The Game of Gymnastics

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

In this solo episode, host Winston Powell pulls back the curtain on one of the least understood parts of the sport: how gymnasts actually learn skills. From the foundations and preps, through endless repetitions and combinations, to routine fitness and competing under pressure, Winston walks through the full journey a single skill takes before it ever appears in a routine, using his own experience learning skills like the Healy on parallel bars.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Every skill starts with foundations. You cannot build advanced elements without the basics being correct, and a flawed foundation can mean learning a skill incorrectly from the start.

Preps are individual to each skill and exist to prepare you mentally and physically, letting you fail safely while getting a feel for the rhythm and motion.

Skill learning is slow. A skill like the Healy can take months or years, often started at 13 or 14 and not competed until 16 or 17.

Setting small goals along the way, first prep, first rep, first set, keeps motivation alive when the real payoff is years down the line.

Time spent on one skill is time lost on another, so gymnasts have to be conscious of the trade offs in what they choose to drill.

Repetition builds consistency, but a skill changes completely once you put something before it in a combination, so it has to be drilled in context, not just in isolation.

Routine fitness is its own challenge. A skill that feels fine alone can sap huge energy late in a routine, which is why full routines and heavy weeks matter so much.

Setbacks are part of the process. Progress is never a straight line, you will go backwards, and the only real answer is patience, respecting the game, and failing forwards.

BEST MOMENTS:

"You can't run before you can walk. And if you've taken a backwards step, you can't pretend that you haven't."

"The point of the preps is to be able to fail in a safe environment."

"The amount of time you spend on one thing means the time you're losing on something else."

"None of these are pretty. None of these are perfect gymnastics, but over time they will get better."

"All you need is your way of doing it. And that's enough."

"Things take a long, long time. Things will be difficult, but that doesn't mean you're not moving in the right direction."

LINKS:

Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/
Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5
E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV

ABOUT THE HOST:

As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Host Winston Powell sits down with Roddy Mackay, an ex-GB gymnast from the late 80s and early 90s, former Gladiators contestant, ex-British freestyle skydiving champion, and now a gymnastics club owner and school coach in Newcastle. Roddy reflects on how the sport has transformed over the past 40 years, the foundations laid by John Atkinson that built modern British gymnastics, his journey through television and skydiving after retirement, and why fun and early success matter more than long term promises in coaching.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

The success British gymnastics is seeing today is built on foundations laid by John Atkinson 30 years ago, who predicted it would take 25 years for the results to come through.

Gymnastics in the 80s and 90s was regimented and results focused, with very little safeguarding. The modern child-centred approach is a huge step forward for the sport.

Late developers can absolutely thrive. Roddy did not hit his stride until around 17 to 20 years old and felt he could have continued competing for another five years had he stayed in.

Men's artistic floor has lost much of its artistry. The skill of athletes like Neil Thomas in the 80s and 90s showed how dance elements and tumble passes could sit together.

The volume of training hours in gymnastics deserves serious scrutiny. More efficient, focused sessions could deliver the same results while protecting kids' education and wellbeing.

A career in gymnastics opens doors well beyond the sport. Roddy moved into Gladiators training and casting, TV stunt work, competitive skydiving, and now school coaching and club ownership.

Coaches owe it to their gymnasts to put them in environments where they will experience success and recognition, not just promise rewards 10 years down the line.

The greatest lesson sport teaches is resilience. Falling off the pommels 10 times and getting up for the 11th is what carries you through everything else in life.

BEST MOMENTS:

"What I've started now, you won't see the results for 25 years." (John Atkinson)

"Gymnastics is the best foundation for any sport or activity you can do."

"When you get knocked down, get up, dust yourself off, keep going."

"The results will come if you enjoy it."

"Coaches owe it to their gymnasts to put them in environments where they are going to have success."

"There's a million different ways to do the same thing and you just have to keep going."

LINKS:

Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/
Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5
E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV

ABOUT THE HOST:

As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

In this solo episode, host Winston Powell breaks down what gymnastics actually teaches you, far beyond the skills, the scores, and the medals. Drawing on his own experience as a Senior GB gymnast and on recent conversations with guests like Bryony Page, Roddy Mackay, and Joe Fishburn, Winston explores the mental and personal lessons that gymnastics quietly builds into the people who do it, and why they matter just as much as anything that happens in the gym.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Gymnastics is one of the best sports for young children because it builds full body awareness, strength, and discipline, which transfers powerfully into other sports later on.

Delayed gratification is a core gymnastics lesson. Skills can take years to make it into a routine, and the biggest results, like John Atkinson's 25 year vision for British gymnastics, only show up over the long term.

Failure is not the enemy. The goal is to fail forwards, making different mistakes each time, learning from them, and getting closer to the outcome you want.

Effort alone is not enough. As Bryony Page's Rio journey shows, success comes when you channel that effort into the right places: psychology, S&C, nutrition, sleep, and technical work.

