University of Georgia Athletics
Day In The Life: Marvels In Motion
December 01, 2016 | Gymnastics
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
A few things hit you right away about the Georgia gymnastics team's practices: the music is always turned up, the Gymdogs are even better athletes than you think they are and while the coaches certainly coach plenty, the gymnasts are often left to work on things themselves if they want to.
By the time I decided to chronicle the minute, fun and interesting details of a Gymdogs practice — the morning workout on Friday, Nov. 11, to be exact — I'd already spent three full practices with the team that week. Coach Danna Durante had been kind enough to let me hang around for a week as I worked on a story you can read here on GeorgiaDogs.com later this month.
This is my account of what I saw and heard that day, a mostly typical preseason practice:
7:28 a.m. — I've been standing in the Suzanne Yoculan Gymnastics Center for about 10 minutes. Practice should be beginning in two minutes but the only ones around are assistant coaches Jay Hogue and Philip Ogletree and two former Gymdog standouts, Mary Beth Box and Brandie Jay, who are helping the program out in various ways this season.
The rising sun is shining through one of the windows, bathing part of the room in orange. We don't like orange much around these parts, but it's a beautiful sight.
7:31 a.m. — In walk a pair of Olympians that a few months ago were competing for Canada in Rio de Janeiro: former Gymdog Brittany Rogers and Ellie Black. Rogers, Box and Jay were the anchors of last season's squad, all with stellar careers, which means some new Gymdog stars will need to emerge in the coming months.
I don't know it at the time (not being a morning person, I don't know much of anything at this hour), but these won't be the only Olympians to appear at practice.
7:40 a.m. — The Gymdogs all come in together in their workout gear, having started the day's practice across the hall in the weight room. As it turns out, the Gymdogs actually started their day with drug testing at 5:30 a.m. Suddenly my early alarm doesn't seem so early.
7:51 a.m. — The music comes on for the first time: it's loud, it's mostly modern hip-hop and the like, it will be on pretty much non-stop for the next few hours, and because I'm a 44-year-old that mostly listens to R.E.M. and Black Sabbath, I know almost none of it.
7:57 a.m. — Dressed in their leotards, the Gymdogs gather around the big "G" on the floor exercise mat. They stretch, they chat, they disperse to loosen up on on their own.
8:01 a.m. — Morgan Reynolds, the senior from Athens, runs easy laps around the room to get loose. More than any other Gymdog, she reminds me of some of Georgia's track and field athletes in how she moves. There's an ease in her movement and a spring in her step, like she could go from 0-60 in about two seconds.
If she'd gone that route as a youngster, I bet Reynolds could have competed collegiately in track — or probably three or four other sports. Not kidding.
8:04 a.m. — The Gymdogs huddle up around the "G" again, each person with her left hand on the left shoulder of the person in front. Reynolds (everyone calls her "Mo") leads the squad in laps around the facility, and given all the different equipment in one of the more impressive athletic facilities on campus, it's almost like running an obstacle course.
8:23 a.m. — The Gymdogs, finally ready to do some gymnastics, split up between the three balance beams on one side of the room and the sets of uneven bars on the other. The music is blaring and while there's a little playfulness when they're not doing their routines, you can see the focus in their eyes as they perform.
Of course there has to be focus: first, because they're performing a specific routine or exercise and every single detail matters a great deal; second, because in so much of gymnastics if you lose focus you're going to screw up — and screwing up can be dangerous in a sport that features human bodies, blunt objects and either high speeds or heights.
8:28 a.m. — Durante comes in with some special guests, the future Gymdogs that signed with Georgia a couple of days ago. Over the next few minutes there are a lot of hellos and hugs.
8:33 a.m. — The Gymdogs are back at it like nothing happened, but they have an audience now. And these women love an audience — they're gymnasts, yes, but they're equal amounts performers.
8:44 a.m. — Lauren Johnson is performing on bars and seems to have all eyes in the room on her. She flies through the air and sticks the landing, drawing big cheers of support from her teammates. It seems a fitting time to mention to you that Johnson is joining the Air Force after she graduates, with the goal of being a public health officer. (You can read more about that here: http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/w-gym/spec-rel/111116aaa.html.)
I talked to Johnson after practice about the bars and the response she got from her teammates.
