Having followed the current conversation on abuse in gymnastics, I have put together the following thoughts on the mentoring system of training.

For context, I came into gymnastics coaching a few years ago having done 4-6 hours of recreational gymnastics a week as a child in the seventies. My perception is that the abusive culture described by elite gymnasts pervades all gymnastics-like sports even at the recreational level and may arise with the general population rather than within the sporting community. In particular, the tendency to minimise children’s perception of pain and injury.

The mentoring system: the web of social obligation that binds all coaches together and excludes outsiders from the world of gymnastics

In order to qualify as a Level 1 Assistant Gymnastics Coach, you have to attend 4 training days and complete a series of assignments over a few months which ends with an examination. At the training days and the exam, you have to bring gymnasts along to work with. To guide you through the course, the assignments, and to prepare for the exam, you must find a mentor. The mentor must be a British Gymnastics coach, at Level 2 or above. The gymnasts must be able to demonstrate all the skills for Level 1. The mentor does not normally get paid for serving in this role, nor do the gymnasts get paid.

Level 1 only allows you to assist a Level 2 or higher coach. If you get a Level 2 qualification, you can run a beginner gymnastics class in a school or community hall, or even start a whole new gymnastics club. For Women’s Artistic the skills include: round-off back handspring tuck back salto on floor; upstart, cast towards handstand, and clear circle on bars; handspring vault; cartwheel 1/4 turn tuck back salto dismount from beam.

To qualify as a Level 2 Coach, the process is similar to Level 1, but the mentor must be Level 3 or above, and naturally the gymnasts must be able to demonstrate all the Level 2 skills. The mentoring role includes operational time in the gym, so the club management also has to agree. Few gymnasts can demonstrate the Level 2 skills, and those who can are all in competition teams, so the mentor has to approve the gymnasts and then ask them and their parents on behalf of the trainee coach.

All big gymnastics clubs have a continuous supply of teenagers keen to train as coaches. They can qualify as Level 0 at 14 years, Level 1 at 16, and Level 2 at 18. They seem ideal: with recent and often current experience of gymnastics training, they are familiar with progressions, supporting techniques, and terminology used by the club. They may have been attending sessions at the club for ten years or longer, so they are already well-known to the senior coaches, and may be friends with the younger gymnasts who can demonstrate for them.

Teenagers typically get not only mentoring but also, they get coach training fees which for Levels 1 and 2 Coaching, plus the required Safeguarding and First Aid comes to over £1000. Some clubs will pay these fees in exchange for a contract binding them to continue to work for the club on pay that might seem low to any outsider but which is more valuable for them as they can combine travel to both training and work, and it is a familiar environment to begin their working life in.

In this way, the mentoring system produces coaches who are legally and financially bound to be loyal to their club, and who have little or no experience of the world outside. If they have concerns about coaching behaviours or incidents that they witness, they are in an awkward position to speak out.

The main reason adults start training as coaches is when their own children ask to do gymnastics. There’s a shortage of gymnastics classes so most clubs have long waiting lists with some children staying on several lists from age 3 to age 10. Training as a coach and volunteering is often the only way to get your child into a class.

Adult coach trainees have a great deal to offer. They may be qualified teachers or educators in other sports and activities. They may have medical qualifications which afford them greater understanding of the human body. They may know about business management and employment law.

For would-be coaches coming into gymnastics from outside of the sport, competing for mentoring time with the teenagers is tough. But most of all, they have to convince the Head Coach that they will support them and their club. If you have concerns about the club or coach, you might not feel they are ideal mentors. If you speak out about your concerns on an informal level, then asking for mentorship would be somewhat awkward.

In this way, it seems to me that the mentoring system has manifold consequences:

• Firstly, it binds coaches together in a web of social obligation. Before a coach can qualify, they can’t challenge the status quo as they probably won’t get mentored. After they qualify, they owe their mentor for helping them to qualify.

• Secondly, coaching tends to be dominated by people who came into coaching as teenagers direct from competitive gymnastics, with little experience of the wider world.

• Thirdly, coaches who stay in spite of feeling uncomfortable may find themselves in situations where the harsh coaches criticise them and contradict them in front of parents and gymnasts, who may come to mistrust their abilities as a coach.

