Interview With Matt Mannino

What made you want to coach gymnastics?

Well originally I wanted money to go hangout at Wendy's with my friends in high school. Coaching was the most convenient job since I was already at the gym for practices. I continued coaching in college when I wanted more practice time in the gym than what my school's club team had.

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

Yes, I started rec classes when I was 3 years old, started competing when I was 6 years old, and competed all the way through college and beyond at the NAIGC level.

How did you help your athletes overcome mental blocks?

First, I start with an honest conversation about what part of the skill or particular outcome the athlete is worried about. Then I offer a spotting or matting alternative that would help address the concern or get the athlete used to the motion of the skill they are afraid of.

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

My coaching mentors that I've looked up to are Tony Beck and Doug Price. Tony was the coach that offered me my first team coaching position. He started my love for coaching. Doug Price helped start my passion for coaching as my main career. He talked with me a lot about the good I could do with coaching. His inspiration is what made me start the process of leaving science to pursue coaching full time.

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 coach both club and college. I have coached both team and rec classes for clubs. I started coaching rec classes in high school, then I started coaching team levels once I started college. I currently run the Boys' program at my club. The college team I coach is the Wisconsin Men's Gymnastics Alliance (Wisconsin Flippers). I started the team with a couple of colleagues in the Madison coaching community and was designated the coach leading into our first season.

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?

I started at the club in my college town (Penn State) when one of the assistant colleges on the NCAA team offered me a coaching position in his junior program. That started my process to understanding the longterm steps to developing gymnasts. From there, getting involved with the greater coaching community once I moved to the Midwest helped me get to know and learn from the high level coaches in my state and eventually, my region.

How did you fall in love with coaching gymnastics?

I started to fall in love when I was coaching in college and started to see the full process of developing gymnasts. College was my first time coaching tem gymnastics so I got to see and help the gymnasts develop in strength and skill year after year. The love got stronger after college as I started to figure out how to make is a financially viable career.

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

My best advice to coaches in the sport would be that you can get kid excited to work on the hard and less exciting skills/conditioning by you being excitable and enthusiastic about it. My advice to gymnasts still competing would be that events or skills you don't like will become fun when you put in enough work on that event or skill.

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

The elation one an athlete's face when they make a new skill for the first time.

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

I don't have anything else for athletes or coaches, but i dont have something for parents and male gymnasts. A great reason to let your son continue in the sport through high school is that they will have better job security. There are not many gymnastics gyms that don't need help coaching. Coaching was my financial safety net when I ws between lab jobs.