From Practice to the Podium. You need a long term plan for success in the gymnastics world.
This is the powerpoint video of the lecture I will be giving at the NGA Conference in New Orleans June 2023.
From Practice to the Podium. You need a long term plan for success in the gymnastics world.
This is the powerpoint video of the lecture I will be giving at the NGA Conference in New Orleans June 2023.
From Practice to The Podium. Long term gymnastics success.
When I first started coaching gymnastics I wanted to be a GREAT coach (what ever that meant). Now looking back at what I feel was a reasonably successful career I feel I accomplished many of my goals. More importantly I helped many gymnasts reach their goal. I have seen coaches is small gyms with barely enough equipment have great results and I have seen coaches in gyms so big they almost need their own zip code really do nothing. Where I have seen most coaches fall short is with lack of a plan and failure to follow though.
Even the best plan is going to have mistakes. Whether that plan is for an individual athlete, a group or a team. There also needs to be a set of checks and balances. You are not going to have all the answers or even know what some of the questions are or will be. Here are just a few.
Luckily- not much of what we have done is truly innovative. It’s all been done, Others have paved the path. Written down the basic recipe- all you need to do is add your own spice.
A question NOT often asked is: What is your story? What makes you special? In todays society gymnasts and their families will have many choices they could make. A different gym? A different sport? USAG, NGA, USAIGC, AAU, X-cel, D.O. WHY SHOULD A GYMNAST AND THEIR FAMILY PICK YOU AND YOUR SYSTEM?
There are countless questions you need to ask and answer on your path to success. Here is where to start:
WHY CAN’T YOU DO IT?
When I opened up my gym I had a great coaching staff and I decided that we were going to have a top level program. We were going to have continued success at Level 10 and have some elite gymnasts as well.
We laid out the plan. Hours per week, how long each event, what conditioning needed to get done. We all contributed.
We thought about the competition schedule. When would our first meet be, when would we want the girls to hit their physical peak.
We thought about when we wanted each gymnast to have their highest skill level. When would we start taking skills out of routines and training programs.
For a few decades we stuck with that plan, of course making small adjustments along the way.
How did we end up with a good program. It’s simple. We decided to.
You can too.
If you want to be with a group of people who can answer your questions and probably ask some more- check out GYM MOMENTUM CAMP this summer.
The path to athletic success and life is a journey. In my 35 years of coaching, I have seen profound changes in how we prepare the athlete for “the road.” In the last 15 years I have noticed a trend that has accelerated over the last ten years. What I have noticed is that coaches tend to spend an inordinate amount of time preparing the road for the athlete. They try to remove all obstacles in the way and make the road as straight and smooth as possible so the athlete can easily reach their goal. This has resulted in fragile, not fully adapted athletes unable to deal with adversity in sport and life. It has created entitlement and unrealistic expectations of the athletes’ abilities and capabilities. On the physical side the athletes are not prepared for the rigors of competition. Recovery has assumed more importance than work. Rehab exercises have taken the place of strength. We are managing workload so finitely that the athlete is never allowed to get uncomfortable. To be successful any athlete needs to get to a point of being uncomfortable, then work through it until they become comfortable. Then repeat the process.
It is beyond my capabilities to speculate why this has occurred; I will leave that to experts beyond my pay grade (Dr. George? Dr Sands? Any observations any comments?) . Suffice it to say that I am NOT a coach yearning for the “good old days” because I still have been through enough and seen enough enough to remember the old days and understand that there were many common practices of the day that are better left in the past. I am not denying the fact that many of these did unintentional harm. The lessons we have learned from experience and research have shown that we can do better. Now, the pendulum has swung so far that we are now doing our athletes a disservice. Few, if any, things of substance and importance and learned within ones comfort zone.
