The Stunt Gym!

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Business by Kingdom rules is for the King, not our selves

The Lord’s Business

I own a Christian gymnastics school. The Lord moved me in this direction four years ago. In that time I have done much meditation on both how to run a business and keeping my priorities right according to the Kingdom of God. From the outset I understood that business is a worldly affair. That does not mean Christians do not own businesses, but it does mean our priorities will be different.

As a citizen of the Kingdom, my responsibility is to build His kingdom, not my own. The natural tendency in owning a business is to see it as your business and make every effort to build your business into your own kingdom. But that is not the way of the King. Everything belongs to Him. He gives us stewardship over some things, but those things still are His.

It is noteworthy that in the parable of the talents (Matt 25), the rich ruler gave his servants the talents. The servants did not take the talents from the rich ruler. If we are engaged in a business that the Lord is not directing us into, we are stealing from the Lord and those to whom He intended to give that business. Adam and Eve were guilty of the same crime. All the fruit belonged to God, yet they were given the right to eat freely from all the fruit except from one tree. When they ate that fruit, they stole it from God. So, as believers, we are not to engage in just any business activity. We are to pursue only that business that the Spirit has led us into. Read the rest of this entry →

Who is buying and who is selling?

I am new to owning my own gym. Even though I have coached every aspect of gymnastics for 30 years, I never had my own gym where I was the boss. So I am in a learning curve on running a business. Furthermore, my business is a Christian gymnastics school, so I am trying to understand how to run an honest business according to the Way of Christ.

This morning I had a lesson in business that got me to thinking.   Yesterday my wife had a fender bender so this morning I brought her car to some auto shops for an estimate of repair.  The damage has no interference with the function of the car, nor is it an ugly eyesore.  So my motivation for repair is very low.  But I know it will make my wife happy to have it fixed.

The lesson I learned involved two different auto shops.  In the first shop when I walked in the door the receptionist immediately began asking me for information to set up a customer file on me.  I declined to give her my name and said that I would give her that information if I decided to use their business.  All I wanted was an estimate on repair.

Since I was polite in my conversation she was agreeable and asked me to wait for a salesman to give me the quote.   After a few minutes a sales man took a look at my car.  He gave me a ball park quote of $1200 to $1300, but a specific estimate would require  a list.    So he asked me to come back to his desk.  When I sat down, he immediately wanted my personal data to set up a file on me.   I told him the same thing I told the secretary that I would give it after I made the decision to use their business.  He then said that he could not give me an estimate without creating a file on me first.   I told him, “Then you do not want my business, and I will go elsewhere.”

Next door was another shop.  He came out and gave me a quote of $280 to replace the fender and to paint it.  I told him that I would be back in a few days and that he had a deal.  I shook his hand.  He never asked for my name nor desired information from me.

Driving home I had to ask myself, who is the boss and who is the customer?  With the first shop they viewed me as subservient to them.  They were the boss, but that is not true.   They lost my business, for I am boss.  I am hiring a service.  They are the customer.  The second shop seemed to understand this difference.  The hand shake was good enough.

So as I consider how I wish to run my business, this was a reminder to me that  each customer of mine is actually my employer.  In the photograph above I ask the question, “Who is buying and who is selling?”  The answer is both.     The store is selling goods to buy the customer’s money.  The customer is selling money to buy the goods.   Honest business is when both parties in the transactions believe that they have gotten a good deal.

So I am selling my skills and knowledge in training gymnastics to the families to buy their money.   They are selling their money to buy my skills and knowledge.  We are both customers and salespeople at the same time.

The  first auto shop that I went to did not recognize this truth.  They are functioning according to the world for self gain only.  The second shop did understand it.  He got my business.  He gave a price that is profitable for him, yet was a savings for me.  He trusted me to bring my car in on a handshake.  This is how I want to run my gym.

