Is Gymnastics too Expensive?

Mom Kris Ann Valdez explains why they did not continue our sport with their talented daughter.

Gymnastics is her favorite sport (so far), and I believe she has what it takes to be on the competition team, but why spend the next 10 or so years investing in this sport at significant financial and, to her, likely, physical and emotional costs?

Most competition teams practically live at the gym; their families must sacrifice weekends for tournaments and performances.

And more money. The class fees are just the beginning. There are also costumes, travel and competition fees.

Ask any gymnastics parent what they’ve invested in the sport, and they’ll shake their head or stutter through an answer. It ain’t cheap.

Then ask the parent if it was worth it. They often say yes. One mother told me she even took a second job to help pay for the $800+ monthly expenses …

A Gymnastics Coach’s Request For My Daughter Seemed Harmless — But What I Learned Deeply Worried Me

A.I. image

New Gymnastics Coaching book by Hisayoshi Takahashi 

Hisayoshi Takahashi has been coaching in Canada for decades.


This one is inspired by books written by Professor Emeritus Kaneko Akitomo of the University of Tsukuba, who passed away on December 24, 2024.

While he was a professor at Tsukuba University, Kaneko had coached Endo Yukio, the Olympic individual all-around champion in gymnastics, and Kato Sawao, a two-time consecutive Olympic individual all-around champion.

Coach Hisayoshi Takahashi has many more books on Amazon.

This one is text only.

It’s a dense read recommended for keen Gymnastics coaches, mainly Men’s Gymnastics.

There are a number of spelling mistakes, most notably on Gymnastics skill names. Perhaps some spell checker changed some into English words.

The focus is on kinaesthesia and proprioception — what the gymnast feels and sees when learning and performing skills.

My first Japanese coach, Shiro Tanaka, did the same. It’s part of the Japanese coaching tradition.

I would say this kind of skill-based, very individual, approach is not a system.

Personally, I prefer the movement pattern approach based on biomechanics popularized by Professor Keith Russell. That’s a system. One approach for every gymnast, later personalizing technique based on body size, physical abilities, psychology, etc.

Takahashi has coached in Canada for decades and names Keith Russell and Hardy Fink as two of his influences, I should say.

That distinction made, there are certainly observations and tips that any Gymnastics coach would appreciate. Jot those down as you go.

Available only in digital format.

How to Become a Top-Class Athlete in Competitive Sports (2025)

East German coach Dieter Hofmann

When Hofmann died of COVID-19 in April 2020, the international gymnastics community remembered him as an innovator and mentor.

The tributes focused on his technical knowledge shared generously, on a coach “always willing and eager” to help programs worldwide.

None mentioned “The Rose.” None referenced the Stasi files or the pharmaceutical protocols. …

I attended a number of Hofmann’s coaching courses.

He was a coaches coach. Very good at planning. A proven winner. His team won no fewer than 52 medals at Olympic Games, World and European Championships.

I have no doubt that his main passion was beating the USSR.

BUT in that era of the DDR, you cooperated with the Stasi (secret police) or lost your job.

In that era of the DDR, if higher-ups told you to test new drugs on gymnasts, you did it.

I knew very little about all these new revelations — aside from the drugs he told us about at one coaching course. Some kind of steroids. They tried them on junior male gymnasts ultimately deciding that the benefits weren’t worth the risk.

Uncle Tim put together a career retrospective on Dieter Hoffman. So far as I can verify with contemporaries, it’s very accurate. Uncle Tim is a terrific researcher.

Read more …

Gymnastics-History.com – Code Name “Rose”: The Double Life of East Germany’s Head Coach

tramp drill for Jaeger

See more on How to Gymnastics – Trampoline Drills for Uneven Bars – Release Moves

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NCAA Gymnastics 2026 Signing Class Rankings

College Gym News put together a list of what College Gymnastics teams had the best recruiting as of Nov. 22, 2025. It includes over 260 gymnasts.

Click through to see the details:

Class of 2026 Signing Class Rankings

European Gymnastics to allow AIN individuals

Personally, I would have voted against.

Putin is solely responsible for mass murder. He started this war. He could end it tomorrow.

It’s clear FIG wants AIN gymnasts back in official competition including the Olympics.

European Gymnastics has lifted its blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes, clearing the way for them to return to continental competitions for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine.

The decision came on Friday at the 2025 European Gymnastics Congress in Prague.

A vote took place with 46 countries reportedly participating: 27 voted in favor of lifting the ban, 15 voted against, and four abstained. …

European Gymnastics lifts total ban on Russian, Belarusian athletes

Putin’s war has between 400,000 and 1.5 million Ukrainian estimated casualties (killed and wounded) during the Russian invasion of Ukraine from February 24, 2022 till November, 2025.

Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian war

Oklahoma tops College Gym News preseason poll

Predicting NCAA final rankings in 2026.

Oklahoma (536 points, 11 first-place votes)
LSU (520 points, 1 first-place vote)
Florida (498 points, 2 first-place votes)
UCLA (496 points)
Utah (492 points)
Michigan State (451 points)
Alabama (447 points)
Missouri (436 points)
Arkansas (422 points)
Kentucky (385 points)

How does your ranking compare? What would you change? Share your top 36 with us in the comments or on social media. And keep an eye out for the official 2026 preseason coaches poll on Road to Nationals, which should be released soon.

Click through to see the top 36 teams: