by site editor Rick McCharles
Each year after the Canadian Championships we schedule an advanced coaching clinic. In this session the current National Coach Vladimir Lashin does a brief overview of release moves and dismounts on Bars.
Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.
I tried to edit this into some kind of a “story”. But the clinic really was like the video, just a skimming of target skills.
The demonstrator in red is 9yr-old Shallon Olsen from Omega Gymnastics Academy, the most talked about gymnast at the meet. Everyone was asking: “If Shallon does this much difficulty at age-9, can she survive to age-15 when eligible for Sr. competition?
One of the lone voices to opine that big difficulty at a very young age is not necessarily a guarantee of burnout was Miguel Constante, one of the very best coaches in Canada. He feels it’s a tremendous advantage long-term, if the athlete can avoid injury and loss of motivation.
more video of Shallon training
… Is she cute, or what?
43 comments ↓
Pit or no pit, she won’t be cute for very long if he keeps dropping her on her face.
But I’m nobody’s national coach, so what do I know.
Just Another Opinion…. I had to laugh at your comment. I was thinking the same thing. They were some pretty jerky falls, not the kind of thing I like to see TOO often in my gym. But yeah, I also don’t have my very own national team… so I’ll keep my mouth shut too.
To be fair, the girls were not used to that pit bar, (It’s not their gym.)
They were rushing through the skills rapid fire. Several times there were miscues of one kind or another. But it was inevitable in that kind of clinic format.
The girl kicking the spotting platform was the most dangerous moment.
Actually, that IS the way it happens at the gym he coaches at….even though he is the national team coach and is NOT supposed to coach at a gym, he gets away with it.
I know cause my daughter used to belong to Omega and every girl that was taught a release move all went through being tossed around like that.
He is very impatient with girls who don’t pick up skills right away, and often would resort to just insisting that they “chuck it” instead of the amount of time that should be put into it. And there were some pretty scary falls on a regular basis. He would yell more then coach.
Where is Miguel these days? Last I saw of him he was coaching boys in Ottawa.
he coaches her personally at omega. they have a good chemistry but like guest said… is he supposed to be there. The other national girls don’t get that committment.
I’ve been in the gym with him for the past 3 days.
Miguel coaches at Calgary Gymnastics Centre. Things are great with him.
He looks the same as ever. Still ultra enthusiastic about high performance MAG.
Vladimir coaches ALL his high-performance/national team girls; not just Shallon. GCG knows he coaches there, but they turn a blind eye to it. However at this past nationals, he was keeping a very low profile during competitions so as not to draw attention to his “rule breaking” because he would always coach his girls while being the so-called “National Team Coach”. This most recently occurred at this year’s Wild Rose Invitational. He also goes to every competition for his girls too; not just Elite and Nationals, but local trials.
For years this man has been absolutely brutal in so many ways, and so publicly as well. I find it very hard to ever say anything positive about him, and still find it appalling that he was put into the national coaching position…..disgraceful.
I wish Shallon all the best, but the odds are that she is going to burn out before she reaches her senior year. For a 9 year old to train 30 hours per week while in grade 3 for goodness sake, and then try to get somewhat of an education all for the purpose of pushing through too early for gymnastics, is wrong. She is being used for her talent and the attention that can be brought to those coaches. That’s the way they work, and not the fact that she has a heart and soul; sooner or later they will rip that out. If anything, that girl’s talent should be nurtured by the likes of Kelly Manjak if there is any hope of her surviving.
Yeesh. I hope these comments have some continued basis in fact and isn’t the product of a skewed or jilted perception.
No, this is not a skewed or jilted perception TP. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my daughter was at Omega with those coaches, and I am telling the absolute truth here. I have nothing to gain or lose by disclosing the aforementioned comments, but people need to understand that the style of coaching that takes place at Omega is outdated and morally and legally wrong to treat children the way they do, and that kind of coaching would never be tolerated in any other sport, school, or institution. The comments that I have made barely scratch the surface of what I know, and their methods of coaching that is totally unacceptable is still going on. If you only knew……
Too many girls have left that club broken in more ways then you can imagine, and I can only hope that somehow Shallon can survive it; but I’m not very optimistic. At this point, she is clueless as to what is going on and is too immature to fully understand what lies ahead. She is afterall only 9, and all of a sudden she has been thrust into the limelight. Right now it’s “fun”, but that only lasts so long.
