The Game of Gymnastics

ABOUT THE EPISODE:

Host Winston Powell sits down with John Scallon, a former NCAA Division 1 pommel horse specialist at the University of Minnesota turned high school coach and app builder. John walks through his unusual path through the sport, the corporate detour that pulled him out of it, the moment that pulled him back in, and how all of that led to him building two gymnastics apps: First, a morning routine app for athletes, and Upgrade, a video library for the Code of Points.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

John only started gymnastics as a sophomore in high school, became a pommel specialist, and earned a Division 1 scholarship in two and a half years without ever doing a backflip or holding a handstand.

Years in corporate website optimisation taught him how to read user intent and build experiences that feel like the product is reading your mind, exactly the lens he now uses to design tools for gymnasts.

Coming home after a relationship ended reconnected him to his old coach and the sport, and a chance gym visit turned into a high school coaching role that became central to his life again.

His app First reframes a science-backed morning routine as a seventh men's artistic event, scored out of 10, with each habit weighted by how much it supports circadian rhythm and athletic performance.

His core insight: the day circle works exactly like a pommel circle. Pike it, cut a corner, and you pay for it on the other side. Flatten it and every other skill becomes easier.

Upgrade is his Code of Points video library app, pulling the best YouTube footage of every skill into one organised, browsable home so gymnasts and coaches can see what skills actually look like at the top level.

The vision goes beyond skills. Eventually it could host drills, progressions, and elite-coached courses, becoming an online academy for anyone in a gym without access to high level coaching.

Gymnastics is shrinking at the grassroots and the NCAA level. John's bigger dream is reviving community spaces like old YMCAs and borrowing entertainment lessons from things like Savannah Bananas style baseball to grow audiences and make the sport sustainable.

BEST MOMENTS:

"I learned the circle, and then learning the skills is just putting your hands in different places."

"The day circle functions the same as pommel horse. If you cut a part of the circle short, you have a debt that pays for it on the opposite side."

"What sports are so dedicated to being aesthetically pleasing? Gymnastics is a really bizarre union of strength and grace."

"Sleep is the biggest performance enhancing drug."

"If you're really a gymnast at heart, watching these videos is going to completely change your life."

"The kid is motivated, you show them the path, you get them excited about it. That can all happen in a year."

JOHN'S LINKS:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/first-morning-routine/id6757344123

https://www.upgradegymnastics.com

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 Omo, three time world medalist in DMT, World Games silver medalist in 2025, and the freshly crowned European Champion. Omo breaks down what DMT actually is, how he progressed from Acro at seven to the world stage by twelve, and how a last minute Cirque du Soleil setback ended up shaping his strongest competition to date. The conversation also dives into the inconsistency of the discipline, the tactical side of knowing the code, and why DMT deserves more visibility than it currently gets.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Omo started in Acro at seven before moving into DMT around 2016, making his first World Championships at just twelve years old in 2017.

Going to a world stage so young taught him early on to expect the unexpected, and that not every competition is going to go to plan no matter how well training has gone.

His 2025 World Games silver in Chengdu was a long awaited redemption after the previous edition in 2022 went badly for him.

A Cirque du Soleil contract fell through just before Euros 2025, which left him in a strange headspace going in, lower pressure, less peaking, and ultimately a gold medal performance.

DMT is one of the most inconsistent disciplines in gymnastics because the trampoline is small, the skills are huge, and there is no room to save yourself between elements.

Knowing the code matters. At Euros, his coaches changed his first pass mid competition based on the scores ahead of him, and understanding why made him a better collaborator in those decisions.

DMT needs to become more viewer friendly. Long waits between scores hurt the spectator experience, and formats like Faceoff show what the sport could borrow.

Adversity really is a superpower. The hard volume blocks of training and the disappointment of the Cirque decision both fed directly into the form he showed at Euros.

BEST MOMENTS:

"I just keep doing it and see what happens. If I get good results, cool, but at least I get to flip."

"It taught me, going forward, to expect the unexpected."

"You run up, you do two flips, and then land. Hopefully on your feet, not your face."

"I was kind of just there, doing my flips, see what happens. And it just worked out."

"Everything happens for a reason. A couple of weeks later, I go out to Euros and get a gold medal."

