Although the video titles and some of the speaking is in Italian- the video is self explanatory on some exercises and stretches for Hips, Back and Shoulder mobility ..read more

HAPPY GYMNASTS ARE ALL ALIKE. UNHAPPY GYMNASTS ARE UNHAPPY IN THEIR OWN WAY. Tolstoy posited a similar analogy in his novel Anna Karenina : “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” By that, Tolstoy meant that for a marriage to be happy, it had to succeed in several key aspects. Failure on even one of these aspects, and the marriage is doomed.  What does a gymnast need to be happy? There are many boxes we must check as coaches to keep a gymnast happy. Fail at one of these and you have an unhappy gymnast. Here is a lesson I learned from Doc Massi ..read more

From Practice to The Podium. Long term gymnastics success. When I first started coaching gymnastics I wanted to be a GREAT coach (what ever that meant). Now looking back at what I feel was a reasonably successful career I feel I accomplished many of my goals. More importantly I helped many gymnasts reach their goal. I have seen coaches is small gyms with barely enough equipment have great results and I have seen coaches in gyms so big they almost need their own zip code really do nothing. Where I have seen most coaches fall short is with lack of a plan and failure to follow though. Even the b ..read more

The path to athletic success and life is a journey. In my 35 years of coaching, I have seen a profound changes in how we prepare the athlete for “the road.” In the last 15 years or so there has been a trend that has accelerated over the last ten years to spend an inordinate amount of time preparing the road for the athlete. We try to remove all obstacles in the way and make the road as straight and smooth as possible so the athlete can easily reach their goal. This has resulted in fragile, fully adapted athletes unable to deal with adversity in sport and life. It has created entitlement and u ..read more

The Neuroscience of Effective Practice Let’s not pretend I am smart enough to come up with this information on my own. I found it in PSYCHOLOGY TODAY. Aditi Subramaniam, PhD. I have just adapted the language to make it more relatable in a gymnastics learning environment. KEY POINTS Deliberate practice involves paying attention, rehearsing with a clear goal, and repeating the process with purpose.  The benefits of deliberate practice include enhanced long-term memory retention and automaticity of skills.  Practice produces myelin around neurons, which increases the speed and efficien ..read more

You may call it tempting fate because the last time we hosted a camp there we had a hurricane that forced us to cut camp short by one day. Why are we going back? The organization, energy and enthusiasm of the host club, APEX ATHLETICS, as well as their amazing facility made it an easy decision. It was impossible for me to do a camp last summer. I had too many international commitments. I am looking forward to going back to Long Island for this camp. I am still working on some of the details but I already have commitments from some great staff. Jacobo Giron, Camila Ugolini, Rob Wing, Amanda De ..read more

Presentazioni delle lezioni per l’Italia Master Workshop. Developing a Plan for Uneven Bars Be A Better Coach Combination Tumbling Yurchenko Vaulting- Go BIG ..read more

Small Business Saturday I am writing this the day before Thanksgiving 2022. I am sitting on my best with my “work stuff” in front of me and my families Christmas lists next to me. Even before I was a local business owner I believed in shopping local.  One of the great things about our area is the plethora of locally owned and operated businesses. I love walking in to a business and knowing the owner is working that day. The employees appear to take a little more pride in their work and seem to get to know the customers. I love walking into a shop, restaurant or cafe and although the emp ..read more

Dr. Bill Sands has contributed this article on Peaking and Tapering. This is an article that EVERY SERIOUS GYMNASTICS COACH must read. Chere Hoffman adds her examples of putting this into practice at the end. Peaking-and-Tapering-F4Download ..read more

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