Gymnastics Facilities
6/8/2002 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Tumbling in Splendor:
Alabama's Gymnastics Facilities
Dorothy, of The Wizard of Oz fame, said it best... "There is no place like home."
Whether in practice or competition, the Alabama gymnastics program has one of the finest homes in the nation. Both the competition arena and the Tide's practice gym, locker and team rooms are located in Coleman Coliseum, home of “The Big Show”.
The Crimson Tide practices in a state of the art training facility. The 12,500-square foot main practice space boasts a design that is at once attractive and extremely functional. The equipment is all arranged to give an increased fluidity in practice. There are six uneven bars stations, five balance beams, three vaults and an oversized floor in place.
The upper walls are covered with Bryan Raschilla created designs in addition to a listing of Alabama's three NCAA, four Southeastern Conference and 12 NCAA Individual Championships. There are also life-size photos depicting each of Alabama's championship teams.
All these aspects of the Tide's facility come together in a marriage of form and function that gives Alabama a training edge. All that is important to the coaching staff, which spent countless hours in designing the five-year-old facility, but the most important aspect of the space isn't readily apparent to the casual observer.
"We train everyday in a beautiful facility that has everything we could ever need," Sarah Patterson said. "Most importantly though, it was totally designed to minimize and alleviate impact on the gymnasts. If you look at it, the facility is aesthetically pleasing, but if you look close, you will notice that it was designed with the gymnasts' bodies in mind."
Multiple soft landing pits are available for all four apparatus, giving the Tide the freedom to train skills in enhanced safety. It also gives Alabama the capability of teaching a variety of skills as the same time.
"We've got the equipment and space to choose how we want to run practice," Assistant head coach David Patterson said. "We can split into two or three groups or we can all be on one event if we are having an intra-squad. It gives us the freedom to do that or to have everyone on four different events at the same time. We have the room and the staff to do that and be effective with it. Also, we put enough diverse things into the design of the facility where it is very helpful in terms of teaching new skills."
The facility also has a built in video imaging system that allows Alabama the luxury of immediate video feedback at any point in practice. The system uses an array of video cameras to record and then breakdown a gymnast's performance frame by frame.
"Our video system has been a big plus," David Patterson said. "We have multiple cameras in the gym and at any given moment, without having to go get a video camera, you can push a button and watch that event. It has become more and more of an integral part of practice. Gymnasts can look at their skills and see a technical thing that they need to do to fix something or see where they need to be a little tighter and keep that leg a little straighter."
The main practice area includes an in-ground trampoline and tumbling strips. The sound system that drives the Tide's practices is top-notch, surrounding the floor exercise area with the same level of sound the Tide will encounter in a meet setting. There is also an impressive array of exercise equipment, including a pair of treadmills, a stairstepper, an Airdyne bicycle, two elliptical trainers and a recumbent bicycle.
A mini training room is stationed in one corner of the gym where gymnasts can get taped in the comfort of the gym. Alabama's main training room is located just down the hall and is equipped with hot and cold whirlpools, Hydrocollators, Endodyne 8, a Cybex Isokinetic machine and training and treatment tables.
A separate 2,000-square foot aerobics/dance studio is connected to the main practice area. That area houses another sound system, utilized during the Tide's spinning workouts and step aerobic training sessions. The gymnastics team has 20 spinning bikes, all housed in the aerobics/dance studio.
Adjacent to the practice gym and dance room is the Tide's team room and locker room. The team room, furnished in large part by Alabama gymnastics' booster organization, the Medalist Club, contains a stereo and television console. The room also contains both Windows and MacIntosh computer stations, along with both an inkjet printer and a laser printer. Both computer stations are connected directly to the internet, allowing the gymnasts to check e-mail, write papers and do research all from one spot. The locker room is furnished with cherry wood lockers, one to a gymnast, as well as a lighted vanity and adjoining shower facility.
The Crimson Tide's training facility is in tandem with its competition facility, Coleman Coliseum.
Coleman Coliseum is big, with a top-end capacity of over 15,000. And when fans pour in, as they do every gymnastics meet, it gets loud. There are few atmospheres better in collegiate athletics than a gymnastics Saturday night. The roar of the crowd as Alabama marches in, the program's accomplishments being touted on the twin Jumbo Tron video screens at either of the arena, is deafening.
"The great thing about the coliseum is when it gets rocking it can lift your performance to another level," Sarah Patterson said.
When Coleman Coliseum filled to its 15,043 fan capacity on February 1, 1997, it became the site of the largest gymnastics crowd in Alabama and Southeastern Conference history and the largest crowd to see any collegiate gymnastics meet in a decade. Since 1996, an average of 9,475 fans per meet have poured into Coleman to see Alabama Gymnastics. That total includes the national single meet highs for five of the last six years.
Coleman Coliseum has hosted some of the biggest gymnastics meets in the country including the 1991 and 1996 NCAA Championships and the 1988, 1993 and 1999 SEC Championships. Last season, Alabama hosted its seventh NCAA Region Championship and this season the NCAA Championships will return once again to Coleman.
This season, a student section has been added to floor of the coliseum, adding seats and excitement to “The Big Show”.