So now what; he puts a nine year old on the national team? She can’t compete internationally for 2 more years. Why rush things? For her to possibly endure and peak at the right time when she is mature, will not happen as long as she is under the kind of training that she is currently with. A talent like hers is rare at such a young age, and needs to be properly cared for; not showcased at this stage. Basics, technique, strength, conditioning, are what is vital now; not the big tricks. Give her time….the glory is for the coaches not for the betterment of the girl.
I 100% agree with guest.
It should n’t be fame for the coaches but achievement for the girls!
I have a question. With all the claims of abuse (legitimate or alleged) why are they still allowed to coach and why have they never been reprimanded? I am just relating to hockey and swimming incidents in the past (granted sexual) but nonetheless verbal/physical/emotional are all criminal code offences as well, do they fly under they radar or is it just pushing the boundary of abuse.? I have heard stories for years about omega but just wonder if it is so public why nothing comes about it? Does GCG or G-BC not have an ethic to investigate?
I know this is off topic from the wow factor of shallon (which there is) but i notice in lots of communication to these particular athletes or coaches these accusations come out, not just hear but at meets or realted articles? There is obviously something behind these and I question to.. where are all the girls that were from that club..they have al but disappeared?
I also think that GBC has the responsibility to deal with this issue….although the current members of that organization do not seem willing to do so. I know that some members of GBC used to try to deal with the issues arising from the coaching style at Omega…but no more.
Omega girls often just quit…or go to Cheer, etc. Many of them have ongoing physical issues. The opportunities I have had to speak with the parents of girls who left were: “our girls were constantly brainwashed into believing that if they left Omega their gymnastics careers would be over” I have spoken with many ex-gymnast parents who experience guilt for letting their children stay in that club for so long.
From the outside looking in, Omega looked to be the club of choice for talented young girls. This went on for many years….but it sure doesn’t look that way anymore. Parents should educate themselves first….and check out the health and well-being of the older gymnasts before enrolling in such a club. Too often, parents have “stars in their eyes”, believing their kid will be an Olympian….and if they have coaches telling them that’s a possibility it is hard to resist.
As for Shallon, at 9 years old it is impossible to predict what will happen to her as there are too many variables before reaching competitive age. I can’t help but think that training 30 hr/week for such a young child won’t increase her odds of making it though….IMO
Good questions. I believe that GCG and GBC DO have a moral responsibility to investigate or at least put the club into a position of taking action because ultimately it is the employer who must deal with problems associated with their staff. However certain members of Omega’s Board of Directors over the past 7 years supported and defended him. There were always complaints directed to the Board with letters from parents, but were dismissed for one reason or another. The sad thing is that he has behaved improperly and treated his gymnasts improperly IN FRONT OF GCG AND GBC members for years too without any interference from them either.
As for us parents of gymnasts, the number one reason for staying quiet is fear. Anything that was not liked by the coaches was taken out on your daughter; right in front of your eyes. The kids were put under such fear of saying anything because the coaches would say, “don’t tell your parents”. They were more afraid of leaving then staying because of what it would be like to be around them at a competition. It was difficult to convince girls to quit because to them, they were nothing if they weren’t at Omega, and would never get anywhere if they left. The entire situation was like “the Stockholm Syndrome”. And for your information, his wife is just as bad as he is and worse in other ways.
If we were to go outside of the normal parameters of bringing complaints to the club, it would have meant going to the police or child welfare services. It’s one thing to prove physical abuse, but it’s a slippery slope of having enough evidence to convince authorities of other forms of child abuse. We wanted to, but who was going to take that first step? They are very intimidating bullies and even though we knew everything about the sitution was wrong, we were scared.
