We’re now in year two of a full-blown gymnastics obsession. My son treats UCLA meet programs like sacred texts. He can name every gymnast on the roster, along with their heights and class years. At home, he becomes all of them in turn, running through his own bar, beam, vault, and floor routines. His love for it is infectious, and somewhere along the way UCLA women’s gymnastics quietly became our team too.
That obsession didn’t happen overnight. It built slowly, starting with his first real exposure to the sport and growing into something much bigger. I wrote more about those early days in how my son fell in love with gymnastics.
Part of this probably has to do with proximity. We live about a mile from UCLA, which makes everything feel more real and more accessible. These aren’t just athletes on TV. They’re people he’s seen in person, routines he’s watched live, names he recognizes instantly. One day a week, he even takes class at UCLA’s practice gym, which only deepens the connection. He loves knowing he’s doing gymnastics in the same place his favorites train. It makes the whole thing feel official in a way that’s hard to replicate.
He doesn’t skim the meet programs. He studies them. The posters don’t disappear into drawers either. They end up on his wall. The night doesn’t end when the meet does. When we get home, we’re treated to a full re-enactment of the entire meet.
NCAA Gymnastics Is Underrated
Every four years, gymnastics jumps to the top of everyone’s must watch list. During the Olympics, people who don’t follow the sport at all suddenly can’t look away. We all marvel at how difficult it is, how fearless the athletes are, how impossible the routines seem. What gets overlooked is that NCAA gymnastics delivers that same entertainment value every single year, often featuring Olympians competing right in front of you.
At UCLA, that means watching Jordan Chiles, an Olympic gold medalist, perform in a college setting. It never gets old. There’s something about seeing that level of talent up close, without the distance and ceremony of a massive international event, that makes it even more impressive.
The format also makes it incredibly easy to follow. NCAA scoring combines difficulty and execution into a single score out of ten, so perfect tens are still a real thing. Teams are deep, with six gymnasts competing on each event and the top five scores counting. There are four events, vault, bars, beam, and floor, and the entire meet usually wraps up in under two hours. Even the breaks between rotations are part of the experience. You get to watch warmups, see the little rituals, and feel how locked in they are. It’s fast, accessible, and fun in a way live sports rarely manage to be anymore.
Why UCLA Gymnastics Works So Well
Living so close to UCLA, it’s hard to overstate how much convenience matters. Add in the price and it almost feels unfair. There aren’t many sporting events in Los Angeles where a family of four can walk away having spent less than one hundred dollars on tickets, food, and parking. They call it the best show in LA, and it earns that reputation every time.
The energy is high, the crowd is engaged, and it never feels like anyone is just killing time. My son spends most meets dancing his face off, fully committed and hoping to make the dance cam. The student section is locked in. The music is loud in the right way. It’s just fun in the most uncomplicated sense of the word.
The team itself is incredible, and the more time I spend around gymnastics, the more mind boggling it becomes. Think about it for a second. Try to do a cartwheel. The blog isn’t going anywhere go and try to do a cartwheel. It’s harder than you remember, and it probably didn’t look great. Now imagine doing that with power, precision, and zero margin for error, again and again. The strength required is unreal.
What stands out just as much, though, is the team dynamic. The support is constant. They’re the first ones up celebrating a great routine, immediately starting the familiar ten chants. When someone is on floor, the rest of the team dances along from the sidelines, with the student section doing the same. It’s competitive without being cold. Intense without being joyless. And it’s a great thing for kids to see.
More Than a Night Out
What surprised me most is how far this extended beyond the arena. Watching meets led to watching routines at home, which turned into full gymnastics nights as a family. At some point, we even carved out space at home so he could practice on his own, turning a small area into something that felt official. It stopped being about a single event and started becoming part of our routine.
Spending time around college gymnastics also makes you realize how rare this access is. UCLA dropped men’s gymnastics decades ago (I’ve written about the decline of Mens NCAA Gymnastics), and my beloved University of Oregon doesn’t have gymnastics at all! Seeing how vibrant, visible, and celebrated the women’s program is only reinforces how special it feels to be able to show up and experience this level of talent in person.
For us, UCLA women’s gymnastics started as something unexpected and turned into something we genuinely look forward to. It introduced my son to new heroes, new music, and a sport that rewards effort, teamwork, and joy. Somewhere along the way, it gave us something to share. And that’s the part that sticks.
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