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.
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.
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.
What have we learned since Bloom’s original contribution on the psychology of high performance?
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.
What can we learn from talent selection and development from sports that has the potential to be applied in academic settings?
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.
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.
As coaches, one of our responsibilities is to safely lead gymnasts out of their comfort zones. It is there that learning takes place. When we ask a gymnast to make a correction, we are asking them to be uncomfortable.
The only way they can grow is to get out of their comfort zone. Feel uncomfortable then adapt to the situation until they feel comfortable. Then do it again.
When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone as a coach?
With out getting out of your comfort zone how do you expect to improve?
I recently have taken a BIG step to get out of my comfort zone. I have accepted the position as Interim Head Coach for the Swiss Sr National Team. I, along with Wendy Bruce, are preparing the team for World Championships and a couple “Home meets” The Arthur Grander Memorial and Swiss Cup. We will be here for at least 3 months as they search for permanent replacements. Reality is probably closer to 6 months or more.
Rounding out our coaching team (serving as team mentor and our translator!)is Giulia Steingruber. Switzerland’s 3 time Olympian.
You certainly do not need to move to a different continent to get out of your comfort zone. Maybe it is going to a clinic and then coming back to the gym and trying drills that you learned. Maybe it is reading a book on child development and implementing some of the tactics you read about. As humans we are creatures of habit. We do not enjoy being uncomfortable. We tend to do the same thing over and over.
Are you teaching a hurdle (for round off or front handspring) today the same way you taught it 20 years ago? Has a better technique come along? Has the equipment evolved?
Do you shy away from teaching front twisting because as a gymnast you “didn’t get it”? Have you actually tried to fill in this void?
Do you not teach twisting yurchenkos because you do not have a loose foam pit? Having a pit makes it a bit easier and safer, but there are ways. Have you looked into it? Have you called the gym down the road to see if you can go there and vault one day a month?
Suisse world Championships Team 2021
Change is just change. Not good or bad. Embrace it. Get out of your comfort zone and learn.
in·ten·tion\in-ˈten(t)-shən\
: the thing that you plan to do or achieve : an aim or purpose
: a determination to act in a certain way : resolve
This time of year many people make NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS. They set goals for the year in business, in life and in the gym. Goals are great but a goal must start with intention. The problem with just setting goals is that goals generally do not allow for failure and in failure there are many lessons to learn.
In the gym, it is vital for both coaches and gymnasts to have INTENTION in their training. You must train with a purpose. Training is the path which leads to success. If your have no purpose to your training, it is easy to get lost.
The past few years I have done many, many clinics at many gyms through out North America and into Iceland and Europe. When I walk in the first thing I ask is, “What is the goal? What are we going to do?”
I can always tell a program that has a purpose. They are confident in the process and progression. The gymnasts know what they are doing and where they are going.
– Does your team have intention? Or are you wandering around?
Gymnasts MUST have intention as well. When they get up on a Beam, or get ready to Vault or Bars or Tumble- What do they INTEND to do?
They may wobble or fall but then they make a correction.
I got a text this morning that no one wants to get. Informing me that a colleague had apparently been murdered. Chris Grover has come to a number of Gym Momentum Training Camps and Clinics. In fact, I am pretty sure, he was at the first one we ever held and attended this last summer with 20+ gymnasts.
Right now I am shocked. Words cannot express what I am feeling. My heart breaks for his children. My heart breaks for the gymnasts he worked with. We will all mourn in our own way. Right now I want to focus on how to help the gymnasts get through this.
After describing such sad events, all you can think is- This is something that no child should have to go through.
I’m sure you’ve heard a variation of this throughout your life. Maybe you’ve even said something similar to the following:
The truth is, if you live long enough, you’re most likely going to experience some significantly stressful event: a loved one will die. You’ll get sick. Someone will mistreat you. The list goes on.
How do we convince an 8-year-old gymnast that it’s safe to return to the gym after such a tragedy? The news story is going to dominate the area for weeks and will in some way change every child at the gym.
Our 24/7 news culture — in conjunction with easily accessible iPads, cell phones, and televisions — provides a window to events that both children and adults grapple to understand. And when bad things happen it is very natural and healthy for children to bring up questions at home or in the gym
When terrible events happen, children, like the rest of us, need to wrap their minds around it. They’re seeing images and hearing stories that are hard to absorb.
