The 7 Cs of Communicating for Coaches

Caring. Caring is the first point of communicating with your athlete because athletes will more easily and effectively incorporates your coaching if they believe you genuinely care about them.   It has been said that 93% of communication is non-verbal, and while that statistic may or may not be entirely valid, we do know that tone […]

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An Open Letter to the Coaches who Comfort Their Gymnasts When They Struggle in a Meet

  Dear Coaches Who Comfort Their Gymnasts When They Struggle in a Meet, I want to thank you. I thank you for recognizing that your gymnast just gave it her all, came up short and still validating her worth as a human by giving her a hug and a kind word as she dejectedly walked off […]

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6 Things to Remember When an Athlete Switches Gyms

One of the harder things I have dealt with and watched coaches deal with is the departure of an athlete from our club to another club. Sure, sometimes it comes with relief of knowing that a family that caused distress to the coaching staff has moved on to be someone else’s problem. But sometimes it […]

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The Key to a Happy Gymnast?

We want our kids to be happy. So we worry about the outcomes. Learning the kip. Winning the meet. Making it to level 10, to elite, to National team or the to the Olympics. Earning the scholarship. We worry about the hallmarks of achievements. We want to give them the world. But what if we […]

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What Coaches See vs. What Preschoolers See

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8 Myths We Need to Stop Believing For Kids to Enjoy Youth Sports

There is one definition of success. Success is not a black and white concept and it is certainly not synonymous with winning. There is one path to success. Just as it is not a black and white concept, success does not have one route of travel. If a child struggles with a sport at the […]

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The Streetlight Effect

It’s well past midnight and a man is on his hands and knees, underneath the lone light on an otherwise dark street.  Driving by on routine patrol, a police officer stops her car and steps out to ask the man what he is doing. “I’m looking for my keys,” the man wearily replies. “You lost […]

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Gymnasts and “Trying”

Don’t tell an athlete that they didn’t try Tell them that they can try harder. Is that splitting hairs? Maybe. But hear me out. “You aren’t trying” puts an athlete on the defensive. It demonstrates to that athlete that you don’t believe they are giving full effort. It tells the athlete you don’t trust her. “I […]

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Dominoes and Kips: Building Toward Success in Gymnastics

  This I know is true: There is no such thing as an overnight success, especially in gymnastics. For instance, anyone who has been a part of the sport can tell you this—it takes an enormous amount of physical preparation and carefully sequenced progressions to learn a kip. (Just ask Susie’s coach…) But anyone who […]

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Can You Quit and Still Have Grit?

    While a cute rhyming couplet, “quit” and “grit” wouldn’t seem to go together. And yet, they can and do. According to grit expert, Dr. Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, quitting is a critical component of grit for this […]

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