Seth pitches Mike in back tuck

In August of 2009 I took a step of faith and signed a lease for a small warehouse space to move my business. I had been developing the business under the shelter of other businesses. In signing the lease I made several purchases to run the business.

As a first need of a program, I planned for my first class meet. These pictures are courtesy of the Illicks and Barnes.

Saulsberry, Ortega and Rivera

There are many simple pyramids for the kids to learn such as this one.

Moran, Illick and Jones

The three children are almost all the same size. The base is holding the weight of two kids, with the weight of the girl on the shoulders having no support under his rear as the boy on the thighs has the shins and feet.

Saulsberry, Ortega and Rivera again.

Tatiana's toe touch on tramp

The 40 x 40 is too large for most places

It’s about time this issue has been addressed.   There is no logical reason on Earth to have the floor exercise routine performed on the 40 x 40 floor.  As far as I can tell this is a throw back to the old days when gymnastics was performed on the wrestling mats because of the shared gym space in the YMCA’s, Sokols, Turnveriens and school systems where sports education was a multi-sport training facility.

There is no artistic benefit in having the floor be 40 x 40.   Routines should be composed for one side view.  Of course for judging panels, two sets of panels can be placed on two sides to speed up competition time.  But aesthetically, the 40 x 40 is awkward.  Cheerleaders have floors  that are 42 x 54 rectangles which provides a more pleasing performance area and more space for tumbling.

Tumbling, in my opinion, should be removed from the floor exercise routine altogether, except the gym acro combinations that flow better with dance.

And, frankly, schools are closing down because of one main reason: too much overhead.  The high expense of overhead is increased because of the size of the floor area which makes finding warehouse space with the room for a floor hard – and costly – to find.  I have actually seen gyms with support pillars in the floor that athletes have to perform around because they could not get a space large enough for the floor.

So, the FIG needs to consider the cost of the industry and remove those things that are cost prohibitive.  The 40 x 40 is one of them.  It would be much easier to have a 25 x 40 floor fit in most spaces than the 40 x 40.  It has got to go. It is a dinosaur that needs extinction. Good riddance to the 40 x 40.

Will gymnastics schools be considered day care centers?

Texas Legislation

A few weeks ago  (March 26, 2009)  I was notified by email about a bill being passed in the Texas legislature.  The notification came from a Karate instructor who tried to alert a variety of after school athletic programs who would be affected by this bill.   The information he provided was also published on the Texas USA Gymnastics websites, that also provided PDF copies of the bill along with their report.  Even the USAG national office is aware of these bills.

In a nutshell, several bills in the Texas Senate and House of Representatives are being drafted that would subject gymnastics schools, karate schools, cheerleading schools, and a host of other after school athletic team programs to day care regulations, in an attempt to redefine athletic training of 10 hours or more a week as day care facilities.   The email regarding Texas Senate Bill 68  from Texas USA Gymnastics stated:

If you have children who train 10 hours or more a week in your facility – you will be required to be child care licensed by the state of Texas. This licensing will require your facility to meet all the minimum standards set by child care licensing (most gyms will not be able to meet these requirements which will include bathroom sink/toilet ratios in compliance with child care standards, out door playground, Child Care certification of workers and director, sprinkler systems that not only meet building code but also meet child care standards and climbing structures with safety fall zones). Uneven bars would be considered a climbing structure and would not pass child care regulations. This bill passed the Senate Sub Committee unanimously yesterday.

The legislation is spread out in several bills. They are:  Senate Bill 68, House Bills, 601, 773, 188, 1123 and 1393.

Many people have contacted the legislators to protest these bills which is trying to corral  a multitude of industries – sports, religious, arts and academic – that train children under the child care umbrella.    In one letter  (30 Mar 2009)  from Senate Bill 68 author Texas Senator Jane Nelson she states:

Please be assured that I will not pass this bill unless it provides a clear exemption for gymnastics.