Decisions about what to say, and what not to say, should be guided by a child’s developmental age. Among his tips for parents and educators:
It’s important to listen to children to begin to understand how they understand the trauma. What you’re scared about, as an adult, may not be what they’re scared about … and this is likely to be different for children at different developmental ages. Reality is that you are probably going to need a professional therapist present.
Prepare to answer the “why” questions that will inevitably come. Children are inclined to ask, for example, “Why did this happen? ” They’re owed an explanation, but the answer should be tailored to a child’s age. The message is further reinforced within parenting resources available on the Mr. Rogers website, including a quote from the late Fred Rogers: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.”
Protect your child from seeing traumatic visual images over and over again. This goes for adults, too, You should also protect yourself from being re-traumatized.
Self-soothing techniques can pay off in dividends. If kids are feeling really stressed and worked up, deep breathing, getting exercise, listening to music and other strategies for calming down and managing anxiety can really help.
Modeling how you manage through tough times also helps to build resilience in children. Your gymnasts will watch how you respond to scary events, and they take cues from you. So often events that are scary for kids are scary for adults, too. As parents and educators, we also have to take care of ourselves.
What should you not say? The guiding principle is to talk to kids in ways they understand, while being careful to not provide too much detail to a younger child.
When children can understand why, when they can make a scary event coherent, they are better able to trust again. Spend some time thinking — and talk to other coaches and educators you trust — about how to talk to your gymnasts in a way that will help them understand and make sense of events that may otherwise feel unpredictable and overwhelming.
It is obvious that as gymnastics professionals we need to do something to help the gymnasts. I am open to any ideas.
As a coach, I’ve given this a lot of thought, because no matter what someone coming into the gym says they want to work on, eventually the subject of habits comes up. I’ve always said gymnastics is a dynamic sport. You are either getting better or getting worse. There is no such thing as staying where you are at.
In the gym I try to build new habits. Usually, we will work to get a particular healthy habit established or eliminate an unhealthy one.
But since I am rarely flat-out asked “What are the best habits to have?” I’m happy to take some time to answer the question here.
Basic Daily Habits to establish:
1 Maintain your body and mind through good nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management.
2 Challenge yourself to learn something new EVERYDAY. It may only be a new approach at a skill you’ve struggled with.
3 Improve your surroundings in some way. Clean out your locker or grip bag. Decreasing the clutter in your life will make you more efficient in your practice.
4 Tend to your important relationships in some form. For most of you- someone drives you to practice everyday. Have you thanked them? You may have a sibling who waits in the lobby with your parents for countless hours. Be nice to them.
5 Handle something from the earth (flowers, gardening, yard work, chopping vegetables).
6 Look for the good in others. Compliment a teammate or coach. Be thankful (practice gratitude).
7 Connect to Beauty (read, write, listen to music, create or enjoy works of art).
8 DISCONNECT. Just sit, be still for a moment.(completely unfocused, non productive time).
Putting these habits into daily practice involves having or acquiring some skills that are essential to success. To do these things on a daily basis, you have to be able to:
1 Set clear, achievable goals related to these habits.
2 Pick 3 things you want to accomplish each day that move you closer toward your goals. (Preferably one thing related to your school, one to your personal life, and one related to gymnastics)
3 Educate yourself on any of the areas you need to know more about to be successful (for example, nutrition, sleep hygiene, meditation, nurturing relationships, automating habits).
4 Become disciplined and accountable to yourself.
5 Understand how to work with time, energy, and motivation.
If you need help with establishing any of these habits or acquiring any of the skills you need to keep these habits going consistently, talk to your coach. I recommend you seek help from someone who not only knows how to do what you don’t, but can teach you how to do it in a way you can understand.
That about covers it.
Oh. One last thing: Never, ever hit the SNOOZE button.
I was 6 years old during the 1972 Olympics. I remember sitting on the living room floor with my mom watching the men compete.
The Japanese dominated followed by the Soviets. I remember watching Kato and Tsukahara on High Bar and Nikolai Andrianov and Nakayama on floor.
Clean lines matched with power.
I was struck with awe. I was hooked. I wanted to do that. I wanted to fly.
I asked my Mother how they got so high. What kept them in the air so long? My mother, who was once a gymnast, tried her best to explain the physics. How speed transferred into power.
