Sellers: How did you get involved in gymnastics?

Karolyi: I was myself a gymnast. I went to a Physical Education Institute in Romania and was on the gymnastics team. It was there that I thought about getting involved with coaching.

Sellers: It is easy to get involved in coaching, but how did you decide that you really wanted to work with athletes at the elite level.

Karolyi: That has a process; you don’t just decide to work at a level. In my situation, we started working with really young children. The main thing was that we did selections at schools where we were working (a small mining settlement in the Carpathian Mountains of Romania). This involved a large number of young kids, who we provided basic training to when they reached a certain level.

We actually started the selection process with a large number and gradually narrowed the number down as the development started happening. With children, some of them improved and some of them looked like they would not, so it is a process of elimination.

We started with these young kids and achieved very good results. We were a little regional school, where we had improvised equipment. We started our program and we were able to make it to Nationals with our team and we beat some of the top clubs. We then got involved with the higher level and we were invited to work on the first specialized training center for gymnastics training (in Romania). That is how the process went.

Sellers: You started with a large number of students and then narrowed them down. Did you have a set of tests that you used to narrow them down or was it kind of a visual evaluation? Did you watch them, see what they were doing and say "ah—this kid has some talent and they can do more."

Karolyi: In the selection process, particularly after we joined the specialized training center, we checked out an extremely large number of young kids. We spent a lot of time watching children, even on the playground, to see how they moved and how much courage and aggressiveness they had. We then organized and invited this number of kids to go through physical abilities testing.

The physical abilities we measured included strength, speed, flexibility and enthusiasm. We also wanted to see their fear factor. We were even asking the young kids to get on the high beam and vault; those were things that we were looking for.

Based on the stats, we were able to say that this student possibly had the ability to become a gymnast. You start to watch those children in their gymnastics training. You give them a basic preparation for the sport and then you learn more about their ability. It happens sometimes that a child is very strong or they have extremely good speed, but her coordination wasn’t as excellent, which a gymnast need also.

Gymnastics needs very good coordination in order to perform certain skills, so without coordination it just doesn’t work out. You cannot find out based on physical abilities alone, you must put them in a training situation. That is a faulting point of physical abilities testing, (it does not show you what the athlete can do in training). You must give specialized, basic gymnastics training and then do verifications, and you check out how their standings are and then gradually narrow down to the people who have all of the components, which possibly allows you to become an elite gymnast. That is what we did in Romania.

Right now in the U.S., after a little bit of a suggestion by me, we started the Talent Opportunity Program (TOPS). I had mentioned several years ago about the process that we used in Romania, because the base (in the United States) wasn’t so large. It works a little bit in the same way, all kinds of clubs can participate on a certain date and the selection process, which is based on physical abilities, are tested and they can qualify to a training camp once a year based on this.

Sellers: Is there a critical age? Is there a certain age group that you want to try to test? Is there a certain age that after this point it is very difficult for an athlete to come into gymnastics?

Karolyi: The ages of six, seven and eight years of age are very good. In Romania, we did the six to seven year old age groups and then selected people starting in the first grade for the specialized program. Here I believe with the TOPS program, the starting age is seven or eight year olds. In gymnastics, you start with early ages, some may get involved when they are three years old by going to little “tiny tots” programs. At that age, they do more in the form of games and little contests and you get them accustomed to being with the team. You identify some talent, but there are big differences between those little kids. The real selection is more around seven years old, which is when you can really tell.

Sellers: With a six to seven year old, how does your training with that age group compare to an eleven or twelve year old?

Karolyi: It has to be different. The children’s attention span is not as big as it would be at eleven or twelve, or later on. With the younger age groups, you have to include something that catches their interest and you can’t have extremely high numbers of repetitions. They do not have the patience to do skills over and over again. You explain and to make corrections you have to point out the certain things-- the most important thing. Do not give several corrections at the same time, because they cannot register that feedback. I am positive that these little kids have a huge capability of work, so they really do not get tired. You can do more than you would believe. I remember when we started we got a tiny bit of criticism in the beginning that we overworked the kids. They were not overworked. It was proven later that they developed perfectly and were physically able to handle even some strength exercises. We did not work the weights; we had them use their own body weight to develop strength.

