Gymnastics

Gymnastics is a great sport

Artificial in every way, shape and form, and also stuck with needing judges, but is
still a great sport. I still consider myself a gymnast, even though I have been out of the sport for over 10 years now. Gymnastics is largely responsible for who I am now.

I was in the sport for a long time, competing for over 25 years. Most people don’t last that long in gymnastics. The sport is quite hard on joints (soft tissue almost always heals well). I was lucky to have a more robust than average body, coupled with enough common sense to back off and allow things to repair themselves. I probably could have been a much better gymnast without the common sense, but I have yet to meet anyone who enjoyed the sport as much as I did.

A gymnastics room is essentially a giant playground, made for adults. All those exciting things you did as a kid, you continue to do as a gymnast. You get to fly through the air
and go round and round. You get an adrenaline surge when trying something new, and a glow of satisfaction when you get finally get it right.

Gymnastics also teaches patience and persistence. Most skills in gymnastics take
years of work. Frequently, there is very little improvement for a long time. You just keep working at it, and then, one day, it all comes together. I am still amazed when I am coaching a 10 year old, who continues to grind away on Pommel
Horse, knowing that he probably won’t actually make the skill for another two years. Two years is an awful long time for a 10 year old. Sometimes, during a growth spurt, you actually go backwards, and start losing skills that were once easy. Talk about a tough sport!

Gymnastics is also unusual in that there are different ways or reasons that enable
someone to succeed. I have seen gymnasts succeed because they:

• are flexible
• are strong
• are coordinated
• work hard
• work smart
• are small
• are tall
• or are just lucky (right time, right place, right coach, right gym etc.)

Naturally, the top gymnasts in the world have it all. But, even the tall ones now have a chance internationally, since being an All-Around is no longer required.

I did gymnastics because I enjoyed being in the gym, working out. Most other gymnasts I have met were goal oriented: they wanted to do well in meets, and that was their reason for training. I can honestly say that I didn’t enjoy competitions. I was good at at, and probably enjoyed it more than most people, but I don’t understand why or how people can enjoy all the stress involved in a meet. Sure, it feels good when it is all over, but the same can be said for banging your head against a wall!

The rest of this page is just a summary of the various phases of my involvement in gymnastics. The interesting stuff has already been said.

Warren (finally, an ex-gymnast)

Early Days

My early days in gymnastics have a lot to do with my family moving around a lot. We didn’t move around from city to city the way many families seem to do nowadays: we moved around from county to country, most of them third world countries.

The story goes, that in Vancouver, I was caught doing headstands on my desk in Grade school. Mom and Dad were called in, and I was put in a gymnastics class in the North Vancouver YMCA, coached by John Hemmingway. I guess I still had excess energy, and then joined FLICKA, an all girls gymnastics club, coached by John’s wife, Louise Hemmingway. There were actually two of us boys in the club… I went on to compete in the B.C. Provincials in Argo, the youngest category. Came third too! Dad has the whole thing on 8mm film, and it is pretty funny. To me, the funniest part is that I still have vivd memories of being told to keep form (i.e. keep my legs straight and my toes pointed. Watching the film, you would never even guess that I had ever heard about keeping form!

After 2 years of gymnastics in Vancouver, my family moved to Thailand. Mom and Dad tried to find some way to keep me involved in gymnastics but there wasn’t any in Bangkok. But they did find a diver (who had been 5th in the Asian games!) who was willing to teach me trampoline and diving. I went regularly for a few years. Also played soccer.

My family then headed back to Canada, but to Montreal this time. Once again, Mom and Dad put considerable effort into finding me a club, Palestre Nationale, in downtown Montreal. We lived in Beaconsfield, a fair distance out from Montreal where the club was. Two or three times a week, on a city bus, then metro (and sometimes, a second bus) I made the two hour commute downtown. I needed a little push to get me going sometimes… (Mom was always there, thanks, I am very glad you were) but I was always really happy to be at the gym, working out. I lucked out in that a new coach, Jean Paul Marcil took over the training of the young guys. We got a team together, and then competed in provincials for two years running. We won both times, taking the crown away from ICC (Centre Immaculee Conception). My first year, I won Argo, second year won Tyro.

Lessons Learned: Keep form!

Palestre Nationale Gymnastics Team

Jean Paul Marcil'(at the back) stumbled across my web page and we regained contact 30 years later. He sent me the photo above. I am in the third row, on the left. Pierre Clavel (2nd row, on the right) ended up on my first World Games team, competing with me in Strasbourg, France. Also on the team was Robert Delorme, Normand Ménard, Joseph Quatella, Jacques et Serge Thibault. Once again, my family was on the move. This time, we moved to Lima, Peru. Due to governments not seeing eye to eye, our stay there was a short one, and we moved on after a few months.