The Texas USA Gymnastics is continuing to post updates on the legislation.  In the April 11th update they posted two new drafts of the bills that include a long list of exemptions,  which shows that many people from other child centered industries are expressing concern, too.

Exemptions Are Red Herrings

Frankly, I am not encouraged by these exemptions.  The government always regegs on their exemptions  through technical loopholes.  When Social Security first started it was only for government employees.  When the income tax started it was only for corporate profit.  When driver’s licenses were first issued it was only for chauffeurs  and professional drivers.   When marriage licenses were first issued they were only for inter-racial marriages.  And the list goes on and on.

When the government camel sticks its nose under the tent, rest assured that the rest of the camel will be in the tent after wards.  If this bill were truly to protect children in day care centers, the language would be precise and specific regarding these facilities.   A list of exemptions is a negative assurance.

Furthermore,  it is a part of political history in the USA for agendas with national intentions to begin in a single state to set precedence, or to force federal legislation to address the issue at a later time.  This problem is currently a Texas problem that could cause expensive requirements in after school programs that could make such businesses cost prohibitive.   But other states should be on the alert for similar legislation to be introduced in the near future, too.

We should not let our guard down on this matter. This is trouble for our industries growing in the near future.

Historically, gymnastics has been the hub of community centers.  Of course, what has been called “gymnastics” has changed throughout history.  But going as far back as the Greek Empire, the gymnasium was the academic meeting ground for the philosophers, Socrates, Aristotle and Plato.  They believed in a “sound mind in a sound body” and would debate academic subjects between exercise games.

Modern gymnastics retained its historical roots in the Greek Empire.  Frederick Jahn, called Turnvereinsather of gymnastics” was a German who was dismayed at the weakness of the German citizens during the 19th century.  He drew upon the ancient activities of tumbling,  acrobatics and the pommel horse of the cavalry,  and added the new inventions of his such as the  rings and the high bar.

Jahn set a foundation for the community centers that spread throughout Europe and came to the United States, called the Turnvereins.   Likewise in Sweden a doctor, Per Ling,  who wanted new ways to increase physical therapy adopted and added equipment to gymnastics, such as the parallel bars,  as a way of bringing health and strength to invalids.  His followers took his program and founded the community centers of the Sokols.  In England, George Williams, saw these community centers and decided that Christianity should have the same, so he founded the YMCA which spread around the world, as well.

These organizations spread because gymnastics was the nucleus of physical health, but their founders sought a total health harking back to the time of the Greek Empire.

Modern gymnastics clubs left the community orientation in their pursuit of competitive gymnastics. Before Olga Korbut showed up at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany  gymnastics was still within the community organizations (and NCAA) and there were no clubs to speak of.  After Olga dazzled the world, suddenly millions of little girls wanted to be gymnasts which opened the market for the private club industry.

These competitive clubs had only one goal in mind: train high level athletes to enter the Olympic competition. The reality of running a business with astronomical overhead forced them to expand their horizons by building recreational class programs to glean their future athletes, to run birthday parties, invite field trips into the gym, setting up mobile gymnastics programs, building preschool programs and even subletting their facility for karate, yoga, and other kinds of programs.

In the last Artistic Gymnastics club that I worked for, the owner planned to open up a soccer program within his business.  Likewise other clubs include horse back riding (if they are in the country) or swimming.  Some of these expansions are the result of the many successful gymnastics summer camp businesses that built high level training facilities, brought in famous high level athletes to coach, and added all the amenities of a usual summer camp: dorms for sleeping, rec centers, canteens, canoeing, horseback riding and so many other things depending upon the camp you are talking about.

The modern club industry has been moving towards community centers in a reverse order.  Of necessity they are reaching out to the communities to supplement their Olympic ambitions.  I believe the time has come for the gymnastics industry to take a renewed look at becoming community centers again on purpose, and not because of financial necessity.

