by Steve Cook
I first dug into considering my infinite mindset of gymnastics during the recent pandemic and after reading about the infinite game. Considering the overwhelming supply of information, misinformation, and spin, I feel compelled to give my long view of the permanent effects of the current state of gymnastics. I do this with the background of the Covid-19 pandemic, the sexual abuse crisis, 50 plus years of involvement, and the evolution of the sport in general. As a bit of foreshadowing, I see a bright future for gymnastics that will match or surpass our magnificent past!
Before I dig into my insights, I believe it’s fair to reveal my personal life path which is the heat that has forged my beliefs. I am proud of my 50-year involvement in gymnastics, albeit not as a champion. My proudest credit is continual involvement. It all started the first time I did a handstand on the beach. This can be best explained through game theory discussions of finite vs infinite games that has recently been made popular by Simon Sinek, author of The Infinite Game. Finite games are those which have agreed upon rules, the boundaries are well defined, and the games have winners and losers. Baseball and Football are good examples of finite games. An infinite game is defined as known and unknown players, the rules are changeable, and the objective is not to win—the objective is to keep playing. Keep perpetuating the game. Partnerships, friendship, marriage, and sometimes business are examples of infinite games. Clearly there is value in both finite and infinite games; and balance may be the critical ingredient. I have experienced and benefited from both the finite and infinite game of gymnastics.
I entered gymnastics as an infinite player. My only objective with gymnastics was the fun of tricks and building my strength and fitness level for the sport of wrestling, in which I was definitely playing in a finite game to win. My purpose in gymnastics was to just keep flipping. My interest migrated from gymnastics activities to the sport of gymnastics and a finite gymnastics mindset in high school. That mindset lasted through college or a bit beyond as I did spend some time coaching. The lessons from finite games (in this case, sports) are important. Without winners, we wouldn’t learn to lose or the value of effort, risk, and growth that we gain regardless of our finish. As one who experienced victory and defeat, I’m not a fan of physical awards for participation. The awards for participation are much greater than ribbons or trophies and fly in the face of the need for delayed gratification, but that’s another blog for another day.
Unknowingly, I adopted an infinite mindset on gymnastics as I graduated from college and chose a job with Nissen, the leading US gymnastics equipment company of the time. I chose a job as a mechanic in gymnastics over my trained profession of teaching. I chose this career path for the sole reason that “it let me stay involved with gymnastics”. Over the next 45 years, I’ve had a variety of jobs that have led me down a business career path, but always with the underlying foundation of staying involved in gymnastics. For many years I worked for AAI, one of the premier gymnastic equipment companies in the world. I say that not to promote the equipment, but to thank the company that has allowed me to maintain my infinite mindset and devote significant time to supporting gymnastics. This company and many others have an imbedded mission of growing the participation in gymnastics. Perhaps in a capitalistic view the growth of the sport could be considered selfish, but I know that many of us are much more interested in maintaining gymnastic participation more than winning medals or selling equipment. The two just happen to fit together comfortably.
I believe there are thousands of coaches and club owners that entered the sport for the same reasons as me and have built a career in gymnastics for the love of the inherent value of the activity. And during the Covid -19 pandemic as clubs were closed and our sport was taken away, we had far too much time to reflect on “why” we are so committed to gymnastics. For me I dug deep and started to look for more and better ways to give back to the sport that gave so much to me. So, if indeed we have that infinite mindset of prolonging the game (not winning), what do we do next?
Maybe, we’ve drifted from our love of gymnastic activity to a reliance on the dopamine rush we get from the medals, applause, and adulation that comes from competitions, performance, or sales. I am as proud as the rest of you in the success of the United States Olympic Gymnastics Team, but the roots of gymnastics were not in competitions, but in participation. It was exciting to learn, perform, and teach new skills whether for competition or fun or lifetime carryover; and all the benefits are the same. In addition to the physical benefits, gymnastics teaches self-confidence, problem solving, risk taking, and socialization and a host of skills that are important to not just succeed in life but to thrive in life. You get those benefits whether or not you ever enter a meet. There are those that will argue that the benefits are greater for those that compete in a public setting or competition, and they may be right, but it’s never been proven that there is any greater long-term benefit for the gold medalist over any other participant.