It’s really hard to discuss because unless you know of how I speak, people just don’t fully understand how difficult it was to do anything except quit. Being in B.C. is very limited to having other coaching options, unlike Ontario, Quebec, and even Alberta has more options to go elsewhere. We had no other choice but to stay and do our best to cope because it was either move away (which was not an option) or quit the sport that they love.
Those that have left have either quit outright, changed clubs and coaches, switched to T&T or cheer. Or sadly have an injury that put them out of doing any kind of gymnastic-related sport.
Unfortunately, I can corroborate what Guest says in the comments above….from my conversations with ex-Omega parents.
I specifically remember talking to one parent who told me that Vladimir said his daughter would be kicked out of the club if he pursued his complaint any futher….she ended up with a career-ending injury sustained at Omega during training.
Some kids have moved to Dave Kenwright’s gym.
Correct?
Charlotte Mackie and Nicole Pineau moved to be with David in February 2009.
Send them down to the states. We don’t have any rough coaches here.
I’m guessing that nobody else wanted Canada’s National Team Coach position so this guy got it by default…
I hope that you didn’t have to pay money for this clinic? I’d demand a refund.
what an interesting thread! I for one am a parent whose daughter attends omega. I find this an interesting topic as we ourselves struggle with many limited options and i have seen both the results through achievements but also the cost to the girls. It is a hard choice when you live in BC– what is your comparitive- now there is Kenwright but that is one coach, omega has 3… (vladimir(he coaches still), svetlana and luidmilla)
Don’t yell at me via capital letters, but I am a parent who has seen and heard them refer to girls as fat with not so professional tips on diets, i have seen them belittle girls with archaic and abusive gestures, I have been told by my daughter and others how the coaches will pick on an athlete until they are broken… the question is, like mentioned before
where.. do you..go???
literally, everyone turns a blind eye. I think those coaches truly want the best for there girls— if they obey and they can give them what they want -results.
If they don’t— they can become their worst nightmare. That club has gone from 70+ competitive athletes to 30+ in 2 yrs…. and so many girls with unbelievable talent have quit this sport— gymnastics is tough i give credit to my daughter for the hours, the skills and the committment— but at the end of the day WAG is short term, realistically.
There aren’t many options. You mentioned one coach in your post…..although I’m not sure if he is willing to take more “broken gymnasts”. Kenwright isn’t by himself…he has Cathy Chapell coaching alongside….she was Kate Richardson’s beam coach for most of her illustrious career. Together they make a formidable team….but I agree…there ain’t much else out there. I blame the provincial bodies for not doing something sooner about Omega. Now, it’s just such a mess. What is the point of a provincial organization if it won’t step in and DO SOMETHING? After their own initial complaints about abusive coaching at Omega, GBC was seemingly willing to sit back and be pleased with the “success” Omega seemed to be achieving. Kids seemed to be doing well at young ages….but it didn’t translate into the Senior categories. The prevailing attitude at Omega is that children are dispensable commodities.
Great news! He’s been fired….well GCG put it in a kinder way, “resigned”. This is the best thing for Canadian gymnastics at this point. It can only improve now and with our high-performance coaches working collectively to right the wrongs and do what is best for the gymnasts, there is hope again!
Bad news he will still reign in Omega as they have just received a $98, 000 gaming grant.
I guess they have 18 months worth of salary for him!
Watching Omega athletes put under unnecessary stress has always brought me back to the same question.
Where are the parents? Why do you sign the checks? Why do you drive them there and make them walk through the door? poor little Omegabots!
Look at your top ten national open BC champs, all the clubs are represented. After a certain age ….a high percentage of outcome depends on basics, the athlete, injury and a solid coach of course does not hurt. If your looking for Elite training/dreams which is intense your a bit nuts anyway =) how many go to the Olympics 6?
Smarter to train the girls to get scholarships and get a solid happy all around athlete/person.
If you feel it necessary to be a part of a club like Omega get your technical basics and get out.
I have noticed that Omega has also shown small signs of changing. And if they are trying to change it won’t happen over night.
After the first a couple of years of watching I realized the treatment I consider unacceptable is what the omega athletes are used to. And the Omega coaches do not treat athletes from other clubs the same way.