When she left the room, I took the pillows off the couch and put them on the floor. Standing on the back of the couch, I stretched my arms up in my best imitation of Andrianov standing in the corner. I jumped down hit the springs and executed my first front tuck overshooting the landing zone of pillows taking out a coffee table in the process.
1976 Olympics in Montreal our coach put a bunch of us in a van and we drove up to watch. He was told each of us who to watch. I remember Watching Peter Kormann’s routines. Watching him win the first medal by a US Olympian’s in probably 40 years. A few years and a few thousand hours of training later, I stood in the corner of the floor. I raised my arms in my best imitation of Peter Kormann and executed my opening pass. As I finished my routine I looked over at my coach. He smiled and shook my hand. My teammates gave me High 5’s. I looked toward the crowd and saw my parents smiling. I was invincible. I could have done my routine 20 more times that day.
It was at that moment that I realized what kept them in the air so long. It was Joy.
I try to carry that Joy into my life every day. With the children I coach, I want them to see that I love what I do. With coaches I work with I want them to see that I love working along side them. When I am teaching a clinic I want all the coaches there to know that they need to share the joy of teaching.
When it comes to making yourself happy, you need to learn what works for you. Once you discover this, everything else tends to fall into place. Here are some things to help you find your happiness.
1. Remember That You Are In Charge of Your Own Happiness
You have two choices in any job on any day: Make the most out of what you are doing or Change what you are doing. Either way, your happiness is up to you and no one else. Remind yourself of this anytime you’re feeling stuck. My friend QUIN SHANNON had this quote on his Facebook page this morning. Thanks for the lesson my friend.
Sometimes, when you are tired of working so much, you just don’t want to go to another meet weekend. The “weekend” is basically 20 work hours long. Then I remember what my dad would say to me in situations like this; “If you can’t get out of something, get into it”. So I sucked it up, dressed like an idiot, embarrassed some teenagers, and helped us win to 1st place team awards! Thanks Dad.
2. Don’t Obsess over Things You Can’t Control
It’s good to know how Greece’s economic troubles might affect U.S. markets or that your team just got their butts kicked at the last meet. There’s a big difference between understanding these larger forces and worrying about them. Doc Massimo told me once, “control the controllables.”Happy people are ready and informed, but they don’t allow themselves to fret over things that are beyond their control.
3. Don’t Compare Yourself to Other People
When your sense of pleasure and satisfaction are derived from comparing yourself to others, you are no longer the master of your own happiness. I had a gymnast who always was comparing herself to others. “Is she better than me? Was that better than mine?” When you feel good about something that you’ve done, don’t allow anyone’s opinions or accomplishments take that away from you. It just stands in your way.
While it’s impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, you don’t have to compare yourself to others, and you can always take people’s opinions with a grain of salt. — you’re never as good or bad as they say you are.
4. Reward Yourself
Working hard is important, but never allowing yourself to take a break is detrimental to your happiness. A Cornell study found that small rewards make people more generous, friendly, and happy. These small “thrills” also made people more productive and accurate in their work. I know going back to work after a vacation can be hard BUT don’t you feel great and motivated? You cannot take a vacation every month but you can give yourself a small reward. Rewards activate the pleasure pathway in your brain, even if they are self-induced. Effective rewards can be small things such as taking a walk during lunch or treating yourself to a coffee at your favorite cafe.
5. Don’t Judge and Gossip
Judging other people and speaking poorly of them is a lot like overindulging in a decadent dessert; it feels good while you’re doing it, but afterwards, you feel guilty and sick. When you’re tempted to speak of someone else in a way that might be negative, just ask yourself if you’d want someone saying the same about you. Not only is it rude. I have NEVER heard of people gossiping when it didn’t get back to the person they were talking about.
6. Choose Your Battles Wisely
Good coaches know how important it is to live to fight another day. As a parent I learned this from my kids. In conflict, unchecked emotion makes you dig your heels in and fight the kind of battle that can leave you unhappy and your team distracted. There ARE times you need to stand your ground. There are times you just need to roll with it. Choose wisely.
7. Stay True to Yourself
Crossing moral boundaries in the name of success is a sure-fire path to unhappiness. Violating your personal standards creates feelings of regret, dissatisfaction, and demotivation. Know when to stand your ground and express dissent when someone wants you to do something that you know you shouldn’t. When you’re feeling confused, take some time to review your values.
