Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:00:00) – The views, thoughts and opinions expressed by hosts and guests on this podcast are their own and do not represent the views, thoughts and opinions of UCLA athletics or UCLA gymnastics. The content of this podcast is strictly for informational purposes only and should not be considered professional advice.
Ciena Alipio (00:00:18) – I last year think I would have just kind of put my head down and worked instead of like going to someone for help, letting them know what was going on and letting them know, like where I felt like I was struggling, really did help kind of bridge all of the gaps. And I think my relationship with the coaches have definitely grown so much since last year. That truly is like one of the reasons why, like I have now like consistently been in beam for the past few weeks.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:00:46) – Welcome to the Bruins on Deck edition of the Resilience to Brilliance podcast, where you’ll be inspired by riveting behind the scenes stories from current members of UCLA gymnastics. I’m your host, Kim Hamilton Anthony. Here we go. Ciena Alipio is a four time US National Team member and a sophomore at UCLA.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:01:12) – She is a queen on the balance beam, having won silver medals on the event at the 2018, 2019 and 2022 USA Championships, so it is no surprise that she is consistently in the beam lineup for UCLA. I spent time with Ciena and she shared how she has demonstrated resilience in her short career at UCLA and how the journey is actually helping her to not only be a better athlete, but also a better person. Let’s take a listen to what she had to say.
Hi Ciena. Welcome to Resilience to Brilliance. I appreciate you being on the podcast.
Ciena Alipio (00:01:54) – Hi. So happy to be here.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:01:57) – I’m happy to have you. So Ciena, I want to jump into the interview by starting out with a little bit about your background. Now, I’m told that you were a dancer. Is that true?
Ciena Alipio (00:02:09) – Yes.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:02:10) – Tell me more about that. I would love to hear it.
Ciena Alipio (00:02:11) – Yeah, I started dance when I was. I want to say three. I was actually put into a pretty, like, heavily focused ballet school before gymnastics.
Ciena Alipio (00:02:24) – It definitely has shaped how my gymnastics looks now versus like how it would have looked had I not done dance. I did like strict ballet training up until I want to say I was 9 or 10. And then I moved to a different dance studio where I did contemporary lyrical jazz, and I did a couple more years of ballet, but then was just done, done with like the strict ballet,, and really wanted to kind of venture away from that.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:02:52) – Were you on point at all?
Ciena Alipio (00:02:55) – No. That was like one of my biggest goals., I wish I had gotten there, but I would have had to be in the studio more and not at the gym. And so it turned into one or the other.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:03:08) – Now, a lot of times gymnast will start when they’re 2 or 3 years old. But you started in dance. So what happened to transition you into the gymnastics world?
Ciena Alipio (00:03:19) – I started off with one of those. It was like a DVD set that had the ballet mat and the bar and.
Ciena Alipio (00:03:28) – I was doing that at home all the time, and that’s why my mom put me in ballet. But then at the same time, or like around the same time, I started flipping around on my couch, in my bed and my parents bed, and my mom thought I was she was like, you’re going to hurt yourself. Like, we need to do something about this. And so it wasn’t it was probably like only a few months later that I got put in gymnastics. So like, there wasn’t a large difference. But I did start with dance. Yeah.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:03:55) – You trained with one of your current UCLA teammates, Emily Lee, when you were young, how instrumental was that relationship in you choosing to come to UCLA?
Ciena Alipio (00:04:06) – It helped a lot. It really did. I went I was I trained with Emily up until we, I was about 16. I then moved to Minnesota because of Covid, and it was just a better situation for me just training wise because I knew, like, I had a couple more goals I really wanted to accomplish before coming to school.
Ciena Alipio (00:04:28) – So but those years while I was in Minnesota, I really did I before I moved, I thought, oh, I’m, I’m going out of state for college. And I thought I was going as far as possible., but once I moved away, I was like, oh, no, I need to be back in California. Like, I want to be on the West Coast or closer to home. And I knew that this was like where my support system was. So knowing that someone I had grown up with. Was already here. A lot of the girls I had known for a few years prior to coming, and I think that just helped me feel more comfortable and more at home, and like that really did help drive the decision to like come.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:05:14) – Good to know. Now I want to take you back a little bit. You moved from California to Minnesota to continue to do gymnastics because of Covid. Explain to me why you had to make that move, and I wonder if it’s the obvious, but I just want to hear that from you.
