ISU Floor Success Based Around Personality

By Kevin Horner, Iowa State Athletics Communications Student Assistant

AMES, Iowa – As a UCLA gymnast “whipped and nae naed” during her floor routine at her team's meet on Feb. 6, she gathered a larger audience than expected.

By incorporating popular dance moves of today's culture into her routine, senior gymnast Sophina DeJesus received national attention via media outlets such as the Los Angeles Times, Bleacher Report and ESPN. The video of her routine spread across the United States, and sports enthusiasts around the country caught a glimpse of DeJesus's personality.

“I thought [DeJesus's routine] was super cool because, you know, gymnastics is a lot of fun and we get to express our personalities through our floor routines,” ISU sophomore gymnast Haylee Young said.

DeJesus, being a former professional dancer and actress, combined her multidimensional personality with her athletic ability into one, all-encompassing performance. Her routine served as a microcosm for collegiate gymnastics as a whole today as personality has become a larger and larger factor — specifically in the floor routine. Contrary to the Olympic level, judges encourage college gymnasts to incorporate individuality within the required framework of a routine.

In some cases, a sassy stare down or a subtle wink may be just as effective — from a scoring perspective — as an extra twist, flip or tumble.

“[Personality] influences the judges in a way where they are more likely to be forgiving,” ISU head gymnastics coach Jay Ronayne said. “They are a little more forgiving if they're entertained. That's something that we try to preach to our athletes. [Their] job out there is to entertain.”

Sophomore Kelsey Paz, who has been called “bubbly” by nearly all of her teammates and coaches, performs an upbeat, energetic floor routine to play to her personality. Assistant gymnastics coach Kristen Maloney uses Paz's lightheartedness to gain her an advantage on the floor. So, opposed to sports like basketball and baseball where bubbliness may be discouraged, gymnasts like Paz are all smiles as they attempt to gain the crowd and judges' favor within their allotted timeslots.

On the other end of the spectrum, gymnasts like sophomore Briana Ledesma and freshman Meaghan Sievers thrive in a more serious atmosphere. To address this, the ISU coaches select more elegant music and moves to maximize each gymnast's potential. At the collegiate level, no cookie-cutter format for floor routine exists, but rather, each routine seems to vary by an individual's personality traits.

“Kelsey Paz is very bubbly, so I like to keep her music more upbeat and more fun,” Maloney said. “Someone like Briana Ledesma, [however], is a little more serious, so she does better with a more serious and hard-hitting floor routine.”

No matter how the floor exercise has been approached, the Cyclones have made it work. ISU ranks 19th in the NCAA with a season-average of 48.991, and it has been Iowa State's top event score in seven of eight meets in 2016.

In any case, DeJesus's routine and following exposure proved that a floor routine can be used as a means for promotion. Gymnastics rarely catches the attention of large sports media outlets like ESPN, but when a routine is properly constructed, it may be the perfect formula for expanding a fan base.

Ronayne believes all it takes is brief exposure to the sport to grab someone's attention — whether that happens in-person or via a video on the Internet like DeJesus's routine. Once people see gymnastics in action, Ronayne said, they will come back for more.

“These athletes do superhuman things and make it look easy,” Ronayne said. “When people see that in person, it will blow their minds.”

ISU Floor Success Based Around Personality

Players Mentioned

Briana Ledesma

Kelsey Paz

Meaghan Sievers

Haylee Young

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics

ISU Floor Success Based Around Personality

Related News

Players Mentioned

Briana Ledesma

Kelsey Paz

Meaghan Sievers

Haylee Young

Related Videos

Sponsors