• Fourth, crucially, anyone who feels uncomfortable and asks questions leaves gymnastics and therefore is not around to question any more.

• Fifth, it makes it extraordinarily hard for anyone to open a new gymnastics club with a different ethos.

To sum up: the mentoring system excludes newcomers from the sport and binds coaches together in a way that makes informal challenges awkward, and deters formal reporting of abuse.

The minimisation of children’s’ experience of pain, injury and illness

My perception is that children’s experience of pain and illness is commonly minimised by adults in all settings, including professional medical settings with trained and qualified staff. There is a widespread tendency for adults to undiagnose children even where they have a formal clinical diagnosis, and to sneer at adults who attend to children’s signs and symptoms. It is significant that adults who minimise children’s suffering seek support from other adults in this bullying way. An adult who might be expected to have some professional understanding of injuries can provide false reassurance.

In gymnastics, even at the recreational level, the potential for children to injure themselves slightly is high. Serious injuries cannot be completely eliminated. However, where a rec gymnast has a one hour class once a week, if they are hurt or ill, they have a week to recover. If they are still unwell after a week, they tend to refuse to go to gym and the situation ends there.

In competitive gymnastics, and more so in the elite track, the potential for children to injure themselves is greater because they are trying to do more difficult and dangerous skills, and many more repetitions. Many gymnasts believe they have to limit their weight, and do so by eating food that is not only lacking in energy but also lacking a wide range of nutrients. The extraordinary high number of hours that elite gymnasts spend indoors deprived of sunlight ought to be investigated as a potential cause of vitamin D deficiency – which may lead to weakened bones. Thus, competitive level gymnasts are more likely to be injured, the injuries are likely to be worse, and the training schedule is likely to have little recovery time built in.

When a competitive gymnast is hurt or ill, their desire to continue training may be influenced by their parents and their coach. In this situation, the general tendency to dismiss children’s reports of pain reaches new levels. If a coach tells the parent the child is fine to train when they really are not, then the parent may respond by pulling the child right out of gymnastics altogether. As this may happen early in the athlete’s development – when they are seven or eight years old – by the time the athlete is nine or ten years, all the athletes left in the competitive programme are those whose parents comply with the harsh training regime. Thus training on injuries is normalised within the child-athlete’s immediate community.

Since minimisation of children’s’ experience of pain is common in the wider community, the only way to protect children is to have a robust system of checking and ensuring that child-athletes are kept healthy and safe. Education is not enough, there has to be enforcement. British Gymnastics has clear policies which if followed would keep children safe. Most parents would be astonished to learn that British Gymnastics does not have any programme of inspection to ensure that gymnastics clubs are in fact complying with the standards set out in the policies.

If you would like your story or thoughts to be shared on this blog please email blog@innermagic.co.uk

The post Mentoring and Injury Management in Gymnastics appeared first on GymPal.

“I’m hearing terrible stories about Acro gymnastics. You’re not hearing them because people are terrified (literally) to speak out, even anonymously. They say acro is so toxic, ‘incestuous’ and cult-like that they feel certain they will be identified. Should any acro gymnasts or parents wish to speak out…..and if you wish to post a guest blog…” Twitter, August 2020.

“I think because the acro world is smaller, and everyone knows everyone, they are even more frightened than WAG & MAG to speak out in case they are identified”. Twitter, August 2020.

I am the parent of a former elite competitive acrobat. I recognise what’s described above so well that it took my breath away reading it. We left acrobatics some years ago but there is a legacy of issues from the abuse my child endured, that remains to this day. It has affected my child most obviously but also our family and friends so powerfully it feels utterly gut wrenching each time it is re-visited. And detailing the abuse would take a while and another blog to list them all. So just to say that if you’ve read the excerpts of gymnasts & parents from all disciplines and across the world through the #Gymnastalliance movement describing physical and emotional abuse – well, the list from the acro world will be familiar: the body shaming, excessive weighing & recording of weight, the forced stretching, the mismanagement of injuries, the training on serious injury and through illness, the encouragement to set aside school studies, the long hours, overtraining, lack of rest or downtime/offloading of training when required, the favouritism, the haranguing, the belittling, the demeaning, the explosions of violent temper etc.

