CAL OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE - Women's Gymnastics

Ask A Cal Gymnast

Thank you for your questions this season! The Cal gymnasts have enjoyed your excitement over their program. Make sure to stay up to date on the women's gymnastics team on CalBears.com!

This Week's Questions!
Name: Bear Fan
City: San Rafael, CA
Question: How do teams match-ups determined?
Kendall Zdvorak, Sophomore, Temecula, Calif. --

Lineups for each meet are determined based on consistency during practice and previous competitions. Our coaches put careful consideration into their decisions, taking into account important factors such as the composition and difficulty of each routine.

Name: Molly Wayne
City: Berkeley
Question: Do you like enchiladas?
Kendall Zdvorak, Sophomore, Temecula, Calif. --

Hi Molly! Enchiladas are not one of my favorite foods, although my mom's enchiladas can't be beat! They are good to have in moderation.

Name: Kylie
City: Concord

Question: I watched you do gymnastics a few years ago. Are you still doing that full in on floor? You so looked so powerful competing it. And if so how do you train for that skill?

Elyse Wong, Senior, Honolulu, Hawaii --

I've actually never competed a full-in on floor, but I've played around with it a little, and it's a fun skill to do. In order to train for this skill, I would practice a lot of full timers onto stacked mats to get the feeling of twisting on the first flip and anticipating another flip after the full. You should also be very comfortable with double tucks because this will help with your air awareness, and body position while taking off and rotating. Then just practicing it into the pit a lot initially and slowly adding more mats as you get more comfortable and consistent will help you get the skill.

Name: Nicole
City: Burlington

Question: I am currently in a level 7 provincial level in Canada. Do you think if I continue at a provincial level I will be able to get into a US college?

Elyse Wong, Senior, Honolulu, Hawaii --

Yes, you can definitely get into a US college if you continue progressing in your provincial level. There are many gymnasts from Canada who are competing collegiately in the US and are doing awesome! We have our very own Canadian on our Cal team, Lydia, who is amazing! Just remember to keep working hard and have fun! Good luck!

Name: Tia
City: Toronto

Question: Congratulations to the Golden Bears Women's Gymnastics Team on making it to Regionals! I hope you do very well, and gain valuable experience and confidence from it! You deserve to be successful! How do you feel as a team now that you've come to almost the end of the 2007 season, on how you met your expectations? And how do you see your prospects for next season?

Nicki Wells, Junior, Auckland, New Zealand --

Hi Tia - Thanks for your message. It's awesome to know that we have support so far away! I wish you could come and see us in the gym right now. We are having so much fun, and are definitely pumped for regionals. We had a few meets this season that didn't go exactly how we would have liked, but these meets fired us up and we always came back stronger. This just shows what a strong, determined team we are. This is the deepest, healthiest team I have seen at the end of a season in the three years that I have been here. It is just really exciting now. I am really looking forward to next year and as I will be a senior next year, I plan to really work with the team on carrying on the momentum we have created this season into the next. We are on our way up! Name: Boon
City: NZ
Question: Nicki Wells, How do you cope with school and gym being so far away from home?
Nicki Wells, Junior, Auckland, New Zealand --

Hey Boon - I think that growing up a gymnast taught me time-management skills as I had to fit in 30 hours of gym a week around regular school and homework. By carrying on these good habits I manage to get everything done and even have some time left over for having fun. Being so far from home isn't as hard as it may seem. It's true what they say about time flying when you're having fun. I'm always so busy that I don't really have enough time to miss home that much. I go home once a year for a couple of weeks and love the time I have there, and I think I appreciate a whole lot more than if I was closer to home and got to go back more. I think that being a part of a team helps a lot as well, as I have been "adopted" by many of my teammates families, whom I visit for various holidays. It's nice to know that I have former teammates who aren't too far away as well. I even got to compete against one who is at BYU earlier this year which was a lot of fun. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have here and wouldn't give it up for anything. There are so many good things about it, that being so far from home is just a minor detail. Thanks for you interest and GO BEARS!

Name: William
City: Irvine, CA
Question: What kind of post season training will the team do to improve its performance on beam and UB?
Tiffany Tam, Sophomore, San Jose, Calif. --

As a gymnast I feel that bars and beam are the hardest events to be consistent on because unlike floor and vault you can't really use adrenaline, there's the element of balance and staying on top of the apparatus. Beam has been one of our weaker events this season but we have definitely been improving. For next season we hope to build off this season by doing routines during the summer as well as post season. We have great beam workers coming in next season and hopefully that would contribute to an even more successful year. On bars we will be working on cleaner landings and like beam building off of this season's performance. So all in all post season training will include doing routines all summer, working on consistency as well as learning new skills and this will hopefully help us improve our scores tremendously.

Name: Aya
City: Berkeley

Question: First off I think you guys are awesome! Is it hard to juggle school work and gym? You guys are sooo cool!!

Tiffany Tam, Sophomore, San Jose, Calif. --

School and gymnastics are both very important aspects of our lives and sometimes it is hard to juggle both of them. Since all of us have been doing gymnastics for 14 plus years we've gotten used to doing homework late and always being busy. I think that gymnastics is actually very helpful in the sense that it teaches time management and responsibility. So I guess it's a little bit of both, it's definitely hard but at the same time it's nothing a person can't handle and at the same time. Thanks for being such a great fan! GO BEARS!!!

Name: Mary A.
City: Fremont
Question: Is it possible to walk on to the gymnastics team at Cal?
Vanna Rocchi, Sophomore, Oroville, Calif. -

Absolutely! In fact, I walked on to the Cal team as a freshman, along with five others. Walk-on athletes have the same opportunities and responsibilities as the scholarship athletes, just without the scholarship. You can even earn a scholarship as the years go by, like some of our current gymnasts have done.

Name: Emily
City: Berkeley
Question: What is your favorite skill? And how do you perfect it?
Vanna Rocchi, Sophomore, Oroville, Calif. -

My favorite skill is on bars is a jaeger. If you don't know what that is, it's where you do a front giant on high bar, swing around and then do a front flip off, and catch the high bar again. It is a lot of fun. It's a big adrenaline rush. My jaeger isn't perfect, yet, but to get there, I practice daily and concentrate on making each one feel like it should. My teammates and coaches help me out when I don't know the right corrections to make.

Name: Edna Jolene
City: Windsor, CA

Question: I love to watch your team compete and I try to make it to every home meet. Joanna is one of my favorite to watch because her skills are so exciting and she looks so long and stretched out on the events!! She is probably one of the tallest gymnasts I have ever seen. My mom says that I am going to be tall, too, but I still want to do gymnastics. Is there a height limit for gymnasts? Thanks for taking time to post questions and answers on this website.

Jessica Kelley, Sophomore, Los Altos, Calif. --

Edna, Gymnastics is made for people of all sizes, so there is no height cut-off. Yes, there might be certain skills that may be more difficult for a tall gymnast to do, but you can always find a way that works. Don't ever let you height discourage you to fulfill your dreams of being a great gymnast. Just keep working hard and everything will pay off!

Name: Tia
City: Toronto

Question: How do you qualify for regionals? Which teams are eligible for the regionals which take place at Berkeley on April 14th?
Jessica Kelley, Sophomore, Los Altos, Calif. --

Tia, Each team takes an average of three home scores and three away scores. This determines where you stand in the rankings. The average is referred to as the RQS (Regional Qualifying Score). Only small amount from each region is able to go to the Regional competition.