Sellers: Do you use smaller periods of training, so that you have smaller blocks of time?

Karolyi: We always like to split the training into two parts during the day. We do not recommend anything longer than a maximum of three and one half hours of training- even with our top elite athletes. With the little kids it is the same thing, you might have two hours and two hours at the beginning of a day and then go on to three hours at one of the workouts and then up to three and one half hours in the morning. Nowadays, to be able to compete at an elite level, it takes about seven hours of training a day.

Sellers: In periodization, they always talk about intensity, volume and contact times, do you work at keeping up with that or do you structure your workouts with that in mind?

Karolyi: With periodization, you try to do it. I am in charge of planning out the Olympic preparation right now, but sometimes my hands are tied by requirements of participation in certain competitions. You want to peak and you can not hold your peak form for an extremely long period of time, so you want a little period of down time, sometimes you are able to do it. Ideally, I would do one peak. This year, it is not possible with most of the top athletes, because you have to participate in the American Cup right on the first day of March.

We will have to be in shape, because I do not encourage participation in gymnastics competition when you are not in good shape, that is just too dangerous for injuries. Any time that you participate without success, it throws off your self-confidence. When you go out you have to be in good shape, have a successful competition and your confidence will grow.

What we will do with these athletes is to get in shape for the American Cup, and maybe another competition near that date, not later than mid-March, and then a tiny bit of down time, not completely getting out of shape. We will do a little backing out from the full routine execution or hard landing execution, because we can protect them. They then get back in shape for the second classic meet, which is a qualifying meet for the Championships and that is in May, mid-May, and then from there you have to gear up for the Games.

Sellers: Do you do a periodization model with your young gymnast as well?

Karolyi: Yes, I usually recommend that after the competition season is over, that they spend extra time on physical abilities in general training. Another possibility is technical training on particular skills instead of doing the full routine. Then later on, get in routine shape. You have to periodize. In Romania, it was a little different and we really did more clearly these kinds of periodization. In the wintertime, we spent two weeks in the mountains up in high altitude and we did endurance, running, skiing, running in ski boots and strength training with very little gymnastics work. This was extremely good physical development. You charged your batteries and then we came back to the training center and did work. After the competition season was over, we would go to the Black Sea and again it was a transition time and we did dance training, we did runs on the beach in the sand or in the water and strength training-- not doing any real gymnastics. That is very good for the mind also, to get away for a while, but also keeping extremely fit.

Sellers: I am not sure that many people would have equated gymnastics with altitude training. At what age, when working with these young children do you instill the concept of winning. Is it from the first day they walk into the gym?

Karolyi: The kids are very competitive. I think that you have to use that quality and not make a big deal of it encouraging who can jump higher, who can be more perfect in this little competition and other competition elements keep it very interesting for the kids. We don’t want to put them down. We let them know from the very beginning that they must always try their very best and that’s very good.

Sellers: Do they ever become too competitive in training?

Karolyi: The kids do not. The only thing that I can see is that sometimes the parent's may be too pushy in trying to push their kids. We do not encourage those types of situations. I think the kids’ pushing themselves is good, if they have that nature. If they don’t have that nature, then it is very hard to change it. Some people are more competitive and some don’t like the pressure, and in those situations, I think it is better for a certain group of individuals to just re-direct the goals and don’t shoot for the highest level. Sometimes they cannot handle too much competitiveness.

Sellers: What do you think makes your program so successful? I realize that this is a tough question.

Karolyi: It is hard to say, but probably the consistency, you always—always respect the program, the preparation, and the discipline in the workouts and the dedication to the sport. I think those are the most important factors. Some people work hard, but they are not able to work hard consistently. They are able to be easily distracted by other things that they would like to do, or take a nice long break through the holidays and do not respect the discipline of coming rested for the workout or eating the right foods. The athlete must have enough nutrition to give him/her the right energy. It is all a lot of discipline.

Sellers: Is it hard when they hit a certain age and they fall in love?