Instead, I offer a simple solution. Although it will not be easy. I am confident it will work. I have seen it work before and I am seeing it work today. Let’s start out by talking about the journey and the road to the destination of athletic excellence. It is a long road with many obstacles and occasional detours. Sometimes the road is smooth and other times it is rough and unpaved. Like a New England road in the spring, there could be many pot holes and frost heaves. There will be detours and road construction. Sometimes you will get lost and need to find your own way back to the main road. It is all part of the journey. At times the car will break down, it may be just a flat tire that can be quickly repaired, or it may be a blown engine that takes longer to repair. Simply you do what you must do to keep moving forward to your destination.
So, what should we change? What can do to remedy this situation? It is quite simple, shift the emphasis from preparing the road for the athlete to preparing the athlete for the road. It is an arduous journey that takes more than just talent. It demands everyone being on the same page. A partnership between coaches and athletes. It is not harsh or tough love, it is caring. It is coaching the person, giving guidance and direction. Remember it is a transformational process, not transactional. It is allowing the athlete space to grow. There will be some trial and error. Along the way there will be choices, some quite simple and others more complex. We need to help the athlete make informed choices that are best for them. It is an understanding that mistakes and failure in a competition is just a bump in the road, a real learning opportunity to grow and move on. It demands that we as leaders get out of our comfort zone of being the almighty, know it all. We must humble ourselves and understand the athlete and recognize that it takes time for the athlete to grow. It is more than words. If we expect them to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, then we must also be willing to be uncomfortable. We need to value what matters to the athlete, get past appearances and labels. Give them all the tools they need to navigate the road. Hard intelligent training that thoroughly prepares for the rigors of competition is necessary, not an option. Provide reasonable behavioral guidelines that give them structure and guidance. Give them a working compass oriented to true north, along with a current road map so they can navigate the detours and road closures to be able to get to their destination.
Stop trying to prepare the road and start preparing the gymnasts for the road ahead. Coach the individual. Teach them to become comfortable with the uncomfortable. The gymnast is going to go through many stages of learning and in each one of those stages what they will need from you will be different.
At NGA Nationals and symposium this year I will be delivering a lecture on EVOLVING and ELEVATING YOUR PROGRAM. This is where my mind is starting this lecture. It is the PATH from PRACTICE to the PODIUM.
Let’s not pretend I am smart enough to come up with this information on my own. I found it in PSYCHOLOGY TODAY. Aditi Subramaniam, PhD. I have just adapted the language to make it more relatable in a gymnastics learning environment.
I recently delved into the art of drawing basic mandala designs, which have gained immense popularity for their mindfulness and relaxation benefits. Here is an example of a mandala:
Source: Alesia Kozik/Pexels
I first looked up basic mandala designs and went about practicing a few.
After dedicating approximately 20 minutes to practicing, I noticed an improvement in my mandala drawings. Though subtle, there was a noticeable increase in my confidence and precision, resulting in a neater and more refined final product compared to my earlier attempts.
If there is one thing that separates a great artist or sportsperson from an amateur one, it is practice. Practicing deliberately to enhance performance is not only crucial for acquiring expertise in an activity but it is also imperative. Studies indicate that while deliberate practice might not be the only factor that comes into play, it is an absolutely necessary one if someone is to achieve high levels of expertise in a domain.
Gaining expertise through practice involves more than just mindlessly repeating a task. For instance, a gymnast may spend several hours a week practicing their routine on Floor , but without deliberate practice, the results may be short-lived or inconsequential.
Experts emphasize that deliberate practice encompasses three fundamental aspects that differentiate it from rote repetition: attention, rehearsal, and repetition. By paying close attention to the task at hand, rehearsing with a clear goal in mind, and repeating the process with purpose, that gymnast can achieve proficiency and long-lasting results.
Example: When a gymnast goes out to practice their routine, WHAT IS THE GOAL? Is it to make a certain tumbling pass? To “stay on the music”? To keep their legs straight?
Once they do that- DO IT AGAIN- before they move on.
While deliberate practice is an important and perhaps necessary component for achieving expertise, it is important to know that its impact varies across different domains, with certain fields such as music and sports showing a greater dependence on it than others.
