A Peek at Lauren Schwartzman's Gym Diary
12/15/2004 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Dec. 15, 2004
Dec. 15, 2004
Wow ... I think that word is what best describes the year so far. Wow that three and a half months have already flown by. Wow, that our intrasquad was just last Saturday. Wow, that our team looks AMAZING!!
It's such an exciting time right now in the gym; we are finally putting full routines together on every event and perfecting the little things in our routines. Its great to see the freshmen really step into the "preseason competition mode." It looks like once again, it's going to be a real fight to get into line-ups.
Vault is coming along nicely. Alisha is still doing yurchenko fulls, but is also working full and a halfs, with awesome height I might add. I think one of the biggest improvements on vault this year will be Whitney's vault -- it's HUGE and her form is much better! She is more confident with the vault this year and it is very obvious when she does it.
Amanda Pezzullo is still training the yurchenko half off front and Sarah has switched to this vault also with great success. I am still working the yurchenko full, trying to improve my form and amplitude.
Ashley Khederian competes a front handspring front pike half which will be a good vault to break the line-up of yurchenkos. She should score well with this vault, as she has tremendous power -- just wait till you see her on floor!
Julie O'Donnell is currently training yurchenko fulls. While Julie Abaray and Katie Kluga are also learning yurchenko fulls in the pit. Kelley Andersen is working front handspring front pike and pike halfs. Jodie Heinicka is also back into the vault line-up practicing her half on, full twist vault.
Bars should be a strong event for us this year; and so far everyone looks to be consistent. I'll go by class for this event.
Freshmen: Julie Abaray has the best form, on every event, but especially bars. She is working blind full to straddle back and a blind full double tuck dismount. The coaches also have her in the belt working double layouts. Ashley does blind full reverse hecht and double lay dismount and nails her release about 99% of the time. Lisa Puccio does geinger, kip handstand, blind change, healy, straddle back to a double layout. Katie has a huge straddle jeager and is looking on upgrading her double pike to a double layout. Nicole Bowman was working blind full reverse hecht facing the bar, but had to take some time off due to a bad case of mono. But she looks to contribute once she is healthy.
Sophomores: Whitney has been training blinds to geingers and double layouts in the belt. Alicia Gilmore is working on her blind full reverse hecht (with much improved form from last year) and is now doing double layouts by herself! Amanda trains bars off and on, but is working a new release with the belt. Julie O'Donnell is working blind full geingers and double layouts.
Juniors: Kelley is training her blind change jeager to blind change front giant healy straddle back and has upgraded to a double layout dismount. Jodie is working blind change front giant reverse hecht to double layout. She is also playing around with a blind full immediate double layout. Sarah has improved so much this year on this event. She is now working blind full, blind full, reverse hecht and is doing double layouts again. Erin Riley is doing blind change front giant to piked jeager with amazing form. She is also doing a blind change to double front dismount, while also training double layouts. As for me, I'm still not released to do bars.
Seniors: Alisha is doing hop full to geinger to pak saltos and double layout dismounts. Rachael is training bars slowly, as she has an aggravated elbow injury that doesn't approve of bars (I know how she feels).
Wow ... on to Beam. I guess going by class works well so I'll do that again.
Freshmen: Julie Abaray will be an immediate impact to our beam line-up. She does flic, flic, layout step out, switch leap switch leap and straddle three-fourths. Her dismount is a round off double full. She has beautiful form once again and should score really well. Lisa is training flic, flic series on high beam and flic, layouts on low beam. Ashley does one armed flic to layout step out and round off double back dismount. Katie is working flic layouts and round off double full dismounts.
Sophomores: Amanda is doing flic, layouts and her amazing leap pass. Whitney has a huge flic, layout on the low beam and is working to put it on the high beam. Julie O'Donnell has made huge progress on this event and is now doing more consistent flic layouts on high beam and gainer full dismounts.
Juniors: Kelley is doing flic, layouts but is most likely going to compete standing layout layout -- it's really cool! She's still doing her front ariel and double full dismount. Jodie is training beam again and is working round off layout step outs on the low and high beam and is working round off double full dismounts. Sarah is doing flic, layouts this year and gainer full dismounts. Erin is working flic, tuck swing downs for her series and is doing gainer full dismounts also. I am still doing my round off, flic, layout series and double full dismounts. I'm just trying to clean up my twist and be as consistent as possible.
Seniors: Alisha is doing flic, layout, flic for her series and is back to doing round off double back dismounts. Rachael is also doing flic, layout and flic for her series.
Floor is the only one left!
Freshmen: Julie Abaray's passes look to be double pike, two and half punch front and double full, but she still might change the middle pass. Her dance is great and her music is very interesting -- it should be a great floor routine. Katie has amazing presentation. Her passes are double tuck, front full punch front and double full. Lisa also dances well and is working double tuck, front layout punch layout and front full. Ashley is WOW on this event. HUGE tumbling: piked full-in, front full punch front and double pike. Her music is like tribal drums and is definitely going to be a crowd pleaser.
Sophomores: Julie O. has the same music as last year (Peter Gunn) and is doing double pike, front layout punch layout and double full. Whitney will most likely be a regular in line-up this year. Her passes are double pike (huge), front layout punch layout, and double tuck. She is still using the drum line music from last year. Amanda is doing double pike, whip half punch front full and double full.
Juniors: Kelley is using the same music and is training full-in, double tuck and whip half punch front full - it looks to be a great floor routine. Jodie is training floor again!!!!! She is doing double pike, front layout punch front and two and a half last pass. Her floor music is Evita. Sarah should be in floor line-ups this year too. She is doing whip two and a half twist, double tuck and round off, back handspring half, punch front full. I am currently working triple full, whip half-front half-back layout step out and double tuck. My floor music is different this year -- it's so much fun to do! It's a disco mix.
Seniors: Alisha ... WOW ... working full-out in a LAYOUT position her second pass is round off, one and a half twist, punch front half, shushanova and her last pass is front full punch front layout. Her music is awesome this year -- its from Chicago -- very swanky!
Well, that seems to be it for possible line-ups. Our practices are always open and we would love to see people come by and visit us in the Hearnes Fieldhouse. We practice from 2-6 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday is a bit different with our hours. We look forward to this season and hope to accomplish great things. We hope to see you all at our first home meet on January 21st at 7:00 p.m.
GO TIGERS!
~Bunny (Lauren Schwartzman)
Players Mentioned
