How Shifting to 3D Functional Training Produced Massive Results for Gymnastics Coach
Michael Hughes
Welcome back to the Gymnazo podcast. I’m your host, Michael Hughes with a special MDMC guest, Joy Judd and Joy’s very awesome person I’ve got to know over the past five and a half months, because not only did she go through the MDMC program, but she has a very cool niche that I’m super excited to talk about. And it’s the movement athleticism, of gymnastics, which I’ve always firmly held as like the root of all movement, athleticism, like if you’re a great athlete, if you can do gymnastics, and you can throw your body through the air control, it landed on two feet with a great poise at the very end, then honestly, what can’t you do? It’s just this awesome, awesome thing. So I’m excited to dive into the details of how movement training is been something that’s new to her, but always been in her kind of inner jeans as a coach, because that’s what gymnastics is. So she works with V force elite out of Madera, California. And it’s a real cool opportunity that I get to have the choice to deep dive and go on a few tangents about gymnastics and movement, and your experience through this education of movement Education. Welcome to the Gymnazo podcast where you get to peek behind the curtains of what it takes to create and run a seven figure fitness facility that ranks in the top 5% of boutique fitness studios for revenue. But to be honest, that’s the least important thing about us. Founded by me, Michael Hughes Gymnazo has created an ecosystem of services that blend performance with restoration techniques, and attracts top coaches to its facility hosted by its owners, Paden, and myself and our top coaches, this podcast shares our best practices on everything, from how to build a sustainable fitness business, to how to program for maximum results to how to build a hybrid training module that’s online. And in person. We have marketing secrets, movement, innovation, and breaking down trends in the industry. If you’re a fitness professional, or a fitness business owner, this is where you learn how to sharpen your skills and to see maximum results. So the first question I have is, just tell me a little bit about your background, your journey into coaching and what what got you here?
Joy Judd
Sure, um, well, I did 10 years of competitive gymnastics growing up, and I absolutely loved it. But about the time I entered high school, with the time commitment that’s required for competitive gymnastics, and the injuries that I had, were starting to pile up. I ultimately had to leave I had a compressed vertebrae in my lower back, pretty significant ankle injury, some wrist issues, and I was only 15. So I decided to go and do some other things. I actually went to the Air Force Academy for college, graduated from there spent five years in the Air Force. And then after my youngest daughter was born, just to socialize her a little bit, I started taking her to the Mommy and Me gymnastics classes and our local little hometown here. And she really loved it. She loved being in the gym, which was great for me, because I loved it growing up. And I know we’ve, we’ve talked a bit about year round youth sports. There are there are some drawbacks, particularly injury. But I I loved my experience in gymnastics that it helped me to do. So many things gave me such confidence as a kind of quiet person. It just, it made me feel like I could do impossible things. It gave me the confidence to do something like go to the Air Force Academy when I don’t really have the personality to do that. It was tough, but it gave me such confidence. So I love that she was interested in it. And so we ended up be forced to leave and Madera. She got on their team program when she was about six. And I just thought it was a little young to drop her off for several hours by herself. So I was hanging out there and just watching and got the opportunity to start coaching some of their recreation classes just kind of as a fun thing to do while I was hanging out there and really enjoyed it, and got moved up to a team coach about a year later. So I I’ve been working with kind of our entry level team for about two years now. And just was was really loving it. But there were a couple of things that popped up that I was just struggling with a little bit. One of them being, you know, the the conditioning side of things for gymnastics, where, where I’ve seen the sport of gymnastics really, really change over the past couple, few decades, it’s changed into a much more power driven sport, I think.
Michael Hughes
What do you mean by that power,
Joy Judd
more explosive power, you see the height that these girls are getting on the floor, there was all there’s still an artistic side of it, there’s still the dance and performance side of it. But the skills that they’re being required to do are taking much more strength and power and speed. But conditioning has not changed really, to keep up with that, that I saw. And it just because the conditioning side of it just felt kind of it’s always felt kind of random to me. Like, when you’re learning a skill in gymnastics, like a handstand, there’s a progression of of things steps that you take, you don’t just go and do the handstand, because what if you can’t support the weight over your head, you’re gonna hurt yourself. So there’s a progression, but conditioning, it just seemed like you kind of do whatever you feel like doing. Or maybe you have an arm day and a cardio day and a leg day. But I just couldn’t, I was missing like the purpose behind it. And so I was struggling with that when I was working with my athletes trying to come up with conditioning programs. For them, it just it just seemed random. And then I was seeing a lot of injuries around the gym as well. Girls who were having to leave gymnastics altogether, just because they were that the injuries were piling up just like I had experienced or just a lot of foot and knee. ankle injuries back injuries. So I just thought there’s is this just how it is? Or is there something we can do? And that’s what kind of led me to look into personal training and movement and kind of what drove me here.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, and you brought up so many different. So many different points, like at 15. You’ve had compressed discs you had wrist, knee? I think there’s one more that I haven’t missed. But that’s those are a lot of things to have as a 15 year old. Yes, I don’t think are fair, I don’t think it’s fair that you should have those things at 15. Because some of those things like a compressed disc that doesn’t necessarily go away. It’s not like, oh, stretch it out. And you’re good to go. That’s a significant. I don’t use word injury. But it’s, um, it’s an injury, it’s that’s a significant thing to have. So what was that like as a 15 year old? To know those things? I mean, really, I mean, physically, mentally? Because, though we’re movement practitioners, we’re still dealing with athletes, and are we dealing with the wrong word, but we’re still advising and guiding very young minds about the human body and how their bodies should or shouldn’t feel. So you might have gone back to 15 for yourself and what that was like,
Joy Judd
Sure, yeah, it was. It was such a struggle for me, because I love gymnastics so much. It just felt like home. To me, it was something that I wasn’t great, but I was I was good. And, and I enjoyed my time there. And it just, it felt like a safe space for me. So I just wanted to stay there. I just wanted to be there. But my body was saying you can’t do you can’t do this anymore. So it was it was really, really difficult to walk away. But you know, I my back is fine now. I mean, I went through physical therapy, there were lots of exercises that I had to do. And I don’t have that pain now, but it was it was significant. I mean, just walking, every time I sat down or stood up I was in pain and to be that young and and being that kind of pain and to think about down the road. Where am I going to be if I if I keep on like this, right? What is that going to look like when I’m much older and I’ve done this damage, you know, maybe permanently damaged my body. Luckily, I didn’t walk away with that. I know there are gymnasts you do walk away with that. Oh, all athletes have that possibility.
