Rec Sports

Simone Biles’ coach Aimee Boorman: Finding ‘balance’ wasn’t easy

Simone Biles’ message for foster care children: ‘You can do anything’ Simone Biles is a national ambassador for Friends of the Children, and she shares her message for children in foster care. “Simone never would have made it in my gym.” Aimee Boorman has heard that line, over and over, from other coaches when they […]

Published

3 weeks ago

April 27, 2025

Your Sports Nation

“Simone never would have made it in my gym.”

Aimee Boorman has heard that line, over and over, from other coaches when they talk about the gymnast she helped lift to heights never seen within their sport.

“They say it with a sense of pride,” Boorman tells USA TODAY Sports, “and it’s like, ‘So you realize how many potential Simones you have pushed out of your gym?’ “

Biles was the kid who always loved the gymnastics part, but not the work that went into making her the best. Some days she just wanted to go home.

Those characteristics didn’t necessarily change as she grew into the decorated champion America knew. Boorman, though, was willing to manage them in a way others wouldn’t.

Biles’ coach from age 7 through her four-gold-medal performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics remembers her as one of her more challenging pupils.

“If everybody is just strict and obedient, you grow stale as a coach,” Boorman says. “So when you have somebody who’s throwing something new at you all the time, on an emotional level, on a personality level, you gotta grow. And I think some of those other coaches weren’t willing to grow.

“When people say, ‘Well, there’s only going to be one Simone,’ I’m like, ‘That’s not true.’ You have to know how to manage that athlete to get them to the point they could be a Simone.”

Boorman’s approach – nurturing, forgiving, even relenting – was novel to coaching within a sport of forced discipline and regulation. She lays out her methodology, ingrained in her by a tumultuous childhood experience, in “The Balance: My Years Coaching Simone Biles.”

The book, which was released last week, reveals a back story of how athletes develop and mature but also how they can have giggles on their face before and after their most triumphant Olympic moments.

Boorman and co-author Steve Cooper spoke with us about facing unique challenges while coaching and parenting our athletes and how we can overcome them in unexpected ways.

“Nothing about Simone’s greatness was inevitable,” Cooper said during our Zoom interview. “It was a process. It wasn’t just luck.”

‘If it wasn’t fun, she wasn’t having any part of it’: Without love for a sport, it’s difficult to move forward

Boorman is often asked if she knew when Biles would become superstar. The answer: When she became one.

“Up until that point, anything can happen,” she says, “and any given day, if Simone didn’t have that passion and that love for gymnastics inside of her, she could be like, ‘I’m done. I’m gonna go run track.’ “

Boorman recalls the joy she felt as a young girl in the early 1980s, when she first flung herself from the bars of Lakeshore Academy in Chicago, but also how quickly a reckless coach drained it from her.

No matter how long she stood on the balance beam, her arms raised until they were numb trying to get Coach Jeremy’s attention, he wasn’t satisfied. His name is a pseudonym, but also an extreme archetype for an era of the sport: No positive reinforcement, no acknowledgement of effort and sometimes little hope.

“That constant negative input made me have total lack of belief in myself,” she says.

And yet, like most kids, Aimee yearned to please him. She arrived early one day, straining to grab his undivided attention by working out on her own. She broke her leg. Then he ignored her for months until she finally quit.

“I was really useless to him because I couldn’t compete,” she says.

She was pulled back when she coached preschool kids after school a couple of years later. There was something bright within them that she used to feel, something we can so easily push out of young athletes if we don’t nurture it. It was a light she saw in a 7-year-old who bounced around Bannon’s, the gym north of Houston where Boorman started working as a young adult.

Simone Biles couldn’t sit still, but when she did, she pushed herself up off the ground with her arms and slid her legs from straight in front of her to a position in which she was lying on her stomach.

“What she was doing is not normal,” Boorman says. “We knew that she was going to be able to learn very quickly, but she was just a little girl, and she didn’t like to do the conditioning, and she didn’t want to have to take extra turns. She just wanted it to be fun. And when it wasn’t fun, she wasn’t having any part of it. She didn’t want to be involved at all.”

COACH STEVE: 70% of kids drop out of youth sports by 13. Why?

‘There is no possible way you could disappoint me’: Every day, even a bad one, is an opportunity to move forward

Like other kids, Biles had fears. One was a mental block on her beam series. Boorman would ask her to complete it three times, but would never leave her out there too long like Jeremy had done. They would just come back the next day and try again, a give-and-take that would continue throughout their time together.