This time we were off to Africa, Niamey, the capital of Niger, on the southern edge of the Sahara desert. Once again, gymnastics was not available. Seven months of swimming, diving and riding horses. Dressage is the upper-class European way of riding horses, better known here as “English style”. I did have the opportunity of doing “voltige” though. Voltige is standing on and jumping on and off of a galloping horse. The horse is fitted with a pair of handles, and is slowly galloped in a circle, at the end of a lunge line. Essentially, acrobatics on a galloping horse. Lots of fun, and I really enjoyed this.  Below is a random photo.

The only real difference is that we were in the desert: we wore shorts and galloped around in the sand. I really enjoyed the jumping on and off the horse at a gallop.  Just in case you are interested, this is easy from the inside.  MUCH harder from the outside.  Higher speeds actually make it easier if you are just dropping off and bouncing back up immediately.

The next step was Zaire. Once again, no gymnastics. But lots of swimming, diving, volleyball and soccer. Two and a half years later, I finished high school. I had a teacher who told me that Berkeley was a great place for engineering and gymnastics, so I wrote a letter to Hal Frey, at UC Berkeley.  Hal Frey said “Sounds good, come on over”.  So I did.

Berkeley

I was very lucky to go to Berkeley. I sent a letter to Coach Frey, saying that I had once been a good gymnast, and that I was interested in coming to Berkeley. He replied “Sure” and I was in, and joined up with a team that lived, ate and breathed gymnastics. It was also a team that frowned on anyone who did not do well scholastically (not that this stopped me from flunking out after my first year!). We had surprisingly few PhysEd majors on our team; most had their eyes set on some other career. This was in contrast to many of the other Universities which we competed against. Coaches Hal Frey and Mas Watanabe were a good coaching combination.

My first year was the highlight; we won NCAAs in 1975! We even got our picture in Sports Illustrated! (a big picture in Sports Illustrated; I am down in the right hand corner). At the time, I was only a FX and Vault specialist. Mr.Watanabe took one quick look at my other events, and I was back to basics. I did basics on those other events for 2 years.

From Sports Illustrated

When I got there, Berkeley was a powerhouse in Gymnastics, along with several other largely unrecognized sports such as Water Polo. This slowly changed while I was there. I hope there is no cause and effect here! My first year was the only time that I went to NCAAs with a team behind me. I qualified on my own, for the rest of them, but no-one does well with out a team behind them. Unless your team wins Pac-8/Pac-10, your team doesn’t go to NCAAs.

This was a pity. Looking back, I think our “drought” was more bad luck than anything else. Coach Frey had succeeded in recruiting some of the top talent in the country. Most didn’t make it because of nagging injuries, rather than some failure of the “master plan”. To the coach’s and the athletic department’s credit, no one ever lost a scholarship for being injured. This even applied to long term injuries. As long as you came in and worked out hard, you were on the team.

Tim Slottow was the prime example of this. No one worked out harder or more intelligently than did Tim. However, coming out from high school, he had damaged his back, in a way that required him to wear a short body cast at all times. I think he also went in for X-rays once a week for years. In spite of this, Tim was an example to the team, never negative and never foolish (other than the debatable act of continuing to pursue his gymnastics goals, when it was arguable that he was risking permanent disability).

The year I joined there were no recruits at all. Tyr Wilbanks and I were the only new comers to the team, and we were both walk-ons. They were some pretty strange rumors about me before I showed up, on the bus from the airport. No-one knew anything about me, except that I was flying in from Africa! I guess it must have been quite a let down when everyone met me.

Tyr and Warren – Walk On Hardy Boys

Major University Competitions: (there are dozens of dual meets that are not in this list)

• 1975 Pac-8
• 1975 NCAA (TerreHaute, Indianna)
• 1976 California Open (San Jose, California)
• 1977 Pac-8 (Berkeley, California)
• 1977 NCAA (Phoenix, Arizona)
• 1977 California Open (San Jose, California)
• 1978 Pac-8 (Seattle, Washington)
• 1978 NCAA (Eugene, Oregon)
• 1979 Pac-10 (Los Angeles, California)
• 1979 NCAA (Baton Rouge, Lousianna)

Results from some of these meets:

