Tight Mind Monday: Coaching to Change the World

Tight Mind Monday 8-29-16: Coaching to Change the World

On the heels of the Olympics, we can all get excited about the talent in our gyms and are working to create the next gold medal winners. But what if we expanded our focus to something just as important as creating great athletes – creating great people.

Gymnastics is a tremendous opportunity to teach lessons that will effect our athletes for the rest of their lives. Here are some tight mind tools to help coaches make the world a little better by creating amazing people through the sport of gymnastics.

1. Be sure to have zero tolerance for bullying, cliques, and making fun of others in your gym. Your gym should be a place where athletes feel challenged and uplifted by their teammates and not demeaned or put down in any way.

2. Find the unique gift in all of your athletes. He or she may not be the highest scorer on your team, but instead the hardest worker or the team cheerleader. Find their strengths and reinforce them as much as possible.  

3. Help your athletes be the best they can be at ANY level. If they will never get beyond level 7, help push them to reach their maximum potential at level 7.

4. Finally, acknowledge what your athletes are doing outside of the gym as well as their in gym accomplishments. Praise academic prowess, philanthropic activities, and accomplishments in the arts. When your athletes are seen as people and gymnasts they feel important.

We all know so many inspirational people that credit their success to their gymnastics experience and coaches. You may not have the next Simone Biles in your gym, but you might have the next Malala Yousafzai. Who is Malala Yousafzai? She is the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for her human rights work in Pakistan where the Taliban had banned girls from getting an education. Definitely look her up and share her story with your athletes as well as our amazing Olympic heroes.


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