Artistic gymnastics - why do coaches resist change?

Sports Coaching Review ISSN: 2164-0629 (Print) 2164-0637 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rspc20 Artistic gymnastics - why do coaches resist change? Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto & Laurita Marconi Schiavon To cite this article: Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto & Laurita Marconi Schiavon (2016): Artistic gymnastics - why do coaches resist change?, Sports Coaching Review, DOI: 10.1080/21640629.2016.1201360 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2016.1201360 Published online: 10 Jul 2016. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Citing articles: 1 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rspc20 Download by: [Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto] Date: 11 July 2016, At: 05:33 SPORTS COACHING REVIEW, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2016.1201360 Artistic gymnastics - why do coaches resist change? Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto and Laurita Marconi Schiavon Downloaded by [Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto] at 05:33 11 July 2016 Faculty of Physical Education (FEF), University of Campinas – UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil The gymnasium symbolises a temple for the preparation of gymnasts, filled with its own rituals and protected from external interferences (e.g. climate, society, family, media, the sport federation, etc.). Inside the gymnasium, a specific and rigorous modus operandi for sports training has developed, a training tradition which, after many years of pure repetition, has tended to overshadow the spontaneity and creative capacity of gymnasts and coaches thus not allowing the dynamic of training to develop and enourage significant modifications. A majority of the time, tradition appears to prevail over innovation. (Bortoleto, 2004, p. 309) If we consider the analyses carried out by Barker-Ruchti (2007) in Australia and Schiavon (2009) in Brazil, we can observe that it deals with a recurring and still hegemonic model within the sphere of high performance gymnastics worldwide. Considering this issue, we have repeatedly asked why the artistic gymnastics (AG) training system resists innovation and who is responsible for it. The traditions that govern AG reveal, as Foster (1973) argues, the centralisation of decision-making power (by coaches), empirical experience and oral transmission as the main ways of training, with resistance to innovation produced by a traditional society and sometimes by sports science itself. The coaches’ behaviours are supported by a microculture which validates itself (Oliveira, 2014) revealing even more vestiges of the military tradition that has impacted gymnastics since eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Palmer & Sellers, 2009). In fact, decades of scientific research reinforce the case that many aspects of the AG training system need to be updated (Issurin, 2007; Jemni, 2011). For example, forbidding adequate hydration during training sessions. Until now, this practice has been seen as normal by a great number of coaches in spite of evidence that such a restriction can impair competitive performance as well as athletes’ health (Stewart, Schiavon, & Bellotto, 2015). Likewise, the recovery time, the amount of time needed to recover after a training session, rarely follows the scientific recommendations, possibly contributing to increase injuries and overtraining (Dixon & Fricker, 1993; Kirialanis, Malliou, Beneka, & Giannakopoulos, 2003; Sands, 2000).1 Even though many coaches remain reluctant to change, innovations such as the CONTACT Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto bortoleto@fef.unicamp.br © 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Downloaded by [Marco Antonio Coelho Bortoleto] at 05:33 11 July 2016 2 M. A. COELHO BORTOLETO AND L. MARCONI SCHIAVON reduction in training volume and load, the use of new methods for controlling physical (Antualpa, Moraes, Schiavon, Arruda, & Moreira, 2015) and psychological stress (Heinen, Vinken, & Velentzas, 2014) and the weight training for the development of strength (Sands, McNeal, Jemni, & Delong, 2000) are already consolidated. In the case of Brazil, the hiring of foreign coaches has contributed to the “importation” of traditions over the past few decades, some of which are contrary to current legal and ethical standards (Schiavon, 2009). It still seems that the intense demand for results imposed by the sporting organisations (e.g. clubs, sponsors, governments, federations, etc.) and the distance between researchers and coaches have made it difficult to incorporate scientific advances into the training process, even when there is access to such technological innovation (Schiavon, Heinen, Bortoleto, Nunomura, & Toledo, 2014). Perhaps the main aspect of this dilemma lies in coach education. In Brazil, oral transmission, previous experience as a gymnast and the reproduction of methodologies that have provided good results still represent the only pathways to becoming an AG coach. Unlike countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia, for example, which have consistent educational programmes for coaches and a dialogue with researchers (Nunomura, 2001), Brazil still follows a traditional and empirical model of coaching (Nunomura, Carbinatto, & Carrara, 2013). It is true that in recent years, some of the main Brazilian clubs have been able to establish multidisciplinary teams (physicians, physical therapists, nutritionists, psychologists, etc.) within the training process; a fact that has contributed to some changes in the conduct of coaches. However, this represents a small part of the AG teams in Brazil, partially due to financial restrictions. In general, the centralisation of power in coaches and their unchallengeable authority still represent a barrier for the training system to overcome before use can be made of the currently available technology and science. It appears to us that the Brazilian Gymnastics Federation as well as the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) are the key players for any change in this situation, since they have the authority and the conditions to stimulate the exchange between coaches, to bring them closer to researchers, as well as to promote new methods in an effort to modernise AG training. The better integration of scientific and technological advances then are recommended as ways to minimise the impact of the pressure to achieve competitive results on gymnasts, as well as to moderate the authority of coaches. We subsequently argue that it is necessary to experience different pathways that consider science and sport training as a long-term project in order to achieve the sporting success needed for a long and triumphant career in gymnastics. Note 1. 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