Aimee Boorman Edit
Wed, Jan 25, 2023 9:26AM • 35:24
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coaches, athletes, gymnastics, gymnasts, routine, children, amy, simone, stay, score, people, camp, adult, parents, emotional stability, thought, competition, understand, relationship, world
SPEAKERS
Paul Barnett, Aimee Boorman
Paul Barnett 00:00
Hi, Amy Bowman. Good morning, and welcome to the great coaches podcast.
Aimee Boorman 00:04
Thank you for having me.
Paul Barnett 00:05
I'm very excited to talk a little gymnastics with you today. But, Amy, I want to start with something really hard hitting and difficult. Could you tell us where you are in the world and what you've been up to so far?
Aimee Boorman 00:15
Sure. I am currently in Florida, living here for about six years, and I am doing consulting. So I'm traveling all over the world and doing clinics and coaching in clubs helping some national teams. And it's been great. I'm also currently working on my book, and I've got some partners, and we're working on something really big that we think is going to change the gymnastics landscape. So we're very excited about that.
Paul Barnett 00:42
It's only morning, and you've already done all of that. Today, Amy, you've been all over the world, you've been to the Olympics World Championships you've been we were just talking before that you've been to Germany multiple times, and you're recently working in the Netherlands, you must have seen some great coaches up close. And you must have seen some that perhaps are not so great. But I wanted to start by asking you, what is it you think that the great gymnastic coaches do differently? That sets them apart?
Aimee Boorman 01:13
I think that the great gymnastics coaches really stay true to who they are, and maybe what their goal is in mind. I mean, that is kind of a slippery slope, because many coaches will forget that they're dealing with humans. And so even though they're very goal oriented, it's all about them. And they're not really including their athlete in the process. And so I think the great coaches are making sure that their athletes have a say in the process.[PB1]
Paul Barnett 01:40
Now I'm going to ask the follow up, which is, what do today's great gymnastic coaches do differently? Great Ones in the past?
Aimee Boorman 01:48
Well, I would like to hope that I had some influence in those young, great coaches that are coming up in the way that I was able to kind of buck the system. And again, stay true to who I was, and make sure that there was always an open line of communication between me and my athletes. And because you know, for so many years, I was told that I wouldn't be successful, because I was too nice. And I just thought that that was a horrible concept. Like why do you have to be nasty to accomplish things. And so I made sure that I was that I was able to continue my niceness, I guess we'll call it being nice through it, and stay on track with what the ultimate goal was. And knowing that okay, well, maybe I won't achieve that ultimate goal. But I also don't have regrets in how I tried to get there. I can look back on my career, and I can think of things I might have been able to do better, especially when I was a younger coach. But all of them were kind of lessons along the way. And knowing that I was going to sacrifice that ultimate success that people talked about to keep the integrity of what I was trying to do it, it's made it all worth it. So I'm hoping that this younger generation have me or someone like me to look up to to say, Oh, wait, they did keep true to who they were. And they included their athletes and everything. And they were successful. Because when I started coaching, and I knew this was what I wanted to do, I didn't have anybody to say, Oh, look, Coach Sara over there. She's super nice to her athletes, and they're doing amazing. And they're, you know, they're happy, they're healthy. All of that good stuff. I didn't have anybody to look up to like that, because we were definitely following that Eastern Bloc mentality of having little robot soldiers, you know, as gymnasts. And, you know, that's not really what I wanted to do. I want athletes to you know, I want these gymnasts to be able to be passionate about their training and about their own successes and about why they do gymnastics, because success is something different to everyone.
Paul Barnett 03:51
I mean, we all have this interesting quote from you. And you say, I was looking out for the emotional stability of my athlete, I never looked back on that decision with regret. And it caught my eye because making decisions based on emotional stability must be difficult, because it's hard to measure.
Aimee Boorman 04:08
Right? And you have to you have to look at that with each individual athlete you have, it doesn't matter if you're an individual sport or a team sport.