So despite finding it offensive I can’t emphasis enough the parents have allowed it, Wake up!
GBC do something pfft! Go straight to Sport BC or Sport Canada.
I am not a big fan of blogs because they always tend to focus on the negative side of issues. I have read some of the opinions stated here and can’t figure out why the accusers don’t mention their names in the blog. My wife and I moved so our two daughters would have a chance at some of the best coaching available in canada. My children love the sport of gymnastics, they can’t wait to get to the gym to train for 6 hrs., 4 days per week. These coaches have brought a level that is needed for anyone to excel in todays world. We have children that respect their electronics more than their parents. So before I get off topic sometimes you need an loving iron fist to nurture success. In the case of Shallon, why does everyone question her about hours of training, difficulty, etc? Is she not only 10? Ask her parents.
Comments are VERY negative, Rob. Yours, for example.
Blogs tend to be rants or raves. This site has both. More raves than rants.
Vladamir is the most controversial gymnastics coach in Canada. He comes off as very hard on his kids, though obviously the results in competition are impressive. I don’t know the man personally, but in the dozen times I’ve seen him with children, I dislike everything about his instructions, voice, body language. Everything.
As National Coach he was a complete disaster, … but that’s another issue.
My name is Rick McCharles, editor of GymnasticsCoaching.com
Rob … you said
That’s a very scary statement.
Once-in-a-while it will work. What about all the other times?
You must agree that an iron fist might damage.
Rob,
Your attitude illustrates perfectly why Omega continues to exist as a club. Too many parents believe the coaching style of people like Vladimir is the only to produce champions. I have sat on the benches at Omega listening to parents talk amongst themselves. When something outrageous occurs on the floor (inevitably involving Vladimir), the Omega parents become very quiet. Too many of those parents gloss over the nasty aspects of training at Omega. I have even heard HP parents there defending Vladimir and blaming their own children when they incur his wrath! IMO, I do not feel that anyone can reach that type of parent as they operate with psychological blinders.
One must also consider the numbers of talented athletes who have fled Omega and the high percentage of those girls with ongoing physical issues. Such a shame.
Thank you rick for pointing the obvious– an iron fist.??
i want to laugh because “rob” is exactly every childs worst nightmare as a parent and is exactly what guest said about parents there. If his daughters were smart they should emancipate and run far far away.
I cry because those little girls have no one to protect them.
As for Shallon, she is an amazing gymnast and believe it or not that little girl puts vladimir in his place quite a few times, because she knows she holds the control in that relationship. Don’t underestimate her or her parents. They are smart, and you got to feel for them- they have this child with an enormous talent, one that nobody in that gym can even come close to no matter how many hours you put the other girls there in for… she is a tough girl and i think she is going to make the lashins work for every “ooh” or “ahh” they get.
Just want to add this about the rants/raves… omega is a place of excellence and history, they also have the ability to take girls to that HP level… the coaches need a slap in the face and a reality check… the parents who work and are on the board should do the gym a favour and walk away.
and rob should be embarrased for allowing his daughters to be treated and trained like horses on a $5 race track and for thinking any form of abuse is acceptable!
The one clinic I attended with Shallon I saw her do exactly that.
What self-confidence. …
There is a reason why Shallon gets away with that kind of so-called confident behavior, it’s because she is the coach’s prize, and they will do anything to keep her happy and have resorted to brain-washing her into being a child that under normal circumstances would not behave that way with an adult. I’ve been there and seen it before in the past.
The treatment towards other girls by the coaches is disgusting and they force them out because they are “rubbish or stupid” as they like to say. They have always shown their preference to their best girl at the expense of all the others by giving them special treatment. There is no way in hell any other gymnast would ever dream of trying the same behavior because they would get kicked out of the gym. They literally carry her around like a doll always stroking and kissing her. As for the parents they have been lulled into the hazy world that Vladimir is in with his supposed power in the gymnastics world.
