12 Powerful Things to Say to Your Gymnasts

“Straighten your legs.” “Run faster.” “Hit the board harder.” “Point your toes.” “Tap earlier.” “Drive your heels.” “Hollow.” These are just a handful of things coaches say on a daily basis at the gym. But what are the things that we can say to the kids we teach that have nothing to do with correcting […]

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9 Tips to Cope with Drama-Mama or Pushy-Papa

The scenario goes something like this: You want to watch your child’s class or practice. And your enjoyment of that is disturbed by the behavior of another parent. It could be the mom who insists on cross-examining you on why your child is taking a private lesson, who wants to complain about another gymnast or […]

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Answering This One Question May Help You Be a Better Coach

Giving feedback to athletes is an essential part of being a coach. And, while that feedback is critical to the development of athletes’ skill, what is even more important is how that feedback impacts children’s self-image, motivation and mindset. It is a fine line between criticism and feedback that we tread upon as parents, coaches […]

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Welcome to Gymnastics: We Teach Kids How to Fail

Okay, hardly my best tag line ever. I would not recommend you use this in your future marketing plans. But it is true. As the school year kicks off and many new and returning students come into our gymnastics academies, embrace and own one of the things we do best: we teach kids how to […]

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Should Everyone Get a Trophy?

James Harrison returned his children’s participation trophies and my Facebook newsfeed blew up with news of the story as well as numerous op ed pieces, most all crediting Harrison for a parenting job well done. I want to be clear: I have no problem with the parenting choice Harrison made.  In fact, I have huge […]

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A Parent’s Guide to Helping Your Child After a Poor Sports Performance

Because sometimes a picture is worth 1,000 words:

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10 Ways Parents Can Help Their Gymnast (Hint: It’s Not Correcting Their Gymnastics)

Parents love their kids. Parents want to see their kids do well in school, music, the arts or sports—whatever their child decides to pursue. So it follows that parents want to help their child succeed. But if help that involves coaching your child at home or requiring her to do conditioning or flexibility training not […]

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Gymnasts: Remember This When You Think You “Suck”

“I suck.” I think that most gymnasts at some point in their career say this to themselves.  If they are lucky, they say it only once or twice.  The less fortunate ones (me included) actually develop a voice that repeats these two syllables each and every time we fall short. Curious as to where the […]

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