• 3rd AA – 1976 California Open
• 3rd AA, 5th V, 1st PB -1977 Pac-8
• 19th AA, 4rth PB, 5th V – 1977 NCAA
• 1st AA – 1977 California Open
• 1st AA, 3rd FX, 1st PB, 2nd V, 3rd HB – 1978 Pac-8
• 11th AA – 1978 NCAA
• 1st AA, 3rd FX, 2nd V, 1st PB, 3rd HB – 1979 Pac-10

As I look at some of my achievements, it is kind of scary to realize how insignificant the whole thing was. Other than a list I had on a few scraps of paper, there is no way that I, or anyone else could recall any of this. At the time it seemed very important, like it could affect the rest of your life. Doesn’t seem very important now… but I still wouldn’t change anything.

Canada

I made the Canadian team in February 1977. More by fluke than anything else. In early 1977, Coach Frey suggested that I might be able to make the team. So, with money from Mom and Dad, I flew to Montreal and competed. Much to everyone’s surprise (mine included), I came second and was on the team!

My first competition was to be in Varna, Bulgaria. The Canadian team was also having a training camp in Yugoslavia. In the middle of the camp, Pierre Clavel and I (OLD teammates from the Palestre Nationale team in Montreal in 1969). Made the small hop over to Varna, competed and returned.

Thoughout 1977, 1978 and 1979 I competed for both Canada and Berkeley. I continued to train in Berkeley and compete for Canada until 1982, when I moved to Saskatoon. The university (yes, several of my Computer Science textbooks were written by professors here at the U. of S!) and Keith Russell (the Canadian National coach for some of my years on the National Team) were major factors in my decision. I joined up with Taiso, a club associated with the University of Saskatchewan, and continued to compete for Canada for another 5 years.

Most of the 9 years that I competed for Canada were a blur. An endless loop of travelling and competing. Finally in late 86, I snapped my Achilles tendon training in Saskatoon. It had been affecting my training for a long time, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when it went. Except in the usual way… lying on the floor, looking about in confusion for the fool who had rolled a bowling ball into me! Oh well, so much for being the only gymnast I knew who had never been under the knife. Surgery went well, and aside from being a little tight, the repaired achilles seems to be much stronger than the other one.

I competed a few more times, just so that I could say I had done it.

As I look at this list of meets, they have sort of faded into the past. Once again, no-one but me has a clue as to how I did at these meets. And, I would have no idea except for a few scraps of paper that I have been lucky enough to retain from those days. I do have lots of memories of things that happened at various competitions; they just don’t have a lot to do with how well I did or did not do. Pretty strange for something which is the culmination of years of training and work.

Canadian Competitions:

• 1977 Canadian Selection Meet (Montreal, Quebec)
• 1977 Canadian Nationals (Edmonton, Alberta)
• 1978 Canadian Selection Meet (Montreal, Quebec)
• 1978 Canadian Nationals (Ottawa, Ontario)
• 1978 3rd Trials for Worlds Team (Cambridge, Ontario)
• 1979 Canadian Nationals (Winnepeg, Manitoba)
• 1979 PanAm Trials
• 1979 3rd Trials for Worlds Team (Toronto, Ontario)
• 1980 Canadian Nationals (Alma, Quebec)
• 1981 3rd Trials for Worlds Team
• 1982 Canadian Selection Meet (Toronto, Ontario)
• 1982 Canadian Nationals (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
• 1983 Canadian Nationals (St. Johns, Newfoundland)
• 1983 3rd Trials for Worlds Team (Montreal, Quebec)
• 984 Calgary Invite
• 1984 Canadian Selection Meet
• 1984 Canadian Nationals (Waterloo, Ontario)
• 1985 Canadian Slection Meet
• 1985 Canadian Nationals (Victoria, British Columbia)
• 1985 3rd Trails for Worlds Team (Montreal, Quebec)
• 1986 Canadian Selection Meet (Calgary, Alberta)
• 1986 Canadian Nationals (Chicoutami, Quebec)
• 1987 Western Canada Summer Games (Regina, Saskatchewan)
• 1988 Canadian Selection Meet (Burlington, Ontario)

International Competitions:

• 1977 Golden Sands (Varna, Bulgaria)
• 1977 Canada Cup Tour (Regina, Winnepeg, Toronto)
• 1977 Chunich Cup (Nagoya, Japan)
• 1977 Tokyo Elite International Meet (Tokyo, Japan)
• 1978 World Games (StrassBourgh, France)
• 1978 Canada Cup Tour (Regina, Winnepeg, Toronto)
• 1979 American Cup (New York)
• 1979 PanAm Games (Peurto Rico)
• 1979 Spartakiad Pre-Olympics (Moscow)
• 1979 FISU Games; (Mexico City)
• 1979 Pcificic Rim (Honalulu, Portland, Seattle)
• 1979 World Games (Fort Worth, Texas)
• 1980 East German Invitational (Cottbus, East Germany)
• 1980 World Cup (Toronto, Ontario)
• 1980 Olympic Boycot of Moscow
• 1980 Chunichi Cup (Nagoya, Japan)
• 1980 Tokyo Elite International Meet (Tokyo, Japan)
• 1981 American Cup
• 1981 World Games (Moscow)
• 1981 Chunichi Cup (Nagoya, Japan)
• 1981 Tokyo Elite International Meet (Tokyo, Japan)
• 1982 USGF Invitational (Fort Worth, Texas)
• 1982 Canada vs Bulgaria (Sofia, Bulgaria)
• 1982 Chunichi Cup (Nagoya, Japan)
• 1982 Tokyo Elite International Meet (Tokyo, Japan)
• 1983 American Cup
• 1983 FISU Games (Edmonton, Alberta)
• 1983 World Games (Budapest, Hungary)
• 1984 Canada vs Cuba (Montreal, Quebec)
• 1984 Canada vs China (Beijing, China)
• 1984 Olympics (Los Angeles, California)
• 1985 Australia Games (Melbourne, Australia)
• 1985 Coupe d’Excellance (Montreal, Quebec)
• 1985 Champions All (London, England)
• 1986 Commonwealth Championships (Glasgow, Scotland)

Chunichi Cup / Tokyo Elite :  Gold on Vault

Coaching

When I moved up to Saskatchewan and joined the TAISO club, coaching was part of being a gymnast. The older gymnasts were expected to pass on as much as possible to young up and comers. This excellent policy was strictly enforced by Keith Russell, the club’s founder and mentor. After a few years, money was found to pay us! While competing, I coached 2 or 3 evenings a week (about 6 years). When I finished competing, I upped my coaching to 5 evenings a week for another 4 years. I then backed off to twice a week for yet another 4 years. In 1997, I went to Japan for work and was absent for 5 months. I came back to a world where our gymnasium had been condemned and was already being pushed down by bulldozers. My club moved to a temporary location and the national level gymnasts were offered the chance to train at the new centralized National Training Center. I think they will do well there, but it will be a while before our club has national level gymnasts again….

Fifteen years ago I wrote: “Perhaps I will start coaching again. Right now, I have other priorities, a brand new son that I want to spend lots of time with.” Little did I know that I would be sucked back into it again, just seven or eight years later. This time, because Taiso was short of coaches and because that directly affected my son’s group, I volunteered to step in.

This time it was different. I really DON’T want to be one of those parents who pushes their kids to success in sports.  Fortunately, I was able to make it so that I was make it so that I was never the “enforcer”.  The kids I coached were getting old enough so that it was time for the drive to come from them, not from me.  I would spot, advise, and make suggestions.  And if they weren’t in the mood, I would go off and work with other gymnasts in the gym.  Best of both worlds.

Judging

Along with coaching, our club also encouraged gymnasts nearing the end of theirs careers to take up judging. The sport can be greatly improved by having judges who understand the sport. Saskatchewan and Alberta have done a good job of this. As provinces with only 10% (?) of the countries population, we produce almost half of the FIG judges. In Saskatchewan, this is mostly due to the efforts of the Taiso gymnastics club. Congrats to Kelly.

I was a Nationally ranked judge for  10-ish years . And then FIG (international) for at least 6. Kind of strange to think about it. I still have mixed feelings about judging. It is hard to justify doing something that consumes over two thirds of the holidays I earn a year. Right now, I am putting something back into the sport that I enjoyed for so long. Gymnasts deserve to have their performances accurately assessed. This means deducting them for errors. This is the only way to help gymnasts who perform with fewer errors.

Most of the judges I work with judge fairly, with no regard for the “name” or place of origin of the gymnast. Some are not so fair. I also have serious problems with judges who try to mitigate. Ignoring or overlooking errors only does harm. You only end up penalizing other gymnasts. This falls apart a bit when governing bodies start requiring minimum or qualification scores for gymnasts to travel or make a team.  And then we are back into a grey area.  Okay, time to back down off the soapbox.

And so I stopped judging as well.  I felt I had put the time in.  Besides I was about to get sucked back into coaching again.