Ciena Alipio (00:05:30) – Yeah. So because California’s restrictions about training were so strict. We were in and out of the gym all the time, and then it turned into us driving 45 minutes away to go to a different county to train… that, like, I just didn’t feel as though I was getting everything that I really needed. And I was also coming back from an injury. And so I knew just the amount of time I was spending in the gym just wasn’t enough. And I really did want to make trials the next year and make it back on national team. And I think that was the main driving force for me to move and find somewhere where I could be in the gym that I, for an amount of time that I felt was sufficient. And so then that’s where I started to, like, branch out and talk to other people and find the best fit for me.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:06:25) – I see, and it was a blessing in disguise because then you realize, hey, you know what? I don’t think I want to live that far from home and, you know, be away for four years.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:06:36) – So you talked about Emily and you knew some other people who were at UCLA. Now, I also read that one of the reasons you chose UCLA was also because of the diversity at the school. Can you tell me why that was important for you?
Ciena Alipio (00:06:52) – Yeah, kindergarten through eighth grade. As a private school, it’s predominantly white. It was where like I needed to be at the time. But when I would go home and, like, goes around my family. My dad’s side of the family is Filipino and my mom’s side is Native American, and I think so. When I came home, I knew deep down I knew who I was and I knew what. My background was and like who I was as a person, and I think I just knew I needed to be somewhere where I could fully embrace that. And my mom has very much like instilled in us. You learn a lot from a lot of different people. And I think just kind of immersing myself in that and like just being around different cultures and different people really has helped me grow as a person.
Ciena Alipio (00:07:42) – And I think freshman Ciena versus today’s Ciena. And I think that can. We can use this as a main reason as to why that’s how I am now.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:07:57) – So I’m going to dig into that a little bit. What is the biggest difference you’ve noticed in yourself because you’ve been able to be in a diverse environment?
Ciena Alipio (00:08:05) – I think I see things in a different way now. I’m much more curious about other things now with certain aspects of just like being in different classes and like. Being with so many different people that like in a learning aspect, I’m like, okay, like, how are you like memorizing the material or like, what are you doing differently that’s working for you? That’s not working for me. And I think that is something I’ve also been learning a lot in the gym, too, with just how everybody else grew up in Club Gym., and I think, honestly, I have just been just truly like, trying to gel myself with everybody else and just absorb everything. And I think I have just been truly learning from everybody around me.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:08:52) – That’s really good because everyone has a different perspective. You may all do the same sport, you may all attend the same school, and you may have some of the same classes, but everyone’s going to have a different perspective based on their background story. And so you get to teach people about you, who you are, who your family is, and how you think and and perceive things. And then they get to teach you the same. It’s a beautiful thing, I like that. So you have a very interesting resilience story. I’m going to ask you about the hand injury that you had to deal with at UCLA. Can you walk me through that?
Ciena Alipio (00:09:33) – This started really early on my freshman year. I was. Two days into official practices here. And we were just I was working my bar dismount like normal. And we were trying to, like, really hone in on my technique into my tap. And it was just a freak accident where I peeled off at the bottom on, like, the swing for my dismount.
Ciena Alipio (00:10:00) – And I actually got my like, my hand got caught behind me,, and my knee kind of just like drove my hand farther into the mat, which ended up dislocating my thumb. So. We tried all of the rehab to, like, avoid the end product, which was surgery., and we tried everything. And then I just realized, okay, like this. This is working and my hand’s getting stronger, but the pain isn’t going away, so. That’s how we ended up having surgery. But I was so focused, I was like, there’s no way I’m not competing this year. And so as I can’t sit out for an entire season, it’s not happening. So I like. I was so determined to figure out a routine because I came here to do gymnastics. Like, I’m not not going to do it so.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:10:58) – Well…The thing is, a lot of people, many would say, you know what, I’ll just sit out, redshirt my first year or, you know, I will just come back at the end of season.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:11:09) – But what was it in you that made you so tenacious and and just like, yeah, I have this injury, but I have to figure out a way to still contribute to the team. Where do you where did you get that?
Ciena Alipio (00:11:23) – I think it was very much the elite mindset coming in. I had just come off of US championships. I had had a week in between US championships and moving to college. So I was still very much in that. Like you have to do it like there. There’s not like another option. And I think that was like, yeah, exactly. It is just what you do. And it was like that little voice in the back of my head being like. Know you’re competing. Just know you’re competing like you have to be ready to go. And I think that really did help. Like just get me to come in every day and like, really work for that.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:12:09) – So tell me about the innovative way that you figured out. Hey, I still can contribute.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:12:14) – I can’t really use my hand, but there was something that you could do.
Ciena Alipio (00:12:21) – Yeah. I mean, beam has always been my event. I have. It. It started off as floor just because. Going back to the dance aspect of my life, I was always able to do the choreography like and just have a more dance aspect to that., but I mean, I’ve always struggled with like the power of events and like creating that power. So once I learned how to kind of gel, all of that being really did become my thing. And. My elite beam routine was jam packed with hundreds of skills, and I just. I felt like even though I didn’t have my hand, like there was something I could do that, like, didn’t involve my hand. So coming in, I had an aerial layout layout and then a handspring two foot, two two foot layout,, which I thought I was going to do one of the two. And then the coaches were like, well, what if we try this? Just this brand new series, the front aerial back tuck.
