Coaching Gymnast the Right Way
A challenge to gymnastics coaches and others in the sport of gymnastics to provide the kind of program gymnasts deserve.
Let’s not get started off on the right foot. Let’s just go off. The question and the challenge here is are you man enough. Just step back for a moment, ladies. There will be plenty for you to get angry about, later. We’re talking to male coaches, you know, the ones with the man-sized egos.
Look in the Mirror
You see, men, there is a problem in America with the coaching. And you, my friends, are looking at it in the mirror, everyday. And the true question is, are you man enough to face the truth? Can you see your ego is running the show? And can you change it?
Can You Quit Burning Out Gymnasts?
The true question is can you stop burning out young athletes? Can you stop being so serious? Can you quit taking yourself so seriously? Can you quit taking the fun out of the sport?
Gymnastics is Inherently Fun – Don’t Mess It Up
Yes, the fun. That innate quality, that the sport of gymnastics had before you were ever involved in it. Flying through the air, flipping and twisting is what drives those young gymnasts through the doors of the gyms of America.
You Are Not the Important One in the Sport
It is not you, your reputation or your training program. It is not you with your serious, unsmiling self, dictatorial ways, and your rigidity. It is not your State Champions or your girl who placed third at Regionals on Bars or your girl who qualified for Nationals, (well, USAIGC Nationals) or whatever.
They Only Put Up With You So They Can Have Fun and Enjoy the Sport
They are there and putting up with you because the sport of gymnastics is so inherently fun that it takes, even you, years to drive the fun out of it for them. But you always manage to do so. Sooner or later.
If You Have Said Any of the Following, You Are the Problem
- “They’re not giving me the respect I deserve.”
- “My way or the highway.”
- “This is serious business and we’ll tolerate no fun and games when it’s time to work.”
- “You don’t take this sport seriously enough.”
- “No talking.”
- “Don’t get smart.”
- “No smiling during practice.”
- “You have to yell at them. They won’t do anything if you don’t keep on them every minute.”
- “You’re a waste of my time.”
- “You’re landing short on your double backs every time. Keep doing them until you get it right. And quit limping.”
- “She’ll never make it.”
- “You’re not trying.”
- “I can already tell which ones are not going to make it. The rest might as well give up now.”
Who Do You Think You Are?
But more importantly, who are you really? Are you someone who has already personally been responsible for the complete development of an internationally ranked Elite?
Sometimes They are Great in Spite of You, Not Because of You
No, you’re not. (If you are, feel free to stop reading now. I wasn’t talking to you. Check that, I am talking to you. It was the gymnast who got to be the Elite. If it were only you, all the gymnasts on your team would be Elite. Give the gymnast the credit and listen up.)
Maybe You Only Think You Can Create an Olympian
And wait a minute. I was talking to you. You, there, the one who thinks that even if you haven’t done it, yet, you know just how it’s done. Your way. That gymnast, if she would just do everything you tell her, she would be there. But she doesn’t listen, she doesn’t try hard enough, she whines and whimpers too much, she’s lazy, she doesn’t do it the way you keep telling her to.
If They Come to Practice Everyday, They are Not Lazy
She comes five or six days a week, for four to six hours per day, after spending a full day in school and doing her homework. But she’s lazy.
They are Human
What she is, my friend, is a 12 year old girl, a child or a young teenager. A living, breathing human young child with hopes and dreams and tears and fears, and weaknesses and strengths. Not some mystical, idealized, robotic, mechanical, gymnastics working machine that can do your bidding at any and every time. That so-called system you have there of 10 of this and 25 of that and conditioning and repetition after repetition after repetition after repetition after repetition after repetition – Every day.
It’s the Progress, Not the Repetition
“Oh, they need that for consistency.” “They’re not safe if they don’t do all their repetitions.” “They’ll never win without doing all the necessary repetitions.”
They Have to Actually Still Be In the Gym at Age 16 to Compete in the Olympics
We’ll get into the science of it later, but it just ain’t so. It ain’t so for a lot of reasons, but first is the one about they have to actually stay in the gym and the sport until they are 15 years old so they are old enough to compete internationally.
How Many Do You Still Have Now?
Look around. How many fifteen and sixteen year olds do you have in your gym? Why? Quit patting yourself on the back if they are only compulsories.
Don’t Drive Them Out
It’s time to start looking at why there are not more girls in the sport at the age necessary to compete at the international level. The reason is simple. One way or another, coaches drive them out. If they don’t fit that imaginary perfect model in the coach’s mind, one way or another, coaches push them out. Sometimes subtly, but usually not. They just drive them right out of there.
A Legend Only In Your Mind
The reality is that the coach is not the important one in the gym. That is just a result of coaches being legends in their own mind. Gymnasts are the only ones who can win medals. They are the ones who do the work, pay the price and put themselves on the line. They are at some point in their gymnastics career. They need to progress forward.
A Positive Learning Environment
They need a coach who can yell for them, not at them. They need a coach who can lead them, not push them. They need a coach who can earn their respect, not complain about their lack of it. They need a coach who knows where they are, sees them as they really are, hears what they have to say, a coach who knows who they are and who they want to be. They need a coach who is really coaching them and not imagining some ideal dream girl he wishes he was coaching.
See the Gymnast – Be The Coach
Can you see yourself – the real you, without the ego.
Can you see them – the real girl?
Can you show them the joys of gymnastics?
That’s the real start of it, my friend. If you can’t do those things, if you can’t control yourself, well, all the technical mumbo jumbo in the world won’t make a bit of difference.
Do it. Be the Coach.
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If only this could be made mandatory reading for coaches. Daily mandatory reading. No, maybe even that wouldn’t help. Hourly reading?