In addition to helping us achieve expertise in a subject matter, deliberate practice can have the following benefits:
Gymnasts, musicians, and artists often speak about how, as they practice a skill, it seems to become second nature. While they might colloquially refer to this as muscle memory, it involves a structure called myelin, which insulates nerve fibers and increases the speed and efficiency of nerve impulses. The more we practice a skill, the more myelin we produce around the neurons involved in that skill, making them communicate faster and better.
One of the remarkable effects of practice is that it can alter the brain’s structure by enlarging certain areas that are involved in the practiced skill. A famous example of this is the “London cab driver study,” which showed that the intensive training that cab drivers undergo to learn the complex routes of London and earn their licenses leads them to have bigger hippocampi than average. The hippocampus is a key part of the brain for memory formation and recall.
An Open Letter on Injury for Coaches, Physicians, Therapists, Chiropractors, Nurses, and the Media
William A Sands, Ph.D., FACSM Sports Scientist – Retired
In recent years I have read, seen, and heard an under-informed castigation of gymnastics based on athletes training and competing “with an injury.” The hyperbolic nature of this phrase does not accurately portray the milieu of gymnastics injuries. The following opinions and information are based on more than 50 years of experience in gymnastics as an athlete, coach, and sports scientist.
First and foremost, no one wants to see gymnasts injured and suffering. Gymnastics has a high injury incidence and rate and is often referred to as the football of women’s sports.
The Importance of Context.
What is an injury? Among the more common definitions of injury, there is a damaged body part or body system resulting from either a single trauma (i.e., acute) or repetitive trauma (i.e., overuse). Injury severity is often characterized by a measure of the :me lost from training, such as one day, one week, one month, and so forth. The type of injury remediation can also be used to measure injury, such as whether surgery, physical therapy, self-limited movements, or other treatments are involved. Injury prevalence, a simple tallying of injuries, and injury rate (i.e., the number of injuries per training session or multiple training sessions), or the percentage of an athlete group who suffered from an injury are standard methods of characterizing the injuries.
What is a gymnastics injury? Gymnastics injuries involve all the concepts listed in the previous paragraph, but gymnastics injuries remain challenging to characterize and categorize. A helpful definition of a gymnastics injury is “any damaged body part that would interfere with training” (2-5). This broad definition helps capture the idea that most gymnastics injuries are not debilitating but can interfere with some skills. Pragmatically, gymnastics injuries are skill-specific (5). For example, the athlete may have an injury (i.e., pain) on an aerial walkover but not an aerial cartwheel. When possible, a coach should accompany the gymnast to clarify what is possible and desirable. A video on a laptop or tablet can be very helpful. Experience has shown that medical folks can over- and under-es:mate the amount of training stress an athlete’s injury can withstand. The days of relying on medical interventions without coaching input are gone, along with coaches assuming the role of physician and therapist. Each has an important role and should contribute to the rapid return of the athlete. Rich communication should be required between medical personnel, coach, athlete, and parent.
Why can’t the gymnast simply take a complete rest from training and allow the injury to heal fully? Of course, complete rest is an op:on, but such an act can be devastating to the athlete’s gymnastics. Gymnatics-specific physical fitness is sensitive to continued training. Unfortunately, a gymnast’s fitness can decline rapidly, especially when compared to the progress observed in teammates. Experience has shown that the inevitable comparisons between the rehabilitating athlete and her teammates can raise the injury to a “career-ender” because the gymnast feels she has fallen behind and cannot catch up. She is physically weaker than she remembers, and her teammates have probably learned a few new skills.
Thus, both physically and psychologically, continued training is important to the injured gymnast. Gymnastics is not alone with these problems; many sports report the same problems with losses of specific fitness and feelings of helplessness and abandonment.
