The VGA Multidisciplinary Team

At VGA, we have a large team supporting the day-to-day running of the club across all our venues. Within this, we have a sport multidisciplinary team (MDT), which supports the gymnastics elements of everyone’s journey here at the club.

How does our MDT work?

We aim to integrate the physical and mental aspects of wellbeing and performance to help gymnasts thrive in the gym and beyond. We do this by:

• Providing support directly to gymnasts, working with and through coaches, and developing resources to meet the ever-evolving needs of the club.

• Informing the decisions that are made and exploring the best options available for each gymnast on their journey.

  
  

The roles within our MDT

By coming together as a team, we focus on curiosity, informed learning and development to support all our gymnasts and coaches. Below, we share the key responsibilities of each role in our MDT.

Gymnastics Coach

• Guides and supports gymnasts’ physical, technical and personal skill development, ensuring they have what they need to progress safely and confidently within the sport. This is done under the direction and guidance of our Head Coaches for each discipline.

• Brings technical expertise in skill development and routine construction, drawing on an understanding of several key areas, including artistry, biomechanics and pedagogy, with support from our MDT.

• Keeps up-to-date knowledge and a clear understanding of the ever-evolving structures of gymnastics competitions and interprets the competition rules.

• Supports safe skill development and reduces the risk of injury by building strong foundations for gymnasts, including strength, flexibility, coordination, balance and body awareness.

  
  

Dance teacher

• Help gymnasts with their dance technique, including posture, body lines, musicality and confidence in their movement. 

• Choreographs floor routines to suit each gymnast’s strengths and personality.

• Works closely with the coaches, offering a different perspective on dance, performance and presentation, and sharing ideas to help make decisions on routines and individual development.

  
  

Strength and Conditioning Coach

• Ensures gymnasts maintain and build the strength they need, not only to perform well in their sport, but also to reduce injury risk and promote lifelong engagement in physical activity.

• Develops a wide spectrum of movement competencies and skills that every child needs to be physically active – this isn’t just about lifting weights.

• Provides information to upskill gymnastics coaches on the movement competencies we want gymnasts to be good at, and ensures gymnasts are having fun while doing it!

  
  

Gymnastics Judge

• Advises on the best way to achieve a high score when planning routines, by balancing difficulty and execution. A harder skill could improve the difficulty score, but if it is not as polished, it may incur execution penalties and have a negative effect overall. This educational role is key to helping gymnasts understand their own performance, and we hope it will also create judges of the future who can pass their knowledge on to others.

• Uses knowledge of the competition rules and the Code of Points to work creatively with coaches to support gymnasts who have difficulties with specific skills, balancing what a gymnast needs right now with what they may need in the future.

• Puts an arm up in the gym and watches routines before competitions. This gives gymnasts experience of performing for a judge, while also catching those last small details that might earn them additional tenths on their performance.

  
  

Sport Psychologist

• Offers proactive support, focused on learning and improving specific mental skills, and reactive support for when gymnasts face a particular challenge or barrier to performance, or are struggling from a wellbeing perspective.

• Provides wellbeing and mental health support, recognising that everyone walking through the door has their own challenges to navigate in life, often about more than gymnastics (this is true for gymnasts, coaches and all support staff).

• Delivers personal development support, which has a huge influence on our ‘#ItsMyJourney’ work, covering mental skills for gymnastics as well as life skills that support individuals beyond sport.

• Provides performance-focused support about being our personal best at any given time. Whether we are competing, training or recovering from injury, we focus on being our best (this isn’t about being the best).

Sports Massage Therapist

• Provides injury prevention, assessment, treatment and rehabilitation support to gymnasts of varying ages and abilities.

• Assesses musculoskeletal injuries, delivers sports massage and soft-tissue treatments, and develops fun rehabilitation programmes that allow gymnasts to remain part of group training sessions. Monitors gymnasts’ recovery and helps them return safely to training and competition.

• Works closely with coaches, gymnasts and parents to promote injury prevention and rehabilitation knowledge.

This is a team effort behind the scenes to help gymnasts perform at their best in both training and competition environments.

This content has been developed as part of our #itsmyjourney project with Valleys Gymnastics Academy.