Some of the concerns and discussions started before the recent pandemic. Cleanliness, safety, verbal abuse, and touching have all been major topics addressed in coaches and business gatherings. We’ve discussed the need for trackable procedures to ensure a proper fun and learning environment for our children. Some clubs have taken bold steps with video surveillance, photo restriction, posted cleaning schedules, and some have evolved into self-directed learning without spotting. The growth of regulations is inevitable with the increase in participation and popularity, and it is growing in the gymnastic industry. Whether its traffic laws that came when more cars hit the road, or amusement regulations as the roller coasters got bigger, regulation is inevitable and is good. Sometimes the activity gets ahead of the regulation and problems arise, like the number of public swimming pools that opened before there were universal rules for filtration and chloritization. The good news is humans are smart and eventually we regulate ourselves into sanity and safety. What is coming to gymnastics will include more than hand washing and physical distancing. The changes will be eye opening and revolutionary. Change is inevitable and good. It’s up to us to prepare and embrace change.
The current environment brings new challenges and there are multiple ways to react. In an interest in focusing on the private business side of gymnastics we’ve heard a wide variety of responses and plans. Everything from “I can’t afford to continue” to “I can’t wait to get back to normal”. I don’t believe either of those is an appropriate or logical response. To select either response you are avoiding either your “why” or your “common sense”. Now is a good time to reflect on everything you’ve thought about gymnastics and how your career has evolved and return to providing the ingredients that attracted you to gymnastics.
Like me, perhaps you are one who believes that the world would be a better place if every child had the opportunity to experience gymnastics. Many have a strong affection to other sports which I admire, but I truly believe that gymnastics is special. On the physical side, gymnastics improves aerobic capacity, strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination. The mental benefits are equally impressive and include confidence, problems solving, memory, interpretation, introspection, and socialization. Gymnastics is the core of movement and the foundation for every other sport. I know that if you’ve gotten this far in this article you already believe this, so perhaps where I should have started is with the reasons we did not get involved in the business of gymnastics. Regardless of how we evolved, most of us didn’t enter the sport to win medals or to be declared champions or championship coaches. We started for the sheer joy of turning upside down or swinging on a bar.
Some problems in the world are solved uniquely by gymnastics and others are just profoundly affected. Please remember that I refer to gymnastics the activity, not the sport. One childhood problem solved by gymnastics is inactivity. Many of today’s youth don’t stay active. Play is no longer an intuitive workout, and schools offer an ever-decreasing amount of physical education. I believe there is only one state remaining in the US that mandates daily physical education from grades 1 through 12. Recess, the usual “yea but” response to the PE problem has been reduced from active tag and touch football to texting and group chat sessions. Gymnastics provides an activity, but the real benefit of gymnastics is that it stimulates future activity. Learning to manipulate your body for an hour a week in gymnastic class has the corresponding effect of children spending countless hours upside down or jumping over an obstacle. The child that goes to gymnastic class turns upside down at home and does cartwheels in the living room. Yes, gymnasts are more active children. Gymnastics is also the best way to teach falling down. We all fall down through out our lives. Over 60 years since I first learned to tumble and I’m still able to fall down efficiently. Unfortunately, I do it far to often.
The second societal problem that needs addressing is our children’s addiction to electronic devices. Yes, I purposely said addiction which it is. We don’t have the space here, but children are becoming distracted by electronics and are losing their ability to socialize, converse, think, and play due to neuroplasticity or the degeneration of the brain. We need to get our kids off of electronic devises and back to being active. My favorite tag line is “drop the remote and jump over the couch”.
There’s my “WHY” and hopefully at least part of yours. As the sport of gymnastics transitions it’s important that we keep a clear focus on the children, all the children. Our mission can’t be just to enhance the lives of those children that choose a path in competitive gymnastics. We need to keep an infinite mindset on all children and know that if they are exposed to gymnastics and encouraged to participate it does not matter if they ever compete in a meet. Whether you are currently involved in gymnastics as a teacher, club owner, parent, grandparent, or participant we all need to continue to turn the world upside down. We need to start over and reconvince the world of the value of the infinite game of gymnastics. It is well worth it.
As we take on and infinite view of gymnastics, our focus needs to be on how many children we can introduce to gymnastics and how long can we keep them involved. It’s never been about how many medals they win or even how many events they are in. The value you bring to the world by introducing and teaching gymnastics is infinitely more important than any award that is won. The competitors and champions will still surface and your skills in the finite game will still be important, but maybe we were due for a reset and the recent challenges in the sport forces us (or maybe permits us) to rethink and reinvent ourselves with a bit more of an infinite mindset for the betterment of the sport, our children, and our society. Try it. Go do a somersault.
-Steve Cook, Gymnastic Fan
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