I guess everybody has a different breaking point. And I don't think that athletes should be pushed to a breaking point. But I do think it is important for coaches to challenge an athlete, but what might be a challenge for one athlete would be a breaking point for another and on the flip side would be no challenge at all for another. So you really have to be able to gauge and I'm not talking about physically, I'm talking about emotionally, especially as you get up in the elite levels of sport. All of these athletes are talented doesn't matter what sport you do, they're all talented. They all have physically what it takes, but do they have mentally what it takes by 1980 1970s standards 1980s standards or are we as a sports culture and a coaching culture or We now moving around to meet the athletes needs instead of the athletes meeting that cultural need.[PB2]
Paul Barnett 05:05
So finding this line, this, this challenge line must be, must be part art, part science, but I'm wondering what advice you've got for others, when it comes to finding this line around pushing athletes, your team, your kids, and knowing when to step back.
Aimee Boorman 05:21
So I think education is incredibly important for coaches, we can't just assume that we know what the right thing to do is like,
I am not trained as a child psychologist, you know, but I have a lot of experience. And I have studied a lot I have, you know, gone to a lot of professionals and spoken with them about it. I think that main things that coaches need to watch for, well, the number one thing is body language, because if you're working with children, they're not usually going to tell you how they feel. But you will see it in their body. And like you said, even as a parent, I'm the mother of three. And I can see when one of my kids is about to shut down. And so I have to watch out for those cues. And then I have to kind of redirect myself about how I'm going to deal with this situation.[PB3]
Paul Barnett 06:07
I have another good quote from you, Amy, you say, as a coach, you have to be smarter than the athlete. You don't have to believe the athlete. It's intriguing. And I'm wondering if you can tell me what you mean by this?
Aimee Boorman 06:19
Well, it's not that you don't have to believe you should always believe your athlete. Even if the athlete isn't telling the truth. They're telling you the lie for a reason. It's their way to get around what they don't want to do. And as a coach, it is not my job to force them to do it, it is my job to figure out how to get them to want to do it. And that's what I mean by outsmarting them. So how do you turn the narrative to get your athlete to cooperate with what your goal is for maybe that drill that day, that competition, whatever, you've got to be smart enough to be able to shift the narrative. So they're no longer afraid, because usually they're trying to get out of something, because they're having a fear response or having a flight response to whatever it is you're asking them to do. So you have to figure out how to work around that and pull them back in, [PB4]
you know, and sometimes I'm sure we've all met these people in our lives, that you can have a great idea. And then you're delivering it to someone and they say, Oh, that's a terrible idea. But if it were their idea, they would think it was a perfect idea. So you have to kind of you can do that with athletes, children as well, and flip it around so that they think it's their idea to do it. But again, if you don't head off the problem at the pass, and realize, okay, this, this athlete is showing me a different body language, like I've got to shift this narrative, to get them to want to do it. If you wait until they're already pushing back on you, you've kind of lost the battle, and you have to completely regroup.
Paul Barnett 07:44
I think there must be an added layer in there. Because you're working with teenagers. I mean, you I don't know the percentage of your athletes that are in their 20s. But I imagine it's not not very high. And so this emotional development, this language may not just have been developed yet for them, I imagine.
Aimee Boorman 08:01
Right? And so it is a matter of making sure that you can you have to think like a child, but then plan like an adult. I guess that's the way that I could paraphrase that. And yeah, because we are working, at least in gymnastics, youth sports in general, you got your children, your children there. And if they're not understanding, they might nod and walk away, because now you've spoken to them as an adult. But it's not processing in their brains because their brains aren't fully developed. So you know, you did mention the Netherlands earlier and working in the Netherlands, the youngest woman that was on the team for the Netherlands was 19 years old. You know, when you put that in perspective, Simone was 19, when I took her to the Olympics, you know, and we have had a 12 year relationship before that. So stepping in and working with somebody for the first time when they're 19. And working some with someone for the last time when they're 19 is very different.
