’s tumbling was modified so she could get the experience of competing and is not on the video. This is also an event we will see Senior Alex LaChance in the future. She has competed in the floor line-up the past three seasons. At this point of preseason we are making it through routines, which is a great place to be. Now we need to focus on landing execution, presentation, and confidence. There are a few passes some of the girls are still training, but what we performed in this intra-squad are our most ‘comfortable’ routines, routines we know we can do. Individually there were some standout performances. First, we are so excited Molly Lewis is making such a return after two years out of gymnastics and three shoulder surgeries later. It looks as though she will be a strong contributor on both floor and vault. Michelle Stout is working on upgrading her middle line. Casey Jo Magee has so many different passes she can do it is hard to choose, but the ones she competed in this intra-squad have good difficulty and variety. Freshman Jaime Pisani has some of our most difficulty tumbling. She is just so powerful! Finally, Sarah Nagashima has just been awesome this preseason. It is so exciting to see her come into her own. The coaches were very pleased with this intra-squad. It gave us a good sense of what we need to work on and the focus for the next month. Our next intra-squad will be November 23. We will hopefully have a few more competitive routines on each event and be a bit more polished. Hoped you enjoyed the update! GYM’BACKS ROCK!!!