If an athlete in other sports sprains an ankle, sports training and competitions usually cease until the injury heals. A sprained ankle in basketball, football, baseball, track and field, and so forth is a rather devastating injury. However, a sprained ankle does not always sideline a gymnast. Gymnasts can continue to train and sometimes compete with a sprained ankle. Of course, the gymnast can perform non-weight-bearing conditioning exercises like other sports, but she can also work on uneven bars over a foam pit with the ankle firmly braced and/or taped. When the gymnast exits or dismounts from the uneven bars, she can land on her seat or back in a soO foam pit area. Skilled athletic trainers may also apply appropriate taping strategies to protect the athlete while weight-bearing. The ubiquitous sprained ankle in most sports involves taping and bracing that may be invisible due to socks and pants while fully visible among gymnasts because they usually train and compete barefoot.
Unlike many sports, gymnasts must learn hundreds of skills that may or may not threaten an existing injury or even hurt when performed. Thus, intelligent skill selection and choreography can allow a gymnast to perform successfully without jeopardizing the injury by simply avoiding or substituting a painful skill with a non-painful skill.
The idea that a gymnast can train and compete with injuries does not avert the question of should the gymnast train and compete with injuries. For those who have never dedicated their lives to achieving a goal, such a passionate commitment may seem silly. However, many athletes in many sports whose lives are defined by their performance at a competitive event speak to the universal nobility of such commitment.
As the ancient Greeks understood, great athletes not only accept the ordeal of competition and the trial of strength inherent in it but also show us a connection between what we do each day and something that is larger than we are and lasts longer than we do. Bill Bradley p 107, (1)
References
Across the Floor Warm Up. All Exercises are done Forward and then Backward unless otherwise stated
FOR EXAMPLE
Running warm Up.
Video coming soon!
Across Floor Active Flexibility. everything one pass across floor
Conditioning (the numbers are suggestions unless otherwise noted)
Core
Hollow/ Press circuit
REPEAT the circuit!
Video coming soon!
Last week I had a very engaging conversation with Dr. Bill Sands. We were talking about the future of gymnastics in the USA. How did we get here and how do we move forward. (What Happened to Gymnastics) Toward the end of the conversation he mentioned the 1985 study by Benjamin Bloom on Developing talent in young people. I have always believe that to be a good coach you need to give the information in a way the child understands it. It doesn’t matter if you are speaking to a 10 year old Level 10 or a 10 year old level 5. What is important is that you remember you are speaking to a 10 year old. There are different stages of learning and development that every child and athlete go through. If we know and understand these stages it makes our job easier. We can deliver the information in a way that it is best received at that time.
Since our conversation I have gone down a bit of a rabbit hole searching out more information.
A new volume, The Psychology of High Performance: Developing Human Potential into Domain-Specific Talent, edited by Rena F. Subotnik, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius, and Frank C. Worrell, addresses that question by examining outstanding performance across five different domains: academic disciplines (mathematics and psychology), arts production (culinary arts and drawing/painting), arts performance (dance and acting), professions (medicine, software engineering, and professional teams), and sport (golf and team sports).
The book was, in part, inspired by a famous study by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues in 1985, which retrospectively examined the trajectories of world-class athletes, artists, scholars and professionals. That work, the authors write, “remains a valid and elegant reporting of the developmental stages of instruction experienced by his study participants. What was missing … is an explicit description of psychosocial dimensions of eminent achievement.”
The study of expertise has expanded in recent years to examine similarities and differences across multiple domains (see the Journal of Expertise), and this edited volume brings together scholars across various disciplines. Rena, Paula, and Frank kindly responded to three questions regarding their new book.
Ironically, one of the major things that we have learned since Bloom’s (1985) study is how much he got correct. The importance of looking at talent within domains; providing the right resources both within and outside of school; the importance of the family, especially in the earliest years; the right teachers and mentors at particular stages on the developmental trajectory in a domain; and a community of learners are still key factors in the advancement of high performance.
Since 1985, we have since learned that psychosocial skills and insider knowledge interact with the ability to enhance the likelihood of progression to the next level of talent development, and we do have some ideas about which psychosocial skills matter broadly across domains.
