As the stakes get higher, the game changes.
Not so much in competition or personal routines, but in the actual performing surface.
For this weekend’s Southeastern Conference Championships, the LSU gymnastics team will compete on a raised platform surface, commonly referred to as “performing on a podium.”
The Tigers are accustomed to their landing surfaces being on top of the gymnasium floor, instead of raised up.
The different feeling forces some minor changes in the way certain apparatuses are performed.
“On beam especially, you have to do everything a lot slower because it is very bouncy,” said senior Sam Engle. “You have to go slower and concentrate a little more to deal with everything being a little shaky.”
The extra spring in the mat tends to favor the gymnasts when they move to the floor exercise, though.
“On floor you just soar,” Engle said. “You don’t really notice it when you’re up there, but the podium just makes for little adjustments in the equipment, but it’s really a fun thing.”
A little give in the landing will put a little less stress on the gymnasts’ bodies as they attempt to stick their landings, something for which LSU will be grateful.
“Sometimes it’s a little softer, so the landings aren’t quite as hard,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “For kids like [freshman] Sarie [Morrison], who is nursing shin splints and sore joints, that extra modicum of softness might work to her advantage.”
The Tigers have had plenty of success on podium in the recent past.
LSU advanced to both its Super Six appearances while performing on podium, and national champions Ashleigh Clare-Kearney and Susan Jackson captured all of their hardware on the podium as well.
Current Tigers have posted high scores on the podium.
Engle scored a 9.85 on the uneven bars in the NCAA National Prelims last season.
Junior Ashley Lee tallied a 9.90 on vault in the Prelims, good enough to earn her a spot in the event finals later in the weekend. Lee averaged a 9.7625 in her two vault attempts in the event finals to earn ninth place in the country.
Even though the surface can cause the gymnasts to get some extra airtime on their leaps and bounds, there won’t be any changes in routines.
“We get to practice the day before, so that helps us get adjusted to it,” Lee said. “By the time the meet comes, we’re used to it.”
Saturday’s SEC Championship will be the second time LSU has performed on a podium this season.
On Jan. 29, the Tigers traveled to Dallas for the Metroplex Challenge, a podium meet.
They scored a 195.55 on the weekend, their highest road score of the season.
Breaux said she is pleased her squad has some previous experience on the podium.
 
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