The Game of Gymnastics

Winston Powell
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Welcome to The Game of Gymnastics podcast, where we dive deep into the world of elite gymnastics. Join us as we explore how top gymnasts, coaches, and judges optimize training and performance to achieve peak results. We'll look into the scoring system, revealing how athletes strategically use the Code of Points to their advantage. Discover how gymnasts manage recovery and cope with the inevitable injuries that come with the sport. We’ll also explore how these athletes handle the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels, from the Olympics to the Commonwealth Games and beyond. Whether you're a gymnast, coach, or fan, this podcast offers valuable insights into how the best in the world play the game to win when it matters most.

  1. 2d ago

    Sam Hendrikson | Head of Sport at Scottish Gymnastics on Coaching, Governance and Commonwealth Games 2026

    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.

  2. Jul 13

    Inside a National Gymnastics Training Camp

    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.

  3. Jul 6

    The Code Decoder | UpGrade Gymnastics | John Scallon

    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.

  4. Jun 29

    Omo on DMT, World Medals and Almost Joining Cirque du Soleil

    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.

  5. Jun 22

    Why Olympic Athletes Should Be Paid

    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.

  6. Jun 15

    Connor Keane on Aerobic Gymnastics, World Championships and Almost Quitting

    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.

  7. Jun 8

    How Gymnasts Actually Learn Skills

    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.

  8. Jun 1

    Roddy Mackay on Gymnastics, Gladiators and a Life in Sport

    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.

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About

Welcome to The Game of Gymnastics podcast, where we dive deep into the world of elite gymnastics. Join us as we explore how top gymnasts, coaches, and judges optimize training and performance to achieve peak results. We'll look into the scoring system, revealing how athletes strategically use the Code of Points to their advantage. Discover how gymnasts manage recovery and cope with the inevitable injuries that come with the sport. We’ll also explore how these athletes handle the intense pressure of competing at the highest levels, from the Olympics to the Commonwealth Games and beyond. Whether you're a gymnast, coach, or fan, this podcast offers valuable insights into how the best in the world play the game to win when it matters most.

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