Gymnastics Summary Episode: Culture Change

This is going to be a shorter episode and my hope and my goal is to try to balance some of the longer episodes that we're doing with the shorter kind of tidbit information . So the podcast is getting quite a bit of attention again and a lot of people are new listeners , which is awesome . But there are certain topics that a lot of people ask me about right .

So this one in particular diving into , like culture improvement and things like that . I wanted to try to summarize some of the basic things that I find myself saying over and over and over again to help people in a very short dosage on their run or their drive to work , just kind of get a nice little refresher or a TLDR on the aspect of one topic .

So this is when we talk about culture .

We talk about , you know , what are things that we can be doing to improve a gym's culture , personal development , happiness , levels of people coaching themselves , helping kind of work with kids who are maybe struggling a bit with motivation or some frustration , like what can we do on the culture side to make sure that either we can improve a gym's culture or when

to leave a gym or move away from a certain role if the culture is just toxic and not really working ? So the goal is to make this episode a short dose , and so I'll keep the intro brief there , but I hope you enjoyed this conversation just with me on gymnastics , culture improvement , all right .

So the next one that we're going to talk about here is going to be a bit of discussion on like culture , gym change , happiness at work , you know , coaching or as a parent in the sport , stuff like that . As a medical provider working in the sport I'm going to , I'm going to try to blend this to both ways , right .

So on one side , I want to be empathetic and give people honest , caring , genuine advice from things that I have gone through or I've seen programs go through and all that kind of stuff .

The other side is a bit of tough love , because there are some times that accountability is needed and that you have to reflect and figure out what's my role in this situation . But I will say again , kind of duality here . On one side , it is so much better than 10 years ago to work in the sport .

As a coach , medical parent , you know the eighties , nineties , two thousands like they were rough man , like nineties , two thousands in particular , not going to go into it , but just a enormous amount of abuse , suffering , pain , you know , like excess , like needless suffering .

For people , coaches , happiness was terrible , just like , just like absolute meat grinder type mentality , especially competitive gymnastics . So it has gotten much better in the last five to 10 years and I want to say that I recognize , I applaud , I am very supportive of so many amazing coaches , parents , medical providers , gymnasts themselves as a positive example .

That has made the sport a significantly better place than it was 10 to 15 years ago . So I certainly understand that , I applaud that . I think that's great to see . I want to recognize the fact that it's real . It's real .

On the other side there are still some situations that are just painful to see of just gyms that are so stuck in old school mentalities , are so stuck in old school habits and they don't realize they're not maliciously doing this but their inability to self-reflect from either again , a coach , a parent , like medical I have happened in the medical side , I've seen

this and also just like teams as a whole or gymnasts that are older I've seen , they're just like incredible um , lack of self-awareness and laugh of self . Lack of self-reflection and laugh of self . Lack of self reflection and accountability just poison the well of a gym , right ?

So like I have seen situations where one coach who is not old they're not young , they're right in the middle but like they just been doing things for 10 , 15 years their way , they've been doing it and you know new information comes out on flexibility , strength , conditioning , um , periodization , skill , technique , and it just like flies right over their head because

they don't want to put in the work to learn . Right , they don't want to think about , you know , anything might be different . You know my technique's the best , I've done this whatever .

And you see sometimes people who reach a certain level of success in the sport and they think that what worked for one kid works for every other kid in their gym and that is just couldn't be farther from the truth , right , like there is always something to learn , something to change , something to think about .

Right , of course there's some tried and true basics that will exist all the time , no matter what Roundup technique , cartwheel technique , physical preparation , flexibility , like there's a lot of things that are tried and true and do need to be carried on and kind of like have that respect to the use of it .

But also like when I think about 10 years ago in my coaching career , the way that I approached flexibility , strength , conditioning , technique , personal development , continuing education , it's completely different . It's completely different than it was 10 years ago .

I've learned and expanded so much of my thoughts and I've done that by learning from other people who are , you know , more experienced and seasoned and smarter than me , but also people who are not inside the sport of gymnastics .

So that is the first thing to really say is that there are still , unfortunately , some spots , some people , some , some just like gym cultures that didn't change in the last five years , probably won't change . You know , people are just stuck in their ways . It's too much work , it's too much effort .

