Over the past weekend at R2R (Region 2 Rising) in Spokane many of the clinicians I talked with are worried that USA Gymnastics will not organize Congress events as well as they have been run independently in the past.
It seems a vote was just taken in this Region, the Pacific NW, to turn over their event to USAG Head Office in Indianapolis. Region 2 had been the last of the independent Congress events.
If top-down management was a good model, there would still be a Soviet Union.
Decentralization and competition are what made the United States great. This is a big step backward for Region 2 in my opinion.
I like the Australian model. Gymnastics Australia helps the regional congress events by providing an international clinician headliner. After that, each State in Australia does their own thing. They must make or break financially on their own.
Almost certainly, it will become obvious after a few years that quality has suffered. They will all be as vanilla as USA Congress.
Eventually the Congress events will be spun off back to the Regions.
At the same time, independent education events like Jeff Metzger’s Boot Camp will thrive.
No doubt good people at USA Gymnastics believe they can improve Congress events. Let’s see them prove me wrong.
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