The gymnastics industry, for some in the industry not all, has been very selfish in their interest.  I have coached for 30 years and I am an eyewitness to the changes in the industry.  In my opinion, I believe the 1980′s was the most abusive time in the industry.  The focus on training high level athletes was so intense, verbal and physical abuse occurred way too often on the little girls blinded by this dream.  The 1990′s brought some arrest to this behavior, partly because of lawsuits, but also because of a conviction of conscience.  But the focus in the industry still remains the same: Olympic champions.

I am no longer coaching Artistic Gymnastics.  I have my own school that I am building in Stunt Gymnastics.  I do not call it an Acrobatic Gymnastics school, which is the USAG competitive version, but Stunt because I am building a community center around stunts and health.   I may not go back into competition again, since that is not my goal.   I am using the Stunt Gymnastics as a focal point to bring families together.  I am encouraging them in diet and exercise, especially since Americans are far too obese for good health.   And as a Christian, I am  creating a Christ centered community to encourage spiritual and mental health as well.

Please hear my call, all who own gymnastics clubs.   Be intentional in building your business as a community oriented business, not just a athlete training center.  I am not advocating going the route of the Turners, Sokols or the YMCAs which went way beyond gymnastics in becoming Recreation Centers.  Almost every local government has a Rec Center, and their service goes outside the realm of gymnastics.

What I am asking  everyone to consider is to make gymnastics a focal point in training the community to live in good health, to regain the Greek view of a “sound mind in a sound body.”   Fitness, nutrition, and for those of faith, spiritual soundness.   Gymnastics as an industry is anemic and incestuous. It needs to expand its own health as an industry and bring health to the community.

God’s Call on Me to Acrobatics

When I first became a Christian in 1985 I was training as an Elite Mixed Pair in Sports Acrobatics. My coaches, Igor Ashkinazi and Tom Burns (who graciously let me compete with his wife, Jan) led me to Christ when I first began training.  After finishing my competition season in 1986, I walked away from the sport to seek the will of God for my life.

At that time I was still working for the Jewish Community Center on St. Charles in New Orleans.  I came home from work one night and prayed.  What was I to do with my life?  While lying in bed, the Lord spoke to my heart and said to teach His Word. That was fine, but how was I to make my living?  Then I had a mental image with my eyes closed of Jesus in a long white robe running down a tumbling platform performing a round off back handspring back layout.   I thought that was the funniest thing to see.  Then I saw an image of the drawing, “The Laughing Jesus” in my mind and He spoke to my heart, “Keep teaching gymnastics, it is a good sport.”

At the leading of the Lord I moved to Dallas to attend Christ for the Nations.  There I read Watchman’s Nee, “Spiritual Man” and realized that anything that I did that was not led by the Spirit would be a work of the flesh and would not further the Kingdom of God.  Even though I knew that Father had sent me to Bible School, He never told me to be a professional minister.  So, after graduating, I went back to coaching gymnastics.  I had the opportunity to start an acrobatic team and went back to the Nationals with the first Texas team.  That spawned the formation of Texas Acro as a non profit organization to promote acrobatics in Texas.

In 2004 at the last Nationals I attended,  the Lord spoke to me again about reaching the acrobatic community.  I did not understand what that meant.   In 2006 I began my own acrobatic school and did so with the intention of my school being a working ministry, too.  All of my students and their families are believers in Christ, with most of them being home school families.  Then I realized that my school was the acrobatic community that the Lord was speaking about.

The Acrobatic Network and Acro Business Forum

A few weeks ago I set up the Acrobatic Network through the Ning system of social networking.  I did this for two reasons.  One, it is an open network for all of the acrobatic community nationwide. Everyone who joins can do so for free simply by registering.  Clubs can communicate with each other and share information about the sport and industry. Futhermore, all who join can  set up their own club groups which requires registering again, so that each club can keep their groups private to their own clientele.  My own business, the Stunt Gym, has already set up a private group for our own needs.