They'd rather just coach how they coach and move on and have fun with their life . And in that situation , if you are in that situation and I've gotten pretty firm on this , like somebody asked me the other day in a question and answer they said like how do you , how do you change a gym culture where people are toxic and abusive and blah , blah , blah .

You don't , you don't change them right , because they aren't going to change . Oftentimes , like you can do everything you want under the sun . If there's like some sort of like clear abuse or clear issue , you have to like go through the channels to report them . And then it's this whole big drama about like this person doesn't report it .

It's not safe , it's not secure , it's not whatever . I know I get it . I've been involved in some situations that are very sticky and very stressful , but like you have to go through the proper channels and do an anonymous report or do whatever if there's something seriously concerning right Mandating reporting .

So that's like a very small percentage , right , that's like a very tiny percent and those people get dealt with . What most people are dealing with that they're frustrated with is it's not like to the point of being a concerning illegal , abusive , it's just mean .

It's just like painful to be a part of because of the gossip and the bickering and the shade and the comments behind your back and the people who are just egotistical and don't want to learn and think they know . Stuff like that is what most people get exhausted by .

So it's these situations where you know it's just tiring and it's just like nobody wants to learn , nobody wants to do something different . I don't feel like my voice is respected . I never get to share my ideas . Everyone just kind of like , makes these side comments and these gossips and blah , blah , blah . And guess what ? Leave , leave the gym .

Leave the gym . It is not worth your mental health to be miserable at work . Right , because you often spend at least 30% of your life sleeping and 30% of your life working , if not more , because gymnastics is very involved in . We want to do so much for the kids and whatever .

But if you're getting like you're part of a staff or someone's making side comments and is throwing shade your way and is gossiping behind your back , doesn't let you coach . The way you want to coach doesn't support your learning . They don't want to change at all .

There are so many amazing gyms around the country that are very accommodating and very open and have wonderful people . I think 90% of the gyms that I work with are incredible , kind , honest , wonderful , good people who are wanting to do the right thing and they're just trying to get by and trying to do the best they can . Right .

It's a very small percentage that are truly like , exhausting and miserable to work at . But if you're serious about gymnastics whether it's being a coach , medical parent for your kid , whatever you owe it to yourself to relocate or find a gym that has those things Right .

And it's hard to move to research , to take a leap of faith , to join a new gym Like I get it , I've done it multiple times Right .

But if you are serious about being in the sport as a career and you want it to be your entire life , every single day , that you grind through the miserable existence of working in a gym where it's not fun or it's toxic is not going to go well , you're just chopping yourself in the foot , right .

You're just like , constantly cutting yourself down to be more and more sad , more and more depressed , more and more frustrated , more and more exhausted , right , and not feel like your work is going anywhere . So if your career is set on gymnastics in some way , shape or form , move to another gym that is in your area , or maybe it's a move farther away .

But find the places that have good people who will support you and that it's enjoyable to work at . If this is your career , okay . The other thing I recommend to people is that maybe it's just pivoting your role within gymnastics as a whole . So maybe , like coaching is exhausting for you and like doing all that grind is not fun .

Maybe you want to judge , maybe you want to be a technician , maybe you want to work in support staff , maybe you want to try to do equipment stuff , maybe you want to go on the rules committee right . Maybe you want to try to manage or be involved in a gym at a different level .

Maybe it's preschool , maybe it's rec , maybe it's lower level comp , not high level comp . Maybe elite is exhausting but you want to try to do compulsory or competitive like low level preteens . It's more fun for you .

Think about the multiple spots that are in gymnastics that you can be a part of judging coaching , uh , lower level coaching , higher level coaching , recreational coaching , adult gymnastics , technical chair there's so much stuff that can be involved Leo's and recruiting and equipment management there's a bajillion different roles that are coming up inside of gymnastics .

So maybe you're just a little burnt out with your current role and you want to try something else for a bit before you go back or permanently move to another role . That is possibly an option

too as well . And the third thing that is harsh , real to hear is that maybe you just want to move on from gymnastics . Maybe it's not a specific person or a culture or a gossip or whatever . Maybe you just want to try other stuff . That's okay .

Maybe you just want to not coach anymore after 10 , 15 years and maybe you want to go do something else with your life , in a different profession , and you're just beating yourself up because you're you're , you don't want to leave the sport . Maybe you can still be involved somehow .