What I’d like to try and address in this piece is the culture in Acro, with specific reference to the 4 descriptions used by the tweeter above – toxic, incestuous, cult-like and it being a small world. It is indeed all of these things, and goes a long way in explaining the reticence of those in acro to speak out.

Toxicity

A case in point from recent memory is the press, media and social-media coverage on the Neil Griffiths case over the years but which started in 2014. There are various links to the case in the local & national press from the time. As Warriors in Leotards has recently highlighted, the narrative seemed to be dictated by the coach himself with help from a funded campaign by supporters and possibly assisted by a/his(?) legal team or PR firm. Faced with a coach being able to access broadsheets, tabloids, BBC radio, local news to spin their version – what hope for anyone thinking of raising their head above the parapet and coming forward now with an acro complaint, even as part of a larger movement now encompassing gymnastics generally? As Warriors in Leotards went on to muse, the vitriol and what seemed like an organised ‘campaign of hate’ by the coach’s supporters was bewildering to watch. Like Warriors in Leotards, I too can only try and imagine what those complainants & their families endured then, and probably still endure to this day having been labelled as bitter, resentful and disaffected.

As is evident now through #gymnastalliance, what is interesting is that back then, many of this coach’s supporters conflated their ‘good’ experience with a lack of understanding that ‘bad’ things might have happened to those particular gymnasts. I know from experience it is perfectly possible for both to exist at the same time. My child was successful. The club was successful. There were good times. My child was also emotionally abused and the environment was toxic.

These types of Acro supporters are still prominent and vociferous on social media in 2020. Their naysaying as apologists for abuse under the guise of ‘tough training’ really does not engender confidence in those like me wanting to come forward now. It was a toxic world in Acro when my child was competing. It still feels that way now.

Incestuousness

Acro clubs across the country were and still are dominated by family alliances working closely together – spouses, partners, siblings, parents, cousins are all in prominent directorship, owning, coaching, judging, welfare & technical-committee roles within the discipline, sometimes within the same club. I know that this is not unusual in these days of networking – and it’s difficult to explain – but it felt decidedly like trying to break through the shackles of affiliations binding each to each other. Back in the day, it was difficult to know who to trust with a concern or complaint. Not a lot has changed from what I can see. If anything positions look even more entrenched. So why would current acrobats or their parents come forward now?

A recent influential former acrobat posted about their loyalty and allegiance to their former coaches, describing them as like ‘family’ and having been ‘raised’ by them. It would have struck a chord with many gymnasts who have been defined from a young age by their sport and who have invested so much of themselves emotionally, financially and time-wise into acrobatics that they see coaching staff as their family. If you didn’t know any better you’d think the aforementioned post was a challenge to anyone breaking the Acro-Mafia omertà of silence. It got shared as such, with dissenting voices firmly shut down.

In addition, many acrobats are introduced to Cirque du Soleil or other entertainment career opportunities by their coaching family. In some cases acrobats owe their adult careers to their former coaches perhaps being taken on as a next generation of young coaches at the club or being mentored by their old coaches in neighbouring areas.

It is such a complex area – asking these people to separate out their loyalties.

When one tries to raise a concern or challenge an individual coach’s behaviour, word gets out and suddenly it feels like you are taking on ALL of GB Acro with this extensive network of affiliations and loyalty coming in to play. It is truly astounding and somewhat scary.

Cult-like

Coach demanded unquestioning commitment to their methods. They were couched of course as tough training. Which it oft times was. It could also be abusive. Coach didn’t like the acrobats or parents thinking for themselves. It was easy whilst the gymnasts were children. It became more problematic the older they got. It was as though my child’s world was shrinking and being made smaller at just the time of their life when actually the world should have been their oyster. Parents were being sidelined & described as obstructive to ambitions, it was suggested that school work be set aside, school subjects be dropped, my child’s outside friendship group shrank substantially and soon my child became reliant on the acro bubble to meet all their needs.