8. Clear the Clutter
I don’t need to remind you of how much time you spend at the gym. Your workspace is filled with gymnastics equipment and children. Take a good look at it. Get rid of the junk and old mats you don’t use.
9. Give Someone A Hand
Taking the time to help your colleagues not only makes them happy, but it also makes you happy. Helping other people gives you a surge of oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, all of which create good feelings. In a Harvard study, employees who helped others were 10 times more likely to be focused at work and 40 percent more likely to get a promotion. The same study showed that people who consistently provided social support were the most likely to be happy during times of high stress. As long as you make certain that you aren’t overcommitting yourself, helping others is sure to have a positive influence on your happiness.
10. Smile and Laugh More
A study at Mannheim University in Germany demonstrated that we can actually manipulate our emotions by changing our facial expressions. One group of participants held a pen in their mouth horizontally, which forces a smile. When asked to rate how funny a cartoon was, the participants holding pens in their mouths found the cartoons much funnier than participants without pens.
As the study shows, it doesn’t matter if your smile is genuine because your facial expression can precede the feeling. If you find yourself in a negative spiral at work, slow down and smile or watch a funny video on YouTube. This mood boost can turn your day around. Fake it ’til you make it. I remember as a gymnast watching my coach enter the gym. If he was smiling and upbeat I couldn’t wait for training. If he was expressionless or looked angry, I wanted to hide. How do you want your gymnasts to enter the gym for practice? How do they want you to enter practice?
11. Stay Away From Negative People
Complainers and negative people are bad news because they wallow in their problems and fail to focus on solutions. They want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. People often feel pressure to listen to complainers because they don’t want to be seen as callous or rude, but there’s a fine line between lending a sympathetic ear and getting sucked into their negative emotional spirals. When I walk into the gym I know I gravitate to my employees who are pretty positive. When a “complainer” gets my ear- I try to set the limits by asking them how they intend to fix their problems. The complainer will then either quiet down or redirect the conversation in a productive direction. One of my golden rules in my gym (for both gymnasts and employees) is DO NOT COME TO ME WITH A PROBLEM WITHOUT A POTENTIAL SOLUTION.
12. Laugh at Yourself
When you take yourself too seriously at work your happiness and performance suffer. Don’t be afraid to show a little vulnerability. Something as simple as laughing at yourself draws people to you because it shows them that you’re humble and grounded (it also keeps them from laughing behind your back). Happy people balance their self-confidence with a good sense of humor and humility.
13. Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude
It’s all too easy to get caught up in things that could have been different or didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to. Sometimes the best way to pull your mind away from negativity is to step back and contemplate what you’re grateful for.
14. Believe the Best Is Yet to Come
Don’t just tell yourself that the best is yet to come — believe it. Having a positive, optimistic outlook on the future doesn’t just make you happier; it also improves your performance by increasing your sense of self-efficacy. The mind has a tendency to magnify past pleasure to such a great degree that the present pales in comparison. Don’t be fooled. Believe in the great things the future has in store.
I was 5 when I was introduced to the sport of gymnastics. I don’t remember much about my first day in the gym, but something must have happened inside my little body to make me love and desire it for the rest of my life.
Gymnastics is a sport that takes a certain type of personality. Gymnasts must have an impeccable work ethic, crave perfection, have a love/hate relationship with fear, and the ability to push their bodies past the point of perceived limitations.
Gymnasts put in hundreds of hours of work preparing for the opportunity to put themselves on a stage to have every aspect of their performance watched, scrutinized, picked apart, and judged, and yet, gymnasts wouldn’t want it any other way.
Gymnastics is like being in an unfair relationship, it takes way more than it gives back to the gymnast, and whatever it needs from us gymnasts, we give it. When it does give back, it gives us feelings that reach straight into our souls. The little tastes of success are enough to keep us working, and get us addicted.
I needed gymnastics, I needed to feel the highs of catching my first release move and the lows of mistakes and falls. I craved for the emotional rollercoaster and gymnastics never failed to give that to me everyday I walked into the gym.
I was willing to give anything to gymnastics and I was willing to give everything. My addiction had me focused mostly on my immediate gratification. As long as I could perform my skills, I was willing to ignore the advice from my Doctor. When my Doctors told me to take time off of gymnastics to heal, I didn’t. I pushed myself and worked in pain, and when I could’t handle the pain, I begged the Doctor to help. I begged for something to help ease my pain and so against my Doctors advice, I made them give me Cortisone shots in my ankles and wrists.
