Just so you know...from here in, expect less writing from me. Not that I don't have something to say, it's just that I know you want to "cut to the chase" and see what I do as a coach, and not so much read what I do. I get it! Go Dragons! Use the arms to reach...see the comparison ..read more

Front Giants! A "must have" bar skill for any respectable bar routine ---- Level 9 and above. The "Al Fong Spotting Blocks" from Tumbl Trak make it easier and safer to teach this skill ..read more

Gymnastics is an amazing sport! It's wonderful to see kids participate at any age, at any level. You don't have to be an Olympian to feel the thrill of setting goals and accomplishing them, learning a skill for the first time, or showing off for friends and family. Not to mention gymnastics is integrating into dance, cheerleading, diving, water sports, snow sports, and extreme sports. It's not supposed to be a sport for the few. Rather, an activity for the masses and a life style that people embrace far after their competitive days are over. For those young athletes who possess the qualiti ..read more

Coaches! Yurchenko vaults aren't as complicated as some vault experts make them out to be. First of all---respect the skill. The yurchenko vault can be scary and dangerous if not performed properly. But it's not difficult at all to learn if the gymnast is physically strong enough, and mechanically sound in the "basics" department (body alignment, core strength, correct round off, correct back handspring, etc...). In the "not too old" days, the yurchenko was executed on a sideways vault horse. Picture a men's pommel horse---take off the pommels----raise it as high as possible----turn it per ..read more

Alexis Jeffrey! JaFree Scott! Leanne Wong! Kara Eaker! We recently competed in the qualifying meet hosted by the Parkettes and qualified 3 out of 4 athletes to the American Classic at the national training center and the US Classic in Chicago. The girls had a very successful Level10 JO National Championships which gave me the green light to pursue the elite route this summer. If they hadn't done well, I wouldn't have taken them to the next level.  The jump from age group to elite is a huge leap and only the toughest, smartest athletes have a chance at making the cut. It's not meant for ..read more

  A friend of mine saw me at Level 8, 9, and 10 Regionals this past weekend and asked me to help her teach her elite hopeful how to successfully perform a yurchenko double full on a competitive surface.  She goes to the developmental camps on a monthly basis hoping to someday get her athlete into a national training camp and ultimately make the national team. She asked multiple vaulting experts and received plenty of coaching tips to help her athlete, but still came up short in teaching the skill successfully. I don’t proclaim to know all the answers, but I’ve had more success t ..read more

Gymnastics skills are learned in parts. Fundamental skills are composed of basic movements involving strength, balance, body awareness, and timing. Combining basic movements build a more complex and usually more difficult movement. This describes the creation of a gymnastics skill. Some gymnasts learn very quickly. I’m sure you know gymnasts like that. But most gymnasts I’ve coached can’t just see a skill and then perform it. They must learn a series of progressive skills leading up to the final skill achievement. I like to think of this learning process as the accumulation of essential b ..read more

After reading my blogs over the last five years, it should be no surprise to anyone that as an Olympic coach I am absolutely involved with training my level 4's, 5's, 6's, 7's, and optional gymnasts on my team. How else can you explain why GAGE  has been in every Olympic Trials since 2000 to 2016, produced 2 Olympians (Terin Humphrey and Courtney McCool, 2 Olympic alternates (Ivana Hong and Sarah Finnegan), and numerous World Champions (Brenna Dowell and Maddie Desch)! GAGE has been a constant R and D gym (research and development) creating new skills and new techniques to teach gymnast ..read more

And welcome to the next Quad! This is the  beginning of the next four years when the Olympics come around again. This is the mind set of GAGE. Always has been. Always will be as long as we intend to continue putting more athletes on the USA Olympic team. It may seem like a long time, but to us....sometimes it's not long enough to teach a gymnast everything she needs to know in time to fulfill her Olympic dream. Let's use uneven bars as an example of how long it takes to be excellent. A beginner gymnast has to learn the basic swing, develop the air sense, and build the super human stren ..read more

In the Gymnastics world, the word commitment means two things. There's commitment to the sport of gymnastics, and then there's commitment to a skill. To be really good there's a certain lifestyle that you have to buy into. As they say....eat, sleep, and breathe gymnastics. This blog focuses on commitment to a skill. To learn a skill successfully and safely, there's more to it than the right training equipment or the right coaching cues. There's only so many things a coach can do or say to teach a gymnast how to swing on a bar, tumble on a beam, add another flip, etc... The gymnast needs to ..read more