KJ Kindler: Never Satisfied

03 Apr KJ Kindler: Never Satisfied

Posted at 10:50h in 2025 NCAA Headquarters, News & Features by The Inside Gymnastics Team 0 Comments

By The Inside Gymnastics Team

Editorial Contributor

No current NCAA women’s coach has had more success than KJ Kindler. Now in her 19th season at Oklahoma, Kindler has claimed six NCAA titles and finished in the top three 12 times.

In her time at helm, Kindler has taken the Sooners from average to excellence, and her 2025 team once again finds itself poised on the brink of greatness.

We got the Inside scoop on Kindler’s key to success and what she expects from this Sooner squad…

As we approach the end of the season—Regionals, Nationals—what do you see for this Sooner team?

Every single year our goal is to win a National Championship, and I have no problem saying that. I don’t know of any reason to go for runner-up. I can’t imagine anyone else in our position feeling any differently, and I think that’s good. It’s good to want to win.

People like to challenge us—like, their goal is to beat Oklahoma. I wear that fact like a badge of honor. You can say whatever you want about us, put whatever motivations on us you imagine, but at the end of the day that’s something we’ve earned by being the best.

The most hated NFL team in the early 2000s was the New England Patriots, because they kept winning. Now it’s the Chiefs. When you’re the best, people want to beat the best, and for a long time now we’ve been the best.

You’ve talked about Oklahoma having an underdog mentality. How do you maintain that given the consistent level of success you’ve achieved?

Well, we’re No. 2 right now, so it’s very easy. We are the underdogs.

We always train like we’re No. 2, and I think we do that knowing that the Oklahoma Sooners, for a lot of different reasons, are not the media darlings. I think we take a backseat when it comes to media attention, social media hype—all of that.

So, regardless of what’s going on, we will be over in the backroom conditioning, working, sweating. Putting every single thing into every single day. And when you train like you’re No. 2, it’s easy to feel like you’re the underdog.

What makes Oklahoma so special, year after year?

Our team culture creates the opportunity for greatness.

We all know culture can leave you in a blink of an eye. I always tell our seniors that sustaining our culture at the highest level is the most important thing you can do. That culture has been created for you by the people who came before, and your job is to leave it better than you found it, and these seniors have absolutely done that.

Oklahoma University - University of Oklahoma

Speaking of seniors, Jordan Bowers was named the SEC Gymnast of the Year in your first year as part of the conference. To what do you attribute her success?

Jo is just such a consistent person. It’s not surprising that she had the opportunity to win this award. And I think that opportunity, being nominated, is far more important than winning. Because being nominated means you have positioned yourself, through your hard work and effort every single day, and risen to the top of the SEC.

The SEC is a different animal when it comes to gymnastics talent. It is not easy to get noticed, let alone recognized, so just to be on the ballot is an incredible testament to Jordan. So, it wasn’t necessarily winning the award that meant the most to me, as her coach, but seeing her have the opportunity to contend, based on all the hard work she has put in, year after year, and week after week. That’s what we pride ourselves on at Oklahoma: The work that went in. That’s what’s special.

And I will say that a lot of people are under the impression that we nominated our athletes to be considered for Gymnast of the Year, but that is incorrect. They are selected based on NQS (National Qualifying Score). It’s a very fact-based, merit-based system.

At the end of the season, win or lose, what does it take to make you feel satisfied?

I dislike that phrase, win or lose, because it makes it seem like it doesn’t matter. It does matter. We wouldn’t work this hard—wouldn’t compete at all—if it didn’t matter.

I think the work we’ve done, the progress I’ve seen, and the way this team supports each other, how they lift each other up—those are successes. The way we represent ourselves, and our university, is a success. I’m very proud of our team culture. I’m proud of many things, but I don’t think I ever feel completely satisfied. There’s always more to do, elements to improve upon. Maybe that’s the key to success—never being satisfied.

All the Info On the Road to the 2025 Women’s NCAA Championships

Look for Nate’s NCAA Notes and Della’s Inside the MatchUp each week and stay tuned to InsideGym.com and Inside Gymnastics magazine for spotlight features and interviews throughout the 2025 season!

Nate Salsman, Della Fowler, Megan Roth and Christy Sandmaier provide NCAA coverage for Inside Gymnastics.

Photos by Lloyd Smith for Inside Gymnastics magazine.