At the end of my career, my Doctor made me sign waivers that stated I understood that there could be long term damage from the shots and my Doctor advised me against the treatment. I had no problems signing the waivers, I never thought about the future of my body, I only cared about being able to do gymnastics with less pain.I knew my gymnastics was more important than my body.
Gymnasts have this mentality of; Whatever I need to do, I will do it. We know gymnastics is difficult and we want it to be difficult. Whatever is put in our path, we accept it, and do it. We don’t ask questions.
There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do to make the Olympics. When I needed to lose a little weight, I took the cheap and easy way out. Bulimia was my little secret. I was Bulimic for about a year and a half before the Olympics. I only threw up after I knew I ate too much, I still had energy for my workouts and routines, and I always thought of my Bulimia as something that I needed to do to achieve my goal. It was a small price to pay to be thin.
About six months before the Olympics someone caught me. I was confronted by this adult and they told me that they knew. I remembered being terrified, I didn’t want to be put in treatment or therapy, I didn’t have time to worry about my eating disorder. I had the Olympics to focus on, and I really didn’t have time to deal with anything more.
This adult told me that they knew about my eating disorder and they said, “Just don’t do it too much.”
I was so relieved that they didn’t want to send me to treatment or therapy. I knew that I would miss out on my chance on being an Olympian. This was exactly the response I wanted. I shook my head and promised not to do it too much, and walked away in relief.
To me, Bulimia was something I was willing to sacrifice for the chance of my dreams. I was never upset at this adult for not doing more or forcing me to go into therapy. I was fine with their passive and non confronitiatal advice on my disorder. I knew that they didn’t want to ruin my dream, and they didn’t want to be the one who spoke up and destroyed the 14 years of training I devoted my childhood to. They understood the Cult Culture of Gymnastics and so did I.
What message did that send to me? Was Gymnastics more important that an eating disorder? Was Gymnastics more important than Me?
This may seem inconceivable now, but this is not uncommon with this cult culture thinking in gymnastics, and it isn’t just gymnasts that are drinking the Kool-Aid.
This week I read a post in a Gymnastics Parent’s Facebook group. This parent explained how their daughter’s best friend committed suicide and the funeral was the same day as State meet. The mother was upset because the gymnast was going to miss the funeral. It sounded like once the parent knew the funeral was going to be at the same time as States, State meet was the only choice. The parent choose gymnastics over death.
The mom bragged how her brave gymnast walked into the State competition in tears. She went on to tell the group how strong her daughter was to overcome her sadness, hit her routines, and make it to Regionals. Most of the other parents in the group praised the girl’s strength and complimented the mom.
Did all of these parents miss the message it sent to the gymnast?
Was the mom telling her child that States was more important then burying her best friend? Was Gymnastics more important than life and death? There will always be another State meet, but there will never be another opportunity to bury your best friend.
The cult culture of Gymnastics convinces gymnasts that there is nothing more important than their gymnastics. This thinking creates a mindset of knowing that they will sacrifice, they will abide, they will do what they are told, they will always come second, and they will only be valuable if they succeed.
It convinces parents to turn a blind eye to questionable coaches, misconduct, overtraining, or allowing their children to be mistreated. The parent who watches the coach punish their child with 12 rope climbs, 3 minute handstands, 1 hour of running laps, or spending an entire workout on beam, knows something isn’t right, but they allow it to happen.
This cult culture of thinking extends to coaches as well. If they must yell, harass, punish, embarrass, belittle, or bully their gymnasts to get results, they will. Their mindset is “This is what the gymnasts need to achieve their goals. They come to me as a coach, because they know I get results. If it works, It must be right.”
The gymnasts are willing to sacrifice, and they are willing to be mistreated or abused to achieve their goals. Many times they don’t even know they shouldn’t be abused. The parents watch their children be harassed, punished, embarrassed, belittled, or bullied by the coach, and they are willing to overlook this treatment to let their child achieve their dreams. The parents become accustomed to the cult culture thinking that this is how phenomenal gymnasts are made, so they let it happen.
If the parents let this happen, it must be okay. The abuse must be needed for success. The success must be important.
We must get out of this cult!