And you know, again, when I was with the Dutch team, and we had 19, through almost 30 years old, it's a very different construct of of what you're looking at how you're communicating, you know what the relationship has to be, because as a coach working with children, you have to focus in what is this child's brain going through at this moment. Whereas when you're working with an adult, there's a different relationship for him. It is less of a leadership role. And it's more of a consulting role. Whereas with children, it's a leadership because they still have so much to learn. And again, that brain development, how are you aiding their brain development not hurting their brain development? [PB5] Well, I
Paul Barnett 09:37
think regardless of their age, the one thing that strikes me and I was I was watching the routines of some of your athletes to prepare for this interview. Amy it's quite scary. It's very dangerous. I mean, I probably didn't realize how close they can come to ending their career if they do something wrong. If they make a wrong move, and they spin through the air and they land awkwardly they can reach the And I guess be out forever. I wondered, are there any routines or approaches you use to sort of keep people calm and focused as they begin to run towards the vault? Or they're on the beam? I'm intrigued by that?
Aimee Boorman 10:15
Yeah, definitely, you have to make sure that the athletes know that they need to perform what they did in training. So like when you step onto the competition floor, I've always told my athletes the only difference between the competition floor and the practice floor is you have on a more sparkly leotard, and you're going to have your hair and makeup done a little bit prettier. That's it, everything else, your gymnastic, should stay exactly the same. I tell them, Don't expect any more than you do in practice, but don't accept any less than you do in practice. So the whole theme is normal, this be normal, okay. And as you can kind of see them like, as they get nervous to go out and compete. Sometimes you have to remind them to breathe sometimes, you know, you're gonna have athletes that react differently. Whereas, you know, when I was someones coach, her relaxed state was to sit there, I guess I should say her focus state was to not be focused, it was to sit there and talk to the person next to her was to watch somebody else do a routine. And that kept her in her zone. So that when the judges hand went up, she was like, All right, game on, let's do this. Whereas other athletes may need to go off to the side and spend 10 minutes before their routine, meditating, or going through visualization of their routines, or walking through their routines, warming up their skills, stretching, it's different for every athlete, you have to know what gets that athlete in their zone.[PB6]
Paul Barnett 11:36
I mean, you I live in Romania, where Nadia Coleman, he is a national icon, her image is still up on the streets everywhere. And of course, she's remembered all over the world for her perfect 10. But in sports like gymnastics, where there is this contest, the score that you get given, is there a danger of just focusing too much on perfection, I think that
Aimee Boorman 11:59
the danger comes on an emotional level, because the worst part of gymnastics is that in the scoring, it just tells you how bad you are, you know, in. So in, at least in USAG, you know, in the US scoring, you started at 10. And like the Nadiah times you started at 10, and you work your way down, you don't build up now in fit judging. So that's basically everywhere else in the world, they, you have two scores, one that is going up and one that is going down, so you're getting credit for your difficulty, and that is going up. But you also have that 10.0 In how in your execution, how well you do those skills that is constantly going down. So being able to deal with that emotionally, is really difficult.
And so one thing that I did, as a coach of younger kids, is, I told them, you're not allowed to look at your scores in competition. And if you do look at your score, then you know, that's your problem. But don't let me know that you looked at your score, no tears, you know, no outbursts, no celebrations, you came out here to do what you do in practice, and you have no control over the score that judge gets gives you, the only thing you have control over is your performance. So if you're disappointed in your performance, you can say I'm really disappointed in how I did. I know I can do better. That was an amazing routine. And you know, I feel great about it, you know, and to just give some little examples. I had a level 10. And this was on 10.0 scale. And she did absolutely beautiful routine. She felt amazing. It was gorgeous. She got a 9.2 as her score, which is not a very high score, and I was really upset about it. And she was upset about it, or actually no, I don't know. Yeah, I think this was before I had them stop looking at their scores. And you know, so she was like what I did really well, why did they why did I get a nine two? So she's looking for answers that she has no control over? Well, she ended up winning the competition with that score. So even though it was a low score, and so trying to tell athletes that is and making them understand, because they're so focused on that perfection. Well, but it wasn't high enough. Yes. But it still was rated as the best routine of the day, the flip side of that I was at a competition. And someone got a nine nine on a bar routine. And she was thrilled and she was jumping up and down and hugging her parents and everything. And she had this celebration and it was like the very first routine of the well, that's first routine, but the first event of the competition. And she's having this great moment. And she's so proud she still has three events to compete on her team that goes up right after her it goes 995 So her teammate beat her by half a 10th and the girl who got the nine nine spent the rest of the competition crying. So this goes back to the emotional stability I guess. And knowing Okay, well you know, you got a nine nine but the judges thought the other routine was better. So now they've taken all of the joy that you had about doing a beautiful routine and strict away from you. [PB7]
So I did have one year was pretty funny. When I first started doing this, we're not looking at scores, I will look at the score and I think the score is incorrect, I will go to the judges, it's my job as your coach. So I had girls that were probably between the ages of nine and 11, like a team of 12 of them. And anytime a routine would end and the score would come up, they would all put their heads down in their laps, because they're like, We don't want to see it. We don't want to see it. And they would be like, coach, Amy, is it gone? Is it gone? Because they had started getting to the point that they realized that that number that comes up on that score is not that important. That number is not why I do gymnastics. So when coaches tell their athletes write down your scores during the meet or set a score goal for the competition, I am so against that, because you don't know how harshly the judges are going to be judging at that competition. So if the judges are really hard, or really easy, and you've set a goal for a score, you don't have any control over that as an athlete.
