Last month I left my job. I went back to see if there was still a place for me to build something, but certain situations (you can read about that here) made it impossible for me to stay. There were differences in values.

I have made it quite clear the kind of environment I tend to build. In the last 2 months there, I started seeing glimpses of real improvement in the boys I had the pleasure to coach.

Coming back a bit before that, I was entrusted with 13 boys, a combination of 4 different groups, all mine to coach. Suffice to say the level was all over the place: some of them doing over 100 circles, some not able to do even one. But as I tend to be, it was a challenge worth taking. Off to work.

My main concern when I started with these boys was that some of them were stuck in a fixed mindset, and some had been coached through fear. It was clear they had never learned that working hard is for them, for their own goals, or that having a team that helps you grow actually matters.

Bonkers. They went absolutely bonkers.

I believe you can play gymnastics. That getting skills is fun, not a chore. Yes, you have to work and train for them, but you can enjoy the process while you do. These boys, with their new sense of freedom, went completely bonkers for 3 or 4 weeks.

But slowly, and surely, they started to change. They showed me the small things that are going to keep them in the sport long-term, the things that will have them enjoying the process well into their senior years. But above all: the ability to work for themselves and lift others in the process.

Seeing the most rowdy of the bunch, the kid who never pays attention, who takes every opportunity to mess around, be the first one standing in line when you call them. And then going further, turning around and calling his teammates himself. "We need to line up."

Or that moment when I was about to correct one of them on his trampoline, and his teammate, who could already do the skill and happened to be sitting next to me, started explaining it before I even got the chance.

There were so many moments like that. It takes time, but it is something else, how much responsibility kids can carry when you give them the tools and the space to find it.

We had a great last day. They showed me they had learned the attitude to try, to fail, and to go for new and scary things. They showed me the safe space was real, because they were more daring than when we started. For that, I am glad.

It was a hard goodbye. More tears than I expected for just three months together. But that made it feel worth it. And I expect to see them again someday, with a whole new story to tell me.

So.

In the past I was the type to keep a cold façade, not bond too much, because these separations hurt. I know a great coach who once told me: "Don't bond with them, because gymnasts leave." At the time I agreed. What a mistake.

The more you bond, the more they care in return. The more they work hard. And the more they will surprise you, and they will, without a doubt.

My question to every young coach out there: how are you doing with your athletes?

Do they think you care?

Or are you struggling to get them working the way you want, and wondering why?