I read this on my favourite gymblog, www.gymnasticscoaching.com, that is run by Coach Rick McCharles. It is a great piece, by a respected man, also a great discussion piece. I have to post it in chunks to fit our posting guidelines.
Personal Reflections
William A Sands, PhD, FACSM
In spite of a crushing lack of talent, I was a gymnast. Gymnastics was my love and my identity. I grew up by and through gymnastics learning many life lessons from my coach and other coaches of the “old guard.” Prior to college, gymnastics books were my only coaches – I was lucky to survive. Gymnastics was as much a part of me as breathing. Sadly, things have changed. During the last decade or so, perhaps longer, the gymnastics world has become a toxic, selfish, mean-spirited, greedy, and grotesque place. Except for a handful of experiences, I walked away from gymnastics after the Athens Games. I would like to offer some ideas for those who, like me, still love gymnastics but have also found modern gymnastics a disquieting enigma of the first order.
Months have passed with a nagging emptiness that I could not articulate. It is my hope that this document adds to the discourse about modern gymnastics. After observing from a distance, I hope you find some useful ideas, and that my timing is right.
Why listen to me? In terms of full disclosure, I have placed a brief description of my background at the end.
Maybe it’s always been this way
The organization and implementation of sport governance is simultaneously a job, hobby, and lifelong mission. Sadly, too many people in high positions have used their positions to corrupt the spirit and body of gymnastics, contorting the sport to serve their selfish agendas with little regard for the trail of pain and suffering left behind (10, 20, 39).
“Within the current amateur sports system in this country, the important game for too many people is not producing results on the playing field but accumulating and maintaining power in the boardrooms. Large amounts of time, money, and human energy are devoted to this game. It takes so much energy, in fact, that many who play it have all but forgotten (except at election time) that there is a larger goal. The means (control of the national governing body or the USOC) have become an end. Once that control has been achieved, the important task is that of keeping it. Not making improvements.” (78), p 279.
In the past, while working at the USOC I often wandered around the training areas to shift focus and remind me of why my job existed. Those who govern and oversee gymnastics must never forget that there is a person in that leotard, wearing those grips, and trying to make it look easy. The athletes have strengths and weaknesses, but they all come with a dream and at least the commitment to start a journey pursuing something bigger than themselves and lasts longer than they do (16). We should find the journey inherently noble and worthy of our admiration and support.
What I’ve observed in the horrendous damage from the Nassar horror has been a litany of *** covering, no admissions of guilt, little concern for what happens to gymnastics in the long-term, and lots of finger pointing. Paying someone a million dollars to “go away” is obscene beyond measure. The only thing worse than this obscenity is that a number of people who approved the payoff should have known better.
Personal Reflections
William A Sands, PhD, FACSM
In spite of a crushing lack of talent, I was a gymnast. Gymnastics was my love and my identity. I grew up by and through gymnastics learning many life lessons from my coach and other coaches of the “old guard.” Prior to college, gymnastics books were my only coaches – I was lucky to survive. Gymnastics was as much a part of me as breathing. Sadly, things have changed. During the last decade or so, perhaps longer, the gymnastics world has become a toxic, selfish, mean-spirited, greedy, and grotesque place. Except for a handful of experiences, I walked away from gymnastics after the Athens Games. I would like to offer some ideas for those who, like me, still love gymnastics but have also found modern gymnastics a disquieting enigma of the first order.
Months have passed with a nagging emptiness that I could not articulate. It is my hope that this document adds to the discourse about modern gymnastics. After observing from a distance, I hope you find some useful ideas, and that my timing is right.
Why listen to me? In terms of full disclosure, I have placed a brief description of my background at the end.
Maybe it’s always been this way
The organization and implementation of sport governance is simultaneously a job, hobby, and lifelong mission. Sadly, too many people in high positions have used their positions to corrupt the spirit and body of gymnastics, contorting the sport to serve their selfish agendas with little regard for the trail of pain and suffering left behind (10, 20, 39).
“Within the current amateur sports system in this country, the important game for too many people is not producing results on the playing field but accumulating and maintaining power in the boardrooms. Large amounts of time, money, and human energy are devoted to this game. It takes so much energy, in fact, that many who play it have all but forgotten (except at election time) that there is a larger goal. The means (control of the national governing body or the USOC) have become an end. Once that control has been achieved, the important task is that of keeping it. Not making improvements.” (78), p 279.
In the past, while working at the USOC I often wandered around the training areas to shift focus and remind me of why my job existed. Those who govern and oversee gymnastics must never forget that there is a person in that leotard, wearing those grips, and trying to make it look easy. The athletes have strengths and weaknesses, but they all come with a dream and at least the commitment to start a journey pursuing something bigger than themselves and lasts longer than they do (16). We should find the journey inherently noble and worthy of our admiration and support.
What I’ve observed in the horrendous damage from the Nassar horror has been a litany of *** covering, no admissions of guilt, little concern for what happens to gymnastics in the long-term, and lots of finger pointing. Paying someone a million dollars to “go away” is obscene beyond measure. The only thing worse than this obscenity is that a number of people who approved the payoff should have known better.