Michael Hughes
Right? But it’s it seems it seems to be that gymnastics really focus on by definition In essence, it’s youth. It’s a youth sport. Yes, you don’t see 3040 year olds at the peak of their game, like you see with 40 is a little bit old. But 2030 year olds, you know, baseball, basketball, you look at all professional sports. And in fact, I don’t even think at gymnastics is a professional sport. Is it? Is it something? I mean? I mean, forgive me, this is more just my being naive. But in terms of like, a, like a track and field, those are, I mean, it’s an that’s an adult sport. Is there an adult professional, competitive gymnastics world that I don’t know about?
Joy Judd
I mean, other than that, like what you would see in the Olympics, so we have like a national team, right, you can train for you can go to those competitions. Right.
Michael Hughes
But is it a profession? Like it is for? Okay, yeah, fair. Okay. Yeah, just just out. I just, I just for the first time thought about that. Like, besides these events that I see collegiate, definitely. Olympics, definitely, but what do they do for a job? Anyways, so that’s just an interesting concept. Yeah. So it’s definitely much more youth focused, versus all the other athletic systems out there. You know, soccer is all adult, you know, for the most part, and I’m using the word adult as 25. And up, you know, we’re the brain, the body is pretty much been established. Yes. You know, going all the way through. What’s the oldest gymnastic athlete that you’ve worked with? Or you bet you’ve seen? This is just a fun question. On this topic.
Joy Judd
Um, there. There’s an Olympian. I want to say she is from Romania, and she competed vault in the Olympics through her 40. I mean, she was in her 40s.
Michael Hughes
Oh, okay. So that is, but that’s a
Joy Judd
rare thing. Right. Very, very rare.
Michael Hughes
Got it. Okay. Fair. That’s pretty awesome. That, yeah, that’s pretty awesome. And then, this is a big thing, the confidence, I want to talk about that too. Like that’s a big piece as an athlete. Tell me about that competence that that you gained, because I think athleticism, especially team sports. I know that I know, gymnastics is kind of like track and field. It’s a team sport. You really practice with a team without a question, but it’s still your individual Enos but I still see it as a team environment. Dive in and into that a little bit, and how maybe that shaped your background a little bit more as you talk about going into the Air Force Academy and whatnot.
Joy Judd
Sure. I’m just, I think, working through working through skills that were that I had fear on. That was one of the biggest lessons I think I took with me starting something. Going into it almost feeling like this is impossible. Not only am I learning to flip backwards, but now I’m gonna flip backwards on a balance beam. Where if, if I miss my hands, it’s gonna be my face, you know, so fiercely. Yeah. So there was, you know, those those things that just seemed impossible, and having coaches who would patiently walk through that, because they understand. You know, it’s not, it’s a scary thing, what you’re being asked to do, and having coaches who would support me walk through that step me through the process, and then to actually accomplish that goal and do something that, you know, a few months ago, a year ago, I would have thought was impossible. It was just, it was an amazing feeling. And it just made me feel like I could do anything I wanted to. Which was, it was that’s huge. Yes.
Michael Hughes
Especially as a teenager, like Yes. Which is almost probably the opposite in knots in most cases. But we fear like as a father, I fear that my kids won’t have the I don’t use the word pride, but the it’s a it’s a healthy pride that they can they can they can take their lives in their own hands. You know, in a sense, so. Yeah, right on. What’s a what’s a balance beam is like five, five inches wide, four inches, for even smaller. Core inches. Yeah, do it do a backflip and land on four inches? Yeah. When our feet are designed to go wide, they have to go on a rail. That’s pretty sweet. That’s pretty sweet. And then going into like, against something just kind of brings my like the conditioning drills that you said that you did. 15 I imagine haven’t changed much. They really haven’t. Yeah, and I find that in traditional physical Therapeutics is that’s what I’ve that’s been my focus since you know, 15 Essentially the eighth grade of understanding that and they really haven’t changed much either. So what limitations do you feel a gymnastic coach has today that they may or may not even know about? Or what limitations. Did you feel like when you started getting into that, and then you talked about the foot pain and things like that, but was there anything like known to you like, gosh, I just don’t like how do I get? How do I bridge this gap? Was there any education that you had to go through to become a coach? Yep, help me understand that.
