University of California, Los Angeles, Athletics
Ask The Bruins - Feb. 23, 2011
February 24, 2011 | Gymnastics
Feb. 24, 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:
Hans (Santa Monica): Are you preparing for being homeless next year by having so many away meets this year? Where will next year's home meets be?
Miss Val: NOT HOMELESS, just DOWNSIZING for a season. We have decided to go "throw-back" style and return to the Wooden Center, where we competed in the 1980's. It was either the Wooden Center or go off campus somewhere, which proved to be hugely more expensive with the rental of the facility and transporting and setting up the equipment. So make sure you get your season tickets for next season when they go on sale because seating will be at a premium!
Falke (Denmark): Last year Kat Ding gave an interview about friction created between religious and non-religious team members. How do you handle this on your team?
Miss Val: I don't remember ever having religious friction on our team even though we've certainly had a wide variety of faiths and philosophies. I've always encouraged our girls to have open and healthy discussion about what they believe and will happily discuss my faith with anyone who asks. We talk A LOT about diversity and appreciating and respecting our differences.
Maria (D.F., Mexico): I love the Bruins! Will you ever come to Mexico? Also, the sport has changed so much since you began. Is there anything you miss about the old days?
Miss Val: I would love to take our team to another country, however there would have to be a justified reason/competition for us to be able to do it. Re. the "old days" ... I miss the rivalry between Suzanne Yoculan and Sarah Patterson at the peak of their rivalry days. Seriously, as frustrating as it may have been for the two of them, it sure got people interested in collegiate women's gymnastics. Kristen Smyth and I have talked for years that we should really capitalize on that formula and create a rivalry that will generate some juicy "bulletin board material."
Lenka (Amsterdam, Holland): I read on one of the gym message boards that Cal Basketball has an LGBT appreciation night. Would your program be open to this?
Miss Val: Yes. I reached out to the LGBT organization on campus last year and haven't gotten a response from them. I recently went and met with managers of Gym Bar, a sports bar in West Hollywood, about how they could help market our meets to their customers and we could help them generate more business. The coolest part of the meeting was that we all felt that we wanted to work together to do more for the city of LA besides just helping our own causes. We're currently in discussion about how UCLA Gymnastics can support them with two of the causes they work closest with, the Trevor (anti-bullying) Project, and the LA Teenage Homeless Organization.
Beth (Huntington Beach, CA): I want to express my appreciation for the many causes that your team supports. How do you decide on these and are there other causes the team backs?
Miss Val: My vision is to be a catalyst for bringing a "community" feeling to this big city that we live in. An example of this is one of our latest endeavors. I met with the PR person at our local Bloomingdales, which is the flagship store on the west coast, and they not only want to work with us to help market our team but they were thrilled to hear of our involvement with Camp del Corazon and want to help them as well. The weekend before Pac-10's we are holding 2 showcases/exhibitions at Bloomingdales, Sat. March 12th in their store at 1pm and 3pm. I love the fact that we have connected Bloomingdales with the Camp. Also, as I mentioned in the question above, we are also working with Gym Bar to work with the Trevor Project and LA Homeless cause for teens.
Brenda (Hollywood, CA): I'm thrilled that my love for gymnastics can be combined with philanthropy. Are there other ways to support these causes - corporate sponsors?
Miss Val: We have quite a few different opportunities for corporate sponsors. Please get in touch with me at UCLA so we can chat.
Bronson (Toronto): Do the alumni ever mentor your current team members? What is Tousek doing now? Go Canadian Bruins!
Miss Val: Yes, I bring alumnae in A LOT to speak with our team, share their stories, and inevitably crack up sharing Miss Val, Chris and Foody stories from way back. Yvonne Tousek is in France, working behind the scenes for Cirque and JUST got engaged to a fellow Cirque employee.
Linda (Valencia, CA): My daughter loves to watch college gymnastics, but sometimes I cringe at what I see as failed attempts at "sexy"/trashy choreo. Not the case with UCLA. So, thank you. And what is the key to lovely but not trashy? I'm trying to communicate this to my daughters coach ...
Miss Val: What is the key to "lovely" not "trashy"? Hmmmm - my first question would be, "What is the Intent of the movement?" There probably is a good chance that the choreographer is trying to make the routine sexy and not "lovely". If that is the "intent", then they succeeded. On the other hand, I may push the "sexy" envelope sometimes, but my intention is always to showcase our athletes as powerful, versatile, enticing, exciting women. An example of this is Brittani McCullough's floor routine. I know there have been comments about the part where she's "gyrating"; however, I look at it as a style of dance that is inspired by the music. I certainly didn't choreograph it to make Brittani come across as being provocative or trashy, but then again I wasn't thinking "lovely" either. I simply wanted the movement to build into a frenzy like the music does. All a matter of personal opinion and perspective, I guess.
Jane (LA): My daughter, a mega-gym fan, randomly asked if gymnasts "ever throw up at practice like football players." Can I defer to you on this one, Coach?
Miss Val: What? Does she mean because the football players condition so hard that they throw up? If that's the question then ... I don't think so. During our fall training we condition really hard, and at times a few of the girls feel like they're going to lose it, but no one ever has.
Michael (New York): In dance, iirc, you said you performed better than you practiced. Why is that? Which Bruin(s) had similar qualities of being a stronger competitor?
Miss Val: I just LOVED to perform, and NEVER got nervous. I think a big part of that is because I had an incredible mom who never instilled in me the concept of "failure". If I made a mistake at anything, it wasn't a big deal unless it was intentional or I was just being a brat. I remember performing a solo once and fell right on my bum center stage. I picked myself off the floor, smiled sheepishly at the audience, finished the performance as if nothing had happened and got a standing ovation. A lot of the athletes I've worked with have that similar quality of competing better than they perform, none greater than Ariana Berlin.
Delila (Sydney, Australia): I read in a recent article that you monitor the number of hours that your gymnasts sleep. Have you always done this and do you have guidelines?
Miss Val: Our student-athletes fill out a "tracking sheet" every morning in the training room before they come to the gym. One of the pieces of data we ask for is how much sleep they got. If an athlete hasn't gotten any sleep we're not going to have them train that day. All of the data compiled on the tracking sheet is for us to get a daily assessment of how they're feeling to better determine their training that day and hopefully reduce the risk of injury.
Sarah (Seattle): Hello! In past Q&As you reference "cues" that the girls use, particularly with beam routines. Without revealing specific ones, what exactly are they?
Miss Val: "Cues" are short reminders of what the athlete should be thinking about during their routine. Some athletes have individual cues for each of their skills, like "strong legs" for their flight series, some have cues for the overall feeling they want to have on the event, like "relax, patience".
Jess (DC): Will Lichelle Wong be back on the bars line-up soon? I really like her bar routine.
Miss Val: Yes, we really like her bar routine too. She is one of the best bar workers we've ever had. She has had some unfortunate injuries on her bar dismounts over the years, though, which is causing the problem right now. She doesn't feel that she can compete the double front, half-out without substantial deductions, she doesn't want to compete the plain double front because she hyper-extended both of her knees on that dismount several times, and she's not good at double fly-aways. SO ... she's in the process of learning a rudi. It KILLS me that we don't have her bar routine in our line-up.
