UCLA's six-time NCAA Championship winning coach, Valorie Kondos-Field.Copyright Christy Linder 2014

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 one of the creators of the television show Will and 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