Nicole Artz - A Maize and Blue Legacy

As she steps onto the floor for the first time in her senior year, a rush of adrenaline rushes through her. 4 years has gone by like 1 day, and in the blink of an eye, it will all be over. But in a way, it's just the start. The start of a new season. And on the smaller span of things, the start of a new routine. And that's the way you have to look at it, one step at a time. One breath at a time. The green flag is raised and a deep breath in is all it takes. Nicole Artz is now the captain of the Michigan Gymnastics team.

Full in, stick. Front layout front full, stick. Double pike stick. Perfect. But what's new? The floor exercise has always come easy to Nicole Artz. The floor is in a way, her home. She steps on to the blue carpeted springs, and a new chapter begins. She's not just going through the motions, she's putting on a Cirque De Soulei performance. Nicole even says that when she is on floor, she gets to relax a bit. But the work behind her floor routine has to be done before anything good can happen on the competition floor, let me take you behind the scene's and we will discover what make's Nicole Artz so good on floor.

Years and years of training and still, she uses the same choreographer she used when she was 8. Years and years of training and still, she performs to her music the same way she did 10 years ago. Years and years of training and still, she tumbles with the ease she always has. That's what makes her so good. After all these years of training and consistency, she's able to relax more now. She loves to see her team on the sidelines dancing along and it helps her perform here tumbling with ease and land cleanly. Catch Nicole Artz easing her way through her floor routine this Saturday @ 2 at Michigan State.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more! :)

Photo via The Michigan Daily.

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NCAA Full Access Guide...

College gymnastics is an exiting time of the year. It can be hard, however, to know where to get your scores and live streams from. And that is why I'm here. I'll be providing you with an all you need to know access guide for this season of NCAA gymnastics.

• Team Pages

It never hurt to check out a couple of the team pages. Here are a few to get you started:

Oklahoma: http://www.soonersports.com

LSU: http://www.lsusports.net
Florida: http://floridagators.com
Michigan: http://www.mgoblue.com
Penn State: http://www.gopsusports.com
Georgia: http://www.georgiadogs.com

• Schedules

It is also helpful to know when you're favorite teams are competing. So, here are the overall schedules for this week:

Week 3
Monday, January 16
2:00 ET/11:00 PT -- North Carolina State @ Georgia
Friday, January 20
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Arkansas @ Georgia
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Auburn @ Kentucky
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Ball State, William & Mary @ North Carolina State
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Eastern Michigan @ Central Michigan
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Florida @ North Carolina
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Western Michigan @ Kent State
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Minnesota @ Michigan State
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- UW-La Crosse @ UW-Eau Claire
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Winona State @ UW-Oshkosh
7:30 ET/4:30 PT -- Lindenwood @ S.E. Missouri
8:30 ET/5:30 PT -- Alabama @ Missouri
8:30 ET/5:30 PT -- Texas Woman's @ LSU
9:00 ET/6:00 PT -- Boise State, Denver, UIC @ Utah
9:00 ET/6:00 PT -- Utah State @ BYU
9:00 ET/6:00 PT -- Stanford @ Southern Utah
11:00 ET/8:00 PT -- UW-Stout @ Alaska
Saturday, January 21
12:00 ET/9:00 PT -- Rhode Island College @ Ithaca College, Brockport State (,)
12:00 ET/9:00 PT -- Yale @ Pennsylvania (Beauty and the Beast )
2:00 ET/11:00 PT -- UW-Whitewater @ Gustavus Adolphus
3:00 ET/12:00 PT -- Northern Illinois, Seattle Pacific @ Oregon State
3:30 ET/12:30 PT -- Cortland State @ Cornell
4:00 ET/1:00 PT -- Iowa @ Ohio State
4:00 ET/1:00 PT -- Maryland-College Park @ Penn State
4:00 ET/1:00 PT -- Pittsburgh, Southern Conn. @ New Hampshire
4:30 ET/1:30 PT -- Illinois State @ Bowling Green
6:00 ET/3:00 PT -- Iowa State @ Arizona
6:00 ET/3:00 PT -- UC Davis @ Arizona State
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Brown, Nebraska, West Chester @ Rutgers
7:00 ET/4:00 PT -- Oklahoma @ West Virginia
8:00 ET/5:00 PT -- Sacramento State @ Air Force
8:00 ET/5:00 PT -- San Jose State, Washington @ California
Sunday, January 22
1:00 ET/10:00 PT -- Ursinus College @ Temple
2:00 ET/11:00 PT -- George Washington @ Towson
2:00 ET/11:00 PT -- Illinois-Champaign @ Michigan

• Rankings

To understand your teams competition, you may want to have access to the rankings. The best link that I know of can be found by clicking here.



That should give you a start of where to find the info for your favorite college gymnastics teams! Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!

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Happy Birthday Double Full Gym Blog!

Fairly soon Double Full Gym Blog will turn 1. I want to thank all of you for the tremendous amount of support I have received in the past year! I have gotten the wonderful opportunity  to watch this blog grow drastically in the last few months and I can't wait to see how much farther this blog can go. In celebration of 1 year, we're throwing it way back to my first article. Without further ado, let us gather and laugh together at how dumbly worded this next article is:

Who's Going to Glasgow? Part 1 - The U.S. Men's Team

               With the 2015 World Championships just around the corner, teams are being announced like crazy. Today, I am going to be talking about my opinion on the men athletes that the U.S. are sending to Glasgow.
           


  The Men's Team:  
Danell Leyva
Sam Mikulak
Alex Naddour
Paul Ruggeri
Donell Whittenburg
Brandon Wynn
with Chirs Brooks
and Marvin Kimble
as the replacement athletes.
                                              Personally, I am shocked that Jake Dalton wasn't listed as at least some kind of reserve athlete. He is a huge asset to the US team on floor and vault where he is an individual world medalist on both of those events. He missed P&G's due to a shoulder injury. However, the injury seemed very minor. Jake Dalton's absence left the door wide open for Paul Ruggeri who made his first worlds team at the age of 26. He was the alternate for the 2010 and 2014 world championship teams. So, I'm glad to see Paul finally get a spot on the team. Another thing that surprised me was that Chris Brooks is a reserve. He finished 3rd all around at P&G's and I expected him to be on the team for sure. I am not really surprised by any of the other athletes on the team. I didn't really expect Brandon Wynn to be on the team at first but he could help out in the team finals on rings and possibly contend for a medal in the individual event finals. I think that the U.S. men have a sturdy team and are definitely in potential for a team medal this year. 

I want to thank you all again for a wonderful year here at Double Full Gym Blog! And let another year of blogging begin! :)

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