We still need to identify psychosocial skills unique to domains and who is best placed to convey these skills and knowledge. Also, we have little to go on regarding developmental benchmarks for talent development, largely because we assume that present performance is the best predictor of future performance—but it may be that present performance is not the sole predictor. A better predictor may be the capacity to develop and maintain critical psychosocial skills. For example, what happens to a talented individual who loses passion for the domain, stops practicing intensely, or is unable to focus?
What are the commonalities for talent development when considering multiple domains?
All domains change over time in response to societal demands. For example, medicine has needed to increase sub-specialization and pay more attention to training protocols for interacting and communicating with patients. Aesthetics within fields of performance also change and as a result, preparation changes (witness that in the education of artists, the basic skill of drawing has become optional in the curriculum and preference is given to learning what you need to know to do the art you want to do).
Commonalities across talent development domains can be divided into several categories. The first is the personal category. In addition to domain-specific ability and creativity, passion, persistence in the face of failure or setbacks, and engaging in the work of the discipline or field over time are useful across domains.
The second category is environmental. Social, emotional, and financial support are critical. Even in domains where the tools or equipment that is required is relatively inexpensive, the resource of time is key, and time is dependent on a certain amount of fiscal resources.
The third factor is chance, which involves both the personal and environmental. The individual developing talent needs to be on the lookout for opportunities and ready and willing to take up opportunities as they arise. There are a lot of talented individuals aiming for the top and typically there are more talented individuals than there are opportunities.
It is important to note that domains differ in important ways as well. For example, talent trajectories begin, peak, and end at different times. And within domains, there are early and late specialization fields, those that focus more on teamwork and others that are more individual, those that expect large commitments to education and those that do not, and those that require a great deal of disciplined or deliberate practice and those that require less.
The next steps for the field will be to categorize these similarities and differences based on research and the best practices presented in this book and translate this information into a testable model.
Sports provides several key lessons.
First, the domain of sport relies more on sport-specific criteria than do academic fields. They use actual performance as a selection tool. Individuals are asked to play the sport, often with other equally talented athletes who are trying out, and those who perform best are selected. Teachers (coaches) do the selection with pretty good accuracy.
Second is the importance of ongoing disciplined practice. We use the term disciplined rather than deliberate practice because the nature of the “practice” that one needs to engage in to succeed in physics or acting may be very different than the deliberate practice required in sport, but it is still practice in the discipline.
Sport has long recognized the importance of psychosocial skills like coping with performance anxiety—particularly at the elite levels of competition. Sports take place in front of audiences where one has supporters and individuals who are not rooting for you and you have got to learn to be able to “shut out” distractions and get the job done. Similarly, games are played almost weekly or even more frequently, and athletes have got to put their best selves on the field or court on every occasion.
Thus, an athlete is trained to “pick oneself up” after losses, understand the lessons the loss provides, and move forward to try to win the next game. Sports psychologists are integrated into this important component of training. We leave the development of these skills to chance for academically talented individuals, but we could place more of a focus on developing them.
Sport also seems to have many different avenues for gaining experience in the early years—through school teams, park district activities, club sports, and so on. These opportunities are open to all children and get more selective as they progress. In other words, “on ramps” are readily available. Parents know and accept the idea of starting young children with exposure and progressing to increasingly more selective and competitive opportunities. We do not have such “on ramps” in academics and parents do not have the same knowledge or acceptance of the idea.
However, we argue that many of the advantages of sport come with it being a performance domain, and other performance domains such as elite music performance also offer useful lessons for academic domains. As in sport, in developing elite musical talent, there are explicit criteria for selection based on performance, and diminished reliance on abstract tests.
Teachers are often practicing professionals and provide individualized instruction – much of the talent development work is conducted one-on-one. Teacher selection is also key and sometimes more important than the reputation of the music institution. And beyond one-on-one lessons, there are master classes sharing instruction with all the students of one teacher. Additionally, for a student to progress, he or she needs to pass muster every year in front of the whole department.
