Weekly diary by Valorie Kondos Field, head coach for UCLA's women's gymnastics team.
 | |
 Previous Entries | |
|
| |
Note: With three NCAA titles in five years, UCLA head coach Valorie Kondos Field has positioned her Bruins as the premier program in collegiate gymnastics. Not only has she consistently recruited the top talent in the world, but she has produced the results. In the past six years alone, Kondos Field has led UCLA to three NCAA titles and one runner-up finish, five Regional titles and three Pac-10 championships.
Feb. 11, 2002
"Be careful what you wish for …"
While "adversity" keeps getting in the path of our Bruins … Yesterday, we jumped on board a big ol' steamroller and rolled right over it.
Faced with a few more circumstances this past week that thinned our starting line-up even more than it already was, our team finally came out and competed, one through six, on every event with determination, confidence and enthusiasm - a "No Nonsense, We're Getting It Done" attitude.
Before the meet I talked to our team about the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for …" The last few years we have been extremely fortunate that we didn't have any serious injuries to our starting line-up. Consequently, our starting line-up competed almost every meet, and the other team members did not get a chance to prove that they were ready as well.
"Be careful what you wish for …". Obviously, no one would ever wish for anything that would keep a competitor out of the line-up. The wish was that we could go through a season where everyone prepared to her own personal best to be emotionally, physically and mentally ready to compete. Our "wish" has certainly come true, as everyone has stepped up and shown they are ready to compete and hit!
Two great examples:
One of our seniors, Lindsey Dong, has had a nagging stress fracture in her foot and hasn't trained (more than conditioning) for the last six weeks. Early on this week she said to me, "My foot isn't getting any better although I've been told I can train through the pain. My team needs vaulters. Can I see if I can vault?" After two training sessions that went O.K. but not great, she came up to me on Friday and said, "Miss Val, I can do it. If you want to put me in, I'll get to my feet." Lindsey Dong started us off on vault. She blasted it, landed squarely on both feet and hobbled back to the end of the runway. Our team was ecstatically appreciative of and thrilled for her effort.
Last week I spoke of Jamie Williams "busting out" on floor in our meet at Arizona. Jamie competed on floor and vault for us yesterday. It was her first time competing in Pauley Pavilion. Obviously, I was concerned about her being able to duplicate her magnificent performance she had in Arizona. When I spoke with her before she was up, I talked about the fact that once you "bust out" you can't backtrack. Her comment to me was, "I understand Miss Val. There's no such thing as busting in." Jamie Williams competed a better vault and floor routine than any of us had ever seen her do!
Lindsey Dong and Jamie Williams were our first two competitors of the meet. Their efforts fueled a fire in our team that burned higher and brighter as the meet went on.
Regardless of whether or not we won or lost that meet, the fact that our team came together, fought hard and was determined to have a great time made me feel like we had won the National Championship title all over again.