Prior to setting up this network, I had already set up the Acro Business forum through Texas Acro so club owners can share business and coaching ideas with one another to build our industry.

Economics 101

Now we come to the crossroads of faith and industry.  We live in an unconstitutional economic system.  It is a fiat money system that is controlled by private banking family dynasties.  We have all experienced the ups and downs of bull and bear markets, recession and growth.  These ups and downs are artificially created by these banking dynasties (in the USA, the Federal Reserve system), in the control of interest rates in loaning us our own money, and in the printing of Federal Reserve notes that we call dollars.

Inflation at its root is created by the  amount of dollars that the Treasury Department prints for the Federal Reserve.  The value of money is increased by its scarcity and decreased by its abundance, which is the basic law of supply and demand. Constitutionally, we are supposed to function on a gold standard.  Metal is limited as a resource, hence keeps its value. But we came off the gold standard domestically with FDR and internationally with Nixon. When that occurred we went to a fiat money system that is based upon nothing but how much money is printed.

We mistakenly think that our dollars are US currency, so the amount printed will be limited to the needs of this country. However, in 1944 the Bretton Woods Agreement was made in Connecticut by the international banking communities and the heads of states internationally. They agreed that the Federal Reserve Note would be the international currency used in the sale of oil and petroleum products. So, the amount of Federal Reserve Notes printed is enormous because they are scattered around the world.

The economic collapse that we are facing is not limited to the USA, but will be global because all the world is tied to this system. It is forgotten that the Great Depression of the 1930′s was a global depression because the central banking system was set up all over the world. There are some significant differences between then and now, however. At that time the banks were all on the gold standard. What that means is that people actually brought gold into the banks for deposit, then the banks gave them receipts for the gold (Federal Reserve Notes). Our grand parents’ generation got wind that the banks were handing out more receipts than gold that was actually deposited. So many wanted their gold back, which was the run on the banks that forced the banking holiday declared by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Then using the authority of executive order, which came from martial law declared by Abraham Lincoln,  FDR confiscated everyone’s gold.

Today, we can not have a run on the bank, apart from trying to collect the receipts (dollars) and cash out.   Because there is no gold, they will simply print enough receipts to prevent panic. And there is the good chance that many of these nations will want to dump the dollar for Euros or some other currency which glut our nation with more dollars. The increase of dollars would  increase the cost of everything since the value of the dollar will diminish even further, creating hyper inflation.

The natural response of the government to quell the cry of these outrageous price increases will be to impose price controls. Price controls force manufacturers to sell below cost of manufacturing suffering loss. Their response will be to stop manufacturing, thus causing shortages of goods and scarcities.

Kingdom Economics

The day is soon coming when we may have to make the decision to accept the Mark of the Beast. Without this mark you will not be able to buy or sell. What will we do? We need to establish an alternative economy now.  There already is an underground economy and this is what I wish to encourage my customers and my peers in the industry to consider.

We all have  been duped into functioning completely in the banker’s system which controls the entire economy. We have been conditioned to think inside the box and need to start thinking outside the box. Here is an  example of when I saw how God could take care of me outside the box.  When I first came to Christ, I got fired for praying in the name of Jesus at the Jewish Community Center. I sought God to take care of me by providing me with another job. Instead He prompted a brother who owned several unoccupied duplexes to allow me to stay for free for as long as I wanted. It never occurred to me that God could remove an expense instead of increasing my income. God took me out my my box with that experience.

The Stunt Gym group within the Network has been set up so families within my school may contact one another to help each other out. I am not talking about giving each other freebies, although there is a place for that, but to interconnect in offering services to one another. Services that can either be paid by money, bartering, or swapping services.

We should be leaders in the business world. We should not be employees, but the employers. I want to encourage everyone in my school to think as entrepreneurs. For example, one parent found a whole bag of leotards on ebay for a low price. I want her to sell them to my kids, with me taking a commission, for $10 or $15 dollars each. New leos can easily cost $65 and up. My families all save money, I make money and the mother makes money.

