Graceful Exit: Part 2

Part 2 of our in-depth exit interview with World Champion and NCAA star Hollie Vise. If you missed Part 1, you can read it here.

INSIDE: Is it fair to say you arrived in Norman unprepared?

VISE: At the moment I didn’t make the Olympics I thought, ‘Now I’m going to be a teenager and do whatever I want.’

Was I out of shape when I got here? Oh yeah, I was completely out of shape. It would have been one thing if I’d quit doing gymnastics but kept up with my cardio and conditioning. But I didn’t do any of that. I didn’t do anything. I was very unprepared.

Everyone who says I was out of shape is right. Very much so.

INSIDE: So what was that first day back in the gym like?

VISE: Well, my first day in the gym, the coaches weren’t here yet, because they didn’t [start] until later in the summer, so I had a little bit of time. But I was still scared to try stuff, because I didn’t want anyone to see me.

I would consider my first real day the day K.J. (Kindler) and Lou (Ball) got here, because they actually made me do stuff and, umm, it was terrible. Oh my gosh! I can’t even explain.

I was just embarrassed. And it was so much harder than I thought it was going to be.

You know, things you thought were so simple. Like, I could do a giant on bars in my sleep normally, and I couldn’t make one. I was like, ‘Oh my God, what happened?’

I knew it was going to be hard, but it was worse than I thought.

INSIDE: Did you ever think about giving up?

VISE: Yeah, I kind of did for a while. From what I could do at that moment I didn’t know how I’d ever get back to a place I could do good and compete. I think that other people felt the same thing: that I wasn’t going to make it back.

It was really hard over [that first] summer. But there was one day where I just sat down and said, ‘I’m going to do it. I’m going to find a way to make it work. I’m not going to just walk away from this and take the easy way out.’ I was going to take the [opportunity] and make the most if it. From then on I just kept going.

And I started seeing progress, and once I started seeing progress that kept me going. That was probably two or three months in.

INSIDE: Nunno recruited you but, before you started school, he’d left OU. Was that disconcerting?

VISE: I didn’t actually ever hear [from Steve,] but I called Haley DeProspero, who I knew from Elite and my recruiting trip, and asked her what was going on and she said, ‘Yeah, we don’t know who the coach will be.’

I was really scared.

INSIDE: Did you have an immediate connection with Kindler? Was there any friction?

VISE: I wouldn’t say that. I would say that, in the beginning, obviously she had different expectations [than Nunno], which is understandable. Not many coaches would say, ‘Just do beam and I’m okay with that.’

She said she would like for me to train beam and bars and eventually add another event. I knew that would be really hard and challenging, but I was okay with it. I mean, I never fought her on it. I never said, ‘I’m only doing beam and that’s it.’

I went along with it and did my best. She knew I was out of shape and she did everything she could to help me. As long as I was giving it my best, and trying my hardest to be where I needed to be, she was always fine with me. If she noticed I was slacking, yeah, it was a problem, but that’s understandable.

I think in the beginning it was a lot of her pushing me and me not wanting to do it, just because it was so hard. Doing the treadmill for 50 minutes—I definitely didn’t want to do that. But as I started seeing results I realized she knew what she was doing and she knew how to get me to where I wanted to be.

She’s such an awesome coach. She knows how to push you the right way, without burning you out. I respect her for everything she does and we have a really great relationship.

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