Interview With Josh Nilson

What made you want to coach gymnastics?

I actually never planned to be a gymnastics coach! I coached to pay for my degree and fell in love with it.

Were you a gymnast yourself growing up before you started coaching the sport?

I was! My first competition I was 6 years old. I competed for 11 years when a motorcycle accident sideline my training.

How did you help your athletes overcome mental blocks?

I think the most common thing I do is take everything back one step immediately. Gymnastics is a motor skill and usually the fear center is the "mental block" so if we are twisting a vault, we go back to the level that our brain can handle- and continue with the twisting drills, visual ques, etc. I do this on every event. Same method. It takes time and patience... but I have had a lot of success with it. Our fight or flight, survival instinct... whatever you want to call it... really shouldn't allow us to do this sport. It is completely normal to have a few hiccups on the road to higher level gymnastics because that fear center or survival instinct kicks in... even if it is subconcious. Most athletes say they "don't know" why they can't do what they could do previously.

Who was your mentor/or a coach you looked up to when you started?

Ray Corn. Jeff Graba. Ernie Russel.

Were you a college or club gymnastics coach? If you were a college coach how did you become one? If you were a club coach, did you coach rec classes or the team and how did you move up the rankings?

I started coaching club, but have been in college for 21 years now.

I have always had the goal of coaching on a college or club team someday. What steps did you take to becoming a high level coach like that?

Find a mentor! It takes a lot of work. But start in rec and build up!

How did you fall in love with coaching gymnastics?

I was a gymnast and kind of fell into coaching college.

Advice you may give to coaches coaching the sport or gymnasts still competing?

Love what you do. Create an environment that people want to be part of. And most importantly, always be a student of the sport. There is not a coach who knows everything.

What is your favorite thing about coaching the sport of gymnastics?

It teaches life leasons! Every aspect of coaching teaches real life lessons.

Anything else you think athletes or coaches should know about coaching in a sport like gymnastics?

Never lose your love for the sport, never forget why you started in the first place.... and never forget that the human is more important than the performance.