Paul Barnett 16:03
Amy, I know you are the mother of three boys, as we were just talking about, is there any correlation? Have you used this approach with them when it comes to their schoolwork?
Aimee Boorman 16:15
I'm kind of a lazy mom when it comes to schoolwork. And I don't know if it's because of my coaching. And I don't want my athletes to go home and be coached by their parents as like if I were their school teacher, I would not want them come home and coached by their parents. I don't know, I guess, because I was a really good student. First of all, I was very studious, I loved school, I have three different children. They're all very different in their academics. And so I've just kind of nurtured and supported them and what they've wanted to do, because I'm all about follow your passion. You know, one of my children wanted to drop out of school in fifth grade, and he was absolutely serious. Absolutely. When entrepreneur said he was like, I am done after fifth grade, you know? And I was like, Well, no, that's not okay. But I'm guilty of not being a great scholastic parent, my kids are all very smart, I know they're going to do great things in the world, I don't think that they need to do them when they're 14 years old. I think that we need to love and nurture and support and support the teachers who are giving them those tools. That makes sense. I know, there are parents are gonna be like, I can't believe she said that. But it is just one of those things, you know, I tried to be as nurturing as I can, and give the support where the support is needed. So I am not the parent who's gonna go yell at a teacher because my student kind of bad grade, I'll go to my child and say, Okay, why did you get this bad grade? You know, let's look at this. Let's talk to the teacher, you know, you can't sit here and just blame it on the teacher, I'm not gonna go to the teacher and just yell at them. Because you told me the teacher did something wrong. Like we're gonna break this down?
Paul Barnett 17:55
Well, I think the answer you've just gave there is pretty consistent with the big theme in your story, Amy, which is not being afraid to break with tradition, and where necessary question authority. I mean, it's been part of your story since the day you started coaching. But I want to look at it from a slightly different angle. When you take this path, there would have been a lot of people saying, as you said earlier, you'll never succeed because you're too nice. But how did you sustain your own self belief while you were forging this, this different path?
Aimee Boorman 18:27
Actually, that's an easy answer. I remember having coaches that were nice to me and having coaches that were not nice to me. And when I say not nice, it doesn't mean that I got yelled at because I did something wrong or dangerous or whatever, I can reflect back and see that they were actually cruel to me as a child. And I remember thinking, well, this is awful. And as a coach, I don't ever want to make a child feel the way that I felt. And so that that's just something really strong to hang your hat on and say, you know, this is nothing is worth having a child feel that way. If that makes sense. That was the point.
And I was probably, I don't know, 1213 when I made that decision, even before I started coaching for fun, you know, and to make a little, you know, to have a little money because my mom was a single mom. And gymnastics was very expensive. So I started working, I started coaching to help pay off my tuition when I was 13. You know, I loved being in the gym. So it made sense.