My child is now an adult. And space, distance & time from the ‘bubble’ of acro has afforded them some clarity to recognise that what they endured was emotional abuse. But at the time, Coach was considered God-like, and yes, adored & loved by my child. To help my child manage and separate out these conflicting feelings has been a huge poison in our relationship. And I do liken it to escaping the grip of a cult. It is an ongoing battle with feelings of guilt & shame (in both of us) at being so successfully groomed that we still are not coming forward to openly report and are reduced to anonymous blogging. For my child, the negative experience they had and the behaviours of Coach are a huge elephant in the room that is not discussed even when they are amongst gym friends. Apparently, It is just not worth ‘going there’ they tell me as it would sour the friendship, tarnish the memories and spoil the triumphs. When I learnt this I found it truly heartbreaking. My child recognises that having left the sport, these people have no ‘actual’ power over them anymore – except, in their mind, they do. Still.

It’s a small world….and other stuff.

Common to all gymnastics disciplines is the power imbalance between coach & gymnast (invariably adult & child). At the young ages they train at, it is rare for there to exist a collaborative constructive relationship between the two, no matter how mature the child. That relationship is instead forged between coach & parent. I understand there’s a common saying amongst coaches that the job would be good ‘if it wasn’t for the parents!’ In our case, Coach not only had favourites amongst the acrobats but also amongst parents, depending on how useful they may be to Coach or the cause. It set parents against each other and led to divisions. As a parent I was regularly undermined by Coach which set child against parent too. As mentioned above, our relationship has taken us a great deal of rescuing once we left the sport. And I think it goes a long way to explaining why it is difficult for my child & I to agree the way forward regarding the matter of (hopefully jointly) reporting Coach’s damaging behaviours.

The culture was most definitely a toxic one. It exists to this day in the various Acro ‘factions’ that exist, that make speaking out so problematic. I have for example been made aware of Coach exerting influence over long retired former acrobats and their families by ringing around to determine where loyalties lie. And this coach is not the only coach doing this apparently. You think you’ve escaped. In fact your world feels quite small.

To add to the mix, acro is a partnership sport. Partnership, not team sport. Younger, smaller more immature gymnasts are ‘tops’ in working partnerships with a small number of older, bigger, more experienced and more mature children or young adults as bases. Some, though of course not all, became almost ‘henchmen’ of Coach. Like the school playground my child was aware of fagging (no other word for it, I’m sorry) occurring. That is, a pecking order of bullying, control and coercion by older acrobats both within and across partnerships in the squad that, if not encouraged, was not exactly discouraged by Coach as it suited Coach’s way of working where what happened in the gym stayed within the gym. (I should say at this stage as you will probably by now guess, that there was NO WATCHING permitted!) At a basic level for my child, out of misplaced loyalty to the partnership, they did not reveal certain low-level incidents of emotional abuse for fear the partnership would be broken up, partners feel let-down and ambitions abandoned. On a higher level, it meant that when serious incidents of abuse occurred or were witnessed, my child describes they and the whole squad as metaphorically parking these incidents elsewhere in their consciousness, and just feeling ridiculously relieved that it wasn’t them – this time. That and my child feels there were times when they were encouraged by Coach to engage in behaviours they now know to be abusive (like openly ridiculing a move or technique, a body shaming comment or hold a friend whilst they were inappropriately touched by Coach). As a result of this my child feels they were as equally to blame, colluded in behaviours or made things worse by their silence at the time. And on bad days, feels shamed into ‘forever’ silence.

The uniqueness of incidents of abuse & their settings and timings could identify my child, their club and their coach. There aren’t THAT many Acro squads in the country. As the original tweeter suggested and I’ve tried to explain, it is indeed a small world with a particularly toxic culture. As my child hasn’t yet reconciled all these complex feelings, sees no one else from Acro coming forward publicly and has not yet given me permission to report Coach or club, I am stuck feeling pretty impotent to effect any change. To the outside world my child is considered as having had a very successful career. But they also left the sport broken. I’m anonymously blogging to say that harm was caused to my child by the damaging behaviours of a coach and it was an Acro coach.

#gymnastalliance

If you have been affected by or witnessed maltreatment in the gymnastics setting you can speak to a trained NSPCC counsellor on 0800 056 0566.

If you would like your story to be shared on this blog please email blog@innermagic.co.uk

The post Acro Gymnastics Revealed: Toxic, Incestuous, Cult-like appeared first on GymPal.

“My story starts as a 9-year-old child, training in what is known as one of the UK’s top sports acrobatic centres.

I adored gymnastics and wanted to be the best, yet my experiences have tainted my love of the sport and left me with deep scars. To be able to write it all down and get my feelings and story across will be a tough task.