Joy Judd
So there is a little bit of training that we’re required to go through. Underneath that kind of the gymnastics governing body USAG. They provide some, like online training for us, how to work with kids, how to work with teams. But it’s not super in depth. And there’s not a lot on the conditioning side. And that that’s the part that really didn’t make sense to me, if gymnastics had changed so much, why was conditioning still the same? We have different we have different goals. Now we’re doing something so different. And there’s such purpose in all of our drills. And this just didn’t seem, it just didn’t seem to have a purpose. So that really, it really bothered me, it just, I couldn’t, I wasn’t finding the answers that I was looking for. And so I went I, I got my personal trainer certification, through ace, and it was it was great information. But I realized early on in the course, this it wasn’t what I was looking for. It wasn’t going to give me those answers I was searching for it not that it wasn’t good information. And it didn’t provide a base for me to move from there. But it just it didn’t have that missing piece that I was looking for the why behind what why are we doing this? What What’s the purpose of it? Is it really preparing us for what we’re trying to do? Because I had a feeling maybe it wasn’t, and maybe that’s why we’re seeing some of these injuries.
Michael Hughes
I think there’s always a causation, right? There’s always something right. And I think you said it perfectly is a lot of times we get told what to do. And then certainly how to do it. But the whys certainly lost, like why are we doing this? It’s like, oh, it just, it makes them faster? I will Why did they need to be faster? Well, they need to jump higher. Oh, well, why do they need to jump higher? Well, it’s pretty simple and gymnastics, faster, higher, all those things make sense. But it’s maybe too linear in thinking. And I mean that from a movement perspective, let’s just run straight. Let’s just jump straight vertically. And last time, I watched it domestically, they don’t really jump vertically is always forward momentum, spinning momentum, lateral momentum. And if not a combination of all three in this fantastic display of athleticism that I’m just thinking back I would love. And I know it’s an I know that I can do this, but just, you know, being me being me, not a movement practitioner to just be like, Oh, I’m just gonna go do a backflip right now. From this from this forearms, and just do and land with total confidence. Like that’s like, to me that’s like flying like Peter Pan. Like that was my big thing as a kid like, I just want to fly like Peter Pan. Well, a gymnastic pretty much does that until gravity wins. But they all you know, not always land on their feet. But they have that confidence. That’s really, that’s really cool. So what kind of education do you think is common for gymnastic coaches today? Like, where do they PILT pull their resources from?
Joy Judd
I think more than anything, it’s experience. It’s you have to have done gymnastics before.
Michael Hughes
And that’s all by fire trial by by air and success.
Joy Judd
Yeah. Right. Exactly. So there’s no, you don’t have to necessarily have any type of, you know, physiology, or like anatomy, training, anything like that any kind of background in exercise or anything. It’s more just have you done. Have you done it before?
Michael Hughes
And that does make sense to me, right? There’s so much of just learning by the experience, and I really get that and that’s to me what a true apprenticeship is, you follow someone who’s done it before you. But when you’re when you mentioned, it’s like, you know, learning to work with teams and learning how to work with especially teenagers and three teenagers. Especially female teenagers, it’s a little bit different story. Having a having a daughter myself, it’s like, it’s different. It’s not the same. It’s a good thing right but still challenging. Like how do you manage To the emotions that go with growing up being appear being an athlete, managing success and failure, and all the while understanding what the tissues doing to the compression forces that you’re putting on it, you know, etc, etc. So it’s a big, it’s a big job, it’s a big job. Do what what, from your experience that you previously had before the MDMC? Course to Now, tell me kind of the leveling process? In a sense, you know, where do you feel like, you really got a lot more in where you need where or where like, gosh, this is the biggest jump in, in difference. Help me kind of understand that how you got more education? And where that filled filled gaps, or where gaps still need to be filled?
Joy Judd
Sure, um, I think, really, the the first part of it started, even before I got into the class, I was listening to one of the podcasts. And
Michael Hughes
now a podcast that you’re on awesome, right?
Joy Judd
And I think it was it was talking about, you know, when, when were injured, you maybe you injured your ankle, and you put a brace on it, you put a brace on this joint that’s supposed to be mobile, and you take away that mobility? Well, that mobility has to come from somewhere else? And is it going to come from the knee, maybe which wouldn’t be a good thing, because their knee isn’t meant to be as mobile. And so I started hearing these things, thinking, I’ll just make so much sense this, this is making so much sense to me, because that’s kind of our answer. In gymnastics, your butt hurts, put a brace on it, your ankle hurts, put a brace on it. But that just, it just pushes the problem further up the chain, it doesn’t necessarily get rid of it. So for me, that was really such a big revelation to think we’re not fixing the problem by just taping it or sticking a brace on it, there’s, there’s something deeper we need to look at. So that was really big for me. Starting to learn that through the course. And then honestly, I think the biggest breakthrough was that the two of us kind of working with my daughter, she was in kind of a specialized gymnastics competition, where part of it they, they actually judged their strength a little bit. And one of the things she had to do was climb a rope in eight seconds, I think. And she had never gotten any points on on this scale before because she couldn’t do it fast enough. So we the two of us looked at it and I think you asked me what, you know, what, what’s the main muscle group here that’s working when she’s climbing the rope and I just off the top of my head said, you know, it’s her arms, you know? And you said no, actually, it’s, it’s her last her laughs are so much stronger. And, you know, such bigger muscles that so we worked out this little, you know, workout for her to do to kind of help speed get her some speed on that rope as she’s climbing up because really all the all that they were doing