Gym Blog: Idell Preaches Practice Habits
January 22, 2015 04:55 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Student-athletes are all too familiar with the phrase “practice like you would compete.” The West Virginia University gymnastics team has put its own spin on the common instruction this season – “compete like you would practice.”
Junior Melissa Idell believes the Mountaineers have already benefited from this new mantra, crediting it for her career-high 9.8 beam score and season-best 9.8 floor score earned at No. 15 Ohio State on Jan. 17.
“I really felt like I was at practice,” Idell said of the team’s last competition. “We were so close together (throughout the meet), and we had a lot of energy. I really felt like I was at practice, just doing what I do every day at Cary Gym.”
Idell, a native of Newark, Delaware, has shone brightest on beam through the first two competitions, matching her previous career high of 9.7 at Maryland on Jan. 9 and tallying the aforementioned 9.8 last Saturday.
“I changed up my routine and my skills,” she explained. “I’m a lot more comfortable with my routine this year. I changed my training habits, too – they’re more consistent.”
Idell’s score at OSU, good enough for a sixth-place finish, helped push the Mountaineers to a season-high 48.725 showing, a 0.625 point improvement from their season-opening mark of 48.1. She is certain the Mountaineers can continue to improve on the apparatus if they maintain the level of confidence they’ve shown early this season.
“We just have to go into the meets and act like it’s practice,” she reiterated. “We have to do what we do every single day – don’t make it harder than it has to be.”
Idell is anxious to open the team’s 2015 home season this Sunday, Jan. 25, at the WVU Coliseum. The Mountaineers will meet No. 23 Iowa State and No. 25 George Washington at 2 p.m., their second straight tri-meet against two ranked opponents. After a tough week of practice, she says the squad is fully focused on its Coliseum debut.
“I think we all believe we should be up in the rankings as well,” she said. “We want to prove to everyone and ourselves that we can be ranked, too.”
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A remarkable 49.2 showing on vault at OSU last Saturday put the Mountaineers at 146.475 and in second place through three rotations. The team would only need to earn 48.525 on bars for its first 195.0+ showing of 2015 and first 195.0+ road score since 2013.
Unfortunately, the squad proved inconsistent on its last event, as three gymnasts hit for scores of 9.8 or better and three fell, putting the Mountaineers’ bars total at 47.7 and dropping the team to a third place, 194.175 finish.
Though the meet’s ending was far from ideal, fourth-year coach Jason Butts has confidence his team will bounce back.
“It’s important to remember that we’ve really upgraded the difficulty on that event this season, and that opens the door for more falls,” he explained. “We now have a single major release in all six of our routines. In the past, we used to only compete two or three.
“It all boils down to training accountability. The gymnasts are now required to complete two routines on two chances at practice. This helps put meet-like pressure on them in a practice situation. We’re finding that this type of assignment is helping build confidence over a period of time. The team is more talented than we’ve had in the past, and they’re also hungrier for success. I think we’re going to see a rebound from last week’s performance in these next two meets.”
Butts spent the better part of the Mountaineers’ meeting last Sunday reminding the gymnasts that they have the talent to keep pace with the nation’s top teams, as evidenced by the scores from the three hit routines at OSU – a season-high 9.875 for Alexa Goldberg and career-bests for Lindsey Litten (9.825) and Zaakira Muhammad (9.8).
“We had great practices Monday and Tuesday,” he said. “It’s been a mental game with this team. We aren’t killing them with reps, and we don’t have to reinvent the wheel – everything is in place for success. We have channeled our focus on accountability, in hopes of increasing the confidence.”
The natural question – is the risk of more difficult routines worth the payoff of higher individual scores?
“Absolutely,” Butts said without pause. “This is going to pay off in the long run. When we go up against higher-ranked teams at the Big 12 Championship and the NCAA Regional Championships, our bars scores won’t suffer because we are low on difficulty. We start on bars at the Big 12 Championship this year, and if we can open the meet with six big D releases and three E dismounts, we will be able to maintain pace with our competition.”
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Tickets for Sunday’s home opener are on sale now and also will be available at the gate. Tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for senior citizens and youths and $2 for groups of 10 or more. WVU students are admitted for free with a valid WVU student I.D.
Sunday’s home opener also is a “Poster Day,” and fans are encouraged to pick up a 2015 gymnastics schedule poster. The Mountaineers will sign the posters at “Chalk Talk” following the competition.
A free WVU shuttle bus will be available from the Mountainlair and the Brooke/Braxton Towers loop for an hour leading up to the meet’s start time. Return service to the Mountainlair and the Brooke/Braxton Towers loop also will be available at the conclusion of the meet.
Finally, 2014 NCAA National Championships qualifier Hope Sloanhoffer will be honored before the meet’s award ceremony, as Butts will present her with a conference champion ring for her all-around victory at last year’s Big 12 Championship.
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