gymnastics – The Oracle

Refusing to be ruled: Performers grow beyond restrictive body, beauty standards in their art

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 04:57:51 +0000

Titan Tales: Students share stories, experiences

Wed, 30 Oct 2019 22:05:49 +0000

From his first lesson at just two years old even until today, Mark Berlaga has always loved gymnastics.“I just kept taking classes and getting better until I was offered a spot on the Stanford Club team,” he said. Berlaga is now a highly decorated Level 10 gymnast, the highest level, and even won the rings national championship but he wasn’t always this good. Bergala started seriously competing in gymnastics when he was seven years old. “My first competition season actually went really badly,” he said. “The summer after I worked hard with a new coach and was able to win the state championship , which was my first big accomplishment.”. Berlaga attributes his current success to his growth mindset. “This sport as taught me that through perseverance and hard work, you can and will achieve your goals.”

Berlaga says gymnastics is a huge part of his life and takes up a lot of time. He practices 19 hours per week during the school year, which prevents him from doing some fun stuff, but he says that we wouldn’t change it for the world. According to Berlaga, he loves to do his favorite sport everyday bond with his teammates.

Athletes learn, bounce back strong from failures

Elizabeth C — Mon, 18 Apr 2016 20:32:52 +0000

Written by Elizabeth Chung

Junior Dana Zhao was a national champion in acrobatic gymnastics, but the road to success was not easy. Chosen to represent the United States for the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championship her freshman year in Sofia, Bulgaria, Zhao had to go through intense training for preparation. “I remember getting up at 4 in the morning because we had morning practices and I had to come to school and had to go back to practice after,” Zhao said.

As the member of Team USA, Zhao was nervous since it was her first time competing internationally and she ended up making mistakes. “Basically, I fell twice when I was competing,” Zhao said. “I had three routines and I fell on two of them on the same skill. It was really disappointing because that skill had been really strong leading up to the competition and even during warm-up and I was fairly sure that we would make it.”

When she came back home, Zhao had nationals coming up before the season finished. Although quitting before the season is looked down upon, she wanted to quit. “I was tired of practicing,” Zhao said. “I practiced really hard leading up to the competition and I didn’t do very well.”

During the time of hardship, her coaches helped her get back on track. “I actually made up excuses to get out of practice and I think my coaches caught on,” Zhao said. “They talked to me and somehow I found the motivation to start practicing hard for the nationals and the next few months, I tried to work hard even though I wasn’t into it anymore.” Her hard work paid off and she ended up placing first in the nationals.

Zhao believes that although she quit acrobatic gymnastics the year after, it has definitely shaped the person who she is now. “Even though I am not doing anything physically challenging as gymnastics anymore, I definitely do things that are

out of my comfort zone, like academically challenging,” Zhao said. “The whole experience of persevering shows up in my life. I go for different things and try to accomplish new things.” To the people who are in a similar situation as she was after the international competition, Zhao encourages them to persevere. “Things don’t always go as planned, but keep pushing through and you’ll get there,” Zhao said. “Just keep going, even if you feel like you are not get- ting anywhere, just keep going up to an extent.”

Aesthetics in athletics: Gymnastics

evalynl — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 21:15:32 +0000

Written by Evalyn Li

As they tumble through the air, gymnasts trust their bodies to follow muscle memory, allowing them to immerse themselves in their artistry. Harnessing their strength, gymnasts incorporate various artistic elements into specific events such as the balance beam and floor.

Gymnastics blends strength, swiftness, flexibility and elements of dance. The beam is one such example in which artistic ability is built upon the foundation of strength required to stay on the beam. “A lot of it is dance, fluidity of motions and the kind of emotions it causes,” sophomore Avital Rutenburg said.

For senior Lina Osofsky, who did high school gymnastics up until her junior year, the floor event, a series of moves combining dancing, acrobatics and tumbling, was an opportunity to show off her sassiness and uniqueness. On a private team, she did not have music choice, relying on her facial expressions to bring out her personality. “Once I got into high school gymnastics, I got to pick my own songs and choreograph it myself with my coach, which made it more personal to me and more fun,” she said.

Compared to many other sports that champion qualitative factors such as speed of pitches, height of jump or time of swim, gymnastics is judged more holistically. Gymnast sophomore Roark Sweidy Stata says details such as hand positions and facial expression are not only stylistic, but also accounted for in the judging. “My teammates always remind me to smile before my floor routine because I sometimes forget to do that,” Sweidy Stata said. “When you don’t look like you’re having fun, the judges won’t have fun either.”

In the same way gymnasts practice their strength and skill, they are mindful of the artistic details they add to their performance. “When you practice your routine, not only do you have to be strong, but also when you finish your skill, your confidence and presentation of the skill is equally as important as how you executed that skill,” Osofsky said.

While such artistic detail is strongly rooted in women’s gymnastics, it is not reflected the same way in men’s gymnastics. “You can see immediately on floor that guys’ routines don’t have music and is a combination of tumbling, flexibility and strength demonstrations,” Sweidy Stata said. For Ososfky, the differences seemed unfair at first, especially when she spoke with her male coach. “When I actually saw what they were doing I realized that music wouldn’t really go with what they were doing,” Osofsky said.

On the other hand, Rutenburg feels that male and female gymnastics are fundamentally the same. “We have dance literally in our routines whereas they don’t have movement dances, but I think to the exterior person just watching both, they both have that same rhythm,” she said.

The aesthetic element of gymnastics is also a source for audience appeal. “When you watch the Olympics, a lot of times why people prefer watching gymnastics is that the gymnasts kind of take you on a very long dance of various emotions and spikes of energies,” Rutenburg said. “The whole thing is like one big dance.”

Sweidy Stata says that this performance aspect is what differentiates one athlete from another. “The floor routines that really stand out are the ones that have a lot of high energy and make the crowd really into it,” Sweidy Stata said. “[The audience] can really tell from the way they exaggerate their moves.”