The Game of Gymnastics

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Host Winston Powell shares one of the biggest changes of his gymnastics life so far: after 13 years at City of Birmingham Gymnastics Club, he has moved to Notts Gymnastics Academy. Winston walks through what triggered the decision, how he weighed Notts against Leeds, the emotional and practical realities of leaving the club he grew up in, and why a new routine, a new gym, and a new city might be exactly the reset he needed.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Winston's coach Luke Folwell has been offered a national coach role for British Gymnastics, meaning he can no longer act as a personal coach, and prompting the move.

Nearly all of the Birmingham lads are expected to move on too, with Winston expecting most to join him at Notts.

The two realistic options were Notts and Leeds. Winston travelled up to Leeds to train and was genuinely impressed, but the familiarity of Notts and prior relationships with the coaches tipped the balance.

Notts offers a much more consistent daily routine, with regular training times, allowing energy, sleep, and recovery to sit in a more predictable rhythm.

Winston is using the shift as a chance to build structure into the rest of his life, including a self-study AAT accounting course and potential coaching work at Notts.

The Spaceship You principle applies to elite sport too: dedicating specific spaces to specific tasks, work, sleep, recreation, makes each of them significantly easier.

Under all the logistics, there is a bigger question: do you back yourself enough to make a move like this worth it? Winston's honest answer is I don't know yet, and that's OK.

Winston's mantra for this next phase: put yourself in the best possible position to succeed, because nothing is guaranteed. Train like you've never won and compete like you've never lost.

BEST MOMENTS:

"That is how long I've trained at the City of Birmingham Gymnastics Club. That is how long I've lived in Birmingham."

"Sometimes I need a little push, and this happening is that push."

"You've got to train like you've never won, and you've got to compete like you've never lost."

"Just because you're not there at the moment doesn't mean you can't get there."

"Luck is labour under correct knowledge."

"All you can do is give yourself the best possible chance of success."

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 Kristian Thomas, double Olympian, 2012 Olympic team bronze medalist, 2013 World Vault bronze medalist, and 2015 European floor champion. Kristian walks through his full journey in gymnastics, from following his older brother into the sport at age five, to winning Britain's first men's Olympic team medal in 71 years on home soil, to becoming the first British male gymnast to medal on vault at the World Championships. He also opens up about the tough side of Rio 2016, his transition out of the sport, and where he thinks gymnastics goes next.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Kristian got into gymnastics at five by following his older brother, who left the sport by around 10 years old. Without that first step, Kristian's own career might never have happened.

His first senior international was the 2006 Commonwealth Games at 17, where a team bronze on the other side of the world became the moment he realised the Olympics was actually within reach.

Watching Lewis Smith and Dan Keatings succeed in Beijing 2008 gave the whole squad a huge confidence boost heading into the London cycle.

Britain's failure to qualify at the 2011 Worlds became the wake-up call that led to European team gold, a strong London 2012 test event, and eventually the historic team bronze at the Olympics.

The World Vault bronze in 2013 came after a fractured tibia in March and a broken heel bone in rehab, giving him arguably his proudest moment despite an awful build up.

Rio 2016 fourth place was heartbreaking in the moment, but with hindsight it stands as one of Team GB's most successful non-home Olympics and British gymnastics' best ever men's Olympic result.

Kristian retired in 2017 on his own terms, something very few elite athletes get to do. Staying involved in the sport at arm's length made the transition significantly softer.

On the sport's future, he is a fan of the eight skill drop, the direction of high bar, and the mixed team event, and expects prize money, AI judging, and kit rules to become bigger conversations.

BEST MOMENTS:

"It was almost like a soft play on steroids."

"You do the basics well, and everything else looks after itself."

"I finished the sport on my terms, and to have the luxury to do that is pretty unique."

"You compete in those big moments, high pressurised environments, where you need to deliver."

"It's not necessarily the gymnastics you miss. It's the camaraderie, the teammates, the environment."

"The results are the results. That's one thing. But the friendships you build, the people you meet along the way, that's what's more special."

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:

Recorded the week before the 2026 Commonwealth Games, host and Great Britain gymnast Winston Powell breaks down the men's artistic gymnastics competition team by team. He walks through England, Scotland, Wales, Canada, Australia, and Cyprus, sharing his own take on who is likely to make finals, who could medal, and why this is shaping up to be the most open Commonwealth Games in years.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

England, without Max Whitlock, are still the strongest team on paper with Adam Tobin, Alex Yolshin Cash, Luke Whitehouse, Joshua Nathan, and Gabriel Langton, and remain the front runners for team gold.

Scotland may be their strongest ever squad, with Ruben Ward genuinely capable of challenging for all around gold as well as pommel, plus a supporting cast in Hamish Carter, Connor Sullivan, Pavel Karnajenko, and Joe Cemlyn Lynn.

Wales look genuinely competitive this year, with three potential all arounders in Joe Cemlyn Jones, Alex Niscovenu, and Elliot Vernon, plus real threats on floor, rings, P bars, and high bar.