People have to realize that those coaches don’t really give a damn about humanity, heart, or soul as they just want the glory and attention that any gymnast can give them. When they are injured or older, they are no longer interested and dump them like garbage. One just has to look at the situation with Brittany Rogers now. They have abandoned her and she doesn’t even train there anymore and in all probability will look to go elsewhere. Brittany also had the rule of the gym for years and they did everything to use her to their own benefit by resorting to tactics that were so wrong, and now that she has been “replaced by a younger model”, she’s yesterday’s news. They are heartless, abusive, horrible people and I will never, ever have anything good to say about them regardless of the history of excellence. I was at that club before them and during their stay there and excellence has no place in Omega’s history with the name Lashin attached to it.
They were responsible for over 40 gymnasts leaving in a period of 1 1/2 yrs because those parents did the right thing and saved their daughters from being so poorly treated by a “coach”. There is no institution of any kind of sport or organization that would ever tolerate their behavior without a lawsuit slammed against them.
Shallon is still very young, and if the parents ARE smart then they would look at the longevity of a gymnast and the problems associated with executing difficult skills at such a young age and the mental part of the sport, instead of relishing and bragging about how good she is. All it takes is one injury or incident to change everything in gymnastics, and a tiny immature body cannot endure that kind of physical intensity without something eventually being a problem. She cannot even compete as a senior internationally for 5 more years and in that time, anything can change.
if there was a way and the finances to do it I would almost guarantee The family of Shallon would move her to a different gym, but like many stated many times… unless you move east or convince someone to come here to bc… (which is a lot of $$$) she will stay there. The question is how long can that gym financially support those coaches with so few girls… the good news is only 3 HP girls will be displaced as the rest have all left.
IF I was one of Shallon’s parents I would have grave concerns about how Vladimir has seemingly no concern about her personal development as a human being. WAG is a short career at best – somebody (hopefully the parents and ideally the coach too) needs to be concerned with more than gymnastics. These kids are NOT commodities.
I love how everyone skirts around the issue of Shallon’s so-called “confident attitude”. It appears that the Omega coaches encourage her ‘spunkiness” toward the other athletes and even toward the coaches themselves. Do they think that developing that disrespectful attitude is what is required to produce an HP athlete?
Behavioural boundaries are essential in creating respectful relationships between coaches and athletes. I don’t understand why the parents don’t seem to see this! The other athletes attending this week’s trg camp at Omega recognize that Shallon’s behaviour is inappropriate and many of them were commenting on it.
Parents need to understand that coaches will spend more waking hours with their kids than they will over the span of their daughter’s gymnastics career. Choose carefully! I would caution parents to beware of ANY coach or club who claims to be the only option!
I don’t think shallon has so much confidence as it is survival. She knows her expectations and if you ask her long term which I have…
she said this
” it could all end tomorrow and maybe in a couple years i will be bored and quit”
Sad because she is right and she knows the truth. But she is a little girl with big attitude but has been since she was 5, I think it gives her the edge (sometimes cruel at the expense of other athletes), but at the training camp this week she gave vladimir a run for his money (at one point him threatening to have her removed from national youth team). The point is guest2 you are right.. in no way is this acceptable for a coach/athlete.
Omega and the coaches currently employed there are a symptom of all that is still wrong with WAG and only serves to enforce the somewhat negative public perception of our sport.
I know that some parents went to GBC to voice their concerns when Vladimir was appointed NHC. Apparently they didn’t get anywhere though.
So where do people go if the provincial organization that is supposed regulate/oversee clubs and coaching is unwilling to act and simply turns a blind eye??? In my mind, GBC is complicit to the abusive coaching style of Omega coaches.
“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem”
I complained to GBC for over 2 yrs. I complained to the club. I complained to the board. Unfortunately GBC just relayed actions i could take as a parent to the club… but when taken to the club we were reprimanded by board and coaches. Its a vicious circle so for people like rob to ask for people to name themselves in these ‘blogs” is like him creating a witch hunt!
The people who went to GBC with their concerns were told that there had never been any complaints about Vladimir before. I knew that was a lie as I had helped a coach from another club write a letter of complaint about Vladimir’s behaviour at a BC competition. I wish I had been there! I would have called Moira Gookstetter on that falsehood!