Ciena Alipio (00:13:27) – And I was like, well, I never thought about it, but I can try. And I think we just played around with a whole bunch of different combinations of skills and finally found one that worked, which was a blessing in disguise because I think now I’m utilizing it again this year. So…
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:13:43) – Nice. So did you compete a front aerial before? Or that series before. Had you done it or did you just learn the skill?
Ciena Alipio (00:13:54) – I had never competed the front arrow back tuck, but I had done front aerials., that was in my routine the year before, and but I hadn’t done a back tuck on the high beam probably since I was like 12. So it was like, you want me to do a back tuck out of this? Like, and I think kind of getting over that hump was like, funny to me because I was like, you learn the skill when you’re so young. And then having to, like, kind of reteach yourself was. A whole new aspect of that.
Ciena Alipio (00:14:25) – And then also, like I had never gone front to back, so then trying to find that rhythm was a little different and I think. That also just like was a whole new learning curve for me that I did not expect to like, have to learn.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:14:41) – And then your dismount.
Ciena Alipio (00:14:44) – Yes.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:14:45) – You didn’t have to use your hands.
Ciena Alipio (00:14:47) – I learned my gainer full the year before my last year of elite. So I was like, I was dealing with like, yeah, I was dealing with feet injuries and like, just like ankles. And so we found this an elite was a C, which with the rest of my beam routine, like we weren’t really concerned about it. And this was what was going to save my body to be able to do all around and definitely was like, interesting to learn. Like it’s a very you don’t see it a lot. So it was definitely harder to learn because like, there wasn’t a lot of videos I could watch of other people doing it. And so it was very much like, do it and just see what happens that…
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:15:33) – take a risk.
Ciena Alipio (00:15:34) – It was take a risk and like just kind of trust the process. And I really I’m so, so grateful that I have that dismount now. Truly, like I did not I can’t take credit for that. That was my club coach that like was like, let’s try it. Yes.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:15:51) – It’s and it worked out. That was good.
Ciena Alipio (00:15:53) – Yes.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:15:54) – So that is an incredible resilience story because a lot of people may have, as I said earlier, may have just, you know, just laid back and hey, why don’t I just sit out this year? But you were still able to contribute to the team. And I love that you just continued to have that elite mindset. And you said, hey, you know what? I’m going to do something. And I wonder if there are other opportunities in your life that you’ve had to be resilient that you might share about.
Ciena Alipio (00:16:27) – Funny enough, I had to do the same thing again this year.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:16:30) – Oh, I didn’t know that.
Ciena Alipio (00:16:32) – Yeah, yeah. So I actually had surgery on my knee earlier during pre-season.
Ciena Alipio (00:16:40) – I mean, again, it was just like a 1 in 1,000,000 chance that this was going to happen. It wasn’t at all how I thought this video was going to go after last year. I was so set on the fact that I was going to be doing more than just being this year, of course. And. Out of the blue. I mean, I felt my knee kind of go out and I was just I didn’t think much of it. I kind of just continued practice. The next day I came in and I was like, I’m hurting really bad. And I looked down and my knee was huge. And so actually like. That too was like. Another just big curveball thrown my way. And I ended up getting fully cleared. About two weeks before season started.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:17:34) – Oh my Goodness.
Ciena Alipio (00:17:35) – I got my Beam routine together in like a week and a half, and I was put in lineups at in Vegas, which was our very first meet this year, which I mean, I personally wasn’t I was not expecting that.
Ciena Alipio (00:17:53) – . Everybody was telling me that, like, they’re like, we trust you. We know you got this. Like, this is your event. And in Vegas I did, I fell and. We came back and I was extremely hard on myself. I was down on myself that entire week. I was. Very much like pulling myself away. It felt at first that it was like I wasn’t ready, it wasn’t my time and I think I psyched myself out. So I ended up, I had a very deep conversation with the coaches, and I was I didn’t compete that next weekend, and we got back into the gym the next week and was like, okay, what do we need to do for me to feel confident and for me to really put my best foot forward. And from then, I think that switch of like trying to find what works best for me, especially dealing with a different body part this time around, really was the key to the rest, to leading up to the day.
