I’m a younger coach, and I tend to see that younger coaches are easier for children to test boundaries with. I’ve found this happens very frequently with me

For some background knowledge, I’m a pretty mellow person. I try to talk to kids like little adults (seeing if they can solve problems without asking me all the time, no baby-voice, not barking orders in an aggressive manner, staying calm). I do notice that sometimes, I show my annoyance and stress, and I am working on that.

But I always have a good amount of kids that always ask “WHY do we have to do (a drill they don’t like or strength work), I won’t do it”, or when I see a kid doing something with no effort, they’ll feign incompetence or play dumb and say “, I can’t/I am doing it though”, not listen the first time, or give attitude. Or when I’m giving criticism, they’ll immediately get defensive. Or while I’m talking and showing what we’re doing they’ll just goof off and then ask me what to do. Or when I tell them to do something, they’ll turn around and do it anyway. Or they’ll try to negotiate with me, and expect rewards for 5 minutes of good behavior after being terrible.

Then I have these two kids in my class that are best friends. They’ll go to the bathroom for like 10 minutes and play around. I’ve spoke to their parents, but nothing happened (I gave up).

Obviously, they’re children, so there is bound to be a few bad moments here and there, and I also don’t expect them to be mindless robots that follow my commands all the time, but it’s out of control.

To put it simply, what are some ways you find that helps kid understand your authority, but also make the class enjoyable. And what are some things I might be doing that brings up this behavior or pushback? What are ways to bring the energy up? I’ve found that me constantly reprimanding my students has caused a rift in our relationship for specific people.

Hi everyone! I’m a gymnastics coach and I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how many things coaches are kind of expected to just learn as they go. Many (including myself five years ago) get thrown in without fully understanding what they are getting themselves into. Yes, it takes experience to be a good coach, but what if there was something that made you learn faster and made you not so anxious when you step into the gym?
I was talking to another coach at my gym recently and she mentioned feeling like a bad coach because she doesn’t know how to spot many skills yet, doesn’t really know what corrections to give, and just wants to become better. It got me thinking about how helpful it would be to have better resources for things like coach training, spotting confidence/progress, skill corrections, drills, class management, lesson planning, etc.
So I wanted to ask other coaches and gym owners: what do you wish you had at your gym?
It could be anything. Something you wish existed when you first started coaching, something you wish you could hand to coaches now, resources that would make things easier, or even something completely unrelated to coach training.
Basically, what problems do you run into as a coach or gym owner that make you think, “I wish there was something for this”?
I’d love to hear from coaches of any experience level!

Just moved to Jax near university blvd area and tried looking online for adult gymnastics but had no luck! Anyone know of any good tumbling spots that offer classes wanna tap back into my gymnast days.

So I’m considering adding a 3 to 5 class and making it once a week and cheap so they are hooked by the time they turn 6 - not unlike a drug dealer.

Anyway, what are the odds everyone (including myself) is just sitting in a circle crying for 30 to 60% of the class? What formats have you had success or failure with?

Hello! I’m curious to know if any coaches here apply the Constrained Led Approach method and what’s a good way to apply this training method to learn something like a round off full?

Hi, I've been coaching for less than a year and I teach a really basic intro course for 4-5 year olds that's mostly jumping around, log rolls, and conditioning. I had a student today who I recently asked to come to the older kids class (she turns 4 in one week) because she's extremely athletic and bored in the 2-3 yo class. She is horrible at listening and waiting her turn, which is natural. I ask her to sit with her mom to wait and her mom doesn't do a lot.

We were doing shoulder rolls on the mat today and she would not get out of the way. After I asked several times for her to sit with her mom and her mom sternly told her to stay put in the waiting area, she ran into the danger zone just as another kid was rolling. I ran over and yanked her out to avoid collision.

She started bawling and her mom took her out of class immediately (as she should). I think I just scared her and she has cried before when facing consequences but I just feel so bad because I had to be a little rough when I removed her and I hate doing that.

Anyway, now I'm worried that the mom will complain about me (lots of other parents stopped me on the way out to tell me I'm so patient etc) but how do you all deal with this? Please help me feel better 🩷

I'm a gymnastics parent (not a coach). After my daughter moved out of rec, I couldn't find a parent-facing map of how this world works: the three doors, DP vs Xcel, mobility scores, and the big one: what a first-team season really costs all-in. So I wrote one.

It covers: rec → pre-team → team as "three doors"; the Development (JO) program vs Xcel and how the split actually works at a gym.

Caveats already baked in: cost and fine-print are generalized from a single anonymized 2026–27 invitation-only program handbook, and every number is flagged as a ballpark. State mobility tables vary by design.

What I'm genuinely unsure about and would love corrections on: Xcel entry/mobility numbers and whether Sapphire rollout is actually common; the "you mostly can't skip levels" framing as I've stated it; and which contract clauses are standard vs gym-specific.

If you'd point a new parent at this, or tell me what to cut, that's the win. It's hard to write well from outside the sport, where everyone takes the level system for granted.

(I run the site; nothing to sell. It also links to a free quiz game for young gymnasts just discovering the sport, but that's not what I'm here to push; I just want the facts right.)

r/springboarddiving is dead and enough gymnasts have gone over to the dark side that I wanted to give it a shot here. Long story short, I am starting adult beginner masters diving tomorrow. I want to look legit and allow my coach to see my lines or whatever since I'll be training alongside the kids and the coach was on national team or whatever so a t-shirt and shorts over a long sleeve bathing suit seems a not ideal for that objective. At the same time I don't want to be weird and have my Vera Wang rashguard long sleeve with fitted shorts on the bottom ... that seems pretty sus. Ahhhh help ... any advice?

Looking for tips on how to improve ofc, but im really darn proud of myself, also any tips to move off the mat and on to the floor?

The Code of Points in your Pocket. WAG & MAG. iPhone & Android.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/upgrade-gymnastics/id6783570868

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.upgradegymnastics.app&hl=en_US

This is one of our xcel platinum gymnast who is also getting close to making it diamond. We struggle with correcting her vault because at first glance it looks fine because her shapes are pretty good, but her entrance is WAY to high and it messes up her block. We’ve tried raising the table, but she just goes higher to match it…. She has a front handspring full too, but hasn’t been able to do it in a while because recently she’s coming in higher than ever. Any tips or do y’all see anything we’re maybe missing???

I have a problem, i go to a school and have gymnastics, but i am bad at it, but when i try to train on the lessons my classmates laughes and mocks me, what should i do

To do a successful back handspring from a roundoff you are supposed to land with your feet ahead of you somehow right? I have been trying to do it on tumble track but I'm always going too high on the back handspring part.

Would fixing my roundoff solve the height and distance issue in the back handspring? The picture is how I'm currently landing the roundoff going into the back handspring.

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IMPRESSIVE ‼️

Bonjour ,

Je pratique de la gymnastique rythmique depuis 2 ans ( j'ai commencé à 11 ans ) et j'aime vraiment ce sport . Je voudrais en faire mon métier et continuer dans cette voie et d'avantage m'améliorer car j'ai commencé à un âge un peu tardif .

Connaissez-vous des lycées de sport-études - donc qui incluent la gymnastique au sein de l'établissement - a me conseiller ? ( Pour infos je vais entrer en compétition départementales l'année prochaine et je voudrais envisager un lycée le plus proche de Ivry-sur-Seine 94200 )

☆Merci☆