Goal Setting and strategy

One of the things I love best about being a gymnastics coach is how our sport teaches so much beyond skills to children. One of my favorite by-products is having kids learn goal setting. When we talk about goals with our new optional level team kids we explain that goals are like sign posts: we…

Read More

Stretch-schmetch and warm up-schmarm up

I have long said that gymnasts waste a lot of time doing stretching before practice. Traditionally coaches have felt that stretching before practice is very important because it reduces the likelihood of injury during practice. That is wrong. First off, lets clarify two very different terms; stretching and warming up. Warming up is a very…

Read More

Ah…I was right.

Sometimes the view from the soapbox is a good view.  Recently I was chastised by fellow coaches and club owners because I have a section on my website (down on the bottom of the page)that corresponds with a blog post made here awhile back. I stated that trampoline is dangerous. Some saw it as a statement that countered getting kids to…

Read More

Is trampoline safe? No.

We have posted on our website, under the tab of questions we sometimes get from parents: “is trampoline safe?” I wrote the response and I was questioned by several of our coaches about it. It might be a dumb move to post that I don’t think trampoline is safe on our own website when WE…

Read More

Are you memorable?

So often we harp on the dark side of children’s sports. We discuss the psycho-parent, the bratty bully, over-training children, embarrassing performances and more. We tend to remember the bad things but have a hard time recalling good things. I learned at a business conference in a discussion of brain functionality (yeah, I go to…

Read More

I resolve to….be S*M*A*R*T

Lose weight, workout more, get my financials in order, call my brothers more, learn a new language, etc. The list is endless and most often it’s open-ended. Most people who make resolutions do it with a genuine desire for self-improvement, the problem is in the follow through. Often our resolutions are little more than thoughts…

Read More

The problem with Traditionitis

Ok. Just venting. I am appalled at somethings I see things in the children’s activity industry and I wonder what the heck is going on. Case in point: I see an advertisement for a local children’s activity franchise that shows a child doing a back bend, or what in gymnastics or yoga is known as…

Read More

Where did Gymnastics come from?

  No one really knows when gymnastics started. There are cave drawings that date back thousands of years that depict tumblers and athletes performing what appears to be floor exercises. As recorded history tells, in the beginning (ancient Greece) the gymnasts of the time were actually wrestling. The combatants would perform dynamic exercises before engaging…

Read More