But we have to network together to discover the options available. So I encourage all my families to join the Acrobatic Network, all clubs in Texas, and nationwide.

The Acrobatic Community Spans Several Generations

I have either been a participant or observer of acrobatics for 30 years.  For many of the kids, I am an “old timer.”  But I am not.  The “old timers” still live. Glenn Sundby and George Nissen who founded the United States Sports Acrobatics Federation (later the USSA then became part of the USAG) are the fathers of our sport in the USA and still live.  George Nissen invented the trampoline and Glenn was a hand balancer who published International Gymnast, which was later sold to Bart Connor and published by Paul Ziert.

I love this sport.  It has been my passion since the first time I saw Igor Ashkinazi and Stacy Tutton on the Mike Douglas show sometime in the late 1970′s.  At one time I had a dream of starting a sports acrobatic theater company.  A dream that I never realized but was picked up by Cirque du Solei and so many others.

But as I age, the dream has greatly changed.  Now I want to see a community in acrobatics that stands by each other.  An acrobatic community that, through our industry,  will have a positive impact on our nation.

Currently our community is filled with passionate people for our sport.  Deep and strong friendships have been created within the various clubs and regions that coaches and athletes live.  However, there is also a schism in our community that needs breaching.  This schism is created by two main divides.

One is competition.  Competition is  a two edged sword.  On one side it hones performance ability in an amazing way.  I have watched acrobats who compete and those who only do shows.  Those who compete are always cleaner and better.  Those who only do shows (except the pros) settle for a lower standard and tend to be sloppier and more dangerous to watch.  This is the positive side of the sword.  But the negative side is the side that creates division in our community.  It is the  “us against them”  mentality.  The  “win at all costs”  mentality. The  “get ahead”  mentality  “no matter what harm it does to you”.  It is cut throat and destroys our community.

The other schism in our community is generational.  The kids who are currently competing know nothing of the athletes who preceded them.  They do not have a vision for what the industry can accomplish.  And that is the fault of the “old timers.”   The vision is there because of the success of Cirque du Solei.  More kids see the possibility of making a living after retiring from competition in some show venue.  The sport should acknowledge this as a goal of competition, instead of just building the business of competition.

The USAG has a much better handle on this than the cheerleading organizations, I must state.   The cheerleading business does not see past their profit margin.  They have no vision for the cheerleading industry outside their own sales volume.  The USAG still has a hold on several visions for our industry that is to be commended.

One vision is health and athletic achievement that has its roots still in the physical education heritage of our sport.  They also see the business industry as another vision.  They also know the professional and scholastic goals of athletic training.  Gymnasts obtaining college scholarships or performing on stage after their competitive career.

So I am not finding fault with the USAG or even the FIG.  My point is the disconnect of communication between the old timers and the youth.  The American mentality is still underscored by the peer group mentality. The old timers hang with the old timers and the youth hang with the youth.  I am a great believer in the Montesorri philosophy of multi-generational education.

Inherent in Acrobatic Gymnastics is this philosophy by necessity.  Older athletes have to work with younger athletes to make the skills possible.  To me, this is one of the great benefits of acrobatics.  It is a team sport that requires learning to get along with others that are “different” in age. This is the fuel of great communities.  But when we look at the athletes as a group, they are still the youth with the youth.   They are not interacting with adults and the old folks.

This plea that I am making is to the  old folks, not just the youth.  The old timers need to reach out to the youth to share their visions with them. To share their mistakes so that the youth can avoid those mistakes.  And to set a priority of life to the youth because life is too brief, and regrets are too many.

It is with this reason in mind, that I have set up the Acrobatic Network.   We may be geographically separated, but the technology of the internet can join us together in heart and mind when we are not together physically.

