When it was announced in 1991 that she was going to be head
coach of the UCLA women’s gymnastics team, Valorie Kondos
Field was surprised.
But not as much as other coaches in the NCAA.
“It was terrible,” Kondos Field said. “They
were like, “˜How could a powerhouse like UCLA hire a
dancer/choreographer as their head coach?'”
Five national championships later, Kondos Field is still proving
her doubters wrong.
Though she came to UCLA with no prior gymnastics coaching
experience, the former professional ballet dancer picked up
gymnastics with relative ease and has quickly become one of the
most successful coaches in the history of the sport.
Kondos Field will look to add to her legacy when the Bruins
begin competition tonight at the NCAA Championships in Auburn,
Ala., in search of their third consecutive title.
That Kondos Field even has a chance to accomplish such a feat
with the Bruins is a product of her ingenuity.
Hanging up her ballet slippers after a successful professional
career in 1981, Kondos Field sought to find work as a dance
instructor.
Although her efforts were initially unsuccessful, Kondos Field
did accept a position at Agilites, a gymnastics club in Carmichael
as a pianist for the floor exercise.
Within months, she made it clear that her expertise was not in
music, but rather in dance, and she didn’t hesitate to offer
advice to each of the gymnasts about their form.
“Basically, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut,”
Kondos Field said.
Her words did not fall upon deaf ears, and she was hired by
Agilites coach Jim Stephenson as a dance coach.
Stephenson, now co-head coach at the University of Minnesota,
served as Kondos Field’s first mentor in gymnastics.
“He and I connected artistically,” Kondos Field
said. “He took me around event to event and showed me through
an artist’s eye what to look for in each one.”
At the age of 22, Kondos Field was offered a scholarship to
attend UCLA and serve as a dance coach and choreographer for the
UCLA gymnastics program.
“When I was in high school, my dream was to come to UCLA
and play on a team, which was silly because I was a dancer,”
Kondos Field said. “I came here, and I said to myself,
“˜I’ve come as close to my dream as I ever
could.'”
As a dance coach, Kondos Field choreographed balance beam and
floor exercise routines, and it soon became apparent that she had a
knack for the sport.
“I understand body mechanics very well from my background
as a dancer,” she said.
At the time, Kondos Field expressed a desire for more coaching
responsibility and head coach Jerry Tomlinson obliged, offering her
a position as an assistant coach in 1987. Four years later, UCLA
associate athletic director Dr. Judith Holland approached her about
the head coaching position, but Kondos Field was unsure of her next
career step.
“I had no desire to coach,” she said.
But after seeking the advice of her friends and family, Kondos
Field accepted the co-head coaching position with Scott Bull,
expecting it to be a short stint.
Instead of allowing the taunts and whispers of opposing coaches
to bother her, Kondos Field acknowledged her relative inexperience
in the sport and sought to surround herself with the best assistant
coaches. She also attempted to pattern her training style after
other coaches ““ an idea which proved to be unsuccessful.
In her first season at the helm, the Bruins placed fourth at the
regional tournament, failing to qualify for the NCAA
Championships.
Disappointed with the result, Kondos Field reassessed her
coaching techniques and gave herself a second chance.
“If you’re going to be successful,” said
Kondos Field, “you need to be true to yourself and your own
philosophies.”
Rather than mimicking other coaches, she put her own values into
her coaching style, focusing on feeling and movement instead of
technique. After pinpointing her strengths and her purpose, she
began her second season with a new mind-set and her team began to
steadily improve.
“When I stopped trying to be like other coaches, we
consequently began to succeed,” Kondos Field said.
Senior Kristen Maloney described Kondos Field’s eye for
detail and originality, including unique musical choices and dance
elements, as a distinct advantage, saying, “We always get so
many comments about our routines and our presentation.”
Much of that can be attributed to Kondos Field’s seemingly
unusual field of expertise. In addition to the wealth of
information she gathered from her background in dance, Kondos Field
also brought her acute appreciation of fluidity in movement to the
gym.
“It gets down to movement quality,” she said.
“A lot of coaches are aware of the movement quality but they
don’t know how to make it look better.
“I may not know everything technically, but I can feel if
it is wrong. I think from a “˜feeling’ standpoint; I
(know if I) would want to jump higher or straighter.”
World-renowned for her choreography, Kondos Field has
continuously experimented with unique musical selections and dance
elements. She was awarded the Choreographer of the Year Award for
junior Kate Richardson’s floor exercise routine at the 2004
Canadian National Championships last year.
“Choreography is about creating pictures,” Kondos
Field said. “If you’ve done a good job
choreographically, the layperson should leave the arena with a
clear picture of parts of the routine.”
While Kondos Field’s musical and dance background have
undoubtedly helped her teams succeed over the past 15 years, her
personal views and beliefs have helped to develop her team’s
healthy perspective.
While much of gymnastics depends on a subjective score, Kondos
Field communicates to her gymnasts that obtaining a perfect 10 is
not necessarily the goal.
“I try to instill in my gymnasts that your performance
does not equal your self-worth,” Kondos Field said.
Rather, she says, “Your integrity … should determine
whether you feel you have succeeded or not.”