As a gymnastics community, do we look out for the wellbeing of the gymnast, the child? Do we look the other way when we see parents put gymnastics before their kids? Do we walk away when we see coaches use harsh and borderline abusive coaching techniques? Do we accept this as just a part of coaching? Do we justify this behavior as just the way things are done? Or do we do more?
Gymnastics was more important than me. My performance was more important than me. The Olympics was more important that ANYTHING. I was fine with this thinking, but who was looking out for me?
When the gymnasts, parents, coaches, and the gymnastics community send the message that gymnastics is more important then the wellbeing of the gymnast, what happens when gymnastics is over. When everyone is watching and cheering for a successful outcome, who is left to watch out for their wellbeing?
Where do we draw the line? When is too much, too much? When do we stand up for ourselves and what is right?
It is easy to see how gymnastics has not gotten to this point of abuse all by itself, we have let it slip through out hands into a cesspool of skewed thinking. We have let ourselves be blinded by the dreams of success rather than understand the ramifications of our decisions. We all sacrificed way more than we needed to for gymnastics.
The bottom line is that NOTHING is more important than the health of a child. No skills, routine, meet, medal, or trophy is more important than the child. Gymnastics will end one day, then what will the gymnast, coach, and parents be left with?
I could have gotten help with my eating AND made the olympics. The parent could have realized that this year wasn’t about the gymnast, and they should have focused on the best friend who died.
We must stand together as a gymnastics community and demand change. We must look at the parents and ask them why they allow their kids to be harassed, punished, embarrassed, belittled, or bullied by their coach? We must look at the coaches and ask them why they want to send the message to their gymnasts that their performance is more important than their health? We must look to the gymnasts and tell them that they are so much more than gymnasts.
We must do better. Gymnastics is not life, it is only a sport.
In the gym we see kids of all ages. Each stage of learning and development we see different fears and anxieties. I stumbled upon this article while doing some research from some of my lectures. Too much information to edit. Think of the gymnasts you work with whether they are in a parent/tot class or on team. This article should help.
Tony
Kids have worries – from monsters to natural disasters. They can appear at random or may be triggered by everyday events. Their increasing awareness of the world, who is in it, and being able to anticipate bad things happening, can all increase their alarm.
Many of children’s fears can be existential, meaning they are indicative of a child’s growth and development as a separate being. Separation is the most impactful of all experiences and stirs up the emotional center of the brain and can create feelings of fear. As a child becomes increasingly independent, they are less dependent upon their caretakers which may foster some worry. As a child ages, this fear is often transformed into different themes but shares this common root issue.
Worries and fears that ebb and flow are part of the human condition, in fact, a lot of the brain’s energy is spent on evaluating incoming information for threats and sending out signals to the body. We don’t always know when we are afraid and have an emotional unconscious that operates outside of our conscious awareness. Joseph LeDoux, one of the world’s leading neuroscientists who studies anxiety, has shown that it is possible to be full of fear yet rendered speechless.
Common Fears and Worries
The following list contains some of the common fears and worries children may express at different ages. Many of these things are related to developmental changes and immaturity. Sometimes children may not able to articulate what their fears are and strategies for helping kids with higher levels of anxiety can be found in Helping the Anxious Teen or Child Find Rest and When the Worry Bugs are in Your Tummy.
0 to 6 months – Babies can show signs of fear at loud noises given they are unexpected and surprising. The loss of physical, visual, and auditory contact with their adults can also lead to alarm because the parts of the brain responsible for object permanence are not fully developed. When they lose contact with someone, they don’t know that this person will return as they lack an understanding that objects are permanent in time and space.
7 to 12 months – A child at this age can show signs of understanding that objects are permanent as well as causality. They realize that their adults can reappear and that they do have some influence on the actions of others, for example, when they cry someone will come to pick them up. At this age, it is common for them to display stranger protest which indicates their brain has developed enough to lock onto one person as a primary caretaker. This can result in playing shy with people they are not in contact with on a regular basis as well as showing preference for being in the company of their primary attachments. They are still often frightened by loud noises as well as objects that suddenly appear or loom over them.
1 year – Separation from parents is a common source of alarm and fear at this age and continues until 6 years of age. A young child is still highly dependent on adults for caretaking, therefore; they can be alarmed when distant from them. They can also be frightened if they get hurt, as well as loud sounds such as toilets flushing.