Maybe you can volunteer at a gym while you work a different craft or a hobby , right , like I find myself , I have too much ADD and I love too many things to only do gymnastics full time . I love physical therapy , I love gymnastics , but I also love my family .

I love video games , I love AI , I love all sorts of other facets that I'm enjoying myself with . To just be all dedicated to one thing and I oftentimes that , sometimes I find I get too over-involved .

I got to pull myself out a bit Like I just disappeared for three months last summer because I was burnt out and I need time and I need something else to do with my personal life . It's okay , right , but you have to figure out . Is it this gym that I need to leave ? Is it this role that I need to leave ? Or is it the sport that I need to leave ?

Right , and that's all inside . The people who are just like . I get a lot of emails , a lot of DMs from like it's exhausting , no one's changing All I do , all the work . These people are toxic , it's so abusive , blah , blah , blah . Okay , report them and leave , file a safe sport allegation anonymously and then move on with your life .

Right , you can't control their people . And stop killing yourself over the fact that you're going to change this one person who's had an Eagle for 25 years and it's just like throwing shade inside comments . That person is who . They are right . Don't waste your life trying to fix them or trying to change them . Okay , deal with the serious allegations .

Try to do a little bit of work inside the gym , which I'll give you some tips for next , and then move on , man . Move on for your mental health . Stop . Stop just digging your own grave trying to be there and fix everybody . It's not going to work . Okay , so again , hopefully , that's a good balance of empathy and I've been there and I understand .

I want to help you slash tough love to be a little accountable for your own mental health . Okay , now , that aside , if you're in a gym where people are open to change , it's just hard right , and they're open to trying new ideas . They're open to these things , but nobody knows what to do . That is , that is a different situation , right ?

So in those things when I consult with you know , teams , elite , college , whatever and they say , hey , we have this like issue , girls aren't doing what we want , guys don't want to get on stuff , it's hard frustrating , blah , blah , blah the first place to start is with again , with empathy and reverse engineering , why people are here .

Okay , so if you're on a team that's part of a coaching staff , a college team , an elite team , you all have to agree upon the same morals , ethics and goals , right , so you can have different personalities . You can have different styles and swagger about how you do stuff .

Different background , upbringing , personalities that's totally cool , that's actually a good thing . But you have to have the same common , uh , morals , ethics and goals .

Okay , you have to all believe in working hard and safety and , uh , you know , being nice to each other , respecting each other's opinions , listening when someone talks or being open to other people's ideas right . You have to have those common situations right and , in those moments , right .

If you are slowly finding out that somebody you hired is not part of that and they're not really like on board driving it , well , that's the team leader's role to hold that person accountable . If someone is constantly showing up late , berating other people , not letting people talk , that is a team leader , a head coach , a gym owner , whoever .

To hold that person accountable and say , hey , listen , we agree upon these values , is like these are our core values , like being nice , working hard , being respectful , constantly learning and listening to people when they talk . Those things are important and just some of your choices and some of your actions right now are not in line with those things .

So I'm just raising your awareness to it , letting you know no harm , no foul , but like we have to keep an eye on this right . Then , if it happens again , that person has to be held responsible or being held accounted for like hey , listen , like talk to you about this once . Now it's not happening .

So like , third time we're going to have some serious problems and you might be let go , like get to make it that serious . And then , of course , if it happens , you have to have a spine , let that person go and in that situation , but what if that person is the head coach ? What if that person is the person who runs the gym ?

What if that person is the national team head coach ? That's where you start going back to the first part of the conversation is like is this gym a good fit for me ? Right , is this role a good fit for me ?

If I try to bring this concern to my gym owner and the gym owner is the person who's berating me and is making side comments , is not running the business ?

Well , is not listening to the staff and concerns and helping get enough coaches , well , that person you can bring it to a couple of times , but eventually you , if they're not going to change at all , it's time to move on .

Right , because their gym is going to go up in flames , right , if you constantly fire coaches and don't listen to coaches and are not problem solving and are not listening to people , that's not a good leader . You're dodging a bullet run away as fast as you can , right , but most times than not , 90% of the time I have these conversations with people .

When you bring it to someone's awareness and you say , like , listen , you may not realize , but , but like , this is like this thing .

