Monday morning UCLA gymnastics coach Valorie Kondos Field stood pensively at Jack F. Yates Gymnasium watching her squad train in their last practice of the season. The optimism in Kondos Field was evident as the gymnasts stretched and worked on their routines.
“It’s our job to do the best we can to get them loose and competing with conviction and confidence,” Kondos Field said. “They’re ready.”
After qualifying for Nationals at the NCAA Regionals, No. 7 UCLA has had a week and a half to train for what it has been preparing for all season. The focus this week has been on distinguishing the team assignments for each individual event.
The assignments, also referred to as intrasquads, are a way for each gymnast to compete among each other so that they can have a chance to evaluate themselves. This has been a challenging training format for the Bruins, as gymnasts perform their events and are judged by their own coaches.
“They have to hit all their routines in a row before they move on to the next assignment,” Kondos Field said. “The workouts have just been really energized.”
The Bruin squad this year is a fairly young one. With seven new freshmen on the squad, only nine Bruins have experienced the pressure of the NCAA Championship from last season.
Freshman Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs performed under high pressure before coming to UCLA, representing her native Canada at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. But to her, the stresses are incomparable because the team element makes all the difference.
“The main difference between the Olympics and the NCAA is the team,” Hopfner-Hibbs said. “It’s a different kind of pressure because in the Olympics you want to do it for yourself because of how hard you have been working since you were 10 or however young you’ve started to train. Now you want to do it because you want it for the team.”
For senior Ariana Berlin, the season-ending meet will be one of the most bittersweet moments. Berlin, who will be performing for the last time as a Bruin, hopes to make the most of Nationals. And as the team’s veteran, Berlin feels the responsibility to talk to the team’s freshmen.
“We don’t want to put any more pressure on (the freshmen),” Berlin said. “If we do what we do at practice, we can win the NCAA. It’s important to keep everyone confident and calm.”
Kondos Field and the other coaches believe the squad is strong-minded.
“They’re really fun to go to battle with,” Kondos Field said. “It’s a different atmosphere than I’ve experienced in the last years.”