Copyright Christy Linder 2014
This week it’s a Classic Episode with UCLA’s ballet-dancer turned six-time NCAA Championships winning coach, Valorie Kondos-Field. Miss Val chats with Dvora Meyers, Blythe Lawrence, Jessica, and Uncle Tim about:
- The power of an athlete identity as retirement looms
- Collegiate gymnastics as one big life skills class
- The problems with basing self-esteem on performance
- Incentivizing artistry
- Her most embarrassing moment as a dancer
- Why so many of her athletes have the desire to go back to elite after college
- The actual dollar amount and experiential cost of losing NCAA eligibility
- What advice she gave Jordyn Wieber about going pro
- We discover how Miss Val and her former roommate inspired Will & Grace
- Why Canadians thrive in NCAA
- Lastly, she tells the story of the amazing wedding gift she gave to a fan
The Bruin Gymnastics YouTube channel. 15 years of UCLA routines, including the fan favorite, “Floor Files”; individual playlists featuring each gymnasts’ routines for all four years.
Miss Val on Twitter.
UCLA Gymnastics website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
- 69: 2009 World Champion Kayla Williams & Alabama’s Sarah Patterson
- 65: NCAA Judge Dean Ratliff, Early Recruiting & Saving Temple Men’s Gymnastics
- Episode 56: Preventing Abuse in Gymnastics
- Episode 43: The First Ever Panel on LGBT Issues in Gymnastics
- Episode 17: Growing Up In The Soviet Gymnastics System And Training At Round Lake
- Episode 5: Growing up at WOGA
- Episode 3: Russian Regime Change, Fashion Code and a Chat With Anna Li
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