I will start with the strict weight regime we were all put under. We were weighed twice a session and our weight was recorded in a book, both at the beginning and at the end of the session. If we had put any weight on, we would be shouted at. We were also told to eat less at dinner time. This caused so much anxiety in me that when Easter came, I begged my mum to give away all my Easter eggs. I also used to run up and down the stairs when my mum was in the garden. I was desperate to keep my weight down. After every few laps of the stairs, I would weigh myself. Desperate not to be shouted at when I went to training later that day. At the age of 9, I had a dangerous and unhealthy obsession with my weight.

The forced stretching was another painful event in more ways than one. The older gymnasts were encouraged to stretch us. Incredibly dangerous and a situation in which many could take advantage, to which they did in a lot of cases. The girl I was paired with stretched me to the point where I could not walk in a straight line afterwards. Actually, this happened at every session, in fact sometimes twice a session, we were over-stretched to the point that we couldn’t walk properly. One time before a competition, she was trying to impress a boy she knew who did gymnastics at another club. She force-stretched me so hard I was sobbing. They were both laughing, taking enjoyment from my very obvious distress. I had to compete just moments later, pretending nothing was wrong.

I also saw the head coach force stretch a 4-year-old girl to tears. This little girl had come in just for a trial session. The child was crying in pain and pulling at her legs, against the coach but the coach did not stop and instead, kept that hard, stony, look on her face which still haunts me today.

The head coach also was not averse to slapping. I got a slap round the leg at the end of a routine as my leg was not straight enough. It left a mark and yet she showed no concern. It was like it was something she felt she could do knowing there would be no come back.

When I decided enough was enough and I wanted to leave the group, I was shamed into staying. I was told I would be letting people down and I ended up staying for a good few months more. I then decided to continue training in a group which was not as intense, and which was based at the same club. Unfortunately, things were not much better. My male coach told me I was fat regularly. I was 14 at the time and of course, not even remotely overweight. I remember going into the toilets in tears, a team mate came in with me and as there was a pair of scales in the toilets, I got on them, and I remember her adjusting them slightly so my weight would appear lower. She told me it was ok but it felt anything but. After my parents complained about this coach’s treatment of me, he claimed it was a joke and made it seem like I was making a fuss out of nothing. Looking back now, there were other behaviours that were very inappropriate. He would say to me ‘One day some guy is going to fall in love with those eyes’ and he would constantly be trying to touch me. He made me feel deeply uncomfortable and I tried to avoid being alone with him at all costs.

At the age of 15, I left the sport. It has without doubt left me with many scars. The forced stretching incident where my pain was laughed at most of all, but especially the focus and berating of my weight. I have worried about my body shape and food intake for many years. I also suffer from very low self-esteem.

We were not cared for or valued as people. We were objects, puppets to our coaches. We had no voice and were controlled. Seeing all the accounts come out of other gymnasts’ stories is so hard to read. There are so many similarities between them. The main theme seems to be that we were not cared for or treated as the children we were.

There needs to be a huge overhaul as to how we deal with coaches who overstep the line. Regular checks and child protection training for all staff working with gymnasts is key. Not just the coaches but also the receptionists and the cleaners who work at the clubs. The more people that are educated, the better we protect our future gymnasts.

Gymnastics is a beautiful sport, but it has been tainted by those who really should know better. No more silence. It’s time to tell our stories and overhaul the whole damaging culture. I emailed the integrity team and they said they would get back to me but never did.

Thanks for reading my story.”

#gymnastalliance

If you have been affected by or witnessed maltreatment in the gymnastics setting you can speak to a trained NSPCC counsellor on 0800 056 0566.

If you would like your story to be shared on this blog please email blog@innermagic.co.uk

The post The World of Acrobatic Gymnastics: The Lid Starts to Come Off… appeared first on GymPal.

It’s been 3 weeks since the review was announced. If this was a Parliamentary review, there would be a written call for evidence, an email address or form, which evidence could be submitted to and a deadline for which the evidence needed to be submitted by. This isn’t a difficult process to organise and if the person at the other end is concerned that they will be overwhelmed with the amount of evidence, they can set a word limit. I’ve worked on a review before, where I supported Parliament, because they wanted to hear from people who were affected by the issue in question. I helped organise a focus group which fed into the final report and many of the recommendations from this group were taken forward.