This small thing is 90% of my frustration , right , the fact that I don't have a schedule and I don't have space on the floor to set up drills for my eight kids and there's people running through my runway is enormously frustrating , right , and because of this one thing it's making my life miserable , like everything I do is so frustrating and so stressful because

I don't have an extra set of hands to help me with 20 kids , right , and most people who are great leaders . When you bring that up to go , wow , I didn't realize that , like , that was such a big deal . I just have so many things going on . I'm trying to manage stuff , but , like , thank you for telling me , let's work on some solutions here .

Let's try to get you a junior staff member to help you for that one event . Let's . Let's rearrange the rotation schedule . Let's get you 15 minutes over here , right , those things are very sol and fixable if you're being open , honest and it's resting on a culture of respect , kindness , honesty , problem solving , safety

, all that kind of stuff . Okay , so you have to be able to align yourself with other people who have those common values and then , on top of that , have common goals . The goal of our gym is to keep kids happy , healthy and pursue their goals , whether that's recreational or elite , national team . Okay , we can all align in those goals .

We can all align in those morals and those ethics . We're going to keep circling these things when we make choices . Okay , that is the base of how to have a good culture change . You bring up the fact that , hey , we have these values . Do we have core values ? Let's make sure we have those . If we do , we are drifting from these core values .

Right , the fact that we are arguing or bickering or allowing kids to , whatever you know , there's a bajillion examples here . Um , we are drifting from our core values and we are not aligned with our goals , right , based on safety and all we want to do .

So we have to have as a , as a team , figure out what's going on there and oftentimes , inside those hard conversations , inside those open moments of what's going on , a lot of things come through that that implement change . Okay , then you have to act on that change . You have to put in small places , you know , this change here .

Or this 50 minute rotation schedule , or this staff , we're going to hire this staff . We're going to let go this . This is what we're going to do differently in the summer , and again back to if it doesn't change . Got to move on , okay .

Got to thing that's really helpful that I give people education on as a third tip is to be empathetic and reverse engineer what people want , okay . So , even though you have the goal of keeping kids happy , healthy and whatever successful , inside that there are different small little goals .

Right , for one person , one coach , for example , they might just want to learn a lot . They might not feel like they know great technique . They might really want to up their level of technical knowledge to then be more , you know , progressive towards level six or level seven , or coaching a leader or whatever .

So , for one person , they really care a lot about the fact they don't feel comfortable with their skill set . They want to learn more . For another coach , it might be that they want to have x amount of level nines and level 10s to try to make nationals as a team goal to help kids fulfill their goal of scholarships . Right , that might be another .

For a third person , it might just be that they want to have the most incredible , amazing recreational show with the kids that are happy , the parents that are happy , little kids loving gymnastics . Right , three different coaches with three very different goals and you have to reverse engineer .

Okay , you care about Con Ed , you care about level nines , level tens , you care about pre-team and preschool gymnastics . Let's reverse engineer why you care about those things and then align our goals together on why we should deal with this hard problem .

Okay , so when you have those three different people , if you don't dig into their mentality whether you're a head coach , a gym owner or whatever and reverse engineer what other people want , why are you in the sport ? Why are you working so hard as a coach or a parent ? I do this with kids all the time . One kid wants you know , one kid wants to score .

One kid wants a national team , one kid wants to just not be injured , right ? Reverse engineer what their goals are and be empathetic to that and say listen . Well , this is why we have to change .

Okay , cause all three of those coaches for example , the , the con ed coach , the level nine coach and the preschool gymnastics coach they all will benefit from from education .

They will all benefit from some staff training once per month where you guys come in together and learn about whatever technique , handstand , technique right , and the fact that that con ed is valuable , something everybody has to do . That raises the cultural floor of it , right .

Open communication and honesty and respectfulness when you're trying to go through your coaching , staffing stuff like that helps all those goals , okay . So maybe there's like some personality differences in the team or there's some people who don't drive very well on a team , like that's okay , that's normal .

Not everybody loves everybody , but you can always be respectful , you can always listen to what people are saying , you can always be kind to people , right , you can always do those things and no matter what your goal is , all three of those things are there .

So that's the cultural bedrock of um hey , we're always going to be open and honest and care about people and listen to their ideas and not shoot them down when they bring it up .

