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!
I am writing this the day before Thanksgiving 2022. I am sitting on my best with my “work stuff” in front of me and my families Christmas lists next to me. Even before I was a local business owner I believed in shopping local.
One of the great things about our area is the plethora of locally owned and operated businesses. I love walking in to a business and knowing the owner is working that day. The employees appear to take a little more pride in their work and seem to get to know the customers. I love walking into a shop, restaurant or cafe and although the employee may not know my name, they remember me and in some cases even how I take my coffee (Hot and Black. Pretty simple but in this day and age coffee orders can be pretty complicated).
I hosted a dinner party a few weeks ago and the group I was standing with were asking about a project I had just finished. I told them where I bought the hardware and materials and they asked why I paid more than if I had gone to one of the Big BOX hardware stores. I explained that in the end by shopping at a locally owned hardware store I was keeping the money in the community. I was helping to pay for their daughter’s soccer team and their son’s class trip.
It is the locally owned businesses sponsoring the soccer teams and making contributions to the schools program for the class trip. Many of the local business owners give TWICE. They make a contribution as a business and again as an individual.
Top 10 Reasons to Buy Local, Eat Local, Go Local
By choosing local and independent businesses for your services, shopping, dining and other needs, you not only get real value and personal service, you’re helping:
1. BUILD COMMUNITY
The casual encounters you enjoy at neighborhood–scale businesses and the public spaces around them build relationships and community cohesiveness. (source 1, source 5) They’re the ultimate social networking sites!
2. STRENGTHEN OUR LOCAL ECONOMY
Each dollar you spend at independent businesses returns 3 times more money (source 2) to our local economy than one spent at a chain — a benefit we all can bank on.
3. SHAPE OUR CHARACTER
Independent businesses help give our community its distinct personality.
4. CREATE A HEALTHIER ENVIRONMENT
Independent, community-serving businesses are people-sized. They typically consume less land, carry more locally-made products, locate closer to residents and create less traffic and air pollution. (source 3)
5. LOWER TAXES
More efficient land use and more central locations mean local businesses put less demand on our roads, sewers, and safety services. They also generate more tax revenue per sales dollar. The bottom line: a greater percentage of local independent businesses will help keep our taxes lower. (source 4)
6. ENHANCE CHOICES
A wide variety of independent businesses, each serving their customers’ tastes, creates greater overall choice for all of us.
7. CREATE JOBS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Not only do independent businesses employ more people directly per dollar of revenue, they also are the customers of local printers, accountants, wholesalers, farms, attorneys, etc., expanding opportunities for local entrepreneurs.
8. GIVE BACK TO OUR COMMUNITY
Small businesses donate more than twice as much per sales dollar to local non-profits, events, and teams compared to big businesses. (source 5)
9. INCREASE WEALTH OF RESIDENTS
The multiplier effect noted above generates lasting impact on the prosperity of local residents. (source 6)
10.ENHANCE HEALTH OF RESIDENTS
Studies show strong correlation between the percentage of small locally-owned firms and various indicators of personal and community health and vitality. (source 7)
Dr. Bill Sands has contributed this article on Peaking and Tapering. This is an article that EVERY SERIOUS GYMNASTICS COACH must read. Chere Hoffman adds her examples of putting this into practice at the end.
The Olympic qualification procedures for artistic gymnastics are always evolving to fit the sport’s current needs, but it can make things confusing for fans who aren’t quite sure what is required of their favorite teams and athletes in order to qualify for the next Olympic Games. So today, let’s break down the paths to qualification ahead of Paris 2024—which start in Liverpool at the 2022 World Championships!
There are 96 slots available for the men and 96 available for the women.
Each country who qualifies to the Olympics will be comprised of five athletes. Countries that fail to qualify a full team will be able to send up to three individual athletes to Paris via the methods that will be outlined here.
Six countries will qualify to the 2024 Olympics at the 2022 World Championships—three men’s teams and three women’s teams. Twenty-four teams will compete in World qualifications, and the top three in the team final are the ones who will qualify full teams to Paris.
Next year, at the 2023 World Championships in Antwerp, the same thing will occur: twenty-four teams will be able to compete in qualifications in hopes of advancing a full team to Paris, but only the top nine will qualify.
The three top-ranking countries at 2023 Worlds who do not qualify via the first two criteria will obtain one individual slot for their nation.
There will also be opportunities to qualify to Paris via 2023 Worlds by order of ranking in the all-around qualifications. The top eight men and fourteen women will advance to the Olympics based on their standings. (These are non-nominative slots, which means the berths belong to the athletes instead of being potentially open to other athletes from their country.) Athletes who previously qualified to the Olympics with their teams will be ineligible to receive one of these slots.
Six men and four women have a chance to qualify via apparatus finals at 2023 Worlds. Excluding athletes who already previously qualified via other paths, the highest-finishing athletes on each apparatus (in the finals, or if necessary, qualifications) will receive a berth for Paris.
There are also opportunities for specialists to qualify via the 2024 Apparatus World Cup series—twelve men and eight women. Each country can send up to two athletes per apparatus to compete in these World Cups, and the highest-ranking two athletes on each event are guaranteed a slot to Paris. Again, only those who have not previously qualified are eligible for these slots. As usual, World Cup points—built up over the series—count toward securing those berths. To sum up, the “maximum three best competitions out of four will be considered,” according to the FIG. Those athletes with the highest point totals will qualify via this path.
There will also be ways to qualify via the 2024 Continental Championships (such as the European Championships)—five men and five women. The highest-ranked athletes in either the all-around qualifications or finals have the chance to obtain a berth, provided that they or their country haven’t already qualified slots by other methods.
The Olympic host country (France) is guaranteed two athletes (one man and one woman) via any of these methods if they do not qualify a full team or any individuals. If they do, the slot will be reallocated to eligible All-Arounders at 2023 Worlds.
There will also be one Universality Place quota for both men and women, to be selected by the Tripartite Commission of the IOC.
Wow, that’s a lot! It will be fascinating to see how the qualifications begin to unfold at this year’s Worlds. It’s hard to believe that we’re already moving onto the first installment of Olympic qualification. What are you most excited for as we launch into all the action in Liverpool?
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
Cousineau P. The Olympic Odyssey. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2003.
