Gymnastics NZ Publishes New Training Guidelines

New training guidelines issued by Gymnastics New Zealand for all ages and stages of a gymnast’s development will help ensure the sport is a safe, fun and healthy pursuit for all New Zealanders.

Following positive feedback from clubs and coaches earlier this year, Gymnastics NZ has now formally issued new training guidelines designed to balance the considerable physical and mental demands of the sport with the need to ensure the long-term physical and mental wellbeing of participants.

“Publishing these guidelines is another important step on the road to shaping a fun, vibrant, and successful future for gymnastics in Aotearoa,” Gymnastics NZ chief executive Andrea Nelson said.

The training guidelines were created by a working group of club managers, coaches, athletes, parents and code representatives, Gymnastics NZ education staff, and a consultant from High Performance Sport New Zealand – and have been shared with clubs in advance to give them a chance to consider how to use them in their communities.

“I’d like to pay tribute to everyone involved in this vital piece of work,” Nelson said.

“It was no easy task bringing together all of the elements and views about what best practice should look like for us here in New Zealand.

“The working group has done an amazing job weaving all these threads together so that everyone involved in the sport – including coaches, gymnasts and parents – has a solid framework to work with and a clear understanding of what good looks like in terms of balancing performance requirements with wellbeing.

The guidelines have been welcomed by a number of New Zealand’s top gymnasts.

“The training guidelines are a holistic approach that will help balance developmental priorities while maximising the gymnast’s chances of success,” says two-time Olympic artistic gymnast Misha Koudinov.

“I have been able to find a way into a balanced and happy approach to gymnastics in my later years, yet it would have been nice to have had some tools as a young athlete to help navigate the tough challenges gymnasts can face.”

A key goal of the guidelines is to help gymnasts peak later and stay involved in the sport for longer – something rhythmic gymnast Havana Hopman believes would now happen.

“I see the enhanced Gymnastics NZ training framework as a helpful factor in prolonging athletes' careers,” Hopman says.

“By staying in the sport longer, I’ve not only been accumulating valuable experiences - but I find joy in the process as I understand what it is I’m working towards.

“In gymnastics, longevity offers maturity and experiences which significantly contribute to personal growth and improved results. Maturing as a rhythmic gymnast has enabled me to unlock new movement styles and elements, learning from my past experiences, and energising me for future challenges.”

2016 Olympian Courtney McGregor endorsed the approach of ensuring even the best high-performance athletes had enough time outside of gymnastics to enjoy a balanced life.

“I have learned throughout my gymnastics career that balance really is better,’ McGregor says.

“In my case, balance between gymnastics, academics, whānau time, cultural engagement, and work has allowed me to enjoy the sport whilst maintaining perspective and striving for my performance goals."

The guidelines suggest a range of training hours that strike a balance between developmental considerations, pathway priorities, and technical requirements. They are based upon considerations including:

• the fundamental requirements of gymnastics training sessions.
• age considerations
• athlete stages
• our unique New Zealand setting
• provision of choice
• a targeted approach to keeping gymnasts in the sport as they reach adulthood and beyond
• the key principles of Sport NZ’s Balance is Better initiative.

The creation of the guidelines as part of a framework designed to ensure athletes’ safety and support their long-term wellbeing was a recommendation of an independent review of the sport in 2021.

“This key piece of work follows other major projects such as updating the sport’s child safeguarding policies and procedures and re-designing our complaints and disputes resolution services,” Nelson said.

“We’ve also ramped up athlete involvement in our decision-making processes by creating a new athletes’ council and engaged with gymnasts who have suffered harm as a result of their participation in the sport.

“The work to reform and reinvigorate the sport is very much ongoing, however, I’ve been greatly encouraged by the progress made over the last 18 months and delighted by the buy-in from a wider gymnastics community that supports the vision of a safe, fun and accessible sport for all New Zealanders.”

See the new training guidelines.

About Gymnastics NZ’s training guidelines

Why have we created new training guidelines?
Gymnastics is a sport that inspires athletes all over the world with an exciting combination of acrobatic and artistic movement - it is dynamic, superhuman and beautiful.

To achieve this unique quality of movement in a safe, progressive and enjoyable way requires striking a balance between the considerable physical and mental demands of the sport and appropriate training methods and loads.

Gymnastics training environments are changing. Increased access to evidence-based strategies, evolving technical requirements, varied club settings and even the emergence of different codes is driving the sport in new directions.

The training guidelines are intended to help the design and delivery of great programmes for Kiwi gymnasts in this dynamic environment.

Who created these guidelines?
Gymnastics NZ formed a working group composed of club managers, coaches, athletes, parents, and code representatives, who worked alongside Gymnastics NZ education staff and a consultant from High Performance Sport New Zealand.

A literary review conducted by AUT collated available research into gymnastics training settings across multiple codes. It reviewed examples of gymnastic training guidelines from other countries; the Gymnastics NZ Performance Pathways Strategy; and existing resources from New Zealand club programmes.

