Gymnastics Canada Hosts Culture and Coaching Development Webinar with Gretchen Kerr and Dave Tilley -

Safe Sport is becoming a much more well-known and talked about organization within gymnastics. Gymnastics Canada recently asked me to be a part of a webinar panel for their entire coaching population to discuss some important issues related to where the future of gymnastics is going.

I think it’s really hard right now to navigate through the weeds of culture change in our sport. The difference between what problems coaches face every day, and the perception of what many NGBs/Regional boards believe are the problems coaches face every day, are at times very different.

Gretchen Kerr is one of the most prominent researchers in the space of gymnastics cultural change and socioeconomic literature. She has done extensive work in how to go about culture change, what is changing in regards to ‘old school’ techniques that are now known to be abusive, and the impact certain coaching styles have on young athletes.

I was honored to be asked by GymCan’s SafeSport team to join Gretchen for a lecture on this topic. Gretchen shared her point of view from the literature and her experiences first.

Then, I was able to weigh in on the practical side of things as a gymnastics coach, and as part of a gym that has undergone massive culture change in the last 5 years. I was also able to share my experiences as a medical provider and researcher in the sports medicine side of gymnastics.

In an effort to help people out, Gymnastics Canada was kind enough to let me release this as a podcast for everyone. In this episode we discuss

What qualifies as abusive coaching vs not
What the research says about coaching styles on performance and health
The biggest mistakes I made as a younger coach that brought down our culture
The biggest mistakes our gym made that brought down our culture
3 practical steps for improving your own happiness as a coach every day
3 practical steps for improving your gym’s culture and positive environment
How to handle parents or gymnasts who are not acting in line with behavioral/cultural guidelines