The Penn State women's gymnastics team's routine of warming up is quite distinctive.
The Nittany Lions' warm-up is unlike that of any other Penn State team. In fact, opposing teams are caught gawking at the gymnasts as they smile and giggle before an enormous meet. This happens every time opposing teams get their first look at Penn State's warm-up dance.
"It is something that they do and made up together that gets them warmed up, sweating, and they have fun doing it," Penn State women's gymnastics coach Steve Shephard said.
As the music starts, the gymnasts gather in the middle of the floor exercise mat and touch hands while you hear, "This, this, this, this, this, this is the beginning." Then Eminem can be heard rapping lyrics from the 8 Mile soundtrack, "Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it, or just let it slip." These lyrics set the stage for every practice and meet the Lions take part in.
"It serves a lot of purpose, not just warming up," Penn State women's gymnastics assistant coach Jessica Bastardi said. "Motivation, it gets you focused because it starts out with the Eminem song that they are really inspired by. It is a multi-purpose kind of thing."
After Eminem, the music switches to an excerpt from Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" and then the dancing begins. In all, the seven-minute dance is to music and lyrics from House of Pain, Harry Belafonte, Vanilla Ice, Michael Jackson and George Thorogood just to name a few of the many artists whose songs senior Sarah DiPasquale mixed together with the help of her teammates.
"Leslie [Bair], Julia [Stoloski], Kelly [Streicher] and myself sat around and thought of songs that everybody liked and we pieced excerpts together," DiPasquale said.
"It took me a good 10 hours to get it all done."
The dance features all kinds of movements.
From running, to sit-ups, from shaking their bodylines, to pushups with a one-handed stop, the dance includes it all, even robot moves like "Mr. Roboto."
"We needed the robot moves," Streicher said, laughing.
However, three weeks ago, when the Lions traveled to Minnesota, the Golden Gophers had a little dance of their own to combat Penn State's.
"[Minnesota] had a little dance too, but ours is better and more creative," Bair said, giggling.
Co-captains Bair and Streicher, plus Stoloski and Meredith Hoover, plotted out all the dance moves over winter break that would coincide with the music.
"It took us way too long to create because we were laughing the entire time," Streicher said. No matter what kind of weather it is outside or mood the gymnasts are in, the dance will always make them smile and laugh. Stoloski said that it is fun to do.
"We can come in here and everybody smiles and jumps around and it gets you excited about practice," she said.
Even though the team usually has a warm-up dance most years, Shephard said that this year it went all out.
Besides having fun and demonstrating moves that are unique to the team, it also serves as a warm-up for the gymnasts' minds.
"You can call it a warm-up dance but it is not just to warm up your body, it is to warm up your mind to get you ready to do what you need to do whether it be practice or a meet," Bastardi said. As an excerpt of Katie Rowland's favorite song, "Castles In The Sky," begins, all the smiles, laughs and giggles turn into serious looks as the dance ends and the gymnasts prepare to compete or practice their routines that they are there to do. With that in mind, thus ends a warm-up unlike anything you have seen.