The men’s and women’s artistic, and rhythmic technical committees were then invited to provide feedback on an early draft of the guidelines. Performance level athlete representatives from each code were also invited to give feedback.

A consultant from High Performance Sport New Zealand then reviewed the guidelines to confirm they aligned with best practice.

Development of the guidelines
Competitive gymnastics is highly technical, requiring athletes to perform many complex elements in their routines. This requires physical, mental and technical preparation. The more competitive the athlete, the more time is required to safely learn the skills required. While there are legitimate overtraining concerns in sports like gymnastics, it is also important to recognise the potential safety considerations of undertraining.
The guidelines suggest a range of training hours that strike a balance between developmental considerations, pathway priorities and technical requirements.
The guidelines are based upon a range of considerations and requirements including:

• the fundamental requirements of gymnastics training sessions.
• age considerations
• athlete stages
• our New Zealand setting
• provision of choice
• a targeted approach to keeping gymnasts in the sport as they reach adulthood and beyond, that we call 'later, steady, longer!'
• The key principles of Sport NZ’s Balance is Better initiative.

The guidelines are designed to be a useful document that assists gymnasts in the New Zealand setting and so consulting with our community was important. A series of online hui were held with clubs, coaches and technical experts to walk through the guidelines for recreation, artistic and rhythmic gymnastics codes. Earlier this year the guidelines were shared with clubs to give them a chance to consider how to use them in their communities.

Implementation
The training guidelines incorporate age considerations, athlete stages, and gymnastic opportunities and pathways.

Gymnastics NZ’s member clubs offer a wide range of opportunities, from participation through to performance, across a variety of gymnastic codes. This means there is something for just about everyone. It also means the training guidelines for one athlete can look different from those of another.

It is important for athletes and coaches to choose a pathway that aligns with the athlete’s motivations and ability.

Q+A
Are the guidelines compulsory?
The training guidelines are not strictly compulsory. They have been created to help clubs and coaches design and deliver great programmes for Kiwi gymnasts in a dynamic modern environment.

While they are not intended to be overly prescriptive, they will provide the framework for discussions with programmes that operate significantly outside the parameters suggested.

Are minimum ages compulsory to start competitive pathways?
Yes. Athletes must be 5 years old to enter the social competitive pathway – and they must be turning 7 years old that year to enter the national competitive pathway (from 2026).

What do children do before 7 years old if they can’t start in the national competitive pathway?
All 5-6 year olds will benefit from the foundational programmes and events available in the GfA pathway. Gymnastics NZ is working to develop social competitive programmes that align more closely with national competitive programmes. These will provide a good transition to national competitive content and ‘soft’ introduction to the competition setting. Clubs may also wish to offer pre-competitive programmes.

Does an athlete’s age have to line up with the division of competition?
No. The intention of aligning age to divisions is to promote the guidelines consideration of later, steadier, longer! Where age categories e.g. FIG junior are not stated, coaches and clubs can choose the best fit for their athletes. Some athletes may enter a division at an older age or repeat divisions. The ages aligned to each division are a guide which align stage considerations with technical requirements for each category.

What is social competitive gymnastics?
Social competitive is a term that Sport New Zealand uses in its sport pathways framework to define athletes who want to develop their skills and also remain in a less formal, highly social setting.

Gymnastics NZ has adopted this term and identified the social competitive space as a key area for development to better provide meaningful opportunities for more athletes.

What about athletes who participate in multiple gymnastic codes?
Athletes in the participation and social competitive pathways could safely train the hours advised in multiple codes.

Athletes in the national competitive pathway who are competing in multiple gymnastic codes should not try to train the total hours of each code. Cross training benefits gained from participating in multiple codes mean the amount of training for each code can be reduced. As a guide, an athlete’s total training time should be aligned with the code with the highest hours for their division.

Generally, the requirements of performance pathway training restrict involvement in a second gymnastic code.

The goal is to provide positive experiences for athletes. Managing load is important.

Do the guidelines take into consideration other sports?
The reduced training hours for participation and social competitive pathways assume involvement in other sports.

National competitive training hours allow increased space for other sport involvement but assume gymnastics is the priority sport.

Performance pathway training hours assume gymnastics is the only sport for these athletes. Monitoring enthusiasm / engagement and physical health for all athletes are important guides to assessing if the balance is right.

Will our top athletes fall behind on the international stage as a result of these changes?
It is true that development for New Zealand athletes will likely look different to those of some other countries. It is also true that accelerated development has seen high attrition rates in many of our competitive codes, and this has an impact on our ability to produce and retain performance level athletes. Unfortunately, many of our best athletes currently leave the sport at a very young age.

Our new approach recognises that the environmental demands Kiwi athletes face are different to other countries and proposes a new timeline to achieving their potential.

What about trampoline and aerobics?
Training guidelines for these two codes are under development and will be released in 2025.

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