Ciena Alipio (00:19:01) – I last year think I would have just kind of put my head down and worked instead of like going to someone for help. And I think letting them know what was going on and letting them know, like where I felt like I was struggling, really did help kind of bridge all of the gaps. And I think my relationship with the coaches have definitely grown so much since last year. And I think that that truly is like one of the reasons why, like, I have now like consistently been in beam for the past few weeks.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:19:30) – Wonderful.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:19:31) – Oh, yeah. So tell me, what was it about what the coaches said to you or did to you that may have been the key, or at least the main key that helped you to overcome that hurdle and get back out there.
Ciena Alipio (00:19:48) – Yeah, I think. Like from Janelle. The biggest thing was. I just wasn’t acting like myself. Like I wasn’t the smiley like. Like light energy that like we typically have in the gym. And she was like, I like all of them, were very like concerned.
Ciena Alipio (00:20:07) – And they were like, what? Like, what do we need to do to help you? And I think hearing it from somebody else really did put it into perspective for me. And I was like, oh, you’re right. I have been like really down on myself recently and like. For me, it felt like I was putting my head down and working, but in reality, like I was just being so hard on myself that I couldn’t take those steps forward to, like, fix the problem. And I think once I kind of heard that and they all kind of understood where I was coming from, like I went to Autumn, who we came up with a a solution and a different routine that I felt confident in. And so in Vegas, I completed the aerial layout, step out. And after that, like the the confidence just wasn’t there. And I think I just wasn’t fully trusting of my knee yet. So switching back to the front aerial layout step out was. A way better change for me, and I think after this season I’d love to go back to the aerial layout, step out and just see where we’re at and just try again.
Ciena Alipio (00:21:16) – But I think right now what’s best for me and like what’s best for the team is just to keep with what I’m confident in.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:21:25) – As I was listening to you share just your experience, it reminded me of the fact that sometimes we aren’t able to see ourselves and what’s really going on because we’re so focused inward. So the fact that your coaches were able to tell you, hey, here’s what we’re seeing. You’re not the same person. You’re not the same happy person that we’re used to seeing. And let’s, let’s, let’s talk about that and let’s see what we can do to get you back on track. That support system is so key to being resilient. Now I think about the person who has had continuous setbacks, that person who may be really hard on themselves because they’ve experienced some type of, I don’t want to say failure because we learned from our failures, but experienced something that is less than what they expected. I’ll put it that way. How do you encourage them to continue to stay in the fight, to continue to push past that discouragement? And and how do you encourage them to not be so hard on themselves? What do they need to do?
Ciena Alipio (00:22:39) – I personally like to help.
Ciena Alipio (00:22:44) – Put people in like a different perspective. So for me, when I’m getting really hard on myself, I like to put myself in the shoes of 5 to 10 year old Ciena, who didn’t know this was where she was going to end up and like, didn’t know that she was going to have such an impact and sit there and be like. Would she be proud of what I’m doing right now? I think that this year has been a game changer for me. I’ve shared that with a lot of the girls on the team, and eight year old Ciena had confidence through the roof, and that is something that I really needed at the beginning of this year. So I think kind of going back to like where it all started, why you’re doing what you’re doing really does. Help change your mindset and really like just put into perspective how far you’ve come and like for me like how grateful I am of like where I’m at right now.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:23:45) – That’s really good because sometimes we forget all the progress and we just see what’s happening today.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:23:53) – That’s good stuff. Great advice. Ciena, great advice. So I’d like to end our interview with a question that I’m asking everyone. And that is what does living in BrillianceMode look like for you?
Ciena Alipio (00:24:08) – I think for me, living in BrillianceMode is really. Inspiring those around me. Who don’t know, like what they’re truly capable of and like kind of bringing that out of them, whether that’s in school, gym, just life in general. I think recently I’ve been really trying to like, help kind of bring people out of their shell, because I think I’ve realized that the more I help bring other people out of their shell, like I open up more and it’s helped me grow as a person. And I think I’ve just been a lot more myself recently. And I think that’s been like one of the biggest changes that I’ve, like, really embraced.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:24:54) – What I hear you saying is that you’re using your own experience to help others. The tough things that you’ve been through, you can see it now in others when someone is going through them as well, and you’re utilizing your gifts to help them.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:25:09) – It’s a beautiful thing.
Ciena Alipio (00:25:12) – Thank you.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:25:13) – Well, Ciena, thank you very much for your time. It has been wonderful talking with.
Ciena Alipio (00:25:18) – Thank you for having me.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:25:18) -. Oh, it’s been a pleasure talking with you. And, uh, we’ll stay in touch, okay?
Ciena Alipio (00:25:24) – Yeah. Of course.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:25:26) – Take care.
Kim Hamilton Anthony (00:25:32) – Thanks for listening. If you want to learn more about Ciena Alipio. Check out our show notes on InBrillianceMode.com/podcast, and to connect with the UCLA gymnastics team on Instagram. Follow them at UCLA gymnastics.
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