“There were times that she would come in the gym in the morning and she would have a sense of dread about what she was going to have to do based on what she did or didn’t finish the day before,” Boorman says. “And I hope that when she walked in and saw me, and I was like, ‘Good morning,’ and I was very light with her, that then she could go, ‘OK, wait a minute. Maybe I’m not in trouble. Maybe I didn’t disappoint her.’ “

Boorman, through the torture, had felt like she was letting Coach Jeremy down. To this day, she tells her students, “There’s no possible way you could disappoint me.”

It’s up to them, not her, what they became. It’s her job to support what they want.

“As a coach, you could never want it more than the athlete,” she says, “and if you do want it more than the athlete, then there’s a problem. I know a lot of overzealous young coaches who are like, ‘Oh, but I want an Olympian,’ but you’re never going to have an Olympian because that’s what you want.

“If we focus too much on the championship and on that win, then we’re losing the human in the process.”

She likes to live in a “compliment sandwich,” where constructive criticism is surrounded by praise of effort, even on so-called bad days. Those are a matter of perspective, anyway.

“I have an elite gymnast (who) had been out of the gym for a couple of months, not really training, and she came back in and successfully did a skill that she hadn’t done in two months, and she was like, ‘That was terrible,’ ” Boorman says. “And I was like, ‘You haven’t done it in two months, and you did it. We’re going to celebrate those wins, and it’s going to be better tomorrow.”

Boorman wanted her students to be comfortable around her so they would express themselves. That way, she could see deep inside and better understand them.

“Simone’s not a person to go (in) the corner and go through her stuff in her head to get her in the zone,” she would learn. “She has to be there, completely relaxed, cheering on other people. And then when the green light goes on for her to compete, she’s like, game on. But she doesn’t waste any of that in her mind. In her mind, that focus is a waste. Other athletes are completely different.

“So it doesn’t say anything about what process is correct, but it’s what process is best for each athlete. So for younger coaches who are bringing up the athletes who are not elite yet, you have to give them all of the different tools, and they’re going to find out which process works best for them.”

‘Its just gymnastics’: The needs of the athlete – not those of the coach – have to come first

Biles realized her connection with “Coach Aimee” at 13, when she was invited to a U.S. women’s national team development camp and saw teammates who weren’t as close with their coaches.

They all trained under the strict orders of the program, which wasn’t for Biles.

“People who are ridiculously talented don’t have to work that hard,” Boorman says. “So when she had to work hard because she was struggling with something, she was not the most pleasant to be around, because it was very frustrating for her and it was easy for her to give up. I can say she was incredibly dedicated. I can’t say she was an incredible hard worker. She knew it became the job that she chose to do and coming in and putting in the hours and everything. But I’ve known a lot of people who are much harder workers, I guess is the gentle way is to say it.”

Martha Karolyi, the program leader, called Biles sloppy and lazy at one of her early visits to camp. Boorman says that killed her confidence, and she declined their next invitation.

Biles didn’t start training a lot of hours until she was 16 or 17.

“If we had focused on the refinement earlier, she could have been winning meets earlier, but there was also the risk of burnout,” Boorman says.

Those mid-teen years coincided with what Boorman calls the toughest days coaching Biles.

“It was never, ‘I don’t want to do this, I want to do this,’ ” Boorman says. “But there were the normal teenage antics, the head butting and things like that. And so I had to be very strategic about when I would push and when I would let go. I know this can be construed as you’re kicking somebody out of practice, but there would be days that I would say, ‘I think practice should be over for today because we’re not getting anywhere. Neither one of us is having fun.’

“And sometimes she was like, ‘Bye,’ and other times she’s like, ‘No, I’m sorry. I want to get this done. I’m just frustrated.’ But no matter what every day was, we turned the page.”

Ahead of the U.S. Classic in 2013 in Chicago, Boorman says Biles intentionally fell off the apparatus, jumped off the beam and let herself fall on her vaults. It was her way, her coach said, of controlling an environment where she didn’t want to work.

Boorman wouldn’t force Biles through workouts, but she would let her fail in competition to make a point. When she took a nasty fall, they moved on to the next event.

“I’ve always been a big supporter of family vacations and take the day off,” Boorman says. “We need mental health days. When I was a gymnast, there was no such thing, and I think that there’s too many sports in general, they want you to come in when you’re sick, when you’re tired, when you’re mentally exhausted, because that’s going to build character. And I just disagree with it. I feel like, if you take one day off and you rest, you’re going to come back so much stronger.

