April 20, 2012
DULUTH, Ga. - Stanford gymnast Jenny Peter provides a daily blog from the NCAA Championships.
Blog No. 2: Preparation for the Big Day
We prepared for Preliminary Finals in all the ways we knew how today. We practiced at the meet site and got used to the equipment and we went to the NCAA banquet with the other teams. But the highlight of the day for me was in the evening when we looked back at all that preparation. After we visualized the meet and our routines, we then shared our most significant moments of the year with this team. They ranged from big gymnastics moments to small laughing moments in the locker room, because they were all memories that make this team.
Alyssa said that one of her moments she remembers was the amount of planning and talking that her, Nicole, and I did over the summer to prepare for 2012. We talked about everything from who was going to lead the run warmup to how we were going to lead this team. To be at this point that we are now is a significant moment because of the preparation that came before.
Nicole Pechanec shared a moment in preseason training when her and Ivana were doing team beam. They had taken a few too many turns in order to finish the assignment and Ivana responded with a confident “No more – I am going to hit this routine and we are going to be done.” And she did. That competitive spirit and hard work has been a genuine theme with this team, and we know that every member has got each other’s back when needed.
I shared a moment we had in the locker room a few weeks ago when we were standing in a circle playing the game 'Catch Phrase' and were laughing so hard at each other’s comments that we could barely stand. That was a great moment, but I shared it to point out and explain how this team tends to stand in a circle facing inward nearly everywhere we are. We’ll circle up on the competition floor to pump each other up, to hang out in the locker room together, or even as we wait at the airport. This circle that we always tend to create is indicative of this team: We’re close, we’re all connected, and we’re all looking in at the same goals and same task at hand because everyone is on the same page. Like a fully unified circle, we are a fully unified team.
It’s experiences and moments like these that have set us up for tomorrow. At this point, all we have left is to enjoy the moment. We’ve been looking at the individual athletes that we’ve become and at the team that we’ve become. We’ve been looking back at all of the conditioning, the circuits, the numbers, the laughs and joys, the coaches who pushed us and encouraged us, the parents who loved us and supported us, the friends who smiled and cheered for us, and that little girl who fell in love with gymnastics in each of us long ago. We are ready to perform for her, and for those moments that got us here.
-- Jenny Peter