“It consists of everyone who gives (a little or a lot) to helping Keep Dreams Alive” – Scott Barclay
Barclay, in a nutshell, is a head coach who lives through his team. As his gymnasts progress through training, he is satisfied with what he sees before him. Barclay enjoys seeing a team that works hard.
“Scott [Barclay] does a good job to keep things positive and make it a place where you want to go and be,” says Jared Chin, a sophomore business, accounting and marketing major.
As for their opponents, they are not as positive; the club has 14 national championships and counting, their most recent in March. Their transition—from an intercollegiate team that began in 1955 to a club that rebirthed in 1993—did not stop them from their ongoing success and development.
Within the men’s gymnastics club even, the number of gymnasts is growing as exponentially as their title tally.
“When I started last year it was a really friendly and open place,” Chin says. “The guys on the team were really helpful and outgoing. Aspire to me was like a dream gym. It was built with the ASU men’s team in mind and has everything that we need to be our best. It is the best and nicest gym that I have ever personally worked out at.”
Through donations and the increasing interest in their practice facility, Aspire Kids Sports Center, the team is surrounded and supported by the community. Through fundraising and some of the profit made from the facility, the team can stand steadily.
Indifferent to most sports, gymnastics requires a different strength. The athletes need to be able to carry their body weight and use it to create the acrobatic stunts. These stunts, whether it is in a floor routine or on the rings, require the ability to constantly move around and find equilibrium. Sometimes even in awkward positions.
Thereon, once the basics are developed, the complexity increases; these gymnasts need to “set the bar high” for the sake of competition.
“The most demanding part has to be conditioning and constantly pushing yourself to be better than you were the day or turn before,” Chin says. “Also, perseverance. Getting new skills doesn’t happen overnight or quickly.”
According to Chin, most skills at the college level “take six months to a year to master and be presentable.”
“When you make a new skill for the first time it’s really exciting. Then when you start using it in a routine and make it look good you feel awesome. It’s one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever experienced,” Chin says.
With the complex and coaching at their disposal, the team has been training, developing those skills; according to Barclay, they have been training “since the beginning of classes.” This gives ASU gymnastics ample time for the schedule ahead. This puts them in position for repeated success.
“When we compete we’re striving to be perfect to get the highest score possible,” Chin says. “I’ve been doing gymnastics since I was 10, so 12 years now. When I came to ASU, I was feeling like I wanted to be done and that I wasn’t going to do it for much longer…”
That’s not what the team had been founded on though.
“…but after meeting Scott and the team it re-inspired me to keep doing it. Being a part of the ASU team has reminded me why i love the sport and why i keep pushing my body to do crazy things,” Chin says.
As for Chin, he is a gymnast Barclay can be satisfied with. He is gymnast that works hard, a thread to the championship-caliber tapestry men’s gymnastics has woven. The team looks to keep pushing with no sign of stopping, to keep working hard.
You can contact me at bcapria@asu.edu.
