Weekly diary by Valorie Kondos Field, head coach for UCLA's women's gymnastics team.
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January 27, 2004
To say "we had a great time in Minnesota" is an understatement. First of all, the cold, the snow, the COLD ... were awesome! I will personally admit to being a total wimp, but then again I get cold when it gets in the 50's in L.A.
Thank you to Jim and Meg Stephenson, co-head coaches for Minnesota, for making sure the gym was nice and toasty and for making our entire experience at their meet an awesome one. The competition arena was great, equipment was top of the line, the fans were extremely enthusiastic for their Minnesota Gophers and yet greatly appreciated the performances that our team put out ... especially the two 10.0's from Kate and Jeanette on vault.
From our purpose and perspective, I couldn't have been more pleased with our team's effort. I was a bit concerned about the short turnaround of our trip and the two-hour time difference, accompanied by the fact that the meet was at 1:00pm. We did, in fact, start warm-ups a bit sluggishly, but once the competition started, our Bruins were right on track.
Contrary to what some may think, there is a method to my "madness" in determining our line-ups. It was important for us to put up back-to-back great performances on the road to start solidifying our team's competitive rhythm and confidence.
The highlights from this meet weren't very noticeable unless you have some knowledge of our individual athletes. To start with, Christie Tedmon came in for us on vault. She has been training a Yurchenko layout in hopes of twisting a full sometime soon. However, last Wednesday I turned to Chris Waller and jokingly/semi-seriously said, "Christie used to train a Yurchenko layout 1/2 before she came to UCLA. You have three days to teach her that vault." She actually did quite a few good ones in training, but once we got to warm-ups in Minnesota she couldn't get to her feet to save her life. Which ... appeared to be exactly the problem. She was trying too hard to get to her feet instead of allowing herself to just do a good vault. It was impressive to see her work through the process in warm-ups and actually get to her feet in the one vault she competed. It's important for an athlete to be able to make changes in the "heat of the moment" instead of freezing up and doing the same things they've done before.
Another highlight for us was Lori Winn on beam. Yes ... Lori fell on beam. However, it's what she did after she fell, during the rest of her routine, that was most important for her growth as an athlete and as a member of a TEAM. The rest of Lori's beam routine after her fall was close to perfect. When she dismounted and came to talk to me, I told her how proud I was of her for not giving anything else away after her fall and how important that was, especially in team competition. I knew she understood what I meant when she kept squeezing my hand long after our high five was over. (too cute)
The other highlight came from, once again, Jamie Williams. Jamie, as anyone who has read anything I've written lately will know, is one of our seniors who hasn't conveyed much confidence in her performances until two weeks ago. This always baffled me because she is a beautiful gymnast, a 4.0 student, and has a ton of friends. Two years ago, Jamie "busted out" and competed a beautiful floor routine in Arizona that scored a 9.85. After that, I talked with her about "busting out" and how huge of a step that was for her, and that she had to understand there's no such thing as "busting back in". Well, through a lot of determination and hard work, Jamie Williams has "busted in" to our beam and floor line-ups and is as confident as anyone else on our team. You can imagine how exciting it is to see the change in her.
To get back to the point, Jamie followed Lori on beam, which was the perfect opportunity for her to experience another part of competing. Feeling the increased pressure that athletes tend to put on themselves when a teammate has fallen, Jamie competed beautifully. In fact, she performed better than she had in Georgia and Arizona.
Please understand, I don't ever want to take anything away from our "guns". Kate Richardson scored her first 10.0 on vault, which is a tremendous accomplishment for her because she's worked very hard this year to make her landings clean. Jeanette Antolin just keeps getting better. She is a "Rock". It continues to thrill all of us to see Kristen Maloney back in the saddle and getting better with each meet. And, Yvonne Tousek is as beautiful as ever.
It's interesting to note that all of these athletes will say the same thing, that all of the highlights that I've mentioned help to make their own performances better. When you don't have to worry about another teammate, it's easier to get into the "flow" or the "zone" or the "fun" (whatever you want to call it) of the competition.
I invite all of you to come out this Sunday to our meet against Arizona State and Cal State University Fullerton. Not only will it be a great competition, but we will be having an exhibition by the World Champion Men's Rhythmic Gymnastics team. It's like Baryshnikov meets Alexei Nemov meets martial arts. It is one of the most impressive artistic /athletic performances I've ever seen.
THEN it's on to root on the Panthers. GO DeShaun, Ricky, and Seidman. However, former Bruins Roman Phifer and J.J. Stokes are on the Patriots team... so hmmmmm... either way it will be a great game AFTER the gymnastics meet. Have you not heard of Tivo?!??!
~miss val