to prepare for climbing the rope was they were climbing the rope, which is great. But you know, when you train for some I run half marathons, I trained for that by doing, you know, different speed runs and Hill runs. I don’t just run a half marathon every day. So we did some things, did some exercises to try to wake up her labs. And when we first when I first started with her, she couldn’t feel her lats engaging at all. She couldn’t even figure out what that muscle was and how to make it like contract. But then once she got it and understood where it was and how to activate it, we did these little coil moves and it was like an immediate improvement in less than a month. I think she shaved like four seconds off her time and finally got some points on on her score. So that was it was so great to see her succeed, but it just it lit something in my mind that she didn’t realize what she was missing. She didn’t understand what she needed to help her. And so there was another skill she was really really struggling on. For the same competition on bars. She had to support her weight with her arms and swing your legs forward a few inches and then just drive her legs up to a handstand on the bars and she Just had really struggled with that. So I thought, well, let’s break it down and see what it is that we’re What what are you missing? What is it that isn’t engaging? What is it that you need to do? So we broke the skill down into different pieces, looking at what her shoulders needed to do, what again, what her lats needed to do, what her legs and hips and obliques needed to do all those muscles. And literally the next day, she went straight up to handstand for the first time, and she wasn’t even close before. I mean, it was it was night and day. And I remember her saying it mom, it was like magic, I can’t believe it. And that was that was huge for me to be able to see, you know, we, we looked at the skill, we broke it up, we we saw what muscle she needed to be using. And we saw success from it. And then I could use that with my other athletes and say, you know, I had been doing the same little conditioning workouts with them to improve their, their bar skills. But I hadn’t explained it to them yet why we were doing it, we had done it several times. And I had a little video of my daughter, you know, the progression that she made. And I showed them and it clicked for them. They were like, Oh, I get why we’re doing this, this makes sense. And I feel I feel like I’m getting higher and my cat. So it was that has been so great to me to be able to, to provide a purpose behind what we’re doing and conditioning. Because before it was like, we’re just we’re just doing this to get stronger and faster. But now I can even talk to my, my, the girls I work with, they’re between four and eight years old. So it has to be pretty simple when I explain it to them. But to be able to go to them and say here’s why we’re doing this, this we’re trying to get better on these particular skills. And this is why we’re doing this and then they can see success from it, then conditioning doesn’t become just this thing that doesn’t make sense. That’s really hard. And they hate. They understand there’s a purpose behind it. And and it just it has made things so much better. And my workouts and limit.
Michael Hughes
That’s I’m smiling. That’s it’s really cool to a conditioning for me has always been in every sport I’ve ever played. It’s what you got. It was the grunt work. It’s if you play very well, the coach would punish you. You know, in a sense, right? Yeah. No. No, with with more running more conditioning as always it. Yeah, in football, we have these things called called dolphin runs. I don’t know whether called dolphin runs, but it was like literally running across the half of the football field in different intervals. And it was it sucks. I’ll just say it like that. It was it was miserable. And did it make us faster? What shortly conditioned us? But it mentally made us more bitter? Yes. You know, and it’s kind of this interesting, like weird bond. Was it really bonding? Not really, because we all everyone hated it. And it wasn’t like, Come on, we can do it. Anyway. So I really want to dive dive into this because you said with with purpose and intent and breaking down scenarios, but you also said that that was so huge, a four to an eight year old. Right? They understood? Like, okay, that’s a big deal. You know, I have a four year old. And, you know, it’s really like, I’m just like, Alright, you got to think logically about this. And that really doesn’t work very well. So do you see that they actually followed a logical sequencing, and they got it and what I loved about it, they felt success, physically, mentally soulfully at that age to have that win is huge. But then you as a coach, you felt it. Yes. Or you were just excited, if not, maybe more excited than they were excited because you’re excited. You have this, this 5000 foot vision down of what it’s like they’ve met they only know life at eight years old. Right? You understand it at you know, three times their age four times their age, is we have coaches have been doing this for 60 years, they’ve lived 10 lifetimes of that athlete, you know, and so we have we actually so I say that because we have so much more perspective on it and what that means. So help me understand help anyone listening understand, like, what is traditional? I know it’s from your perspective, but what is traditional gymnastic strength and conditioning look like? And you go into as much detail as you want.
Joy Judd
Yeah. Growing up it was you know, you’d run laps around the floor. There wasn’t really Add a ton of cardio focus, I think when I was younger, I see that more with. Since my daughter has been in it, they do more cardio type training, they do more plyometrics that, I don’t know that that was even a thing when I was growing up, I’m sure it was, but we didn’t, we didn’t go near it. So they do some of that. But um, and then lots of like V ups, push ups, crunches, all those types of things working a little unbalanced too. So you might take, um, squats or lunges or something like that onto the beam. So you’re working your strength and your balance at the same time. But all on one plane of motion. For the most part, you’re not. Not trying to get into all three planes of motion, which is one of the things I think really helped in those drills that we, we developed for my daughter and that I worked with her on, it’s when we worked all three planes of motions, we incorporated all these different muscles and recruited them to help out in in the move that what she was trying to do. So that’s where I saw a real breakthrough for her. But you just don’t see that it’s very linear. And
Michael Hughes
yeah, yeah. And going back to the rope climb. That your that your daughter did, how high? Was that rope?