“It’s just gymnastics. You shouldn’t be risking your health just to achieve a sports goal.”

When she was no longer working with Boorman, Biles removed herself from the 2020 Games when she developed “the twisties.” She had concluded, Boorman says, that “the Olympics were not more important than her life.”

“I think somewhere in her she knew it was going to be OK, and I think that was probably because early on in her career, it was OK to just pull yourself from the competition,” says Cooper, Boorman’s co-author.

Overcoming ‘the twisties’ in 2016: ‘You only have to live up to your own expectations’

The twisties occur when a gymnast can’t tell where he or she is in the air. Biles also beat them ahead of the Rio Olympics, which Boorman reveals in her book.

She was 19 and had won three all-around world championship titles in a row and feeling the weight of being the favorite in her first Olympics.

Instead of forcing twists, Boorman temporarily removed them from Biles’ routine, which relieved the pressure.

“And each day I would say, ‘OK, do you feel like twisting today?’ And she’d be like, ‘Well, yeah, but I think I can only go off beam.’ And so she would only do her beam dismount.’ She wouldn’t twist off bars or floor or falls.

“It would be baby steps from there. She might come in one day and say, ‘OK, I think I’m ready to do this today.’ And then she would start to do it and be like, ‘No.’ And I’m like, ‘OK, don’t worry about it. There’s so many other things we can do.’ And then instilling that confidence in her that she wasn’t going to lose her skills was important as well.”

They were relying on the repetition they had already done.

“We had taken so many years to refine them that the muscle memory was there,” Boorman says. “We just had to clear out her brain.”

They gradually noticed she was cured over time, like the way we notice other peoples’ children growing, then realize ours are, too.

“I always told her that she wasn’t responsible for other people’s expectations of her,” Boorman says. “That was their problem and shame on them for setting those expectations. She only had to live up to her own expectations.”

(This story was updated to add new information.)

Steve Borelli, aka Coach Steve, has been an editor and writer with USA TODAY since 1999. He spent 10 years coaching his two sons’ baseball and basketball teams. He and his wife, Colleen, are now sports parents for two high schoolers. His column is posted weekly. For his past columns, click here.

Got a question for Coach Steve you want answered in a column? Email him at sborelli@usatoday.com

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Rec Sports

Chloe Johnson receives Team USA U16 Trials invite – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH —Duluth Marshall freshman Chloe Johnson was one of 52 players nationwide to be selected to participate in the 2025 USA Basketball Women’s U16 National Team trials in Colorado Springs, Colorado, beginning Wednesday. The final 12-player roster will be announced on May 26, with the team competing in the FIBA U16 Women’s AmeriCup held June […]

Published

13 minutes ago

May 16, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The final 12-player roster will be announced on May 26, with the team competing in the FIBA U16 Women’s AmeriCup held June 16-22 in Irapuato, Mexico.

Johnson garnered 2025 DNT All-Area Player of the Year honors and picked up her second-career first-team All-State nomination this past season after averaging 28.9 points per game and 6.5 assists while shooting 57% from the field. Defensively, she averaged four steals and one block per outing.

In three seasons at the varsity level, the 6-foot guard has already eclipsed the 2,000-point mark.

Johnson was one of 26 players from the class of 2028 to be invited to the tryouts and one of only three from Minnesota, as she’s joined by 6-foot-1 Minnetonka forward Arianna Peterson and 6-foot-4 center Logan Miller of Andover.

Johnson is currently competing for the All Iowa Attack 17U team of the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL) against the nation’s top players. She’s averaging 8.6 points and 3.6 assists through five games.

Our newsroom occasionally reports stories under a byline of “staff.” Often, the “staff” byline is used when rewriting basic news briefs that originate from official sources, such as a city press release about a road closure, and which require little or no reporting. At times, this byline is used when a news story includes numerous authors or when the story is formed by aggregating previously reported news from various sources. If outside sources are used, it is noted within the story.