Canada arrive without much Commonwealth Games experience beyond Felix Dolci and Rene Cornoya, but Felix alone gives them a real chance in the all around and on high bar.

Australia will lean heavily on Jesse Moore, who Winston tips as possibly the man to beat in the all around, alongside pommel specialist Ritam Malik.

Marios Georgiou is competing at his third Commonwealth Games at 29 and remains a genuine threat, particularly on high bar and floor, with four medals from Birmingham 2022 to his name.

Individual finals look wide open. Winston flags Luke Whitehouse for floor, Ruben Ward for pommel, and predicts rings and vault could be won by athletes who are not the pure specialists on the day.

Without Jake Jarman and Joe Fraser, the all around title is genuinely up for grabs. Any of England, Scotland, Wales, Australia, or Canada could take it home.

BEST MOMENTS:

"The team medal is the most coveted of them all. And the team that wins gets to lord it over everyone else for the next four years."

"It could literally be anyone's game."

"Anything can happen on the day."

"I don't think it'll be as much of a clean sweep as it was last time."

"Ruben covers up a lot of the holes that potentially could have been there otherwise."

"This Commonwealth Games will be the year that other countries have the best opportunities to get the medals."

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 Sam, Head of Sport at Scottish Gymnastics, for a wide ranging conversation on her 38 years in the sport. Sam walks through her journey from a taster session at four years old in West Yorkshire, to becoming a TeamGym gymnast and coach in Scotland, to leading the performance side of a national governing body. Along the way she covers coach and judge development, common misconceptions about governing bodies, and the excitement building around a home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Sam started gymnastics at four through a free taster session at a local leisure centre, moved into artistic through a Halifax club, and later discovered TeamGym in Scotland after moving up for university at 18.

TeamGym is closer to rugby than to artistic in feel, and Sam sees it as one of the best routes to prolong a gymnastics career because it does not demand the same 27 to 30 hour weeks as elite artistic.

Coaching is more nerve wracking than competing. As a female TeamGym coach in Scotland, she was often spotting senior male gymnasts bigger than her, with real safety consequences if the timing went wrong.

Scotland supports all eight gymnastics disciplines, which makes for a genuinely varied job. Each one requires different coaching approaches, funding models, and levels of gymnast contribution.

Coach development at Scottish Gymnastics is deliberately behavioural, not technical. Communication, leadership, and working with parents and peers are treated as core skills, not soft ones.

Judges are a hidden backbone of the sport. Scottish Gymnastics' next big project is future proofing the judging pipeline, especially at Brevet and international Brevet level.

Governing bodies are often invisible until something goes wrong. A lot of their real value is in safeguarding, compliance, coach and judge support, event experience, and making sure the sport is safe enough for athletes and parents to not have to think about it.

Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow is set to be huge for Team Scotland gymnastics. Selection calls are done by phone with human follow up, not email, and the target is a team medal plus individual apparatus medals.

BEST MOMENTS:

"It was as if it was a mask. I don't know how to explain it, but I was nervous going in, and then I just performed."

"We don't develop better people without better coaches."

"Gymnastics doesn't exist without coaches, and it doesn't exist without judges."

"You only know what you know."

"Glasgow certainly is going to roar."

"We treat them as human beings. It doesn't change the outcome, but it matters."

"It might even come down to execution and not the difficulty of the routine."

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 takes listeners inside a full week at a British Gymnastics national training camp. He explains what the squad system is, why it matters, and how it plugs into the wider national programme, before walking through his own week day by day, including two big wipeouts, a hard fought new high bar connection, and a neck injury that ended his squad early. It's a rare, honest look at what actually happens behind the scenes of an elite gymnastics camp.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

National squads bring together the top gymnasts and coaches in each age and level group for four to five days of focused training, testing, and development.

The setup pools coaching knowledge, so a skill a gymnast has been stuck on for months might click when a different coach offers a new perspective.

Profiling and strength testing at the start of camp are used to spot imbalances that could lead to overuse injuries, and to guide future strength and prehab work.

Being surrounded by other elite gymnasts is a huge motivator. Seeing what your peers are doing pushes the level of everyone in the room.

Some of the most valuable training moments come from odd challenges, like handstand switches on a single parallette, that push technique in ways normal training does not.

Progress is not linear. Winston chased a squat half Kolman for over an hour, took a hard fall on high bar, and still walked away with a new connection: Tkatchev to Geinger.

Injuries in elite gymnastics are often small movements, not big crashes. Winston's neck went during a routine conditioning exercise, not during a scary skill.

The risk reward ratio matters. If a skill is very hard for you and not worth much in the code, there is usually an alternative that gets you to a similar place with less cost.

BEST MOMENTS:

"There's always a reason behind what you're doing, and there's always a reward behind what you're putting your time and effort into."

"Sometimes it's worth it, but it's a risk reward ratio that you're working at."

"Squads really do push you to try and learn new things and think outside the box."

"As gymnasts, you're constantly growing. And even the coaches are constantly growing."

"I felt like I couldn't really move my head at all."

"I was like, is there going to be a third?"

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.