5 PHASES Pre-Competitive Phase (3-6 years old) As coaches developing gymnasts in the pre-competitive phase we’re establishing the base of a passionate love and understanding in the sport. If we were to liken this to growing a tree, this phase would deal with first selecting the seeds and then deciding where exactly we’d like to plant them. This phase is so important as its from which everything else must stem. Let’s begin with selection. In order to achieve competitive success we must first ensure that we’re investing our time and skill into the gymnasts with the most talent. If not then we’re not doing our best job as a competitive coach. The quality of gymnastics we produce is a product of both controllable and uncontrollable factors. Talent is one of those uncontrollable things, but how we select it is completely controllable! We just have to make that selection very early on and with a limited amount of information. There are 3 classifications of talent: 1