Gymnasts worldwide pushback on their sport's culture of abuse - NYTA culture in gymnastics that has tolerated coaches belittling, manipulating and in some cases physically abusing young athletes is being challenged by Olympians and other gymnasts around the world after an uprising in the United States.
Many current and former competitors, emboldened by their American peers, have broken their silence in recent weeks against treatment they say created mental scars on girls that lasted well into adulthood.
One gymnast, who is just 8 years old, said a coach tied her wrists to a horizontal bar when she was 7 and ignored her as she cried out in pain.
This is something that has been on my mind for a while; the difference between abuse and coaching/training. Obviously, US gymnastics has had a massive scandal involving sexual abuse that takes the spotlight but I have noticed that some of the reports of other forms of abuse seem totally normal to me.
For example, I remember training for bars as an 8 or 9-year old and being tied to them with grips or through the use of a strap bar which is actually a technique to train you to do giants (where you fully circle the high bar). The strap bar is the safest way to learn and reduces the risk of injury because you're attached and cannot go flying. At what point does it become abuse rather than a training technique? The article I quoted mentions a girl doing so until she cried out in pain. She may not have been removed quickly enough, which is potentially an issue of logistics because the high bar you train on is typically placed above a foam pit (so no floor access) and the coach has to lean out from a box on the side and remove you from the grips. It takes time. If you're in pain you are going to have to wait. Or... it could have been coach being abusive, but it sounds pretty normal.
A quote from the article:
So many of us are done with normalizing the abuse that we were told was needed to make champions, Mason said. We want change, and its incredible that so many of us are coming together to demand it.
Athletes are pushed physically because it's often how you become better at a skill and build muscle memory, strength, and endurance. You get to a point where you feel like you cannot do one more [whatever] and your coach says to do one more, which is going to hurt but not damage you. There is a fine balance between pushing an athlete to be better, and causing an injury by pushing one too far which is usually the biggest difference between a good coach and a bad coach. Athletes are pushed mentally because it's also about psychology in whatever sport you're involved with. A coach will often yell by nature of the enormity of these training facilities (mid-routine, while playing, depending on sport). They will tell you if you sucked. Something you did was wrong or not good enough but you try again and get a compliment because you did it better (or right). A good coach knows how to balance criticism and compliments, and when to back off and give you space.
So, where is the line drawn physically and emotionally?