My Evolution as a Gymnastics Coach

In September 2021, I had the honor of becoming a member of the coaching staff at Flipper’s Gymnastics in Ramsey, NJ. I’ve been training there since the summer of 2018, just after the adult gym program where I had been training was shut down. Fortunately, my fellow Geriatric Gymnast friend Debby had been planning to open her own place. It was a serendipitous coincidence, since her new place was much closer to me.

Unlike many gymnastics facilities, Debby was willing to take on adults as clients. Most gyms do not want to take on the extra liability of people over 18 flipping head over heels. But, being an adult gymnast herself, she understood how important it was for us to keep training. So, we made the move to Flipper’s when she opened her doors.

My introduction to coaching

Initially, I had no intentions of becoming a coach. Other than helping my classmates by passing on the good advice that had been offered to me over the years, I was much more comfortable being a student in the gym.

At the time, we had a great coach with a wealth of knowledge and lots of positive energy. She believed that adults could progress in many ways. Though she was decades my junior, I learned so much from her relating to coaching adults to flip.

When she left to raise her family, we were suddenly without a leader. No coach, no class. We were all worried that our long-enjoyed Sunday morning workout tradition would suddenly be over. This was a daunting thought; for 14 years, my Sunday morning gymnastics ritual had become ingrained in my body and soul. The idea that I might not be able to attend my temple of flipping was quite distressing.

A surprising turn of events

Debby, who worked six days a week and wasn’t excited about giving up her day off (completely understandable – I wouldn’t either), asked if I was interested in coaching the Sunday morning class. I was a little flabbergasted, because it seemed that she trusted me in a way that I didn’t initially trust myself. On the other hand, if she felt I was capable of keeping her clientele safe, I was willing to try.

I was proud of this new responsibility as an official coach. Now, I’d have to step up my game and start thinking like a coach.

As excited I was about exploring this new opportunity, I was also not stupid. There’s much more to coaching than encouraging someone to bounce on a trampoline. You need to understand skills progressions, know how to keep people safe as they (literally) jump out of their comfort zone, identify and correct physical imbalances through proper conditioning, and encourage the adult brain to embrace regular failure as a path to success.

Thinking like a coach

Even after over a decade of gymnastics training and almost 30 years as a dance teacher, I had reservations about stepping into this role. A coach’s primary job is to keep students safe as they learn new skills. When teaching adults, there’s so much that can go wrong.

What makes me a great coach for new adult gymnasts is my lived experience. It’s given me so much understanding, clarity, and the ability to shed wasteful thinking.

As I settled into this new role, there were a few principles I had to wrap my head around:

Fear

I understand fear and how to listen to it properly. I’ve written extensively about Mr. Lizard in this blog. Fear is a natural part of the gymnastics journey, and we have the power to manage it. When coaching, I’ve developed strategies to help adults chip away at those fears through teaching fundamentals, which build physical strength and mental resilience.

Conditioning

Adult bodies and brains are very different than children’s. In order to keep adults safe, you have to understand where their fears come from. They have so much more to lose if they get injured. Their bodies are more time-worn and less conditioned for strength and mobility. I know this because I experience this every day.

In understanding of the fundamentals, we can condition our bodies to progress through skills. With adults, it’s a slow burn, but they have the maturity to understand and process why they are doing the drills and exercises. Through proper functional mechanics, adults can prevent injuries both in the gym and in their functional lives.

Class management

In our adult classes, we get a lot of walk-ins. We never know what the class will look like until it starts. We’ll have a hodgepodge of abilities all in one session. Over 30 years of teaching I’ve learned how to manage that variety.

Some adults need hands-on, close coaching. Others need space to work their skills. Being a coach in that space, I know to keep my eyes open at all times. I’ve learned when to push someone ahead or pull them back. It’s a little chaotic, but I’ve come to enjoy the variety.

Knowing my limitations

The most important part of coaching is understanding your own limitations.

Initially, I didn’t peg myself as someone who could anticipate and predict all of the safety risks in a gymnastics arena. Since I started gymnastics as an adult, there were natural limitations to what my body could learn.

Examples of my limitations: While I understand twisting mechanics, my brain-body connection doesn’t allow me to do that. My back doesn’t bend, so skills involving back flexibility are off the table. I’ve never been able to figure out an aerial.

Even if I’ve had skills and lost them, I am comfortable using that valuable experience to help coach others.

What I’m not comfortable coaching are things that I haven’t worked on in some form myself. I have learned to say “this is not in my wheelhouse.” The last thing I want is to give bad counsel to someone who is taking a physical risk. When you don’t have the expertise, you don’t coach it. Period.

---

Learning to coach by leaning on friends

My dear friend Tammy, whom I have had the good fortune to train with for many years, is a stellar gymnast. She’s also 50+, so we share our adult trials and tribulations. She has also been flipping since she was a kid. She has continued her conditioning, maintained her strength and flexibility, and continues to build skills that many teenagers struggle to learn.

Tammy’s body of knowledge in progressions, prerequisites, drills, and safety is vast. She is also a physical therapist by trade. She inherently understands the body, how it’s supposed to work, how injuries occur and heal, and how it all applies to gymnastics.

Though she hadn’t been coaching, I always knew she’d make an excellent one. However, since her expertise was not in teaching, she had her own reservations about stepping up into that role. When she offered to co-coach with me, I was quite relieved.

