Bill’s Letter to the Membership of the United States Elite Coaches Association for Women’s Gymnastics in the Sept. 2007 newsletter.
In an earlier post, I commented on, perhaps even misinterpreted, this letter.
He sent me the original, so you can read it for yourself. Thanks Bill.
29 August 2007
Greetings,
I hope all of you had a terrific time at the USA Gymnastics Congress. It was nice to see some old friends, although there seem to be fewer and fewer each time I go. Wonderful seeing Hal Halvorsen again – been a long time. The competitions were first rate and I very much enjoyed watching the men compete. Their competition was such a transformation from earlier competitions that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I didn’t get to see the women, but reports indicated that they struggled a bit. Shawn Johnson was utterly dominant and there were many other notable performances. I’m sure they’ll be more focused by World Championships time – which is going on right now. Interestingly, this time the men are competing first, for the first time since I can remember. At any rate, we all wish them the very best of luck in the competitions.
I got pretty tired with all the presentations, but I prefer to stay busy and Kathy Feldmann obliged by giving my six opportunities to present. There were two sessions on biomechanics (linear and angular), recovery, training design, flexibility, and a report on our work on comparing the spring floor to the air floor. I also did my annual report, this time concentrating on the athlete-apparatus interaction studies, flexibility through vibration, and one of our completed experiments. My annual report provides additional information gained from this project. I undertook the project at the behest of Steve Rybacki and Kathy Kelly. I hope to be going to the ranch at the end of October to collect the rest of the data I need to finish up the project. Frankly, I don’t think the project will ever be completely finished, there will always be new questions, but I hope to answer Steve’s and Kathy’s concerns shortly. Actually, quite a few of the answers they were looking for were determined in our study of the spring and air floor.
It was interesting for me to observe the Congress activities since I’ve been attending for over 35 years. The demographic has changed from an opportunity for top coaches to get together to discuss the latest techniques and how to beat the commies to something that more resembles an in-service teaching and business education conference. I’m not arguing that one is better than the other, only that the change appears to be complete now and I doubt there is any going back. I’m not sure where debates among the top coaches happen now, where folklore from the best coaches gets passed on, or where young coaches would go to get the best ideas from “those who know.†Of course, to me it was disquieting, but then again I’m a dinosaur.
This brings me to something I hesitate to write about because it may sound like I’m being negative when in fact I’m just trying to make an already good thing better. As I stopped in from lecture to lecture I noted that almost everyone had something to sell. Either they were trying to drum up consulting business or they were trying to sell videos, books, and so forth. Maybe this was the case in the past, but I didn’t notice it as much as I did this year. I find this disquieting because there is a place to sell things which is in the vendors area. I’m troubled by people trying to set themselves up as gurus on some topical area and then provide a website, order blanks, brochures, and so forth to acquire more business clients – as part of an “educational†presentation. One presentation began with 5 or more minutes showing the television commercials (2) that tout the service(s) offered by the speaker’s affiliation. I certainly don’t mind the idea of people making money, but I worry that USA Gymnastics is giving tacit approval and support to these people, services, products, and whatnot by providing them a forum and a captive audience. People often ask me where they can get materials, and I provide them with a variety of sources. I usually include my email address at the end of presentations in case they have further questions. However, almost no one seeks me out after we all go home. This year I’ve had a few and one request for my bio (first time for that). In most cases, I don’t provide handouts because I don’t believe that people ever really use them and I prefer not to annihilate forests. I do provide some things via USECA, Technique, books, and academic peer reviewed articles, but frankly I’m just too darn busy to attempt to provide everything.
In closing, I have one more issue – quality control. I’m not going to pretend that I’m an expert in everything, but even with limited knowledge in most areas I knew that some of the information being tossed out as fact was anything but. Sadly, gymnastics is not alone as I get to attend many sport equivalents of our Congress. There seem to be ever more self-appointed gurus who have neither the credentials nor the experience to be offering their ideas as facts. Almost invariably they are enthusiastic to the point of wondering if they need a sedative, they name-drop in nearly every sentence, they tout something that is “highly successful†with absolutely no data to back up the statement, and they like to use scientific words strung together in meaningless sentences. Sadly, at this Congress I had one lecturer rise to second place in my experience in the highest number of scientific words used in the shortest amount of time and saying absolutely nothing.
Again, don’t assume that I’m coming down on USAG because that is not the case. I’m a firm believer in education, for which the National Congress is and should be the shiniest gem in the jewelry box. Congress remains the single best place to see the most gymnastics education and a great competition (where of course learning should happen also). “Caveat emptor†is probably the best advice I can give. Be sure to check credentials of the people who are speaking, ask them where their data or supporting information is (not just who they’ve worked with), and when something seems too good to be true – it probably isn’t.
All the best,
Wm A. Sands, PhD, C-ARS
Chair USECA
Gymnastics Coaching.com 