Gymnasts are all about the team

For much of a competitive gymnast’s life, there is not much concern about a team’s performance. But as the six freshman on Missouri’s gymnastics team learned this year, a team can be found in the Tigers’ chalk-filled gym.

Missouri’s six freshmen — Brooke Boehmer, Danielle Guider, Nicole Lovegreen, Meghann Raub, Becky Scholle and Liz Straatmann — all come from the world of club gymnastics where the focus lies almost solely on the individual. In club gymnastics the practices are longer (many of the girls practice over 30 hours a week), the pressure greater and the sacrifices bigger.

But Missouri’s newest gymnasts have found collegiate competition a lot different.

“College gymnastics, I think, is a lot more about the team,” Guider said. “It’s a group effort and everyone’s there for each other.”

Straatmann agreed.

“There’s always someone there to encourage you, and when you’re having a rough day there’s always somebody that has your back,” she said. “Even in a meet if you fall or mess up, there’s always somebody who’s going to get your back and cover for you.”

All the gymnasts said the team aspect reduces the individual pressure and makes the sport much more enjoyable.

“Club gymnastics is more of an individual thing,” Raub said. “And here it’s definitely all about the team, which makes it less nerve-wracking.”

Yet the transition to team-focused college gymnastics is not always an easy one. New gymnasts typically go from competing on all four events in club to only their best two or three events in college.

“Here everything’s about the team,” Missouri coach Rob Drass said. “I’m not really concerned about individual accolades or anything. I want to put up the six best routines that makes this team the best team we can be.”

To facilitate team chemistry and build mutual trust, the gymnasts do a variety of activities out of the gym.

The team spent time at Alpine Tower on the MU campus, part of the Venture Out program’s team building course. The Tigers gymnasts climbed the tower and worked together to solve puzzles and accomplish tasks.

“At first everyone was shouting out ideas and then we realized that we had to listen to everyone and figure out what we needed to do,” Lovegreen said. “And then we started to feel more confident in ourselves

and as a team coming together. It really helped us realize that you can’t do it without everyone. You have to have everyone there, everyone makes a team and that’s when you really succeed.”

And the saying “team” isn’t just using a feel-good buzzword for the gymnasts. Walk into any practice or meet and their cheering, hugs, high fives and smiles will convince you. It’s almost as if the gymnasts are willing each other through routines.

“I like having a bunch of people yell at me before I go, cheering for me,” Scholle said. “It’s a lot of fun competing with your team in front of a bunch of people.”

And while not every aspect of college gymnastics is fun and games (just ask any of the gymnasts about conditioning), they say their teammates are what get them through hard times.

“Even though everyone doesn’t like conditioning, we do it as a team and we struggle as a team to get through it, and we get stronger as a team together,” Raub said.

Missouri’s freshman class is unusually large for gymnastics, a fact that the gymnasts see as a positive when adjusting to the college lifestyle.

“I think it’s helpful because then you have a bunch of girls going through the same thing that you are, rather than just one other person,” Guider said. “There’s someone always to go to.”

For Boehmer, the college experience has been a little different.

After tearing her ACL earlier in the year, she has had to sit out on the physical aspects of the team.

“I do want to be in there doing gymnastics, and when I’m not allowed to, it’s hard,” Boehmer said. “I think they do a good job of trying to include me when I can do something.”

All the gymnasts say that after experiencing college gymnastics they would never want to go back to the long hours and individualistic mind-set of club gymnastics.

“I had a time or two with injuries and I drove two hours to practice where I was like, ‘This may not be worth it. What am I doing? I’m missing out on ... like I could be doing volleyball or track or all these things in high school,’” Raub said. “But since I’ve been here, I’ve realized it was all worth it.