By Jess Westendorf
What exactly drives winning in a sport such as gymnastics?
Iowa women’s gymnastics head coach Larissa Libby and her staff have found a key component to keeping the GymHawks grounded and in tune with their gymnastics.This season, the GymHawks have taken to their team motto, “Move the Chains.” The motto was introduced to the team last year, and it has become a staple for the squad this season.
The idea behind the motto is for each gymnast on the team to step back and evaluate what her role on the team is and how she can improve the team.
“Move the Chains” is meant to inspire each GymHawk to focus on her gymnastics in the present as well as what she can do in the future to better herself and the team.
“The whole concept being that you are constantly linked together and that you cannot move without the other,” Libby said. “You have to make little steps to get to the end result.”
As a part of “Move the Chains,” each gymnast was given a metal link to hold onto to symbolize her link in the “Chain.”
Before each practice and meet, each gymnast takes her link and hooks it to another gymnast’s link, eventually making a long chain that symbolizes the team’s unity.
When the metal links are not hooked together, each gymnast has her own place of keeping it safe. Senior Mollie Drenth likes to keep hers close to her at all times, so she hooks it onto her backpack.
“We all practice it every day, we come in with our chain, and once we link our chain to each other, you know you’re all in,” Drenth said. “I keep my chain with me at all times.”
“Move the Chains” comes from the idea and rules of football. When a football team is on offense, the ultimate goal is to get to the end zone, but before that, the team has to go 10 yards for a first down. Each player on offense contributes in some way to reaching the first down and eventually a touchdown.
This was what Libby and her staff wanted to teach the squad, that each woman on the team contributes in some way. Libby equates a touchdown to a win, and to get that win, each gymnasts needs to do her job.
The motto also focuses in on mental toughness, focusing in on the gymnastics that is being produced and blocking out any distractions. Knowing that even one-tenth of a point can help the team in more ways than one.
“We think of it as an effort we can give each day to do something better,” senior Angel Metcalf said. “We want to keep it going and to move forward. We never focus on the bad or what happened in the past.”
At practice, the gymnasts keep their long, linked chain at the front so it is always visible.
When at any of the GymHawk’s meets, fans can always find one wearing the chain around her neck, carrying it to each event and through each rotation to encourage and remind each Hawkeye what she is doing for her team.
“We try to find our one-tenth, in what performance can we contribute or find one extra tenth that you can add to your team score,” Metcalf said. “If everyone focuses on one thing that she can do better that time or in a routine, the team score will get better.”