This morning, Father gave me a dream.  In the dream I was in a basement which had been set up as a gym and community center.  I was trying to clean up the mess that was in their by myself and felt overwhelmed.  Many people started to come in.    After I woke up,  I asked Father what that meant.  I understood that the basement was symbolic of the grassroots.  The work of real change and growth always happens at the bottom, not the top.  And the work that makes a difference is by the anonymous, not the figure heads that are famous.

So I ask the acrobatic community to grab a vision that is greater than yourselves.  Come join me in this work of rejoing the old timers with the youth.  Come join me in working to create unity in our community.  United we stand, divided we fall, is a truth that will always remain.  We need the confluence of the past with the future.  It isn’t just about our sport.  It is about life.  And life more abundantly.

I started my gymnastics career in 1968 as an All Around in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics.  What started as a casual interest in wanting to be a super hero because The Daredevil trained in gymnastics, turned into 4 years of high school training.  I began on the very first of my high school gymnastics team.

What began as a boyish fantasy turned into a wonderful joy as I learned to fly through the air and to enjoy the rhythmic swing of my body on the high bar.  High bar was my greatest joy in high school.  I even competed in one of the first USGF meets in Oakland, CA back in 1971. But when I graduated, I had no thought of continuing in gymnastics. As far as I was concerned that was a high school activity that was now over.

Having not developed any clear purpose for my life after graduation, I accepted an offer from my brother to move to Washington State where I worked as a salmon fisherman outside Bellingham.  After three seasons we both had enough of it.  He moved back to California, and I stayed in Bellingham. I had not realized what an addiction to my body gymnastics had created, so I went to Western Washington State College (now University) and began working out again. There I met Frank Dakin, a former  NCAA floor ex champion who ran the gymnastics program for the YMCA at the college. He gave  me  my first job coaching gymnastics.   As long as I was working out, and was still young I longed to get paid performing gymnastics, not just coaching it.

When I had heard a radio advertisement for the Spherical Miracle Circus Works in Seattle, I called them up. As it turned out the group had disbanded and were regrouping as the Floating World Circus.  I told them I had my own trampoline and asked if I could join their circus.  Greg Albert, the juggler who formed the circus, said, “Come on down.” So I quit coaching and moved to Seattle.

To continue training I audited a class in gymnastics at the University of Washington by Dr. Eric Hughes.  I asked the gymnasts if they would like to perform in the circus with me.  They all declined since they did not want to jeopardize their amateur status.  Only Jay Lavadeur was willing to join me in the circus.  So we created a doubles tramp act and some low key acrobatics.  We performed for the summer of 1977 traveling around the Puget Sound, passing the hat for our living.

In 1978 Greg Thompson sent a request to the U of W gymnastics for gymnasts to perform on stage.  This was a professional show. Dr. Hughes called me into his office and told me about the opportunity.  He also recommended several retired athletes who might be interested in the act.  So we created a vaulting routine, called the “Wacky Illwaco Brothers” and performed nightly for a year.

The dream came into my heart to form an acrobatic theater company at that time.  Later I produced two stage shows in New Jersey for a school I coached at,  Surgent’s Elite School of Gymnastics, before I left for New Orleans to train as an Elite Acrobat in Mixed Pairs.

During that time Kurt Thomas had his show team.  I contacted him, and he turned me down since I was not a former champion, and did not see my vision for gymnastics theater.  He had a show that combined theater with competition that, in my view, did not work.

All throughout my performing career, I had to coach gymnastics to make my living since performing was not full time work for me.  When I finally got too old for performing, Montreal’s Cirque du Solei had built up a reputation that spawned many other companies that now there are many opportunities for gymnasts to work for a living performing gymnastics, which I struggled to do in an era when it was not “gymnastically correct” to do so.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Competition is a wonderful tool.  I have seen gymnasts who only train for shows, both in Group Gymnastics and acrobatics, and the lack of competition scoring shows in sloppier performances.  Competition hones the athlete and brings him or her to polish and refinement. So I applaud the industry for what it has accomplished. But for many clubs, competition is the end, not the means to another end.  Why should parents pay thousands of dollars to train their child in gymnastics for a decade or more, only for them to quit the sport when they go to college?  Of course, for the women, the goal of a college scholarship is still a justification for the expense.  But even that is becoming less available.