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Rec Sports

Youth sports competitions shine across Gbl

Published

42 minutes ago

May 16, 2025

Your Sports Nation

The Department of Youth Services and Sports Ganderbal successfully conducted a series of inter-school zonal level sports events throughout the district today.The competitions were organized in alignment with the guidelines from higher authorities of YSS Jammu and Kashmir.
The day began in Zone Ganderbal with the Inter-School Zonal Level Carrom and Chess competitions for Boys U17, held at Sultania English Medium Public School.A total of 56 student players participated in the Chess competition, while 51 students competed in Carrom.The events showcased impressive cognitive skills as the participants played with great strategy and professionalism. Several players advanced to the finals of both competitions.
In Carrom Competition Winner (Singles): New Dreamland Runner-up (Singles): BHS Shallabugh.In Chess Competition Winner: New Tiny Hearts School,Runner-up,New Dreamland Educational Institute.All winning and runner-up teams were honored with trophies presented by senior officials.
Additionally, Zone Tullamulla hosted the Inter-School Zonal Level Kabaddi Selection Trials for Girls U14 at BHSS Kurhama.A total of 52 aspiring girl students showcased their skills and talent, with the best team selected for the upcoming Inter-Zone District Level Championship.These events highlight the growing sports talent in the district and demonstrate the commitment of YSS Ganderbal to fostering youth development through sports

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Rec Sports

JPO Youth Basketball Camp scheduled for June

The Eureka JPO Youth Basketball Summer Camp is scheduled for June 2 and 3 at the Vandal Athletic Center. Hours for the camp are 9 a.m.-4 p.m. each day. Children in grades three through eight are invited to attend. Please contact Irma Davila at (775-237) 5450 or IDavila@eurekacountynv.gov for questions or further information. Registration may […]

Published

60 minutes ago

May 16, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Please contact Irma Davila at (775-237) 5450 or IDavila@eurekacountynv.gov for questions or further information. Registration may also be completed at https://form.jotform.com/251267176826161

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Rec Sports

Youth soccer rule changes have helped reduce concussions, report says

We often think of football when we think of concussions, but girls who play high school soccer are at nearly the same risk for traumatic brain injuries as high school football players. Boys playing high school football suffered the most concussions of any youth sport studied at 10.2 for every 10,000 practices and games. Girls […]

Published

1 hour ago

May 16, 2025

Your Sports Nation

We often think of football when we think of concussions, but girls who play high school soccer are at nearly the same risk for traumatic brain injuries as high school football players.

Boys playing high school football suffered the most concussions of any youth sport studied at 10.2 for every 10,000 practices and games. Girls soccer was second at 8.4 per 10,000 times playing.

But a recent study shows that rule changes in youth soccer that started in 2016 to reduce concussions are helping. Almost 10 years ago, the U.S. Soccer Federation banned headers for players younger than 10, and players ages 11 to 13 can practice headers for no more than 30 minutes a week.

The new report found that since the rule change, there’s been a nearly 26% reduction in soccer-related concussions, going from 8.2% of all soccer injuries to 6.1%.

Nine-year-old Presley Markich, who plays for the Pittsburgh Riverhounds Soccer Club at AHN Montour Sports Complex, knows what a concussion feels like. She was just 8 when she got a concussion playing soccer after colliding with another player.

“I started to feel sick in the car. I threw up once we got home. I took a nap because my vision was blurry, and I threw up again and then ended up in the ER for four hours,” she said.

Her mom, Liz Whiting, said, “As a parent, I really did not want any long-term effects from this, especially at such a young age.”

AHN physical therapist Kim Kelley suffered three concussions playing soccer in high school and college, all in the midst of going for a header.

“In high school, another player and I went up at the same time, and I hit the ball, and she hit the back of my head,” Kelley said.

The U.S. Soccer Federation also now requires that any time there’s a potential concussion, coaches must include the player in an assessment, and if it could be a concussion, they must call in a medical professional.

“I think it’s really important to stop and make sure that they’re evaluated so it doesn’t get any worse because there are horrible long-term effects if it continues to happen,” Whiting said.

Kelley, who works with kids who have concussions, says, “If they get hit in the midst of a current concussion or a fresh acute concussion, potentially it’s fatal. You know, we see that those kids have a prolonged recovery, higher risk of prolonged headaches, prolonged symptoms, some higher risks – we’re talking about depression, anxiety, things like that.”

One of the most important things for players to do is to be honest about their symptoms and for parents and coaches to look for subtle signs they may not be telling you about.

“You have to be honest with yourself, with everybody else,” Kelley says. “It’s very hard with these athletes. They’re extremely competitive. No one wants to miss any playing time, but we are talking about your career and well-being.”

Whether it’s practice or a game, these young soccer players give it their all – every sprint, every block, every shot. They are passionate about the sport.

