Post by jimbeav on Apr 15, 2017 21:18:10 GMT -8
One final addendum to clarify my frustration, the day after my disappointment. I'm damn proud of every gymnast on that team, and they absolutely should hang their head high for being among the last standing and giving it their all. I know they're way more disappointed in their final performances than a captain keyboard like myself, and I don't mean to disparage these great athletes at all.
My frustration is directed to Coach Chaplin and her staff. They are no doubt very good at what they do, and have proven that time and again. Unfortunately, they have also proven time and again that they are unable to prepare their team mentally for the national stage and the pressure of the national championships. The way the Regional system is set up in collegiate gymnastics, if you finish the regular season in the top 10 in average scores, the deck is stacked heavily in your favor to make it to Nationals. So our coaches have done an awesome job getting the most out of their gymnasts throughout the year in Pac-12 dual-meet play, where even if you're not in the friendly confines of Gill Coliseum, you're at least only facing the distractions of one other squad performing and getting cheered on.
But no matter how much we nail it throughout the season (and don't get me wrong, finishing the regular season ranked #8 this year is a tremendous accomplishment), every time we make it to Nationals, we underperform relative to what we did in the regular season, often very drastically. Every year, without exception. And it just happened again. So yeah, I'm past the point giving a simple 'attagirl and moving on; I want to know what our coaches are going to do differently to get us over this wall that has stood in our way for literally the last 25 years.
It's not even about the Super 6...the best we can usually hope for in terms of team rankings is to finish the regular season somewhere around no. 7-12 in the country. So breaking through to the final 6 at Nationals is going to likely require some luck in the form of bad breaks on other squads. It's fine if that doesn't happen, and I can live with putting our best foot forward and still getting beat. But so far all we've consistently done at Nationals is shoot ourselves in the foot. It just seems like these girls always step in to that big arena of controlled chaos, tight as a drum. And I'm just really ready to finally see that change...
GO BEAVS!
My frustration is directed to Coach Chaplin and her staff. They are no doubt very good at what they do, and have proven that time and again. Unfortunately, they have also proven time and again that they are unable to prepare their team mentally for the national stage and the pressure of the national championships. The way the Regional system is set up in collegiate gymnastics, if you finish the regular season in the top 10 in average scores, the deck is stacked heavily in your favor to make it to Nationals. So our coaches have done an awesome job getting the most out of their gymnasts throughout the year in Pac-12 dual-meet play, where even if you're not in the friendly confines of Gill Coliseum, you're at least only facing the distractions of one other squad performing and getting cheered on.
But no matter how much we nail it throughout the season (and don't get me wrong, finishing the regular season ranked #8 this year is a tremendous accomplishment), every time we make it to Nationals, we underperform relative to what we did in the regular season, often very drastically. Every year, without exception. And it just happened again. So yeah, I'm past the point giving a simple 'attagirl and moving on; I want to know what our coaches are going to do differently to get us over this wall that has stood in our way for literally the last 25 years.
It's not even about the Super 6...the best we can usually hope for in terms of team rankings is to finish the regular season somewhere around no. 7-12 in the country. So breaking through to the final 6 at Nationals is going to likely require some luck in the form of bad breaks on other squads. It's fine if that doesn't happen, and I can live with putting our best foot forward and still getting beat. But so far all we've consistently done at Nationals is shoot ourselves in the foot. It just seems like these girls always step in to that big arena of controlled chaos, tight as a drum. And I'm just really ready to finally see that change...
GO BEAVS!