Finally, there are “Reality 101” classes requiring students to learn how to behave in professional environments, how to handle stress, how to get an agent, and other practical skills required to facilitate success. These skills would also be useful in academic domains and universities are now beginning to have classes on succeeding in academia or translating your doctoral degree into success outside the academy.
June 21, 2022. Summer Solstice
The Summer Solstice is upon us. Traditional celebrations include greeting the sunrise and partying until sunset (OK, I may have mede that up) outdoor parties and bonfires. As we welcome summer, it is a good time to revisit our goals for the year and check our progress.
For most gymnasts and coaches in the USA, summer is a time for recovery from a long competitive season and then laying the base for upgrades needed for next competitive season. We tend to only make resolutions on New Year but we could do so all year! Resolutions are just projects and goals that we set to reach an ideal. Summer resolutions… why not?
We sometimes find it difficult to keep our resolutions but at least they make us contemplate what we would like to undertake and what we would like to change in our lives. We must think of our resolutions as a way to improve ourselves. To be a become a better gymnast or coach. To become a better team-mate or leader.
Resolutions allow us to…
Evolve
Change
Improve
Develop
Move on
Follow our dreams
How to succeed in seeing your resolutions through
From resolution to action
This technique allows you to be more precise and to be in action. You are interested in becoming a better beam coach? Upgrade the gymnasts vaults? Good! Now is the time! There are many educational opportunities out there. From NGA Summit to USAG Congress to clinics and camps. GO LEARN!! Find a mentor, have a coach come into your gym or go to their gym. NOW IS THE TIME!
Set your resolution in time
Keep track of the progress and adjust the timeline and goals as needed. Have the gymnasts do this as well. Just a few minutes a week so that they can see their progress. Why not set a simple resolution every week or every month during summer? This is a good way to achieve many of the necessary skills/drills needed for upgrading.
Share the news
There is no reason this needs to be a boring task. Take photos and share videos. Isn’t that what Instagram is for?! The more we talk about our goals and objectives the less inclined we are to give up on them.
Less is more!
Your gymnasts are probably not going to add a D and E skill on each event. It is useless to start 6 big upgrades . Focus on an objective that is truly necessary. When they accomplish that goal, yo can go after another one.
Congratulate yourself and the gymnasts!
That way you encourage yourself and them to keep it going! And there’s no need to wait until the whole goal is achieved to pat yourself on the back. Just being on the right track is already an achievement in itself.
Lastly, hold yourself and the gymnasts accountable BUT be failure tolerant. Not everything is going to workout. One of the best things I did was give each gymnast (and myself) a calendar that starts and ends at the end of the competitive season. On the calendar have all the competitions you MUST go to. (State, Regional and National Championships). Then have your “marker” competitions. For example, December 1 verification of all new routines. Landings can be soft (rest pit) or spotted but not both. Working WITH the gymnasts come up with a timeline for new skills and put it in the calendar.
Create a Positive Coaching Environment in Your Gym- No Matter What Levels You Coach. NGA Summit Lecture. June 10, 2022 8:00AM
Lecture Slide:
Regardless of what level you are working with it is necessary to have a positive environment for the gymnasts (and coaches) to flourish.
Some will tell you it is NOT possible at the highest level of our sport. I am living proof to tell you it is! I have coached from pre-school through World Championships and I have done my best to create a positive environment. I have learned from my mistakes and my success.
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 10:00AM
Lecture slides from summit.
There are AT LEAST 6 important parts of the Vault.
Now that a gymnast can flip a their first Yurchenko- you need to improve on each of these parts in order to add the power needed to improve body shape (layout) and add twist.
2. THE HURDLE
3. BOARD CONTACT
4. TABLE CONTACT/ REPULSION
5. POST FLIGHT BODY POSITION
6. LANDING
Each one of these parts can be a lecture in itself. I am going to concentrate on Board contact, Table contact and repulsion and post flight body position.
FRIDAY JUNE 10, 10:00AM