I didn't take up coaching professionally until I was in college. And then obviously full time professionally after college, but it was still if I could look at a child and see that I was somehow hurting them by what I had said, I would actually apologize and I still do I apologize to my children if I snap at them. Because I'm not delivering my message the way that I meant to. Like I might have gotten emotional in the moment. And I think that it's really important for coaches to be able to go and parents to be able to reflect and and say, Oh, wait, that's that wasn't my intention, like, I feel really badly that I made this little girl cry. And it was not what I intended. And too many adults are too prideful to go over and say, Hey, Sally, I'm really sorry. Like, I see I hurt your feelings, what I really meant to say was this, because that is an adult kind of tucking their tail between their legs. But that holds so much power, that you are teaching that child about communication, and about being accountable for what you've said and done. And I think that too few adults actually do that. And it just makes the relationship stronger. So now, the child doesn't fear you, they respect you more, and they don't really understand the whole concept of respect at that age, necessarily. But as the relationship goes on, there's going to be more and more respect built. And therefore if they they're going to come around to a time when they may do or say something wrong, they may roll their eyes when you've given them a correction. And then they're gonna come over and say, I'm so sorry, I rolled my eyes. It was just an emotional reaction I was having, but I didn't mean it. You know, and instead of them being people thinking that teenagers are just disrespectful, because they're teenagers,[PB8]
Paul Barnett 21:12
and Amy, the self doubt piece, because you did take a different path. And I've read where you would sometimes not go to the camps to the selection meets, you took a different path. And people must have been questioning you. I know that your athlete, I know that Simone is one of the greatest of all time, but people would have been challenging you. And I'm curious, how did you deal with that? How did you deal with that self doubt, maybe there was none?
Aimee Boorman 21:35
Well, there was doubt. And it wasn't just out in the big picture, or I guess the big gymnastics universe, but there was also, okay, so when I had thought that Simone wouldn't benefit from going to the next camp, because I could see that she was, you know, pretty much emotionally beaten down by just, you know, one or two comments that Marta had said to her at that camp. She was someone who had been on such a high at this previous camp, she all of the national staff had been telling her while we really see the improvements, she had been working so hard. So when we see the improvements, you're doing great, they were so positive with her. And then Marta comes over and tells her how awful she looks, and how poorly she's doing and how she expects more from her. And, you know, in retrospect, I see that that was just how Mirta had always been. And she thought that that was the way to motivate elite athletes tell them they're not good enough. But to motivate Simone, you tell her you are good enough, like, let's keep going, what else can we do? Let's, let's keep pushing. And so, you know, Martha is of an older generation, who that and an Eastern Bloc generation too, that's what they did. That's what they were taught to do. And so I can understand, I don't excuse it, but I understand why Mirta talk to people the way that she did, you know, I don't think it's acceptable. But I do understand it, if that makes sense.[PB9]
So I had decided the next camp was only like three weeks away. And Simone she didn't even want to go back to practice after that. She was like, I'm working so hard. Why do I keep trying, if she's just gonna keep talking to me like this. And you know, we've we always had that attitude of you can stop doing elite whenever you want, your, I'm in support of it, your parents are in support of it, if you don't want to go down this road, we don't have to, you can keep doing what you're doing. You can go win all of these, you know, Junior Olympic meets, and be great and go and have an amazing college career and go be and do whatever you want to be, you don't have to be an elite gymnasts. So that was always in the background. And when this other camp came around, I came to her and said, We don't have to go, I don't even think it'll be good for you to go. In the back of my mind. I was worried that someone was gonna think that I didn't believe in her or that I was embarrassed of her. And I didn't want to bring her back to murder because Marta was gonna yell at me. I also was concerned with the fact that her parents might think the same thing. But why aren't you? Why aren't you pushing her? Why aren't you supporting her? Why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing that? And so I had a lot of doubt in that decision. But ultimately, it came back to what is best for Simone in this moment, you know, and I did leave it to her to decide. And she did decide that she didn't want to go. So me supporting her to say it's okay to make the decision. If she had said nope, I'm gonna go, this is what I want to do. And this is how I want to do it. I would have been like, Okay, let's go. But she also needed to know that it was okay if she didn't, if that was the immediate path she didn't want to take, you know, and there was some fallout of us not accepting that, you know, we did. We weren't invited back to camp that season, because we declined to camp. And it wasn't because of how Simone did her gymnastics. It was because we declined to camp and you don't decline a camp. But we also came back to prove you can decline a camp, not be asked back and still win a national championship. There. camps are important. And they're good, especially when you're a coach that comes from a smaller gym, a smaller club, who might not have the access to the education that you need to get those kids to the national team. I mean, it's very, very important. So there's a definite balance there. You know, for me, I was like, Oh, I'm gonna miss a camp, you know, and I wanted to be at the camps, because I learned every time I went to camp, but for Simone, it wasn't the right thing for her.