There was also an oral evidence session where key stakeholders were questioned.

I’m still in favour of a separate Parliamentary Inquiry taking place, however the investigation which is happening with British Gymnastics at the moment should certainly consider some of the above approaches, and in doing so should reflect a cross-sector of the sport and the different disciplines, at all levels – including recreational gymnastics, if it is to put in place some robust measures going forward.

I wanted to share my own thoughts seeing as I had the platform to do so.

Should FIG increase the minimum age to 18 for women?

It’s an interesting question, and begs the question as to whether this should be consistent across all sport and not just gymnastics. Tom Daley competed in diving age 14 and Sky Brown (skateboarder) would have only just turned 12 if Tokyo had gone ahead this year. There is something incredibly wrong throwing such young people into the spotlight before they have had a chance to discover who they really are. Similarly, the amount of missed education, due to extra training and crammed competitions in order to prepare someone to peak in their teens is also problematic.

We are seeing an increase in gymnasts competing at the highest level into their mid-20s. Becky Downie will be 29 next year, and has a realistic chance of medalling if selected for the team. It won’t have escaped any gymnastic fans notice that 2005 world champion Chellsie Memmel has finally announced her comeback – aged 32. A lack of overtraining, rest and pacing oneself is clearly the key to longevity and one wonders what more Becky might have achieved had she been listened to earlier in her career.

I don’t think that increasing the age limit solves the problem of gymnasts not being listened to. Becky mentioned in her statement that only a couple of years ago she didn’t have a voice and here she was in her mid-20s. So we must be careful to think that just because someone is 18 that they will be able to speak up for themselves.

What are your thoughts on the elite pathway?

First off, it’s important to say I’ve never been an elite gymnast, just a recreational gymnast and now I compete as an adult. However I recently looked for interest at the various pathways and my understanding is that if you don’t make it through either the Compulsory Grades or National Voluntary Grades, you sort of have a second go through out of age, but otherwise that’s it and you might as well give up as there’s nothing else for you. As this is all set up to align with getting someone ready for Espoir, Junior and then Senior it doesn’t account for the amount of school work a person will have around the exact same age either, or that a person will go through puberty at different times or may have life challenges thrown at them. The point is, people peak at different points in their life and may have a break but want to return to their gymnastics. They may show immense promise and even be capable of developing the skills of an elite gymnast, but if they haven’t done the grades there is no other route for them except starting from the beginning. This feels wrong.

I also think that additional pathways reduces the pressure at an early age which perhaps reduces pressure on the coaches. It doesn’t solve the problem of bullying and abuse, but we know that stress doesn’t help these things.

What are your thoughts on all these comments about weight shaming?

I’m not surprised, but I’m really angry (and don’t get me started on the latest Government anti-obesity campaign…). Every single gym should ensure they have the details for Beat’s Helpline and coaches should have training on eating disorders and how to spot the signs and symptoms as part of training. The training should also explore approaching changes to the body during puberty and how to manage this sensitively. It’s an incredibly vulnerable time and for me was one of the contributory factors to my own battle with an eating disorder. I ended up moving up a class around the same time as I started puberty and went from being the best to feeling like I was the worst. I looked around the class and felt lumpy, sweaty and like I was bigger than everyone else at gymnastics and that was the reason I couldn’t do the moves. I never told anyone and I ended up quitting. My puberty started relatively early for my age. About a year later we did an acrobatics class at school and we were comparing weights to decide who would be the base. I was horrified how heavy I was. I hadn’t thought about BMI at that point or the fact that other people’s weights were lower because they were pre-pubescent. It’s so important that this time is managed well. Of course there are many other factors involved too, eating disorders are very complex, but these were some gymnastics related points which readers may relate to.

I still don’t think the message has got through enough but at least 1.25 million people in the UK suffer with some form of eating disorder, although that’s the tip of the iceberg because many suffer in silence. Anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses, 1 in 5 will die. Thankfully I didn’t become one of those 1 in 5 but I came close to it and ended up in hospital. I’m recovered now but it’s taken a lot of treatment to get me to where I am today.

The post British Gymnastics Inquiry appeared first on GymPal.