Jan. 13, 2011

UCLA Gymnastics head coach Valorie Kondos Field will be answering your questions every Thursday over the course of the season. To submit questions for future Q&As, CLICK HERE.

This week's questions/answers:

Georgert (Flagstaff, AZ): Once healthy, how do you manage athletes such as Peszek and Zamarripa NCAA competition with continued participation in elite at the nat/int level?
Miss Val: I know that they both want to continue to compete at the Elite level. Zam should make a full recovery. I don't know about Sam's ankle and if it will ever allow her to compete in the AA, especially at the level she would need to compete in International Competition. Hopefully, the time Sam is taking off to heal her broken toe will give her ankle sufficient time to heal as well.

Casey (Roanoke, VA): You have gotten 195 in each of the first two meets. How can you improve the score? Or are the injuries too much to overcome?
Miss Val: I absolutely DON'T feel our injuries are too much to overcome. We have a lot of work to do over the next few months, cleaning up form and getting polished and confident. I also feel that this team needs to find its rhythm. I know that sounds weird considering we only lost Anna, actually Anna and Vanessa, but it still is a totally different team than last season.

CA: What makes this year different from the rest?
Miss Val: I feel that every year is different. It doesn't matter if we only lose one senior, I find that the team chemistry and dynamic changes every year. Right now I feel we have a lot of unknowns such as: How well will our freshmen compete in the AA? Who of our team will step up and make the leap to be a consistent 9.9+ competitor? Will Mizuki's shoulder continue to get better and allow her more range and strength? Will Aisha's ankles be able to handle hard landings on vault and floor? Etc. All these things we need to ferret out over the next month.

Betsy (Providence): Hi Miss Val, I recall you saying in the past that, when you have a gymnast with a particular problem or block in competing, you have to approach the challenge in different ways, depending upon what that particular gymnast is likely to respond to. I'm wondering if you can give some examples (of your techniques, not necessarily of specific gymnasts!)--what kinds of things do you do in practice or out to help your gymnasts with competition issues? Thanks! And, as always, best of luck!!
Miss Val: I always feel that the first thing that has to happen when an athlete has a block on a skill is to find a way to metaphorically throw cold water in their face. Say something that will make them snap out of their funk. I don't believe in berating or insulting comments but I do believe in brutal honesty. Sometimes to get an athlete out of their funk all I have to say to them is "Stop it. You're creating unnecessary stress. STOP the madness and do YOUR gymnastics." I don't like to talk about "FIXING" a skill. I like the analogy better of etch-n-sketching the bad gymnastics right out of the brain and starting with a clean slate performing the gymnastics that the athlete knows she can do. We do a lot of mental imagery, we talk a lot about their cues or mental choreography. We also play a lot of competitive games, some that are gymnastics related and other that are not. I want them to have fun competing hard. I want them to be able to leave every meet with no regrets, and I don't want them to be afraid of failure.

Dwight from The Office: Have you ever felt the need to shun one of your peers?
Miss Val: Dear Dwight, I HAVE felt the need to Shun. However, as you well know when one shuns someone it often becomes necessary to "Unshun" and "Reshun" several times, as you did with Andy Bernard. A question for you, did you really feel that you could replace Sprinkles with Garbage and Angela would be OK with that? Seriously???

Sarah (Fairfax, Virginia): Which of the athletes on your team has surprised you the most this season?
Miss Val: Sydney Sawa because she is so much fun in competition. It's obvious she LOVES to compete and she mentioned no less than 10 times this past weekend that she's never had as much fun in all her life competing. And also Lichelle Wong. Lichelle came in this year with a mission to compete in the AA. She is petrified of beam but has worked really hard to get more consistent and to actually enjoy competing. She's also worked hard to get a new bar dismount which she will compete this weekend. I think that if you just look at the difference between how she has performed on floor this year compared to last year you'll see the difference that I'm talking about.