UCLA gymnastics adds new twist to 2015 season
Redshirt senior Samantha Peszek will be competing in her final season as a college gymnast. (Katie Meyers/Daily Bruin senior staff)
By Julie Song
Jan. 8, 2015 6:24 a.m.
It’s the season of somersaults, jumps and handstands but with more pizzazz.
“We don’t just have the talent. We got personalities, and they all got their own unique stamp. I think people are going to fall in love with them individually,” said coach Valorie Kondos Field.
UCLA gymnastics gears up for its upcoming season as it heads to Oregon State on Monday for its first meet of the season. The first meet will be unveiled at 6 p.m. and will be televised on Pac-12 Networks. Following the season opener, the Bruins will compete in their first home meet of the season on Jan. 19 at 1 p.m.
“I am super excited and ready to get the season started,” said freshmen Napualani Hall.
The team, in preparation for the upcoming season, has been switching up some of its tactics and adopting a new philosophy compared to previous years.
“We decided that we wanted to come out 100 percent prepared, so we have moved up our whole training about two months, so that they are fully prepared to go out to our first meet and be one of the highest-ranked teams in the country,” Kondos Field said.
In addition, the team has bumped up its routine exercises to ensure more time to keep skills in check, practice and execute before the season starts.
“We are only focusing on our first meet, and we are coming out to win that meet,” Kondos Field said. “(The team) came back Sept. 7 far more prepared than they have (been) in the past, and they were doing full beam routines by the time that they got back on Sept. 7. We don’t even start full beam routines until November.”
The Bruins said they want to stay focused on their own game as they start their competition season.
“We are just really working on their mindfulness and being able to produce calm, confident-but-enthusiastic minds,” Kondos Field said.
Individually, the gymnasts have been focusing more on their mental game before the meet. The start of the season also brings a different type of excitement to both returning gymnasts who had to redshirt for previous years because of injuries and also for gymnasts who are just starting their college career at UCLA. Hall, in her first year on the team, said that she is anxious to get started.
“I have been just focusing more on a lot of mental conditioning, making sure that my body is OK, and a lot of back rehab, just trying to be smart with my body and my gymnastics,” Hall said. “And as for my personal goal, I would like to contribute as much I can to the team goal (of winning the national championship) and be the first freshman to get a 10.”
Similarly, coming back for her fifth season at UCLA, redshirt senior Samantha Peszek said she looks forward to wrapping up her college career on a high note.
“I just felt that I have unfinished business since one of my goals was to win the national championship as a team and I still haven’t done that, and with this group of individuals it is definitely possible. So I couldn’t turn down that opportunity,” Peszek said. “I am excited to be back this year with such a great team.”
The team appears to be unified in its goal of winning the program’s seventh national championship.
“We have a lot of gamers on our team and a lot of people really excited for the competition and want to win,” Peszek said. “And that’s exciting for me because I obviously want to be part of that.”
Before the first meet of the season, Kondos Field instilled a sense of confidence that she said these gymnasts deserve.
“We have prepared very well, and all of them should be very confident starting this season because they have prepared so well; there’s nothing that they have not done – mentally, physically, emotionally – to come out and compete right out of the gates really well,” Kondos Field said.
