I had a nice surprise last week. An athlete I coached briefly in Germany — she’s back in the States now — sent me some routines from her last competition. And my god, she had improved a lot.

But she wasn’t fishing for a compliment.

She wanted feedback.

So I asked the obvious question: what’s the plan?
I already knew her goal.

NCAA. She wants to make it onto a university team. There are still a couple of years ahead of her, so I expected at least a rough outline.

Instead… silence.
The cricket started chirping.

I love big dreams. The kind that sound almost impossible when you say them out loud. But I keep seeing the same problem: when the present is dictated by something so far in the future, people start skipping steps. They jump. And when you jump too far, you lose footing.

A few days later, I had another conversation — this time with the son of my own coach. I’ve known this boy for years (man now, I guess… time flies). Same story.

Mental blocks.

In gymnastics this happens often, and in my experience the most common cause isn’t fear of the skill — it’s internal pressure. Kids who demand too much of themselves. Kids who were taught, directly or indirectly, that success means never failing. At some point the unconscious mind steps in and says, better not try at all.

I’m very cautious about mindset. Always.
But I’m also a big believer in mapping.

I want athletes to grab the biggest goal they can imagine — then work backwards. Step by step. Year by year. Competition by competition. Skill by skill.

We build annual plans.
But we also build 5-, 10-, even 15-year maps.

Reverse-engineering something huge into manageable pieces is powerful. It turns pressure into direction. Anxiety into structure. Dreams into checkpoints.

What makes me happiest is knowing that in the coming weeks I’ll sit down with them and help build that pathway — a system they can lean on when things get heavy, confusing, or overwhelming.

So I’ll leave you with this:

Does your son, daughter, or athlete know how to slow down without feeling like they’re failing?
Are they challenging themselves while still having a place to recover?
Or are they chasing something so far away that they’re floating, untethered, and exhausted?

Because progress isn’t about speed.

It’s about knowing where you are — and where the next step actually is.

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry