Back to Self-Esteem

In his comprehensive book on self-esteem, The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Nathaniel Branden states that self-esteem is a basic human need. They way he describes it is that “Self-esteem is a need analogous to to calcium, rather than to food or water. Lacking it to a serious degree, we do not necessarily die, but we are impaired in our ability to function.”

I found this interesting and an important part of our discussion on self-esteem and gymnastics. As coaches and parents, we expect a lot out of our gymnasts. We expect them to be strong, confident, good competitors, and able to handle things like pain, stress, and defeat. But how do we expect them to do these things with an underlying low self-esteem?

If we want to help our gymnasts to succeed in the gymnastics world, we first have to help them to develop a healthy self-esteem. As the adults that spend the most time with our gymnasts, it is our role to nurture a healthy self-esteem, seek to give them the tools to build a healthy self-esteem and life skills, and then and only then, will be be able to expect our gymnasts to do all that we expect of them.

Think about a gym atmosphere that constantly tears down an athlete’s perception of herself, moves the bar when she attains the benchmarks they impose, or controls everything a gymnast wears, eats, or does. This type of atmosphere is not conducive to building a sense of self-confidence in the gymnast. Rather, it creates doubt in herself, self-consciousness, and the inability to make decisions.

My goal as a gymnastics coach is to create an environment that gives my gymnasts the tools they need to build their self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-reliance. Not all gymnasts respond perfectly all the time, but my goal is that they all will be able to look back and draw on their experience in my gym to help fuel their success in their future — in life after gymnastics.

Be a part of the NEW gymnastics culture, one gymnast at a time.