Joy Judd
I’m not sure. I mean,
Michael Hughes
I saw a picture of it. It’s certainly more it’s certainly around 20 feet, if not a little bit more, because,
Joy Judd
yeah, I would say something like that. Yeah.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, so double a basketball hoop height, which is if you have a 20 foot ceiling, that’s a super tall ceiling, you know, like a high ceiling in a home is like 10 to 12 feet. You know, it’s like, oh, well, you have nice tall ceiling, you know, anyways, so we’re talking double that. And I’m just thinking of this woman shaving four seconds, off 20 feet. I know you’re climbing. So it’s not like a sprint. But and we’re talking about youth athletes here that really have, there’s no massive movement dysfunction that they’ve developed, there’s no patterning that they’ve been stuck with for a decade, or even an injury that they’ve just had to work through year after year after year, for the most part, you know, being being underneath 10 years old, right. So when you can take a body through multi plane movement pattern, you know, pattern, excuse me, and you can excite nervous tissue that makes fascial connections, just engage more muscles engage more, and you really set it perfectly is that there’s not just linear movement happening in gymnastics. In fact, there’s very little very, very little it’s just a really kind of get stuck on this. Because, to me, I’ve kind of forgotten that. That’s how people train I’ve been, you know, in the for a decade of that past decade of my life, I’ve been doing what you just described, multi directional, purpose driven, why by behind is breaking down the chain reaction of movement patterns, piece by piece scope locally, then train it all globally, put it into one piece and make it happen. And it kind of baffles me still. So what by us going to a coiling sequence, which is, by definition, a lateral flexion to one side, rotation of the spine to the same side and in. And in your daughter’s case, it’s extension to flexion. So there’s our three planes of motion lateral frontal, transverse plane is the rotational and then the flexion extension of the arms and the trunk is our sagittal plane. We shaved she shaved excuse me, you know, you being the guide, you know, four seconds off a climb, which is really cool because I want you to to picture this if those those listening, sit down on the ground for your legs straight out, grab on to a rope, keep your hips flexed at 90 degrees. So your legs are kick straight out and then climb a rope. Like there’s no legs involved whatsoever. This is I mean you it by definition, they’re not even present. In fact, it’s a hindrance because it’s off balance because it’ll kicked out way in front of you and your body’s behind anyways. So just kind of having that that that piece to it. So now what is your conditioning look like now and I know it changes because it’s not the same every every particular day or month but give us a picture of it.
Joy Judd
For for the girls that I work with. I’ve I’ve really simplified things it used to be I just kind of went day by day. You No, kind of whatever I felt, but now it’s more kind of based on the month or whatever, whatever skills we’re working on. So I look at it became so much easier for me because I looked at okay, what are they really struggling with right now? What is it that they either need to be stronger for faster? What is it that we’re looking at and then breaking that those specific skills down and then establishing a conditioning routine, kind of based around those skills. And then we’ve, we do those every week, for several weeks. And then as they start to see the progress, then we can move on to something else. And so it’s been it’s been interesting to see, I’d have to keep it somewhat simple. I can’t do as many compound movements, as you might see in like a gymnasts workout because they’re just mentally not quite there yet. Yes, they’re still learning how to move their body. Yeah, so um, so a lot of times, it’ll be one plane of motion, like, we might, I might have them face down, laying on a block, kicking their legs up behind them on the first round, but then on the second round, they’ll kick their legs out and then straddle, bring it back together, and then the third round, we’ll add a little rotation at the top of it. So they’re getting those three planes of motion, just not all at once. But still, that has seemed to work well with this age group to kind of break it down in that way. And then again, reiterating to them, I’ll ask them, What do you think this is going to help us to be able to do what skill can you think of that we need this for, and they’ll sometimes they get it wrong, but sometimes they’ll get it, they’ll say, oh, we need this for our backward roll to keep our arm straight. Exactly. That’s exactly what we need it for. And it’s, so they see the purpose behind it. And so then there’s a reason to keep trying, because they want to get that skill, they want to get better. And that’s, that’s difficult for that age group. Because they just beforehand, when there was no purpose, I was just saying do it to do it, it just there was no appeal there to really work. And so that’s been really exciting to see them get a little bit excited about it to see there’s a purpose behind it, they’re getting better, they’re seeing the results of it direct results from what they’re doing. And so it’s starting to make sense to them, which is exactly what I wanted. I wanted them to be able to see it so that it isn’t just, it shouldn’t be a punishment. It shouldn’t be. I mean, it’s it’s not always pleasant, but I want them. Most of these athletes aren’t aren’t going to be gymnasts forever. But I want them to, you know, love moving and love being active. I want to instill that and inspire them to feel that way so that when they walk away from gymnastics, they don’t just walk away from exercise altogether. I want them to enjoy that. So that’s, that’s been a good benefit that’s come out of this too.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, that’s really that’s really cool. You say that. I was listening to another podcast not that long ago. And I really enjoyed what this movement coach said it says that, like, so many things we do in the gym are only good for in the gym. And traditional weightlifting would be was is what he was talking about. But in gymnastics to like you really made something purposeful, and the for for an eight year old to be purposeful is really awesome. And, and I liked that when you train a movement that actually corresponds to what they already know they need to do because they have fun. domestics is fun, all sport is fun, there is a challenge to it, right? There’s no There’s no question. But then hitting on the point is like, they’re not going to do this for very long. And going back to a talk, but there’s really not many adult gymnastic events that you know, it’s really a youth focused sport. So what are they going to do about that? And I’ve always appreciated my high school friends who did gymnastics, they were just amazing movers. They made me they couldn’t really shoot a basketball and make it every time but man, they were great defensive players, they you know, or even friends I have now even some of the