Paul Barnett 25:25
What I love about this story is the the partnership that you have with your athlete with Simone, in making that decision, but there is an interesting angle to it, because recently you were working with the Dutch gymnastics team, and I was reading some articles about your time there. And you said something fascinating. You said, gymnast, and you were referring to Dutch humanists must become less dependent on their coach. I was intrigued by that. Can you tell us what you mean?
Aimee Boorman 25:52
So you know, I had many conversations with the administration for the gymnastics program there. And they would bring up you know, any we don't understand why gymnasts are so attached to their coaches. You know, like, if you are playing, you know, football, you go from this league to this link to this league, and you are moving up in coaches, you're changing coaches constantly, you know, any other sport, they they talked about that coaches that athletes are not with their coaches for more than a couple of seasons. And the only thing I could come around to was the fact that well, in you know, football, or American soccer, you know, you're probably not going to die if you do something wrong, you know, can you get injured? Yes. Is it going to be catastrophic? Probably not, on average, probably not. And don't come at me, all you football fans, I understand that catastrophic things can happen. But the ratio of them happening compared to what can happen in gymnastics. So I think that gymnasts, really, they rely on their coaches, they rely on that trust, you know, you're you're spotting me, you're helping me through this element, I have to trust you that you're going to make sure that I don't land on my head and kill myself or become paralyzed, or, you know, break a bone, I have to trust you. And that kind of trust takes years and years and years to build. And so it's hard to pull away. Now with the independence of the Dutch gymnasts that I have seen, I do think that that bond is still there. And that I won't say the bond, because I don't think the bond goes away that reliance on their coaches still exists at the younger age. But again, when I was working with the Dutch team, these they're women, they're not children, these are adult women. And so they have much more life experience, and they have the ability, and the confidence to be a little bit more independent in their training. Now, I do think that also has a drawback I think that go at it alone attitude, like, to me, everybody needs a coach, you know, if you're in a sport, you need a coach, you need someone to be able to look at what you're doing, and say, Okay, I see this error, this is how you can correct it. Because as an athlete, you might not feel it, you're definitely not going to see it because you're doing it, you they do a lot of video review and stuff. But it's very different than having somebody stand there and observe and give you the pointers to get through it. I mean, if you're a writer, you have an editor, right? Because you need somebody to take another look at it, compare it to the NFL, you know, these are grown, adult men making millions of dollars a year, they all have coaches. So I do think that having a coach is important, I don't think that it's to the benefits to the overall big picture benefit of the athletes, to not have coaches with them, guiding them, I just think that they'll be better if they've got somebody there supporting them, taking them through the drills, guiding them, because sometimes, you know, I get up in the morning, I don't want to work out if I don't have somebody saying here, Amy, it's time to work out. I'm not gonna work out. Right.
Paul Barnett 28:59
I'm smiling because I am wondering, you have trust you build this relationship with younger people. As you said, in America, they're much younger, in the Netherlands, they were older, when it's time to break up, when it's time to end the relationship move on to another coach, it must be more must have more layers than just a normal transactional relationship.