Every single time a disagreement comes up or every single time some friction comes up and it doesn't get handled well , you say , hey , listen , like your choices , your actions right now are not in line with the values that we established , are very important . So they should be written down in a binder , they should be slapped on the wall .

They should be , do whatever you want , but like that glue at the bottom of aligning your cultural values , your expectations , your goals , and then having core values of respect , honesty , caring , empathy , continuing education , all that kind of stuff . They have to be outlined and followed there .

The last thing I'll say here , on a parting note of accountability , is the most progress in a cultural progression comes from individuals being more accountable for themselves . Okay , oftentimes outside the gym , okay , the biggest cultural headaches I ever see come when somebody has a personal level issue and it's bleeding into the gym .

Okay , so somebody has , for example , on their personal life they're not very healthy , right , they don't eat well , they don't sleep well , they don't work out , they're not setting a good example and they bring that into the gym when they're sick , when they're tired , when they're not keeping up with their education , when they're just exhausted .

All the time they can't keep up with spotting , right , that person has a personal level issue that's bleeding in . So I have many examples in my life where my ego when I was a younger coach and my insecurity caused me to whiplash and be more aggressive and yell at the gym . Right , I own that . I've gone through that . I'm on the other side of it .

I'm a constant work in progress , but everybody has some personal level stuff they have to figure out . It's not your job as a coach or a teammate to like tell that person to fix it , but you have to just be aware of that in yourself . Okay .

So if you have your own issues with an old body image , eating disorder type thing when you were in college or when because the time back then was terrible you can't let that bleed through in a personal level issue that comes out in your own work life right .

If you have insecurities , if you have fears , if you have family drama , if you have addictions alcohol right . Like drugs , like social media , like if you have the need for external validation and that's causing you to act a different way , you got to handle your shit , man . Like . That's just no way .

More bluntly to put it Like , if you want to be the best coach , the best parent , the best medical provider , the best athlete , you have to spend time auditing what is ? What's the personal level demons that I have around , fears and insecurities . What am I doing ? Maybe that's causing me not to act ? Great , and how do I fix those things ?

Everyone has a different approach . Some people want therapy , some people want to have a long chat with their best friends , some people want to journal their life away , and that's fine .

But whatever it is , you have to have some level of personal development and personal accountability for how your outside life is affecting your inside life in the gym and your career .

If the best changes I see in programs and that I've had in my own gym in our area is when each individual person says , hey , we're going to work on ourselves a bit here and bring the best version of ourselves to this program and we're all going to kind of have that awkward , tough conversation with ourselves or others to figure out what are some of the things

that we can improve upon . Whether it's , uh , education , whether it's a little bit of an ego , whether it's a little addicted to social media , whether it's not being the most healthiest outside the gym , whatever it is , all those things are very to deal with . So those are all the things I think you should think about .

You should think about is this gym a good fit ? Is this role a good fit ? Is the sport a good fit for me ? Beyond that , what are our core level morals , values and ethics that we have in common goals ? Okay . Beyond that is , how do we have open , honest conversations that are respectful and deal with the things head on right ?

Then , beyond that , what things can I do for myself to improve on my own insecurities , my own fears and bring the best version of myself to the gym ? Okay .

And if none of those things are going well in your gym and nobody wants to change and nobody wants to do , it is not worth your mental health and your emotional health to stay there and poison the well . Okay . So try your best . I always encourage open discussion with empathy and honesty .

Do everything you possibly can , but if it's , if you're just slamming your head against the wall and the person will not change or a group of people will not change . There's a thousand gyms out there . There's a thousand things to do out there . Life is much , much bigger than just gymnastics , okay

. So again , hopefully this is a good blend of empathy and kindness and wanting to help you , because I've been through it , but also some tough love on accountability and just some things you have to do . So everyone who asked me about cultural issues , I'm going to point them to this episode and hopefully something in here will help .

We've done very large , deep dives on other podcasts with Eva Van Ness sorry , eva Shute , I can't be sure I didn't make a name Eva Shute and many other people and college coaches and club coaches about deep cultural changes .

So if you want more , there is plenty on the other side of the docket , but I just wanted to keep this one to 20 minutes or so to help summarize for people . So hope people enjoyed this episode and we'll see you on the next one .