Articles & information about gymnastics for parents & gymnasts on topics ranging from training, conditioning to nutrition and more.

Ask any athlete of the highest caliber what allows them to perform, and the answer is bound to be the same:  Mental Conditioning.  Why is a baseball player able to hit the ball in front of 50,000 fans?  Why is the sprinter undeterred by the field of competitors?  Why can the tennis player or the golfer focus so well, despite continuous distractions?  And what makes that young gymnast able to stay on the beam, seemingly oblivious to the noise and motion around her?  Mental toughness.  Coaches for decades have struggled with methods to instill that toughness in their athletes, and in today’s world of sports, it has become an essential part of training. 

But how is it done?  I believe a good gymnast is equipped with a lot of knowledge, an understanding of history, and tons of experience.  In the gym, in every single workout, my athletes and I create exercises to challenge their minds.  Sometimes, I demand that a certain skill be done a certain way, and the penalty for error is to repeat that skill.  Other times, I ask the athletes to perform a certain number of repetitions of a skill.   Sometimes, the pressure is high, other times low.  This is all designed to instill confidence in the athlete so that when it counts, in a competitive setting, the gymnasts can recall situations where they dealt with similar stresses.   In essence, I am giving these athletes the tools to cope with difficult or unfamiliar situations in the safety of their home gym, and where the stakes are relatively low. 

My athletes understand skills, and are able to recognize proper technique and common errors in the skills they are performing.  We discuss gymnastics, and the skills it includes, sometimes referring to pictures or video, more often purely with verbal communication.  I remind the athlete, when performing a new skill, or struggling with an old skill, to focus on their technique, on what their body should be doing, rather than on what their brain is saying.  This is further enhanced with “drills,” or simple skills designed to repeat proper technique many times, allowing the technique to become “second nature.”  This is all part of training the gymnasts’ minds to allow their body to operate. 

Many coaches use “visualization” as a learning tool.  I tend to use this technique only in my older athletes, as I find that the youngest gymnasts have a hard time focusing in a gym full of activity.  Visualization in gymnastics consists of repeating an exercise in the mind’s eye, and becoming more familiar with its performance by examining that skill mentally.  Every athlete has to be able to imagine (visualize) a successful performance in order to perform successfully. 

Years ago, I had a coach who inundated me with anecdotes, quotes, and various words of wisdom.  He had signs in his gym saying, “THINK,” and signs saying, “DON’T THINK.” He was wise enough to expose his team to great athletes from many different sports, and analyze what pieces of their success were common.  This has stuck with me, and influenced the way I impart information to my athletes.  His methods were different than mine, but they allowed him to communicate effectively with his athletes, and this is the key to coaching:  you must be able to communicate with your athletes. 

In the end, mental toughness is focus, and that focus is what makes an athlete able to perform at his or her best.  At Gymnastics Revolution, I carefully script the workouts of my competitive teams to build that focus, to build the confidence, and the knowledge necessary for when the gymnast competes.  Through a series of  challenges, by raising and lowering stress, by repeating core skills and elements many times, and by carefully explaining the relevant parts of their training, my athletes become more focused competitors, and ultimately, successful.