UCD Gymnastics Club

Kathie Klages just completed her 19th season as Head Coach for Michigan State Gymnastics team. She is a three-time Big Ten Coach of the Year and has been named Central Region Coach of the Year four times. Additionally, she has been a gymnast, coached a club team, and both her daughter and son have been gymnasts. If that is not enough gymnastics – she is also gymnastics judge and a member of the NAWGJ (National Association of Women’s Gymnastics Judges).

Linda: Kathie – with all your background in gymnastics what is the best piece of advice for gymnastic parents?

Kathie: The most important thing is just for the parents to support their child. Just be proud – many parents will pressure the gymnast to perform at a certain level when it is more important to just show how much you support them and their efforts.

One of my former gymnasts coached my daughter Raven and thought I would be a nightmare parent and was pleased and relieved that I had the attitude that you are the coach and that I was just there to support my daughter. With my son Matthew, when the men’s coach handed out the compulsory routines I did not want to know them. I just wanted to enjoy, clap, and be proud. I was surprised at my reaction. I am not advising that to all parents, I just felt that my background was such that I did not want to be in the position where as a parent I was trying to coach my child. With my daughter I knew when she (because of background of coaching and judging) had a deduction; I just wanted to enjoy my son’s performance.

Linda: When you are talking about being supportive where does goal setting come into the picture? Is that the coach’s responsibility or a joint responsibility?

Kathie: It is the coach’s responsibility, but the parent should be involved. Sometimes a child may have more talent and drive than a coach thinks they have and then it is very helpful for the parent to be involved in the goal setting.

Linda: When my daughter Meredith was a Level 7 she won her first meet. She thought this was great, but said she would never be able to win the State Meet. At that point I realized that she really wanted to say she was going to try and win, but did not have the confidence that she could. We reviewed her scores and saw how they had been improving during the year and discussed that it might be possible. It was almost as if she was asking for permission to try to do this. She started watching her performances on tape and picking out where she saw deductions and tried to work on that. By the way, she did win State that year.

Kathie: Interesting enough, some of the girls do not believe they are as good as they really are. It is an important concept to realize how good you can be, and it does not matter whether a coach or parent assists with that concept, and in real life it is probably both. If they set a certain goal and do not reach it they must learn how to accept defeat – which is all a part of the process. However, they must first believe in themselves and that the goal can be reached

Linda: One thing I noticed was that when the girls would have a bad meet they would seem fine by the time we were at dinner. The fathers in particular were amazed at this and thought that maybe the girls were not taking it serious enough. The dads felt they would be more upset about it.

Kathie: Girls react different than men from losses, and from a coaching perspective the coach is upset and it is hard. It is not just one team that reacted that way – it is years and years of teams. It is probably a woman’s reaction. Even on the bus everyone seems fine.

Linda: But when they come to practice the next time do you notice a difference or is it something they do not address?

Kathie: They do not address it unless the coaching staff addresses it to them. They do come into the gym the next week expecting to work harder.

Linda: On a more personal level have you seen a difference between your son’s and daughter’s reaction to a bad meet?

Kathie: There is a difference between my Matthew and Raven. You can tell Matthew was more upset – you could see it physically. Raven would be upset, she would hold in her disappointment more, believing that it is inappropriate to show that type of behavior. But, she too would be fine by the time we went out to dinner.

Linda: From your experience as a judge, do you think there is anything a parent should know?

Kathie: It is important to know that judging is very subjective, and it can vary greatly so it is important not to let that get your child down.

Linda: I know that there were certain gyms that always seemed to get higher scores, even for the girls who were not as good. Is there some sort of halo effect from this or is it just that they tend to be trained better?

Kathie: As judges we try to judge what we see on the floor on every routine, but we are human and we can be influenced by a variety of things. Gym name, college name, can possibly affect that