coaches now. It’s like it’s really cool to see them have confidence in movement. And I’m gonna go back to the point you said like you you’re kind of saying, Well, I have to kind of really simplify it for my for my 48 year olds. Well, I’m gonna I’m gonna go back here and this is nothing against the athletes of today. But we have to do the same thing with our 70 and 60 year old athletes too. We have to simplify it because they’re so used to they have had this ingrained movement pattern that they really go to complex pattern is something that they just can’t do. The body won’t even do it. It has the capacity, just not the not the capability. Yeah. So we go plane by plane, this is what it feels like. And what’s really cool, I believe the fundamentals we learn as youth just they carry through the rest of our lives. If they don’t, they’re not gone. It just gets more complicated. You know, as as we go. But if say, This is what the hip joint moves, like, for them back, because what it moves like satisfied, there’s moves like rotate rotation, excuse me. But the point of the matter is, like, by themselves, those are kind of worthless. It’s when but when they have access, they can feel them. And they say, Oh, this is like the back row, or this is how we, you know, like, yeah, they’re kicking this leg, this direction feels just like this. Right? And that’s why I believe functional training gets a bad rap, because Oh, I’m just moving in random ways versus moving in tent. Full, purposeful, authentic ways. Just as you described. It’s more fun. There’s more reasoning behind it. And the results are, they just come faster? Which is as as a coach, that’s pretty much what we’re eyeing for. Yes. How do we get as a result as fast as possible? And make the athlete want to do it? Yeah. Because no one really wants to work. Those suits me. We all love the end result of a workout. But very few of us in comparison, like the process going through it. So how do we make it fun? How do we make it engaging mentally? soulfully, physically, and I think you’re doing a great job of that one. So. So what does this mean for you? In terms of, like, where are you going to go now? So you have an education? You know, what’s, what’s next? Like? What do you think even though this is not, you know, this is not your career. But I think most gymnastic coaches, it’s, it’s a part time job. Right. Right. So yeah, does a spark okay. Oh, I can’t wait for this. So I look forward to this. Kind of take me there. If you don’t
Joy Judd
mind? Yeah, um, well, part of it, when when I first started looking at the course, and we talked about this. In our first conversation, there, I was so focused on really just the movement side of it, and, you know, working with our athletes who were injured, managing pain, things like that, there were there’s so much more to the course than that. So I was a little hesitant to kind of jump in and do the whole thing, just because I felt like, well, there’s gonna be things in here that I don’t really need, or, you know, I’m interested in really,
Michael Hughes
that’s a fair enough file.
Joy Judd
And those ended up I think, those things that I thought I’m not going to get anything out of this, I probably got the most out of which was, it was a big surprise to me. But I think it has made me such such a more like I’ve become a better coach, because of it. My attitude towards my athletes has really shifted, and I think it was kind of the module on on providing a five star experience for your athletes. It totally changed my mindset, because I’m thinking, Well, I’m I’m just working with my gymnasts. But I’m not just working with my 48 year olds, I’m also working quite a bit with their parents. And in the past, I do not like confrontation, I, I will do anything to avoid it. But this course really pushed me to get to get past what I was comfortable with so that I could provide something better for my athletes and for their parents. So it’s totally changed the way that I interact with the families. I’ve been, you know, when a problem has popped up in the past, I’ve just kind of sat on it and kind of stood over it, maybe worried about it. But now it’s more of okay, what can I do to fix this? What can I do to make this better? And athletes who are maybe a bit of a challenge, maybe there’s a behavior issue, or they’re just struggling? Instead of thinking of that in a negative light of being a problem or like a burden, now it’s more it’s changed my thinking of what can I do to engage this athlete? What can I do? How can I reach out to the parents and talk to them and we can come up with a plan of something better to do. It’s just really changed the way that I interact with the families and with my athletes and And, and I’m excited to go to work every day I’m excited to to get there and engage with that tub, that kid is having a tough time because I want, I want to see if I can figure this thing out and get them excited and get them to, to love what they’re doing. So that really has been such a blessing to me to be excited about it again, because I’ve lost some of the joy in it, I think, for a while. And now that’s back. And I’m excited to be there. And I’m excited to work with all my students. So that has been just a big takeaway from this whole course, but also the, the injury side of it. We haven’t talked a lot about that yet. But we did learn in the course how to how to recognize what what muscles might be tight, what muscles might be too, too flexible, not strong enough, that might be causing some of the injuries that we’re seeing. So my daughter came home one day with her hip was hurting. And the more we talked about it, it really sounded like her her quad muscle was tight. So I took her through some foam rolling, went through the stretching and all three planes of motion, with required and then next day pain was gone, it was totally gone hasn’t come back, since. So being able to, to show that success and her and, and, and myself, I as a runner, I was experiencing quite a bit of knee pain. Going through, I went through movement assessment with you, we figured out some different things. And now my left knee pain is completely gone. And it was it was really, you know, to the point where it was impacting my sleep. And now I’m not dealing with that at all anymore. So having that success, being able to share that with the coaches at my gym, I’m hoping that you know, these athletes who have these nagging foot injuries or you know, whatever it is, I’ll be able to, you know, take them through a movement assessment, and figure out what’s going on and then get, get the foam rolling and stretching and and hopefully get them back to doing something that they love and hopefully prevent. I’m hoping to prevent some of those injuries, just if we know what those are starting out with some of the common ones are to, you know, to head that off before they even happen. And in gymnastics, there, they have a ton of mobility, just mobility all over the place. But without the stability in there, I think that’s where most of those injuries are coming from. It’s just things are just too mobile. So being able to strengthen those areas beforehand and prevent some of those injuries is is really what I’m hoping I’ll be able to do is as I move forward.