2 years – Young children at this age often exhibit some fear or animals as well as large objects. Their smaller size as well as lack of understanding about these things likely increases their alarm level. They may also state they are afraid of dark rooms with separation at night becoming increasingly challenging. Young children often feel most comfortable with structure and routine so changes in their environment can be potential source of concern for them.
3 to 4 years – With the increasing development of their brains, a young child’s imagination and capacity to anticipate bad things happening to them or others can increase. Their dreams may become more vivid with monsters appearing as well as other scary things. They can be afraid of animals, masks, the dark, and can seek comfort in the middle of the night when worried. There can be a heightened level of separation from parents because of their increasing independence, as evident in their exclamations of “I do it myself” and “No, I do!”
5 to 6 years – At this age a child may voice fears of being hurt physically as well as of ‘bad people’. Their play may reflect these themes as they start to imagine bad things happening that are not based in reality. They may voice concerns over ghosts and witches or other supernatural beings. Thunder and lightning may also stir them up too. Sleeping or staying on their own can still be provocative as they are just coming to the end of their development as a separate self.
7 to 8 years – Common fears include being left alone and can lead to wanting company, even if they are playing by themself. They may talk about death and worry about things that could harm them, for example, car accidents to plane crashes. They may still struggle with fears of the dark, as an extension of their growth as a separate being.
9 to 12 years – The ‘tween’ they may express worries related to school performance including a fear of tests and exams. They may have concerns with their physical appearance as well as being injured, and death. As they become more of a separate and social being, they can consider and compare who they are against others which can create some alarm. They may state their discomfort that they are growing up and don’t want to while other kids seem eager to leave childhood behind. It is important to note that the more peer oriented a child is, the more anxiety they may experience at this age as they turn to their peers for understanding who they are, When Peers Matter More than Parents.
Adolescence – For the teenager, personal relationships can be a source of confusion, worry, and fears. As they venture forth as a social being they still need to be anchored to caretakers at home to help them make sense of school issues including their friendships. They may voice fears over political issues given their increasing awareness of the world and movement towards adulthood. Some teens show signs of increasing superstition in an attempt to reduce some of the fears they have at this age too. Anticipating the future and what it holds for them can become a source of worry, along with natural disasters, and other themes related to growing up.
Strategies for Dealing with Worries
For the young child their fear is often alleviated through connection with caring adults who provide safety and reassurance. As a child ages, their increasing maturity will mean they will need to find both courage and tears to face their fears. This growth can be cultivated with the help of adults they trust and can count on.
Connection – When kids are worried, the best sources of support will come from their closest attachments. Listening to a child’s worries, acknowledging how they are feeling and coming alongside them can help to lessen their fears. Coming alongside means to listen with full attention and to reflect what you have heard instead of problem solving or negating what they have said. If a child’s level of fears and worries are more persistent and chronic, then taking steps to tackle anxiety may be appropriate.
Play with fear – One of the ways a child’s alarm system develops is by interacting with the world around them. While they may be startled, or show signs of fear, being able to play at this experience can help to diffuse its intensity. As a child plays their brain can integrate the signals as fear is less likely to hijack their emotional systems. Traditional games that can help include hide and seek, peek a boo, board games, to stories that include risk and fear.
Courage and Bravery – Children under the age of 5 to 7 are unable to exhibit courage because of the lack of integration in their prefrontal cortex. They are only able to feel one intense emotion at a time, so their fear can overwhelm them and when pushed, they can become frustrated, resistant, or attack. When a child is 6 or younger, it may be better to use a relationship with someone they trust to walk them into things that might be new or scary. It is important not to let their fears take the lead in terms of deciding what they should or should not do. For kids who are older, helping them to express what bothers them is helpful. When they can find their words for what scares them, they are better able to articulate their desires that will help them be courageous in the face of what alarms them.
Tears – Fears can also be alleviated by helping a child express their sadness about the things that worry them. For example, they may talk about a friend who doesn’t always play with them to not wanting to grow up. Sometimes the only thing left to do is to cry or feel one’s disappointment in the face of one’s fears. This will result in a release of the fear as well as some resiliency in the face of one’s worries.
The brain is a sophisticated alarm system that is meant to be activated when separation is anticipated or real. As a child ages, the shape and form of their fears and worries can change in reflection of their increasing development. The role of adults in their life is to cultivate deep connections with them, listen and acknowledge that they are afraid, help them be cautious, find their tears, or be moved to courage as the ultimate answer to their alarm.