"I actually had a pretty good bar day today," she said. "Every time I go over to bars I feel like it's a party, kind of, because everybody's really excited and hyped, so every time we do dismounts by themselves or anything like that, it's always fun, especially when you stick them. Everybody's like 'Yahhhhhhh!'"
8:52 a.m. — Looking around the facility, you realize practice isn't all work on the beam or bars or whatever all the time. Everyone has to wait their turn to use whichever apparatus.
And when they're not on a piece of equipment, you know what the Gymdogs are typically doing? Core exercises. Whatever concept you have of what a rigorous abdominal and core workout is, this is on another level — maybe five other levels. These women do crunches like most of us breathe.
After practice a couple of days earlier, junior Natalie Vaculik had jogged over to the lower of the uneven bars, hooked her legs over the bar so she was hanging straight down from her knees and then started doing crunches. If you've seen the training montage in "Rocky IV," and of course you have, this was like that.
No teammates were around, nobody told her to do it, but it was work that needed doing, she later said.
"Honestly, it's more just maintenance and making sure that our cores stay strong," Vaculik said. "You use your core for everything and the stronger our bodies are, the more protected our joints and everything else is. Obviously you don't want to overdo it and tire everything out, but you have to keep that up just to stay healthy."
It's hard not to feel like the laziest slob in the world after watching something like that.
9:13 a.m. — The T.I. song with Rhianna, "Live Your Life," begins to play. I love this song and it happens to be the first song I've known and liked all day — maybe all week. As I'm writing down this fact in my notebook, Johnson comes over and forwards to the next song.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" she said after practice, when I tell her about it.
Apparently most days Reynolds just connects her phone to the sound system and a playlist does its thing, unless Gymdogs are doing their floor routine and need a specific song. The song choices, Johnson said, are all about "some music that gets everybody good and hyped."
9:28 a.m. — Today's practice is a bit more laid back than the previous three I've seen. Maybe because it's Friday, maybe because they had the drug testing at 5:30 and it's already been a long morning.
One of things I love seeing is athletes clearly still having fun doing what they do. Today, the Gymdogs are having fun being really, really good gymnasts.
9:41 a.m. — There's a break in the action, which means everyone plops down at some point and does more core exercises. It's like a compulsion. And that brings me to sophomore Gracie Cherrey, who has a walking boot on her left leg.
Cherrey isn't practicing today — no it's much worse than that. Because she can't run and jump, she's basically spent the past hour-plus doing crunches and other core exercises. Frankly, what she's done might be the most impressive thing I've seen all week.
9:52 a.m. — It's time to work on floor exercises. The Gymdogs aren't doing the big jumps in their routines but the dance moves in between.
Between the music and the fact that these are all elite-level gymnasts, you'd think there would be more playful dancing at practice than there is. Johnson, who likely has as bubbly a personality as anyone on campus, can't seem to help herself at times, but for the most part the only dancing you see is during floor routines.
9:56 a.m. — All the Gymdogs like up along what I'll call a runway but probably has a more formal name, with a couple of thick landing mats at the end. Here is where those that do the floor will work on their big jumps, and the crowd lining the runway is to add some weight and atmosphere to the proceedings.
"It's great to show what we've been working on," Vaculik said. "You really cannot simulate in practice what it's like in Stegeman, the environment out there is completely different. In here your focus stays the same and what your focus is in here is what we want to take out there."
10:01 — Sophomore Sydney Snead takes her turn. Like Reynolds, there's an air of complete confidence about her when she performs, which likely comes from abundant athleticism and a ton of work.
To my untrained eye she looked a tad wobbly in the air, but then stuck the landing. Her smile after the landing suggested that she might have gotten away with one there.
10:30 a.m. — That's it for practice, though there's about 15 minutes of stretching before they're done for the day. As the team is stretching, Box's face lights up as she sees a pair of U.S. swimming Olympians in the hall — and soon after in walk Allison Schmitt and Chase Kalisz.
Schmitt took home five medals from the London Olympics in 2012 (three of them gold) and as a team captain in Rio she added another gold and silver. Kalisz, meanwhile, earned a silver in Rio.
More hugs follow. It's another day in the life around Georgia athletics, with reminders of greatness all around. It's a fitting way to end the day.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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