Her foot doesn’t leave the gas pedal.
Since the first time sophomore all-arounder Myia Hambrick put on a Tiger uniform, it has been a road of constant improvements for the Temple, Georgia native.
With a year under her belt, her distinctive work ethic and consistent focus fuels her growing confidence, which has been key to her progress.
“She is such a great example of hard work and dedication,” said junior all-arounder Ashleigh Gnat. “She competed on just one event in last year’s nationals, and now she’s thriving on all four. She’s such a strong all-arounder and such a staple on this team.”
Hambrick’s freshman year provided many opportunities from early on, but inconsistency always seemed to leave its mark when she competed on all four events — especially on floor.
Bad landings on passes dragged potential top all-around scores to average ones, seeing a 9.350 in last year’s season opener against the University of Iowa and a 9.050 against then-No. 9 Georgia.
As the season went on, the team relied on her the most during vault and beam rotations, while competing in the all-around became more of an occasional sight.
Hambrick’s growth became most visible in the 2015 final home meet against then-No. 16 Minnesota, which marked her last all-around competition as a freshman.
After setting then-career highs on all events, Hambrick’s total score of 39.575 remains her career-high in the all-around to this day. She also received the SEC Freshman of the Week award for her performance.
“You just got to learn how everything works and that sort of thing,” Hambrick said. “I feel more confident about being consistent, because I put more numbers in and am more experienced. You never really know what’s going to happen, but as far as anticipation goes, I don’t feel like I’m going to mess up or anything like that.”
Along with adding a double layout to her floor routine, Hambrick used the offseason to start the new year more
consistent than ever.
She leaves no room for
distraction and controls her emotions. Freshman mistakes are left behind.
“I call it ‘The Eye of the Tiger,” said LSU coach D-D Breaux. “It’s the ability to remove the clutter and only focus on the things that are the most important. She does that week in and week out and she certainly does that every day in practice.”
All of Hambrick’s work has translated into a break-out start to her sophomore campaign.
In the Tigers’ season opening win against then-No. 1 Oklahoma on Jan. 9, Hambrick
finished first in the all-around and came close to a new career high with a total of 39.450.
In the home meet against then-No. 20 Kentucky two weeks later, Hambrick’s 39.325 topped the all-around again.
Though her focus for the remainder of the season will rest on perfecting her routines, Hambrick looks to lead by example and continues to tackle heavy workloads.
“You want to be able to back up what you’re saying,” Hambrick said. “If you’re a leader by what you’re talking about, that’s awesome, but you also need to be able to do it by example.”