I propose to all the gymnastics clubs of the nation to think outside the box.  Most of the coaches only think in terms of competition.  They are not thinking of life after gymnastics.  Oh sure, there have always been “Masters Divisions” of competition, but these meets are for retired athletes who are out of shape and only capable of during their basics.  They are more concerned with making a living and raising their families.

But if you train your athletes as future professional performers while they are competing, you are preparing them for life after competition. Besides, Artistic Gymnastics, is supposed to demonstrate artistry.  Artistry is more than just clever trick combinations that are pretty to behold. True artistry is sharing your heart and soul in a performance.  That is one of the reasons that Olympians in gymnastics need to be 16 and up.  Children are not capable of expressing their hearts in a routine. That requires more maturity. Cathy Rigby, Olga Korbut, and Mary Lou Rettin won the love of the world because they put their heart into their routines.   No one really cares about the big tricks.  Everyone cares about the people. If a gymnast does big tricks while performing their hearts out, then you have a winner that inspires more kids to come into the gyms.  Don’t let competition be the end of training, let it be the means to a better end, where your athletes can make a living performing in their 20′s and early 30′s.  Think outside the box.

When the Olympic games in Beijing began the FIG president Bruno Grandi had said that he intended to change the rules again to encourage artistry and control difficulty for safety’s sake.  I suggested that tumbling be separated from the beam and floor and restored as a separate event in Artistic Gymnastics as it was in the 1960′s.

But difficulty is in all events. The trend since the 1976 Olympics has been to see difficulty continue to increase.  The increase in difficulty resulted in changes in equipment, such as spring floors and vault tables and the widening of the uneven bars to both accomodate this difficulty and to increase safety.

What place does difficulty have in artistry?  Is difficulty simply an execution show piece of virtuosity, or is it an addition to artistry in performance?

Years ago I was in a rock and roll light show we called “Palantir” in the San Francisco bay area while in high school.  We did local gigs and our great claim to fame is that we had a chance to be the light show for Big Brother and the Holding Company, but after Janis Joplin had died.  This gave us a chance to brush shoulders with some of the big guys in the industry.  While talking with one of them who understood the future of lasers in light shows, he made a profound comment that has stuck with me ever since.   Many amateur rock shows would run strobe lights continuously.   That created a disturbing and mind numbing experience for band and audience alike.  He said, “The strobe light should be used once as an accent then put away and not used again for the rest of the night.”

That was a tremendous observation in artistry.  There is a place for the strobe light, as a highlight at some point in the show as a flash of lightning is in a thunderstorm.  This is true for difficulty.  A truly difficult stunt should be the highlight of the routine. The accent that stands out as the signature piece of the gymnast.  Routines that are filled with constant difficulty are like the mind numbing effect of the strobe lights in a rock concert.  Worse yet, the audience becomes immune to the difficulty like the drug addict who needs a higher high to get the satisfaction it had when he first became an addict.

The spiral since 1976 has continued so that great gymnastics becomes ho hum as the need for an even more difficult and dangerous trick is looked for.   If Bruno Grandi is serious about encouraging artistry, then the rules on difficulty need to be adjusted to penalize too many difficult stunts, and new rules drafted that reward maturity and artistry in performance.

Artistry demands maturity.  The controversy of the underaged Chinese gymnasts would be exposed easier if the rules forced mature artistry.  Children can not express artistry, only craft.  Craft is execution. They can be told like robots what to do to create the venear of artistry, but they have not reached the maturity that true artistry demands.  It is only in the late teen years as young adults that they become aware of what artistry really is.

So Bruno, penalize too many difficult stunts and reward artistry.