Talent matters at the very top, but it is not the only ingredient. Talent comes in many shapes and sizes, and your strengths in gymnastics will shift and grow over time.

Tying your entire identity to gymnastics is risky. When the sport is going well it feels great, but when it is not, you need a sense of self that exists outside the gym.

You are more than your start value or your score. Your worth is not defined by what you can contribute to a team on any given day.

People overestimate what they can do in a year but underestimate what they can do in five. Long term ambition is where the real growth lives.

BEST MOMENTS:

"Failure is not something to avoid. Failure is something to embrace."

"Failing forwards means failing, but getting closer and closer to the perfect or the correct outcome."

"Your entire gymnastics career is experience for your later life."

"Just because you can't do it one way doesn't mean you can't do it. It means you can't do it that way."

"Your worth is not directly tied to how successful you are as a gymnast."

"The only person with the right to judge you is you. But you have to make sure that you're judging yourself fairly."

"People often overestimate what they can do in a year, but underestimate what they can do in five."

LINKS:

Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/
Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5
E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV

ABOUT THE HOST:

As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Host Winston Powell sits down with Zara Turton, the 2015 World Down Syndrome Rhythmic All-Around Champion, who has recently picked up tumbling alongside her rhythmic training and gone viral on Instagram with over 5 million views. This is a more light-hearted conversation than usual, covering Zara's gymnastics journey, her gymnastics family at City of Birmingham, her plans to start coaching, and why disability gymnastics deserves much more visibility. For listeners on audio only, the YouTube version with captions is recommended for the best experience.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Zara started rhythmic gymnastics at seven years old, brought into the sport by her mum, dad, sisters, nan, and aunties, with Olympians Mimi Cesar and Frankie as her early role models.

At the 2015 World Down Syndrome Championships, Zara competed across five pieces and came home with five medals, including the all-around gold.

After years of dedicated rhythmic training, Zara has now added tumbling to her schedule and has already competed five times in the discipline.

Her recent Instagram reel reached 5.3 million views, bringing a huge wave of new visibility to disability gymnastics and the athletes within it.

Zara is currently working through her coaching qualifications in both rhythmic and tumbling, with plans to coach development groups rather than recreational classes.

Joe Fraser has been a long-time personal supporter, attending Zara's competitions over the years and welcoming her into his own gym community.

More mainstream representation, like seeing Down syndrome athletes on shows like Strictly Come Dancing, helps break down outdated assumptions about what is possible in elite performance.

Zara's message to young gymnasts with Down syndrome is simple, come and talk to her, and she will help.

BEST MOMENTS:

(when asked what gymnastics means to her) "My life."

"I'm strong every week."

"I got to have my photo up in the gym."

"If anyone does (judge), you just leave it."

"More worlds."

LINKS:

Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/
Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5
E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV

ABOUT THE HOST:

As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

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ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Host Winston Powell sits down with triple Olympic medalist Bryony Page to walk through her full Olympic journey, from missing out on London 2012 to winning silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo, and finally gold in Paris. Bryony opens up about the hardest year of her life leading into Rio, the mindset shifts that turned her career around, and what it meant to be chosen as Team GB's closing ceremony flag bearer at Paris 2024.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Missing out on London 2012 became a turning point. Watching Team GB athletes' families celebrate became a positive motivator that drove Bryony forward for years to come.

The build up to Rio 2016 was the toughest period of her life, with injury, illness, grief, and the pressure of fighting three women for two team spots all colliding at once.

Real change came when Bryony stopped trying to control the outcome and focused entirely on the process, taking ownership of her own journey instead of waiting for things to fix themselves.

Going into Rio she set three targets: enjoy the experience, learn from it, and try to do the best she could. Hitting the best routine of her life in the Olympic final delivered all three.

Tokyo 2020 brought a bronze medal but also unexpected guilt, the strange experience of feeling disappointed with an Olympic medal because she had been chasing something bigger.

Paris 2024 was her most successful Olympic cycle, going in as reigning world and European champion, with the strength to win gold even without delivering her absolute best.

Trampolining is often dismissed as not a serious sport, so being chosen as Team GB's closing ceremony flag bearer felt like a huge moment of recognition for the discipline as a whole.

Olympic dreams come down to a 30 second routine, but the years of training that lead to it have to be worthwhile in their own right, regardless of the outcome.

BEST MOMENTS:

"I was so proud of myself for the efforts that I put in. I was proud of myself for the person that I was becoming."

"I couldn't be disappointed in myself. I could be disappointed in the performance that I would deliver, but I would never ever be disappointed in myself."

"The silver medal is still my gold medal. It feels more like mine than it does the gold."

"Lightning doesn't strike twice."

"I just took more control of my journey. I was like, right, this isn't working. Let's see if I can change this."

"Make it worthwhile, no matter what you want the outcome to be."

"It feels like it was always meant to happen, but it also didn't happen. It's such a weird feeling."

LINKS:

Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/
Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5
E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV

ABOUT THE HOST:

As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.