Karolyi: Laughter. Well, we cannot put that as a priority. It is clearly everybody’s choice. Laughter They have to understand, we are always very open and explain about what it takes to get to a certain level. You set a goal to try out for the Olympic Games, we lay out the plan. This is what we think is ideal for your preparation.

The teenage years are the hardest periods of time, as I have observed throughout my coaching career because they are neither kid nor adult. The kids are totally dedicated and then as teenagers, they think twice and they say, “ Whoa—I want to do many things” and then when they get a little older they understand so much. They need to go with the plan laid out to them, because we have the experience and we know how to direct them and we know what it takes.

Sellers: To be an Olympian is not an easy task.

Karolyi: No, we always spell this out, even with pretty young kids who are going in that direction, even with Juniors (12-16 years old). We are not hiding it; to be an Olympian costs years in the sport.

You have to perfect everything in your movement. In order to do that you need to have lots of hours of training in the right technical execution, and then your body has to be strong enough to handle all those hours and all those repetitions. Your body has to be strong. For that, you must be fresh and rested for each workout.

We just talk about these things openly and we ask them to analyze truly what they came for. The little kids say I want to go to the Olympics and then when they see the training required, they might change directions. I think that is important, you do not need to hide these things from them, you must be very, very open and then it should be the choice of the young athlete.

Sellers: No, it can’t be the choice of the parent.

Karolyi: No, No.

Sellers: What do you do when you have an athlete who gets injured? How do you deal with the injured athlete?

Karolyi: Injury-- it will be there when you talk about high-level sports—it happens. Many times injuries don’t happen by fault or any thing like that, but just by using your body. Number of repetitions, landing on hard surfaces, these types of injuries can happen.

In those times, we try to have the athletes understand that this is nothing tragic in these situations, it has happened before to athletes and will happen to anyone who is working toward the highest level. They just have to have the patience to go through this period of time. The coaches’ creativity in this period of time is very important. If they have a sprained ankle and cannot work on that leg, there are so many other things that they can improve on in that period of time. You can improve your upper body strength, you can work a lot of dance preparation and you can do the bar work. It is important that you be creative and find exercises they can still do, and get some work and not totally be sitting out and not losing the general preparation. They may lose in one area, but not in their whole body getting out of shape.

Sellers: They can still keep focused on their task as well.

Karolyi: Absolutely, absolutely. The coach should try to check things in some areas and show the athlete how much they have improved in that area, so the athlete feels good about themselves.

Sellers: You have coached at the elite level for an amazing number of years.

Karolyi: Since 1976 Olympics, I have had an athlete in every Olympic Games.

Sellers: As a coach, how do you maintain your level --- gymnastics is not a seasonal sport it goes year round. How do you maintain your energy level and your focus?

Karolyi: I have no problem with that. If you like what you are doing, it is no problem. It has never been a problem. I enjoy time with friends or family.

We are so lucky that we are doing something that we love, because this is not like a job for me. Gymnastics is my profession, but it is also my hobby. I enjoy doing it. I really do not feel burnout, even when sometimes it happens that the results in a major competition were not exactly what I expected, but I was able to go back and reach to the next generation and started bringing up athletes for the next Olympic cycle.

I think that is how coaches should be. I see some young coaches thinking that I work a little bit hard and I set this goal and now it’s not happening and I am so frustrated. Those kinds of processes in the long run will not work. You just have to believe that you are doing the right thing and have to be satisfied with what you did. These are the results and they did not come out exactly perfect. Sure, you look into it and see if you can do something different, but you don’t lose your confidence or your enthusiasm.

Sellers: After an Olympic Games, do you ever go through, for the lack of a better word, a sort of postpartum depression like you have delivered this team and the stress is off of you? Or do you feel stress during an Olympic Games?

Karolyi: I think everybody feels stress. If someone says no, that they do not feel stress-- that is not true. The stress can be completely different on different people. The stress does not put me down, it is there, but maybe it makes me to be more alert and I am paying attention to everything that I have to do. I have to evaluate the situation and make decisions in the moment. It is an extremely good feeling when you complete one Olympic cycle and you say it was good we did it. Maybe for a short period of time you want to do something completely different and then you go back and work.