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Dave from Shift Movement Science podcast has shared another thought-provoking and important conversation about cultural change, morals, and ethics of coaching with Tom Elder. 

In addition to coaching for 13 years, Tom also has an extensive education in Philosophy.

He did his Undergrad in Philosophy at the University of Akron and master’s in Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. 

His research is focused on child autonomy in abuse in youth sports, which is obviously a very important topic that we’re dealing with right now in gymnastics, talking about gymnastics culture, the things that we have grown to accept in our sport; some philosophies, coaching techniques, or just the way the sport is structured. 

This podcast explores the negative impact these can have on athletes if some of these things are allowed to continue and does the way that coach, parent, or interact with children impact their lives in a negative or positive way. 

How do you realistically deal with something that’s not okay. 

How do you deal with a situation in your gym? 

How do you deal with a situation with another coach, athlete, or parent that you don’t believe is morally or ethically right? 

If someone is acting in a way that’s harmful or abusive what can you do to try to change that.

Most importantly what do you do to take care of yourself mentally, especially if you’re trying to change the culture of your gym, or change the way you coach now. 

So in this episode Dave and Tom discuss some challenging and hard issues that they feel need to be talked about more in gymnastics, they’re heavy and it comes with some pretty tough moments, dipping between some darker, more challenging topics and at the same time discussing some more uplifting, more positive concepts. 

More information and full blog post can be found here.