Michael Hughes
Now that was that was that was awesome. That was awesome, great goals and great perspective is to take what I what I see what I hear, or just heard, is that to take the gymnastics coach to a level that just provides a greater service. Yes, you know, I want to say Oh, in an elite status, but at least that is so is so just for us. What are we really trying to do? We’re trying to make this young moldable human being. And as someone who understands how the body works, how can function? How could reform? Because it doesn’t just affect the physicality? we all we all know that it actually affects our mentality. And then beyond that affects who they are. There’s their spirit, their soul, their their inner self, would everyone want to kind of classify by that to make them better people because they’re going to live again, you know, 10 times their life. After that coach, you as a coach influences them. And I think what coaches are such an amazing part of our lives. Yes, when we interview people to work for Demelza, we always ask tell us a coach who influenced you. And there’s never been a story of like, Ah, no, no one. You know, it may not be the best story, right? It’s not all good stories. Unfortunately, sometimes they’re their negative stories. But to be able to have a movement practitioner, be a gymnastics coach or movement specialist is what we call it functional movement specialist. To be able to say I’m going to teach you the skill of gymnasts, how to be able to have the confidence to do a back handspring to do a backflip flat out land on four inches of a bar, you know, confidence that over and over again like clockwork but also like, Oh, I understand that you need massive amounts of flexibility to do these drills. But I’m going to give you the tools and the resources to provide the stability to match it, not in just a single play, not just with your eyes closed button to full joint capacity. And if the nagging pain that will happen, it’s not it’s not to prevent injuries impossible, right. But it’s to prevent the bigger occurrences and be able to have access and the know how to compensate. Okay, wait a minute, let’s just break this down, let’s actually become problem solvers. Versus just copiers of, of things we’ve done in the past that sometimes bring results, gosh, probably most time don’t. And to have that skill set of the of shaping the next gen generation having the skill set to manage the movement dysfunction pain, to have the skill set to be able to manage the parent, right, who’s really the kind of the coach Manager? Manager, right? Yes. Yeah, they’re the agent, they’re the manager, you know, and be able to have that skill set. And then I think you just said it perfectly at the very end is to have fun doing it. Yes, I enjoy going to work every day. Yeah. I have tingles like I’ve a jacket on right now. But underneath this is just the tingles. Because, to me, that’s what it should be. That’s what it should. Yeah, absolutely. And if because that’s like, we have the best job in the world. I really believe it. You know, and if if some people say maybe they have different jobs, too, but yeah, they have a great job, but we get to do so much. And the part that only makes it miserable is just not knowing how to do those gaps. Yet shoes on us, you know, as you describe it kind of choose honestly, just like, gosh, what am I do, and, you know, because I have this problem, I want to help people, you’re we’re servants at heart. We’re, we’re really guides, you know, you can’t go on the beam form, you can’t go on the mat form. You know, a coach really is a guide that says, I’m going to do as much as I can for you. But once it becomes time, it’s really this parent, like, go, you’re out of here, make it happen. You know, that’s tough. Yes, tough to be able to do that. So my, my movement mentor taught me the same, he says, a great coach. And there’s very few great coaches like truly, ultimately great coaches, when they give their athletes when they give their students in a sense, the teacher still a coach, a test, they know they’re confident they’re gonna get an A plus. Yes. Well, how many teachers would say that on a test my students when a coach tests whether they’re going to win No, no matter what an A plus, or they’re going to do exactly as they as they can’t now to win the game. That’s a different different story, because there’s other factors, but that athletes can perform just the way that I’ve trained them to do. It’s tough to say with confidence, like yes, are going to do it. So since if that’s perfection, then how do we get as close to it as possible? And and there’s no such thing. But that pursuit of excellence, right. And so there’s so many factors, there’s so many effects, not just the movement, it’s just it’s not just the good, the good conditioning, it’s everything, everything. And I appreciate that you said that least the MCMC course gave you a slice of that. Truly, that I might appreciate that. And the future of you as a gymnastics coach. And you already said it is is influencing other gymnastics coaches. Right. Not necessarily by force, but like, possible. Yeah, that’s possible.
Joy Judd
It’s exciting. Yeah. And it’s hard I, in one of my daughters competitions when she she did that handstand on bars the first time. There were some other parents there who noticed, like, wow, she really got better. And I just wanted to, like, tell them all the stuff that I had been learning and, you know, you know, this great thing, and they’re trying to watch their daughter compete. And I’m like, Okay, I’m a little too excited. Right, yeah. But it really is exciting to see this success and how much that meant to her. And it’s a little I have a different perspective, I think, because I was a gymnast. I’m now a coach, but I’m also the mom of a gymnast. So you know, I get I have all these different perspectives. And that meant so much to my daughter to get that success after she’d worked for, you know, years really, on these skills and wasn’t seeing improvement to see that improvement. So fast was so exciting. So it’s been fun to share it with my coworkers and put little videos together to see you know, to show hey, look, look what we’re looking at the results we’re getting. So it’s really exciting.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, and it’s just, it’s really comes down to that we can have a great job and just have fun doing it. But when the results come in, that you get a smile on your face. Exactly. It’s just that it’s an extra bit of like, it wasn’t a good day. It was a great day. It was a great day. Yeah. And then how that bleeds to every other part of your day. I just movement is one of those things. I just we just I think we forget, as a general society pulling away from sports now, or athletics. It just brings us so much so much happiness brings us so much greater purpose. And I know when I’m having a kind of a low vibration day, it’s probably because I didn’t move that much. Yes. And honestly, yesterday, just to be quite frank with you, it was one of those days I was in the office. All day, I had clients cancel just for other life reasons. And I just didn’t get I didn’t move with them very much. And show them warm ups didn’t present drills for them. And I got home and I was just like, blah. And luckily, luckily my kids were at a park and my wife rode the bike there is a huge bucket of a bike is a big bucket in the front of the bike. So they all sit in it. And I drove it back. And it was just it was a quad Bernard going back up the hill. And we had this bridge over the train track, you know, as long story short, and it made my day just I just felt that, you know, is a five minute bike ride, but it just made my life that five minutes better. Absolutely. Yeah. So it’s really fascinating as a movement Coach, what we have the potential to do, and just to touch on it one more time, because you’re right, it’s such a big, big piece is the pain at the move and pain. You know that when you know what athlete at what coach at that level doesn’t come across an athlete that says This hurts coach, like, that sweet little face telling you, you know, it hurts, right? Like, you know, anyone who’s a parent gets like, I’m sorry, can I just take that away from can I just, you know, we try to rub it, we try all these different things.
