In this post a former British national squad gymnast reflects on her former coach.
The under-reported risk for competitive gymnasts is psychological abuse.
Anonymous:
Looking back over my time with Coach is something I find difficult. I know not all my memories are bad but those are the ones that most easily come to mind. …
But, at this point the good days for me far outweighed the not so good days and I enjoyed being there, I enjoyed working with Coach, in fact I would go as far as to say I loved her. …
… after a while no matter what I did it just wasn’t good enough, my name was now added to the blacklist. It became a matter of survival, be the one who least upset Coach during a session, praying Coach would take her wrath out on anyone but me. …
It was only Coach’s talent that would get me to the Olympics, not my own and if I moved to another coach my Olympic dream would be over. In retrospect, I can see how naïve I was to believe this, yet this haunted me throughout my career and I gave up on myself once I left coach, believing my dreams and goals were shattered.
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Gymnastics Coaching.com 