Although the video titles and some of the speaking is in Italian- the video is self explanatory on some exercises and stretches for Hips, Back and Shoulder mobility.
HAPPY GYMNASTS ARE ALL ALIKE. UNHAPPY GYMNASTS ARE UNHAPPY IN THEIR OWN WAY.
Tolstoy posited a similar analogy in his novel Anna Karenina : “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” By that, Tolstoy meant that for a marriage to be happy, it had to succeed in several key aspects. Failure on even one of these aspects, and the marriage is doomed.
What does a gymnast need to be happy? There are many boxes we must check as coaches to keep a gymnast happy. Fail at one of these and you have an unhappy gymnast. Here is a lesson I learned from Doc Massimo many years ago.
Firmly establish your authority. A coach will need to wear many hats and evolve through a gymnasts career. From a silly fun loving person to a benevolent dictator then a partnership and finally like a divers ed instructor. Letting the gymnast pick the path and speed but with a foot on the break if necessary.
Maturely relate to your gymnasts, but not as a peer. You can be likable without being a friend.
Minimize verbiage. Give them the correction. Not a lecture or speech.
Have a sense of humor.
Never utilize sarcasm or negativity.
Be enthusiastic and encourage the same in the gym.
Be fair in your treatment of each gymnast. Coach the AGE not the level. The important thing to remember is that if a gymnast is a 10 year old elite or a 10 year old beginner is that they are 10 years old.
Pay complete attention when working one on one.
Don’t tell a gymnast that their work is “good” when it isn’t.
Say “No” without guilt and “Yes” without resentment.
Pay attention to safety factors and be a consistent spotter.
Don’t be afraid to say “I’m sorry” and “I don’t know”.
Allot time for gymnasts to socialize. One day I will write a book, “Everything I Ever Wanted to Learn I Learned at the End of the Vault Runway”.
Provide a forum for listening to your gymnasts. EVERY DAY.
Continually educate yourself.
Delegate responsibility to your gymnasts.
Be personally and emotionally predictable.
Be a positive role model at all times.
Motivate and manage team cohesiveness.
Direct your gymnasts’ spirits’; do not break them!
Have an overall positive attitude toward gymnastics and life.
This list grows every time I look at it. What would you add? Let me know!
And as a reminder – Coaches, it is important that you find happiness in the gym as well. Find Your Happiness.
The last time we had Gym Momentum Camp on Long Island there was a hurricane and we had to stop camp a day early! This year- torrential rains and some minor flooding on Long Island kept things interesting! The gymnasts coming in from Vermont, which had just survived some terrible storms and floods, thought the weather was “OK”.
Gymnasts from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont as well as Italy and Switzerland were in attendance.
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.
Who is going to check you?
Is it the right skill for the right athlete?
Is it too many or too few competitions?
When do you need the athletes to peak? When to recover?
Can the athlete or team handle the training load?
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.
Where to start your plan?
What are YOUR goals?
Do your co-coaches have similar goals?
What are the goals of the athletes (individually and as a team)?
Do your athletes buy into your program? Do the parents?
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.
KEY POINTS
Deliberate practice involves paying attention, rehearsing with a clear goal, and repeating the process with purpose.
The benefits of deliberate practice include enhanced long-term memory retention and automaticity of skills.
Practice produces myelin around neurons, which increases the speed and efficiency of nerve impulses.
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.
Not All Practice Is Created Equal
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.
How Does Deliberate Practice Help?
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:
Practice enhances long-term memory retention of new information. When we practice recalling and applying new knowledge, we are more likely to remember it permanently.
Practice helps us eventually apply our knowledge automatically and without much thought. Repeated deliberate practice can thus help to free up cognitive resources, which can allow us to handle more challenging tasks.
Practice not only improves problem-solving skills, but also enhances the ability to transfer skills that we practiced to new and complex problems.
The cognitive gains we experience from practicing can often motivate us to continue learning.
The Neuroscience Behind Practice Effects
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.
How to Practice Most Effectively
Avoid rote repetition. Rather than mindlessly repeating a new skill, incorporate the principles of deliberate practice into their learning routine. The gymnast must pay attention, rehearse in a goal-directed manner, and repeat.
Break down a complex skills into its constituent parts (Part- whole method). Don’t start by trying to replicate an intricate and complex skill or routine That’s a formula for disappointment and injury. Start with practicing basic movement patterns, and once those become better and automatic, they can move to combinations of these patterns.
Start slow. I mean, literally. If they are learning a routine- make sure they learn it slow first before you add the music. With a new Vault, make sure they have the body shapes statically, then move through them slowly before they try to put it together. Speed can come later. (This is why, very often, classical musicians insist their students start practicing playing one note per beat, and only then moving to faster tempos and more complex rhythms.)
Don’t move to the next step without perfecting the first one. I have seen many coaches skip this part. They gymnast is at 60% of each part of the skill, then they throw it together and wonder why they have a less than 50% success rate. If they are learning a layout full twist on floor and they do not have good shape of the layout, what are you going to get? Go back and look if their round off back handspring is strong enough for them to have the power necessary for the layout. Set your gymnasts up for success- not failure.
Patience is key. When we watch World class gymnasts in competition their abilities appear seamless and natural, which can be discouraging when we struggle to grasp the same skill. However, we often overlook the countless hours they put into practicing to attain such mastery. Instead of growing restless for immediate perfection, recognizing the beauty and significance of the learning journey can inspire us to dedicate our time and energy to mastering new skills.
You may call it tempting fate because the last time we hosted a camp there we had a hurricane that forced us to cut camp short by one day. Why are we going back? The organization, energy and enthusiasm of the host club, APEX ATHLETICS, as well as their amazing facility made it an easy decision.
It was impossible for me to do a camp last summer. I had too many international commitments. I am looking forward to going back to Long Island for this camp. I am still working on some of the details but I already have commitments from some great staff. Jacobo Giron, Camila Ugolini, Rob Wing, Amanda DePaola, Vasko Vetzev and of course myself. This is a world class staff in a world class facility. You do NOT want to miss out!
