It could be a stunt on Fear Factor, but at least these players aren't suspended high above a city or a body of water.

They still only have four inches with which to work.

That's it: four inches wide on the balance beam, and there is almost no room for error.

Try thinking about that while trying to balance, flip and twist, on four inches.

The Penn State women's gymnastics team may be thinking about it too much in the early part of this season. In its two meets so far, the beam has been the low score both times.

"We were all over the place on beam," Penn State coach Steve Shephard said after the Nittany Lions' win Saturday.

"We're not to our level of confidence."

Mental mistakes can cause all sorts of problems in an event that can be easily lost with one mistake.

The gymnasts said that the idea is to keep focus and not to worry about other things that are going on; even if there is a wobble, it can't affect how you perform the rest of the way.

"If you let your mind drift to what has been done, then you aren't thinking about what you are doing in the present," Shephard said.

During preseason the team works to expand and develop the skills the athletes have coming in, and work to add the dance elements that need to be in the routine.

Each routine has to have a certain amount of qualities in it to give it the difficulty level desired.

Every routine starts with a 9.5 difficulty level and then certain aspects can earn up to 0.5 bonus points for a maximum 10.0 overall.

Deductions from the scores are made on landings for a lack of control, or movement before presenting to the judges.

According to the official 2005 NCAA women's gymnastics rules, the components that need to be in a routine are: a minimum of two flight routines, which must start and finish on the beam; a dance series of two or more elements; a minimum of a 360-degree turn on one foot or knee; and a leap, jump, or hop requiring a 180-degree split.

"We are preparing for perfect routines," senior Kate Stopper said.

"It's all mental, we have the skills, and we just need to keep focus," she added.

The team has worked on the beam in practice since day one and has said it is one of the best apparatuses in practice.

But during the meets nerves kick in and the beam has come out on the bottom.

During practice Tuesday, the team began a new plan for beam. The idea was to have no big wobbles, get credit for every skill, stick side dismounts and take one step or less on back dismounts.

Shephard split the team into two and each member went through her routine as if it were a meet. Every athlete had to go through her routine and keep the plan in mind. If someone made a mistake that caused her not to stick to the plan, then the whole group went again.

To help keep their focus, the team developed verbal cues. During a routine, they will go through the cues, so they will know what is coming up and what they need to do.

"Cues have been a savior for me," sophomore Genavieve Shingle said. "I never used them before I came to Penn State."

Shephard said the hardest part of coaching gymnasts on the beam was trying to have them get confidence.

Shephard compared it to a pitcher throwing strikes: the more you try to force it, the worse it becomes.

Four inches and a whole lot of nerves separate a good routine from a routine gone awry.