24 People You Might See at a Gymnastics Meet (as Told by Cats in Honor of #NationalCatDay)

Did you know that October 29 is National Cat Day? Well, it is! So, to celebrate our feline friends, here are 24 people you might see at a gymnastics meet, as told through cats. The gymnast who arrives without her hair done and needs a team effort to be ready on time. The team with the perfectly synchronized […]

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A Dozen Ways for Coaches to Make Sports More Fun

Why should a coach make sports fun? Aren’t coaches supposed to teach sports skills, develop competent athletes and develop a winning mentality? Aren’t sports about learning life lessons like coping with failure, good sportsmanship, discipline and goal setting? Well yes, of course, but sports are also about fun. “Fun” is a complicated word for me. Look, […]

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8 Questions You Must Answer ‘Yes’ to Before Becoming a Gymnastics Coach

  1. Do you like and understand kids? Kids are who take gymnastics classes. And, well, they act like kids. If you don’t like kids, don’t find their energy or imaginations interesting and have little patience for their developmental stages, all of the technical knowledge in the world will be of little use in your […]

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Ending this “Old School” Tactic: 9 Tips to Stop Yelling

Last week I reposted an article about “old school” coaching techniques that need to be removed from youth sports. And while those strategies need to go, there is a tactic that most all of those techniques use that also needs to be tossed out in the garbage: yelling. According to a recent study, 76% of […]

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4 Techniques of Old-School Coaching that DON’T Work, so Stop Using Them.

Originally posted on Get Psyched!:
Twenty years ago when I did gymnastics, coaching was much different. There wasn’t as much known about sports psychology or child development as there is today. So when coaches used fear tactics, humiliation, overtraining, and the theory of breaking them down to build them up we can give them the benefit…

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5 Simple Reasons Your Son Should Do Gymnastics (Even if He Doesn’t Want to Be a Gymnast)

Gymnastics is not just for girls. Not even close. Yes, the sport is considerably more popular among girls. But did you know that many regard male gymnasts as the strongest of all athletes? In Men’s Health’s list of the 50 fittest athletes, it is a gymnast who is ranked third, ahead of sports stars like […]

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The Perfect Coach with The Perfect Touch.

Originally posted on Get Psyched!:
A View From the Stands. This article was originally posted on Gold Medal Moms and is reposted with permission from Jodi. They say a picture can paint a thousand words yet, I feel compelled to explain what I see, as a mother, when I look at my child from the…

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A Kafkaesque Gymnastics Dream

Imagine that you train for your entire childhood for the opportunity to represent your country in your sport. Imagine that you go through the process of the qualification competitions and earn your spot to represent your homeland in the World championships. Imagine that your country’s governing body of the sport sends in the “Nominative Registration” […]

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