now to ronald reagan, the tech/bus boom, and gymnastics. he told east berlin to take those walls down. so they did. then poland with perestroika. then the soviet union and the end of the cold war. how did this affect gymnastics? ready??
the tech boom looked a viable option for new high school grads. the computer generation. and of course this included former gymnasts that formerly would go into PE or related curriculum. athletes were leaving the sport. this meant no male coaches after college. yet later, the number of females coaching increased. but those same edu. programs i received were no longer there for the females either. and were approaching 1988 and the inception of the usag level system and gymnastics difficulty increasing at the speed of sound. usag saw the chasm being created from the training that coaches formerly received to what they were now receiving. and i will expound later on the implementation of the level system usag designed later and what it has to do with all of this in some way, shape or form.
gymnastics programs in the other countries were funded fully by their governments. the eastern block athletes/coaches were also paid thru a caste system that afforded them a nicer place for their families to live, more bread, more meat, even cars. they were essentially government employees. and 'army' and 'dinamo' and 'round lake' were famous gymnastics training facilities in the former soviet system. east germany had their swimmers and weightlifters. romania their gymnasts., etc; and now, thanks [or not?] to reagan, and what would become the 'global economy' [in a few short years] also moving at the speed of sound, the former eastern bloc countries began to fall apart. and they all had an allegiance and dependency to the soviet union. and now the cold war ended. this created unemployment for sports coaches in those countries [sport coaches were the prestige of their societies above doctors and nuclear physicists] because the soviet government, and all the other countries that were dependent on their financial support, could no longer support their athletic programs. perestoika and the end of the cold war literally demolished eastern block sports. china also had/has a nationalized system, but at the time those coaches could not easily leave their country. it would be a couple of years later that china would open its gates and those coaches could find employment elswhere.
so, what country was their 1st choice to coach. america. after the karolyi and pozar defection, and before perestrioka, the foreign coaches were looking to see how they would fare in our country. after america it was australia, canada, then south america. england gymnastics was so far behind at this time that they weren't considered. but the global economy now sees their national gymnastics program being run by a romanian. and ironically, an american running australia's women's program. her name is peggy liddick and was shannon miller's other coach alongside steve nunno.
so, the foreign coaches began taking coaching positions here in our states. the industry grew and coaching employment deficits were being satisfied by this influx of foreign coaches. and we lost our own training grounds for gymnastics coaches in the US. so the clubs had to do it. now the owner who was a former gymnast had to train not only the deficiencies of the american coaches, but now had to americanize quickly the foreign coaches and address their deficiencies also. not all of them were knowledgable, and in some cases had less knowledge than their american counterparts. remember, when perestroika hit, the foreign coaches lives were disrupted as was their educational training. and training that would not be easy for them to attain at a college in america as they didn't know the language. ask around...it wasn't nor will it ever be easy or seamless. and then, that same owner also had to run the business. and maybe he was married. and maybe he wanted to start a family. get the idea? the perfect storm would now play out. gymnastics kept growing, foreign coaches temporarily filled our coaching shortage, and more clubs were on the horizon. even a layperson could see that if programs were not in place to train coaches...well then...you're going to eventually run out of coaches. and as the 1st generation of coaches aged, then this might even reach an expedited speed of light.