Eight-year-old Ivy Armel says she loves the “footwork, goalie, scoring.” Teammate Adley Valkavitch says, “I like when I have to defend,” and Markich says she likes “the games, practicing and all my teammates.”

Mia Duckstein is 15 and says the coaches teach them how to properly head the ball.

“If you do it the right way, it doesn’t hurt, but if you do it the wrong way, it kind of hurts a little bit,” she says.

Her mom, Mikaela Halaja, says, “It’s hard not to wonder if and how those headers, even when they do it the right way, are affecting the brain. Even if it’s little bumps and bruises along the way, it is definitely a concern.”

The young players want to win on the field, but their parents often have a longer-term perspective, wanting to ensure they win at life.

One interesting note from the study was that girls had fewer concussions overall, but a higher percentage of their injuries were from concussions – 10% compared to 6% for boys. This could be because of female anatomy, because boys have thicker skulls and stronger neck muscles, but there’s no scientific consensus.

For more on kids activities, go to kidsburgh.org.

KDKA is proud to partner with kidsburgh.org.

Kristine Sorensen

Kristine Sorensen joined KDKA as a reporter/anchor in April 2003. She anchors KDKA-TV News at 5 p.m., as well as special reports and Kidsburgh stories, in partnership with Kidsburgh.org, featuring the positive things in our community for kids and families. Kristine also hosted “Pittsburgh Today Live” for 11 years on KDKA.

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Rec Sports

Travel tips for getting the most out of a busy youth sports season

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – For many families, “summer travel season” means it’s time to plan a relaxing vacation they’ve been dreaming about all year long. For others, it means a nonstop circuit of weekend road trips with the team, living out of suitcases and hunting down hotels that are a stone’s throw away from the […]

Published

2 hours ago

May 16, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Youth sports isn’t just a weekend hobby, it is a $91 billion industry annually, with almost 60 million kids registered to participate in community sports across the country. According to a recent Aspen Institute report, 27.5% of those kids are on travel teams. That’s a lot of sideline cheers and more hotel breakfasts than we can count!

Whether families are planning their summer around bucket list destinations or team schedules, the challenges of managing travel are often the same. From staying organized and keeping everyone entertained to choosing a property that’s ready to welcome teammates and their families, being on the go all summer can leave you ready for a vacation at the end of your vacation.

Lifestyle and parenting expert Caryn Antonini is no stranger to being on the road with kids – she is a mother of two boys who are currently athletes, and she shared her most valuable travel tips as viewers and listeners map out their summer adventures.

Click here for more information.

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Rec Sports

USA Field Hockey | Capelli Sport Announced as 2025 Summer Bash at the Beach Presenting Sponsor

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – USA Field Hockey and Hometown Sports Management are thrilled to announce Capelli Sport as the presenting sponsor for the 2025 Summer Bash at the Beach. This annual event, in its tenth edition, is fun-filled for youth ages 14 and below. It will take place July 25 through 27 at the Virginia […]

Published

3 hours ago

May 16, 2025

Your Sports Nation

Nick Senti, Hometown Sports Management General Manager, said, “This is always a super fun event. Having Capelli Sport as our presenting sponsor means athletes and their families will have the option of purchasing Summer Bash souvenir apparel and USA Field Hockey branded apparel from the same brand worn by U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Team athletes and coaches at all levels (Juniors through Masters). We are thrilled to also partner with this outstanding organization that is supporting the sport of field hockey from the youngest ages through the experienced masters athletes. It’s very exciting.”

This sponsorship marks the first USA Field Hockey youth tournament sponsorship by Capelli Sport which began its tenure as the exclusive uniform and kit provider for U.S. National Team athletes in the sport of field hockey in January 2025.

“We’re really excited to be the official merchandise provider for the 2025 Summer Bash at the Beach field hockey tournament,” commented Jared Harris, Capelli Sport’s Regional Manager. “It’s an awesome event that brings together athletes, families, and fans in the sport of field hockey. At Capelli Sport, we’re proud to support field hockey initiatives like this one – helping grow the game and giving players gear they’ll treasure. We’re also proud to be partnering with the Virginia Beach Sportsplex, a venue that shares our commitment to elevating the athlete experience.’’

About Capelli Sport
Capelli Sport is a global sports brand based in New York City. The company is a leader in sports, lifestyle apparel and equipment. Capelli Sport enables athletes and teams to maximize their potential through a unique global sports ecosystem. Learn more at capellisport.com and find Capelli Sport on Instagram (@CapelliSport).

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