Why hello hello Ladies fans, it's your junior Lani, I don't know how that happened, but anyways… I'm back for my first gym talk this year!
The Ladies just finished up their last week of Open Gyms for this year and let me tell you… we are looking pretty good to be this early in pre-season, so y'all better watch out! We had our second round of landmark testing this past Sunday and the Ladies were not too shabby by any means! There were some Ladies who stayed consistent in their skills, which we love to see, and then there were other Ladies who really came to show out and get out of their comfort zones, which we love even more!
Oh, and don't I have a story for y'all! For the first round of landmark testing, the team made the executive decision last spring, that for every landmark missed it adds up to a stadium we had to run at the following track practice. Well for this round of landmark testing the Seniors decided we run a lap for every landmark we missed, so the bar was indeed raised at this point I'm not going to lie. This was definitely a little added pressure for the Ladies, but I knew this was not going to phase them! Anyways, whatever laps we added from missed landmarks, we were going to run them at the following track practice Thursday. This particular track practice was special because it was the last one which could mean two things… Coach Jackie was going to take it a little easy on us or make us wish it was our last one ever, haha! This is where the story gets good… so on Wednesday night we received a bizarre GroupMe message from Coach Jackie of a GIF of dancing bacon and eggs. Of course, none of us knew what that meant, so we patiently waited to see if she'd send another message. Well low and behold, the next message we received was, "Meet me at Strawn's tomorrow, 6:30 am for breakfast!" Once this message was sent the GroupMe went wild, in a good way of course! After arriving to Strawn's on that morning, Coach Jackie explained the reason why we went to breakfast instead of the lovely track. She said since we had been working so hard at track and really pushed ourselves, this celebratory breakfast was our reward. So, the moral of the story is that Coach Jackie is awesome and the Ladies are certified D1 track stars!
To wrap up the week, the Ladies headed out for the first half of Fall Break, which is actually a week long this year! I know the Ladies parents were more than happy to see some of their favorite Ladies come home for a few days. The Ladies are returned to campus in preparation for our first official practice this past Wednesday and we were excited! This will kick us off into the weekend when we begin our Fall Retreat at the Lake Shack and the Ladies couldn't be more pumped!
Well, it was really great catching up with y'all again and giving you an update on how the Ladies have been doing! I hope to see y'all again sometime!
See ya on the flip side ;)
Hey Ladies Gymnastics fans! It's junior Kennedy Stephens here with this week's Gym Talk.
After taking a restful few day off for Fall Break the Ladies headed back to campus for their first week of Official Practice!
Throughout the week we had a visit from Denise, a former Centenary gymnast, who talked to us about the importance of fueling our body with good nutrition, and Shelly Mac who put us through some team building activities and talked to us about accountability. It was great information from both of them, and a good way to get us into our 'team mindset' as we started our official practices.
Friday was Team Day. We split into two teams and had a friendly competition between the groups on bars, beam, and floor. We had a point system worked out for each person who achieved the things we made as our goals for the week. It really brought out some of the competitiveness in our Ladies, and had a few really show up for the day! Shout out to my team, The 4 Elements, for coming out on top!
Friday night we began our team retreat. Coach Jackie threw a murder mystery dinner for us. We were all assigned a character to embody while attending a party at The Cat's Meow Jazz Club. We got to practice our acting skills while playing a fun game of "Whodunit." (Make sure to watch your back if you ever find yourself in the presence of Edgar Fitzpatrick.) It was a hoot to watch your favorite Ladies take on and embrace a new persona for the night, with a few big surprises! Special props to Edith for her conniving ways!
The next day we continued our team retreat where we had some fun team building activities and got to know our teammates a little better. The seniors worked with the freshmen to present our Core Covenants for the year: Family, Capable, Fight, and Mettle. As a group we did activities and talked about each of the four covenants and what they mean to us and our team. The seniors did a superb job of sharing their vision with us, and everyone had a great time.
On Sunday we had our first intrasquad of the year. We set some pretty high goals for ourselves, and although we did not hit all our goals, we had a pretty great practice. Our vault shakers showed up and showed out nailing 6 out of 6 vaults. Our bar stars hit lots of handstands and stuck lots of dismounts. Our beam queens showed some nerves but still showed off some beautiful skills. We had lots of new faces in the beam line up this weekend. Shout out to Taylor Ann Wilson, Isabel Plaza, and Emma Lavelle for working hard and earning a spot in line up. Our floor roars showed off some powerful tumbling and some really fun routines to finish out the night. We still have a way to go before the season starts but the Ladies are looking strong and really pushing themselves in the gym.
I am so proud of this team and all the hard work we have been putting in. The Ladies are gearing up and are so excited for this upcoming meet season!
See ya next time,
Kennedy Stephens
