After two consecutive 9.975s and a 10 in the same bars rotation, Riley McCusker mounted the bars knowing she had to hit her best routine for Florida to win the SEC championship. While she did not stick her dismount, when the score came in, Florida officially put up a season high 49.8 on the event to win the title with a rotation that even the coaching staff said was special to watch.
What made this bars rotation different from bars rotations in the recent past for Florida was the routine composition. The last couple of seasons, comments have often been made that the routines were boring as the majority of the gymnasts in the lineup were competing a standard Maloney to pak salto bars routine with slight variations. This season, while some gymnasts still compete that style of routine, it is no longer the majority of the lineup. Skye Blakely and Kayla DiCello compete difficult Tkachev variations, and Selena Harris-Miranda competes both a Ray and a bail to handstand.
This wasn’t necessarily by design. Over the summer, gymnasts will train a variety of different skills and combinations. With multiple current and former elites on the team, several gymnasts have a large selection of releases that they can work with, as well as the ability to learn something new.
Bars coach Owen Field shared that, on average, gymnasts are training “two or three new skills or different skills that they aren’t actually competing just to kind of see if it’s something that they might want to switch up.”
Anya Pilgrim is a bars worker who changes routine compositions every year, which is rare. She has learned new skills since coming to college and has played with a variety of compositions. In years past, she competed the “cookie-cutter” Maloney to pak salto routine, or a pak salto/ Van Leeuwen routine, but this season she has added in a Tkachev. She said that she had wanted to add the Tkachev into her routine since she was a freshman, but it was not the time. This summer, she played around with the skill some more, and it ended up working in her routine.
Like Pilgrim, Blakely also has a variety of skills to choose from. Blakely loves swinging on bars and, especially, has loved her growth on that event, particularly with it being the only event she was able to do last season. In her current routine construction, she competes a Downie, which is one of the most difficult single-bar releases.
When asked why she keeps competing that difficult skill, Blakely said, “The Downie is one of my favorite skills. I think it looks really pretty, too. So to put it in my routine this year was exciting, and to also bring such difficulty into my bar routine, it’s just really cool for me.”
With all of these skills being trained, it becomes important to weigh the risk vs. reward of competing different skills. When asked about that challenge, Field shared the question he asks the gymnasts, “If we pulled you out of your dorm room or your apartment at two o’clock in the morning and you had to do a one touch and a bar routine, what skills would you pick?”
The answer to that question is the starting point in building the ideal composition for the season. The answer shows what skills each gymnast is most confident in, whether that is a single-bar release or a transition element. From there, the rhythm of the routine and the details can be worked out.
The process for picking who makes the lineup can also be a challenge. Especially for a team with so many options, such as Florida. The coaching staff in Gainesville keeps track of each routine a gymnast does from the start of the preseason. They track the handstands and the stuck landings. They use that information to help make decisions, but at a certain point, the lineup starts to solidify itself.
Field shared that there is a bit of a gap between the backup routines and what is in the lineup, which has helped make the decision, but that, even so, there is an emphasis on continuing to work with the backup routines in case they are needed later this season or in future seasons.
The lineup and compositions are solidified now with nationals this week, and the focus is just on the details. Florida works on handstand shape every day as well as focusing on the rhythm of the routines to make them pleasant to watch. With nationals this week, watch out for this No. 1 ranked bars rotation on Thursday, as this could be the ticket to Florida’s first national title in over 10 years.
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Article by Alyssa Van Auker
