Training Hours in Young Gymnasts, Coach/Parent Boundaries, and Training High Level Gymnasts Safely with Lindsey Stancil -

Today on the podcast, I’m very excited to be joined by Lindsey Stancil, a high-level coach in the Pennsylvania area.

Owner of X-Cel Gymnastics and the Head Coach of the Xquisite competitive team.

She’s been professional and grateful enough to share some alternative points of view on some pretty controversial and complex topics. Being a higher level coach she has a different perspective to me, a middle-level coach, and medical provider.

Lindsey points out there are great coaches out there who are doing an awesome job but are being asked to perform 17 different roles. They’re trying to be strength coaches, physiologists, managing recovery, and nutrition.

We talk about how we should really be approach training hours, coaches happiness, removing negative practices, and being hyper-aware of the athlete’s experiences.

I really appreciate Lindsey’s experience, input, and taking time to share her points of view with me, because she’s definitely changed my mind on some things. And I think that I’ve also maybe changed her perspective, from what I see on the medical, strength coach, and researcher side.

Hopefully, it inspires people listening to have these conversations in their gym, with parents or athletes about how we move forward in the sport. We discuss:

Training hours, how making recommendations or mandates too soon without talking them through can have negative consequences on kid’s dreams.
Advice to coaches: do you know your purpose and is it easy for you to make the right decisions? The importance of making sure you have a strong mission statement for yourself.
‘You’re just a coach, when are you going to get a real job’ everything that’s wrong with this statement.
How to train those hard skills to young talented 8, 9, 10-year-olds, teaching pace, technique, and developing skills safely.
The pressure of parents.
Practical advice to coaches or parents who are trying to build a better environment and culture in their gym, helping everyone, not just the kids but coaches as well, be happier with their daily work.
Why is a 12-year old deciding yourself worth today?

“I also want to respect the adults as much as we respect children, we have to respect these young coaches trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives. And extend that same grace.”

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