Aimee Boorman 29:22
Yeah, well, and I think in the US, at least, because that's where my, the majority of my experience is based. If an athlete moves on to another coach, and it wasn't a mutual separation, it's very, very hard on the US coaches, you know, because we have put our lives into it. And I think part of it is because of our capitalistic mentality. You know, like, we always want to do better. We want to be the best at what we do. And if if your top athlete leaves you to go to somebody else, then you weren't good enough. Like that's what sticks in our minds as Americans. I mean, I guess I shouldn't speak for all Americans. But that's what I have witnessed through. And I do think that European cultures are different with that, I think they have a different outlook on life. Not that it doesn't hurt, it doesn't sting if somebody goes to another coach, but in the US, we really don't have that system, where this is the coach for this level, this is the code for that level, this is the coach for this level. And people change gyms, I mean, you might have levels within the gym. But often coaches as they get better move up with levels. So they end up staying with those same athletes, whereas it's different with, you know, football, you are moving on, you're just moving on and even in us, you know, soccer, it is they're moving on to different coaches, I think it's something that's very specific to gymnastics, maybe a few other sports. But there is definitely this feeling that happens with coaches, there's, I guess there's like a mourning process that happens. And so my suggestion to coaches that are worried about that, and I was blessed with the BIOS family to, for them to trust me when I said, if because, of course, coaches from all over the country were trying to get their hands on Simone, they were recruiting her hard. And the bias would tell me about it, because we had that open relationship, when I said, Listen, I commit to you to stay one step ahead of her. And if I can't stay one step ahead of her, I will let you know. And I will help you find the coach that is right for her because I know her, I may not know everything about gymnastics, but I know her. And I know what will keep her in the gym, and what will make her walk away from the gym, you know, and so they trusted me enough to know that I was going to do the best for her in the long run. Now, luckily, I was able to stay a step ahead of her, I continued to educate myself. So that would be my recommendation to young coaches who are worried about, well, I don't want my athlete to get too good, because then they're going to leave me and they're going to go to somebody else, well be that person who can stay a step ahead of them. It takes hard work, it takes dedication, you know, and you still may get your heart broken in the end, but you have to do it for you, you have to do it because like you want to improve yourself. But you also have to have that communication with the parents and the athlete to say, Listen, I want what's best for you. Because if you don't have that relationship, they're gonna go behind your back no matter what. And in the end, they always leave at some point because even if in the US, you've got a top athlete, you may have worked with them their whole life, they go off to college, or you know, like, if they're, if they're on the professional path, they go off, and they do their professional things, you know, so at some point, they always leave. So you have to like when you're a coach, you have to know that at some point, this person is not going to be in my life the same way they once were.
Paul Barnett 32:46
Amy, if I could take you back and introduce you to that 13 year old who was coaching gymnastics for a little extra pocket money, knowing what you know, now, what would you say to her?
Aimee Boorman 32:57
I don't think I would have I think I would give her my Handbook of what I did and say, Look, you're fine, you stay where you are, there's going to be some bumps and bruises along the way, there's going to be some heartache, but it just stay the truth stay true to who you are. That's the that's the number one thing because you know, it's just gymnastics. And it should be something that you love doing when you're coaching, you should have a reason why you're coaching and it shouldn't be to go to the Olympics, it should be for the love of nurturing young athletes to grow and become the people they're going to be. Because all of the skills that they are going to learn in gymnastics are going to make them better humans in the long run, if you treat them the right way. Because if you treat them the wrong way, they're then going to think that that's Well, it happened to me. So that's why I should be doing it to somebody else. Because that's I survived it. They'll survive it too. And it made me stronger. But did it really did it really enrich who you were. So it stay true. So Young, Amy, to stay true to who you are. And make sure you're always thinking about what is the long term impact of the day to day? Because it's not about[PB10]
Paul Barnett 34:12
I'm gonna ask one final question. I think, I think I know what you're going to say. But I'm gonna ask it anyway. You're writing a book is still coaching, you're consulting all over the world. I think you're involved in a business in Florida. So when you do hang up the whistle if you ever do, what's the legacy with these young people that you've been coaching, what's the legacy that you'd like to leave with them?
Aimee Boorman 34:34
The biggest thing is about being kind, you know, be kind to everyone around you. Everybody has different experiences coming in. So be kind and to me, the best legacy is when I have athletes that I've coached for many years, put their kids in gymnastics, because they had such a positive experience being in gymnastics that they want their children to perience the same thing. And gymnastics helps shape the people they were and they like who they are, therefore they want to put their children in. That's the best legacy to me.[PB11]
Paul Barnett 35:08
I think that's a great place for us to win. Amy, it's been fantastic to spend an hour with you today. I wish you all the best for the rest of the week. And for that book that I know you're finishing, I look forward to getting a copy of it one day.
Aimee Boorman 35:20
Thank you so much for having me. It was my pleasure.