Joy Judd
And traditionally, our answer has been, okay, well just stop. Don’t do that anymore. You’ll have to sit out the rest of this event. And I hate that response. Like there’s gotta be something that you can do. And so I loved learning about the Tweak ology, what can what can I change, so this athlete can still participate with us and still feel like she’s a part of our group and part of our team without just saying we’ll just sit down and
Michael Hughes
write, which is, which is much more than a physical change. It’s a mental change. Yeah, it’s an emotional change. Right? It’s not just the athletes sitting there resting a painful ankle, right? It’s I don’t use word maybe damaging, but it’s certainly digressing. Yes. Their athleticism mentally, emotionally, which is tough. You know. So I’m really excited for your for the future, that you’re going to influence so many more athletes lives. And though it may seem on some days, it’s just their own, they’re gonna forget this stuff. But, you know, you’re a walking testament, you remember what it’s like to be in that, you know, in that gymnastics arena, like to say, you know, and, and your memories, which are I know that positive. And some are probably, like, I wish it was a little bit different. And you have the a bit the availability and the responsibility, right? It’s, it’s fun, but it’s also, it’s also I don’t use the word work. But it’s, it’s a challenge to, to do that, but knowing that you have greater resources, and a process to problem solve. That’s what I really got out of what you said, you know, those challenging athletes, you know, that all there? It’s all right. All right, let’s see what we can do about this. It’s even me just saying that kind of made me just, it was a spark of positivity in my, in my inner soul, you know, versus that like dreadfulness. And like, know, what?
Joy Judd
Completely changed my mindset. And yeah, it’s I absolutely loved the course. And I would recommend it to, to any gymnastics coach out there. It really has just just loads of good things for me. So
Michael Hughes
awesome. Thanks for that, for that testimonial. I appreciate that. All right. Well, Joy, I mean, that’s I this this is great. Thank you very much for sharing your experience, your process through this the journey that you’ve gone through, and how you’re been affecting the lives of the next generation. I mean, actually the generation of the next generation I mean, we think the generation that we’re your training has a name yet technically. And thanks for shaping the the gymnastics coach by being an example. You know, words go so far, but actions and capacities, capabilities and results. I think that’s that’s what our industry needs. Our movement industry needs not just gymnastics, not just fitness. But just the athleticism, as is that like we have the power to influence and change the status quo. It’s not, you know, we have that availability. And I’m just excited that you’re on that team now. Yes, you have those, those superpowers. So thank you very, very, very, very much. I look forward to continue to chat with you as this journey is not over. Right. It’s just a gun. Right? Yeah. So my absolute best to you. And thank you all listening to joining this episode Gymnazo podcasts and we’ll look forward to seeing you next time. Pay off. I hope you guys enjoyed today’s episode. And if you did, please share it with your fitness obsessed friends and peers who are also navigating this world of fitness and trying to succeed the trends and misinformation. As you guys can see, this podcast is basically a masterclass for trainers wanting to level up in their coaching skills, and their fitness business model. We launched this in 2020. Because you and your fitness tribe deserve to see an unfiltered look at all the aspects of what it takes to stand out as a next generation coach, and build a successful fitness business. So share it far and wide. And please, when you do do me a favor, take a screenshot of this screen and share it to your social media accounts and use the hashtag Gymnazo podcast that’s hashtag Gymnazo podcast that way we can see you and share your posts with our audience. And finally, when you’re ready to go to the next level as a coach, or in your business, and to reach more people, please go check out gymnazoedu.com. We have put together the best 90 Day coaching program on the market for trainers wanting to become a masterful practitioner, and build a business that gives them the freedom and impact. So let us help you do just that. We have online training and one on one coaching to guide you through a full 90 Day certification. We even get your training our clients live because it’s always better to work out your kinks on someone else’s clients than yours. But we promise you this, your clients will be blown away by the transformation our program will help you make you’ll be masterful at a whole new level and part of an incredible community of coaches worldwide, taking their skills to the next level. So if you thought today’s episode had some fire to it, and inspired you to take action, wait until you see what we deliver on this program. So just go to gymnazoedu.com. And we’ll see you on the other side. Remember that turning your passion for fitness into transformation and sustainable business is critical to reaching the people and lives you were put on earth to help it matters and truly can make an impact in other people’s lives. So hope you do that. Keep sharing your passion and we’ll talk to you soon.
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