Sophomore base/back Jamie Montgomery looks to continue contributing to Azusa Pacific’s improved tumbling as she did in the home opening meet on Tuesday, March 18. Courtesy: Holly Magnuson
The Azusa Pacific acrobatics and tumbling team has increased its tumbling score average from last year by more than three points so far in the 2014 season. On March 10, 2014, the Cougars surprised the Oregon Ducks by beating the NCATA champions by .2 points in the tumbling event, making APU a clear force to be reckoned with this season.
As the team’s talent has increased, so has its score each meet. In each of the three, APU has competed in, the Cougars’ tumbling event score has gone up almost a full point.
Of the six different events in each competition, three include some form of tumbling. First is a tumbling heat within the compulsory event, which includes the bare minimum tumbling a team would be expected to do, according to head coach Colleen Kausrud. This heat includes nine tumblers.
The next event is the tumbling event itself, consisting of six different heats: a duo, trio and quad passes followed by three individual passes. According to Kausrud, this requires at least nine different tumblers, since the tumblers competing in the group passes cannot compete in multiple group passes.
Part of the tumbling improvement may be attributed to a new tumbling coach. Coach Reigh Lea Moore comes in twice a week to coach the Cougars. Freshman flyer Ellen Barker said Moore knows what the judges with a gymnastics background are looking for in the competition.
“Part of it is raw talent,” Barker said. “A lot of the newbies and a lot of the vets have improved a ton, and I definitely, definitely give a lot of that credit to Coach Reigh, the tumbling coach. … She gives us that edge that we normally wouldn’t have had without her.”
Sophomore base Jamie Montgomery, who performs one of the individual passes in the tumbling event, also attributes much of the team’s improvement to the new tumbling coach. Montgomery also said many of the athletes worked on their tumbling over the summer to improve.
“I worked at a gymnastics camp the whole summer, so I was able to work with Olympians and really high-up coaches on my tumbling, so I was able to learn cool drills from all of them, and I just kept tumbling all summer with the downtime I would have while I was there,” Montgomery said. “A lot of girls over the summer came in and met with the tumbling coach … so they started right away.”
For Kausrud, the addition to the coaching staff has been “huge” for the Cougars’ tumbling improvement.
“The girls don’t like having to do the drills, but they now are seeing the payoff of doing all those drills for preseason, so it’s made a huge difference in our tumbling,” Kausrud said. “It’s made it a lot stronger, a lot cleaner. To be able to have won in tumbling every time we’ve gone out there, that’s pretty cool because that was our weakest point, so to be able to be strong in that has made a huge difference. I do put that on our tumbling coach, who has made a huge difference for that.”
According to Kausrud, another reason that the tumbling has improved is new talent. Kausrud said there is a “huge” correlation between the gymnasts on the team and the improved tumbling.
“Our tumbling is stronger partly because we’ve been able to recruit some gymnasts in and have them come in and cover that role,” Kausrud said.
The minimum tumbling skill that Kausrud looks for in a recruit is no small requirement. Depending on the position that needs to be filled, the coach said she is only looking for athletes with full, complicated gymnastics skills.
The difficulty with training tumbling, according to Kausrud, is the potential for injury from “over-tumbling the girls.” About two hours a week total is spent on tumbling throughout the practices, said Kausrud.
For the rest of the season, the goal is to bring the quad pass’ start value from a 9.55 to a 9.85, which would give the Cougars the ability to score more points, said Kausrud. The risk in doing that is adding more skills and potential deductions. Kausrud said she has to determine if the potential payoff is worth it in the coming weeks, but that is what “makes coaching fun.”
For the team’s next competition against Oregon on April 7 on APU’s home mat, Barker said the stakes will only be higher for the tumblers. Barker, who is a newcomer to APU’s team and the sport itself, competes in the tumbling compulsory and the duo tumbling pass in the tumbling event.
“We’re anticipating them to step their game up because they don’t ever want us to be that close again, but because we know that, we’re going to work hard too and we’re all fired up to beat them again,” Barker said.