Coaching For High Level Gymnastics Without Sacrificing Health -

I will state right from the beginning, that this podcast was recorded well before Athlete A and the Gymnastics Alliance movement started. But, it could not have come out at a better time.

Everyone in gymnastics is grappling with the same question

“How do we build high level gymnastics without risking mental, emotional, or physical health”

This week I have an amazing conversation with my buddy Juston Ziegler, who spent 10+ years as an optional and elite coach at Brestyan’s Gymnastics Academy, and now works as the head team coach at Flyaway’s Gymnastics in Minnesota.

I met Juston in 2013 when he was working at Brestyans during some of the high performance and elite pathway camps. We instantly clicked with our values and philosophies, and also our desire for ongoing education.

I have learned a ton from Juston, and there were many gymnasts he coached that I saw for medical care so I would try to return the favor sharing my ideas. We were able to get new perspectives, brainstorm, and have had some very long discussions about how to build a more optimal training method.

Given all that has unfolded in the last 3-6 months since first filming this podcast, this conversation couldn’t be more important. A lot of this conversation centers around having a growth mindset as a coach, how to make sure we are focusing on the human and not just the gymnast, and also how to reach high-performance goals like elite/college without sacrificing mental/physical/emotional health, or stepping over the line into abusive and inappropriate coaching methods.

We dive into

The biggest coaching lessons Juston learned from Mihai Brestyan, and his system
How Juston has taken the best of the “old school” approach and married it with all the education he has done outside of gymnastics
How Juston uses external loading, weight lifting, and nongymnastics strength work in his program
The steps needed to reach high-performance goals like elite/NCAA without sacrificing health
How to address parents that may be overbearing or gymnasts that are not motivated to train
Why Juston feels high-quality training hours are more important than high quantity training hours
The best ways to communicate with fellow coaches who may not be open to change
The benefits of gymnasts being multi-sport athletes when younger

This one is jam-packed with great information, so please share it with your community! You can listen on iTunes, Spotify, or Stitcher below.