We developed a symbiotic coaching relationship. Side by side, we benefitted from each other’s expertise. I developed my coaching knowledge and strategies. She gained more confidence in her ability to manage a class. We learn by bouncing ideas off each other.

Together, along with our Tuesday adult coach Michael, we offer adults of all ages and abilities a fitness experience that they could manage and get excited about week after week.

In the process of becoming a coach, these are the big lessons I have learned and continue to teach every class:

Focus on the fundamentals

As each week passed, I thought carefully about the foundation that a new gymnast would need to learn. I needed to wrap my brain around what fundamentals we need to proceed safely.

Whenever a new adult student comes to the gym, they have no real idea of what they are getting themselves into. Usually, they want a fun way to get fit; something different and exciting that they can sustain. They see gymnastics and think, “maybe I can do that too!”

In the years after I started coaching, I started to develop a fundamentals routine to usher them in and open the door to a new perspective in fitness. I started a Fundamentals and Mobility class for the newbies so they could concentrate on building a base of physical and mental confidence. It is through the principles of that class that I have been able to keep this 53-year-old body flipping.

Focus on your progress

The magic of Geriatric Gymnastics (and of Flipper’s Gymnastics in general) is that there is no competition, no comparing yourself to your classmates, and no need to rush your skills development. In fact, the best part about being in the class is looking at the various levels of experience and competencies and learning how to get closer to the things you want to accomplish, one step at a time.

I remember walking into the adult gymnastics world 14 years ago and seeing people, my age and older, who were doing complex tumbling combinations as I was struggling to stay on my feet whilst bouncing on a trampoline.

I stood there, flabbergasted, and wondering if I would ever be able to do any of those things. This is the moment that I try to remember when I approach a new tumbler, because they are thinking the exact same thing. My job is to know what they need in order to stay on their feet, safely fall and get back up again, gain a new skill, and happily come back the next week.

Step back to step forward

I’ve heard myself saying over and over that sometimes, you have to back up and work the fundamentals in order to have a breakthrough. I say that because I have experienced this truth over and over again; you get a skill, you lose a skill, you have to build it back up again.

In class, we talk about how we are not the same person that we were last year, last month, or even yesterday. We are the sum total of every moment of experience, stress, anxiety, all compounded into an aging body that doesn’t always respond the way we want it to. We juggle so many mental and physical variables that it sometimes feels like we are doing something for the very first time, even if we have mastered it before.

Lean on your experience

I think this is the most exciting part of the coaching experience:

As newbies realize the struggle of learning a new basic skill,
I know exactly what to say because I know how they feel.

I feel most comfortable guiding people through the fear because I understand it. Heck, I still feel it when I am trying something new. I think that’s what makes me a valuable teacher. I recognize the frustration and I can diagnose some of the fundamental problems that hold back the acquisition of new skills. When I see it happening, I know how to validate and address it.

For example, in order to learn any sort of flip, you must understand the mechanics of it. If you can’t do a forward roll, you probably can’t do a front tuck on the trampoline. My job is to help others gain the foundational experience needed to build their confidence and try harder versions of the skill they want to attain. These are things I’ll try:

• Forward roll down a cheese mat
• Forward roll on the floor
• Stretch and tuck jumps on trampoline
• Dive roll on the trampoline
• Front 3/4 flip to the seat

If one thing doesn’t work, I’ll try another. Eventually, we land on something that establishes a baseline of experience from which we build. I apply this to anything a student wants to achieve.

Encourage patience while doing the work

Adults have a lifetime of embedded insecurities. As they learn new things, I know how important it is for them to understand what is missing and to be patient with themselves.

Part of coaching is teaching people to celebrate when things go right, accept when things go wrong, and understand how to re-evaluate what they can do when they fail. We may need to initiate a hard stop, back up and go back to rebuilding fundamentals to progress.

Skills that we have gained can be easily lost with one bad landing or near disaster. The fear factor is a powerful obstacle to progress. My mantra of progress isn’t linear is a regular utterance in class. We must accept the process through patience.

Show the process

In class, I make sure the newbies see my learning process as I struggle through my challenges. A great teaching strategy is to show your students how you learn through failure.

Showing adults the training process in real time is a valuable coaching strategy. One of the reasons I agreed to coaching was so that our adult class could run and I could keep training. I was not ready to give up my Sunday morning workout ritual. Tammy and I decided that we would come to the gym and hour before class to warmup and work on our skills before class. That way, we still worked on our skills, but in class, we would focus on the students.

By keeping up with our own training, the new people could see that geriatric gymnastics was a work-in-progress, one that has spanned over many years. I demonstrate things I struggle with, explain where I am in the process and why I’m struggling. It helps adults relate their experience with their coach’s. We are all on a continuum of learning.

Celebrate the success in a big way

Of course, one of the best parts of teaching is seeing hard-earned progression come to life.

When a student struggles with a new skill, either from a physical limitation or a mental block, and suddenly they succeed and their entire being emanates joy; there’s no words to describe the pride you feel for them. You’ve been in their shoes. You know how hard it is to break through a wall. You’ve given them as many strategies you can think of to move them forward, and when it finally clicks and connects, the look on their face is priceless.

In those moments, something in them changes for the better. Being a part of that is most rewarding. I am so proud of the adult camaraderie (cult) we have built at Flipper’s Gymnastics. The embrace of that community is the most essential tool for supporting grown-ups who are taking a crazy leap.

I look forward to every second of learning how to be a great coach!