Following a rolling start to the Pac-12 gymnastics season, every team with the exception of Stanford has now stepped foot on the competition floor. With a season cut short just prior to last year’s Pac-12 Championships along with questions as to when, and if, the season would take place, it’s been all smiles for the ladies as they dazzle as bright in their leotards under the spotlight. 

As teams continue to take the floor each week, The Plug Sports Connection wants to highlight what these athletes do on a weekly basis, so we’re introducing our new segment called Pac-12 Chalk Chatter. Chalk Chatter will be breaking down the results from the previous week’s competitions, highlighting outstanding performances, and previewing what’s on the schedule for the upcoming week. 

The main goal of Chalk Chatter is to help improve the general public’s overall knowledge of gymnastics by providing information about gymnastics not commonly found elsewhere. In an effort to help the average person gain a better understanding for the sport, there will be articles published in the coming weeks breaking down many of the ins and outs of gymnastics. Some of those topics include the background of each event, the different levels or types of gymnastics out there and how judges work to determine scores for each routine. 

Chalk Chatter will also provide a scoring breakdown and an event analysis of what happened across the Pac-12 each week, along with insights on what the teams could do to improve still, where they excelled, things that made a difference, etc. Chalk Chatter will also work to highlight upcoming events to look out for in hopes of more people wanting to follow gymnastics eventually tuning in. 

Based on the belief that once someone understands the sport, they’ll start to follow it more, the goal is to get gymnastics coverage to a point where gymnasts are no longer viewed as, “only being kept on campus because of Title IX.” Since knowledge is power, the more the average person knows about the sport, the more likely it is that collegiate programs will be able to pull in consistent crowds with a supportive fan base. A wider-spread knowledge of all the in and outs of the sport, from coaching to the mental aspect to what it takes to be a gymnast, will hopefully  help the ongoing effort to continue pushing the sport forward.