Coaches Perspective check: gymnastics vs "other sports"

[estamey21]

Many of my students (mostly recreational but also XCEL) participant in sports outside of gymnastics. There is usually a turning point in their lives when they have to choose exactly one sport. I'm really good at selling gymnastics because I love gymnastics, but how do I coach a student dealing with this dilemma? I usually encourage my students to do the sport that they are most passionate about, but this feels like a trap. Sometimes students can confound good physical performance with passion. For example: "I am better at soccer than gymnastics; therefor, I am more passionate about soccer". But this places the decision making on external forces (e.g. peer comparisons or parent opinions).

In general, I don't want to impart the lesson that "better now equals good forever" or "worse now equals bad forever." It is healthy to struggle. Being bad at gymnastics builds character. But maybe soccer is the right fit for you?????

Any tips for navigating this juncture in a student's athletic career?

 

[Aussie_coach]

Obviously I’m biased as I own a gym.

But I always find it strange when people compare gymnastics to other sports. When a family says “we are dropping gymnastics to try another sport” it seems strange to me, because gymnastics is not just a sport.

Gymnastics is the core of all sports. The fundamental movements of gymnastics form the core of any sport.

Studies have shown that participation in gymnastics accelerated children in almost all sports. Children who have trained in gymnastics can often walk into any sport and surpass those who have trained in that sport for years.

The combination of coordination, agility, strength, flexibility, speed, balance, training commitment, explosive power, body awareness, aerial awareness, ability to jump, land and fall create incredible athletes.

Perhaps talk about the way gymnastics actually helping them to accelerate in the other sport.

 

[Coach Kate]

We also deal with this a lot as an Xcel only program. In almost every case, we can just tell. It is almost always a kid who has been stuck in the same level for multiple seasons, not learning new skills, not making progress, and just generally starting to check out at practice. You can just tell when their heart isn't really in it anymore. They might light up when they tell you about their basketball tournament over the weekend, but if you ask if they want to try an upgrade, they just shrug. When that happens, we do tend to encourage them in another sport.

 

[JBS]

You can just tell when their heart isn't really in it anymore.

Right there... that is it.

Also... they can always come back if they absolutely made the wrong decision in quitting gymnastics.

 

[JBS]

If an athlete has fairly aggressive parents (like former college athletes) that are looking for a college sports experience... I do give them a realistic answer based on their other sport as well. Typically... if a child is nationally ranked at another sport... I am going to tell them to go with it. Had a few of those... speed skating... swimming... water skiing... downhill skiing.

In our area... there are certain sports that you must be involved in before high school if you want any chance at all to play. Baseball / softball... soccer... hockey... volleyball are four sports in our area that would be really tough to do anything in high school without prior club level training. If kids are really excelling in these... they will typically have to leave us by 6th grade.

High schools are starting to throw down in my state...

 

[jillc]

Many of my students (mostly recreational but also XCEL) participant in sports outside of gymnastics. There is usually a turning point in their lives when they have to choose exactly one sport. I'm really good at selling gymnastics because I love gymnastics, but how do I coach a student dealing with this dilemma? I usually encourage my students to do the sport that they are most passionate about, but this feels like a trap. Sometimes students can confound good physical performance with passion. For example: "I am better at soccer than gymnastics; therefor, I am more passionate about soccer". But this places the decision making on external forces (e.g. peer comparisons or parent opinions).

In general, I don't want to impart the lesson that "better now equals good forever" or "worse now equals bad forever." It is healthy to struggle. Being bad at gymnastics builds character. But maybe soccer is the right fit for you?????

Any tips for navigating this juncture in a student's athletic career?

Maybe think about it as helping to coach a life skills on how to make choices — what college to go to, what job to take, what city to live in, etc.

For example — Teach/coach the concept that your opinion will naturally be biased. Suggest who they go to biased information in the other direction to see the other side. Suggest places they maybe able to go to get a less based.

Put less pressure on yourself on how to give them the right advice on which one is better — but just that you are giving them the right tools to help them decide.

Like exactly what you talk about here — just share the performance vs passion considerations. Both should be considered— but that have to decide how much to weight to give to each.

 

[CoachPow]

In general, I don't want to impart the lesson that "better now equals good forever" or "worse now equals bad forever." It is healthy to struggle. Being bad at gymnastics builds character. But maybe soccer is the right fit for you?????

I think you hit it on the head here. As a multi-sport coach, I know there is tremendous value in staying involved in more than one activity throughout the year. That being said, I've been party to many of these decisions over the years. When talking with my kids, I always differentiate between success and passion. You can be terrible at something and love it, or amazing at something and hate every moment. Sometimes they stay and sometimes they go-but as a coach, I would take a less-talented kid who loves the sport over a stud who hates it (or mom and dad are forcing it).