Before each practice, a gymnast steps in front of the team with a quote and a word of the day.
The choice for Wednesday’s practice was “commitment.”
The gymnasts said it together as they clapped their arms in a Gator chomp, then moved on to begin practice.
Despite its first loss of the season against Arkansas, Florida has maintained its No. 1 ranking, refocused and committed to finishing the regular season on a high note Friday against Utah.
The Gators’ first step was returning to their normal routine in the gym — something that hasn’t been an option recently.
The team finally moved back to its usual training schedule of four practices per week, which had been reduced to two when the team competed in three meets in eight days.
“We finally feel like we’ve had a couple of days to be able to train in the gym,” UF coach Rhonda Faehn said. “We feel like we’re a little bit more on track.”
This week, Florida has had time to scrimmage in the gym, as per usual before all of the recent road meets.
Faehn said the blemish the Razorbacks left lit a fire under the Gators.
“It made them angry,” Faehn said. “I think it fueled them quite a bit.”
Sophomore Marissa King said the gymnasts have been paying extra attention to the polish and detail of their routines.
“We just made a lot of little mistakes that all completely added up,” she said. “Where instead of starting off strong and continuing throughout the whole competition, we kind of dropped.”
A major goal Friday will be setting the right tone from the get-go.
Before the Gators’ first routine against Arkansas, their warm-ups weren’t on point — a sign things were heading south.
“We want to challenge the athletes on having a good, strong warm-up ... and carrying that energy on throughout the rest of the competition,” Faehn said.
If the rest of the season has been any indicator, the Gators are capable of plenty.
Despite the loss, Florida still sits pretty atop the rankings.
“Hopefully we can just realize that we can’t get cocky,” King said. “We can’t think, ‘Oh we’re No. 1,’ and just drop and slack.”