What people like “Rob” don’t understand is that to complain to the coaches, club, or organizational body means to put your child’s gymnastics career at risk. I don’t know any HP parent who is willing to make that sacrifice. It isn’t until the athletes are through with gymnastics when parents feel free to comment.
In the past, when Omega parents complained to the Board hierarchy and to Vladimir about abusive coaching, they were told their child would be kicked out unless the matter was dropped.
While I’m on my rant (to quote another writer) I would like to pose a question to anyone out there who might have an answer:
If the coaches, the club Board of Directors, the provincial organization (GBC), the national organization (GCG), and the federal Ministry of Sport are unwilling and/or unable to do anything about abusive coaching then who is looking out for the children??
If what happens at Omega between the coaches and the athletes occurred in a school setting, there would be hell to pay and consequences for the coaches. Why is it acceptable for children who happen to be good at gymnastics to be treated in this fashion?
Where are the checks and balances to protect our kids?
Public schools are run by governments. Teachers are employees paid by taxpayers.
A private non-profit society is a different story. Many would respond that a parent unhappy should leave the club, move elsewhere.
… But to answer your main question, I feel coaches need professionalize. Adopt a Code of Ethics. And disallow membership to those who do not adhere. As other professional associations do.
Sadly we are a long way from that point, as of now.
The ministry of children and families can be involved if reported to them or to the RCMP. The difficulty is that a lot of the abuse is psychological not physical.
However, being a non-profit they are given grants by the government via their gender equity grant- interesting to know if the government was made aware of this long stem abuse over 1o yrs if they would still be willing to fund their programming. or whether taxpayers would be thrilled to be contributing $100,000/yr
The grant given by the provincial government is not gender equity, but rather from the charitable gaming commission of B.C. with the residuals coming from bingo, which amounts to under 100,000 per year. This funding has been in place for well over 10 years. The Gender Equity funding ended 5 years ago with the City of Coquitlam, which is not a provincial funded program as it was originally brought forth in 1999 through the Human Rights Tribunal, so therefore it was municipal funding. The structure of the grant was to benefit female participation in sports as most funded money went towards male dominated sports. This was a ground breaking precedent for girls in sports, and gymnastics was and is a female dominated sport that received zero funding from any source at that time. This progressive and successful endeavor was brought forth by Rob Allen, father of Kim Allen who was a successful national team member of Canada, member of Omega, and also had a stellar career at the University of Utah. When the term expired, the City of Coquitlam was responsible for providing one of three things; continue the funding, provide a partnership between Parks & Rec Coquitlam and Omega, or provide a facility. None of which ever happened, but they were bound by the ruling to still provide funding if they were not able to abide by the terms set forth. So the City removed the “Gender Equity” fund status as it no longer was a gender issue, but now a funding issue.
Having been a part of the renewal process for both bingo and gender equity, I can attest that the application process has no regard for the coaching, only the financials as to how the money was allocated.
There have been reports to the RCMP in the past about incidents occuring at Omega (with these same coaches). GBC is and was aware of this. The difficulty again lies in proving abuse. It is almost impossible to prove psychological and emotional abuse, especially in a coach/athlete scenario.
thanks for the explanation on the whole gaming money, but as someone who writes grants and such i still know that many organizations defer from contributing to organizations with allegations and reports of abuse because the negative press and backlash from organizations that also require funding can be detrimental to all involved. I believe womens gymnastics is completely underfunded and unfair to many athletes whose families either quit or put themselves into severe debt so their kids can live their dreams.
Whats unfortunate in this whole situation is that Omega knows they can not have a relationship with the city because of their coaching style, even though other municipalities have offered facilities, the coaches do not want to be controlled by rules as mentioned previously by rick, they are their own governing body as a non profit.
In other news vladimir is co head coach their again… officially!
I will also say that my daughter has had vladimir a few times during coach vacations and she says he is very funny and always pats her head and calls her “my darling”
Not saying the man is a sweetheart but he does have his soft side granted she is not the star athlete in her group either!
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