"I literally just enjoy it. Go with the flow."

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 the controversy sparked by new IOC president Kirsty Coventry after she said she does not believe Olympic medalists should receive direct prize money from the IOC. As a GB athlete himself, Winston walks through what Coventry actually said, the strongest arguments on her side, and why he firmly believes Olympic athletes deserve a share of the value they generate, while still acknowledging the case for protecting wider athlete development funding.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Kirsty Coventry sparked major backlash by saying Olympic medals should not come with IOC prize money, arguing the IOC's role is to fund athlete development and life after sport for a much larger pool of athletes.

The strongest case for her position is that prize money concentrates funding among the very few who medal, while the wider pathway needs ongoing investment to keep producing athletes in the first place.

That funding inequality argument already breaks down at the governing body level. British Gymnastics gets more UK Sport and National Lottery funding when its athletes succeed at the Olympics, so success already breeds success.

The Olympics simply does not exist without the athletes. People do not watch IOC committee meetings, they watch Simone Biles, Noah Lyles, and Leon Marchand.

The IOC generated 7.7 billion dollars last cycle, with around 65 million paid out across 24 IOC directors, yet athletes still receive no direct prize money from the Games themselves.

Toyota pulling out of an 835 million dollar partnership and openly stating the IOC does not prioritise athletes raises serious questions about where the money is actually going.

Other major sports pay their athletes well. The NBA shares roughly 50 percent of revenue with players, while paying every Olympic athlete plus medal bonuses would barely dent IOC revenue at around 1 to 3 percent.

The fairest model is not one or the other but both, real grassroots and athlete development funding alongside a meaningful revenue share for the people actually creating the spectacle.

BEST MOMENTS:

"The Olympics doesn't exist without the athletes."

"The athletes themselves generate the value, and yet many struggle financially."

"If the Olympics paid out athletes, plus gold, silver, and bronze bonuses, it wouldn't make a dent in their bottom line."

"When you generate that amount of revenue, you have to be very careful about where it goes."

"The question isn't whether athletes should be supported. Everyone agrees that they should. The question is whether the athletes who create the Olympic Games should share directly in the success of the Olympic Games."

"You won't suddenly get random people trying to go into the Olympics because there's a financial reward out of the back of it."

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 a qualified aerobic gymnastics judge and current GB athlete who has represented the country at both World and European Championships. The conversation dives deep into one of gymnastics' lesser known disciplines, breaking down what aerobic gymnastics actually is, how it is judged, what training looks like, and the long, honest road from genuinely hating the sport for years to becoming one of GB's top competitors in it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Aerobic gymnastics is essentially a high energy, minute and a half dance built around eight elements, choreography blocks, and creative transitions, all judged on artistic, execution, and difficulty scores.

The guest only fell in love with the sport once he started watching top level competitions and learning what truly elite aerobics looks like, with difficulty as his way in.

Lockdown and a torn ACL knocked out his early shots at qualifying, but he eventually made his first World Championships in 2022, finishing 13th or 14th individually before steadily progressing.

Aerobic routines are nonstop, with no breaks built in. The hardest part is not the elements themselves, but executing them perfectly when you are completely fatigued late in the routine.

Difficulty scoring divides differently for groups and trios depending on the gender mix, a deliberate move to stop all male teams from dominating purely on raw element value.

A B twist took the guest two to three years to learn properly because once technique goes wrong in aerobics, repetition can ingrain the mistake. Other gymnasts can copy elements from a video in one session.

The artistry score is genuinely subjective, and routines that look exactly like everyone else's risk being marked down for being predictable or unoriginal.

The sport is finally moving away from outdated routines and leotards that put both gymnasts and the wider public off, and modern aerobic gymnastics is now far more watchable.

BEST MOMENTS:

"I had to eventually love it."

"You can think it's as difficult as you want, but if you're not training it to be perfect, it's not going to work."

"If I'm working hard, the right things will come."

"Just being there was massive for me."

"You can say it as many times as you like, but until it's in the routine and it's happening, it doesn't exist."

"If you look exactly like everyone has looked for the last 20 years, you're leaving yourself open to getting a lower score."

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 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.