Post Syndemic Resiliency and an Interview With Olympians Wendy Bruce-Martin and Justin Spring

Resiliency and Coaction

Many organizations are reviewing principles of resiliency as they consider whether recovering from this syndemic must include rethinking work culture and service delivery models. How can the health promotion profession provide leadership such that organizations or communities don’t just return to normal but rather leverage the post syndemic period as a time for redesigning approaches to improving well-being. The terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 spawned a rebuilding of America’s security infrastructure. How should a syndemic of viral racism and viral infections inform new and better ways to build well-being for all?

One approach that seems responsive to a syndemic is to consider recovery as a multi-faceted and coordinated re-design challenge rather than the usual way that resiliency interventions are directed at a single behavior intended to solve for one problem at a time. One of the more interesting research discoveries this past decade relates to coaction, the finding that successful actions to improve one behavior increases the odds of successful actions that improve another behavior. This may seem counter intuitive if you have been trained to intervene on habits one at a time or a little at a time. Nevertheless, when interventions are designed to encourage gradual stages of change across multiple habits, research suggests people are one to five times more likely to be successful. ⁴

How would a resiliency campaign be designed that simultaneously helps us bounce back from the set-backs we experienced from COVID-19 as well as the social upheaval that affirmed the need for the Black Lives Matter movement? Are vaccine hesitancy and skepticism about the merits of critical race theory related? And if so, how will resilient organizations and individuals bounce back from these challenges and come out stronger together?

I don’t know.

But, as a career educator, I’ve come to appreciate that concept formation is abetted by best examples, that metaphors spark ideation and that stories can offer powerful grist for the systems redesign mill. Some of the most compelling examples of individual and organizational resiliency can be found in sports. Athletes in general, and elite performers in particular, regularly face set-backs and manage not only to recover, but to get better at their game in the process. It’s not coincidental that the concept of resiliency is often likened to the physiology of strengthening muscles. Building stronger muscles is a function of recovering from repeated stresses and associated mini muscle tears.

The following interview explores both personal and professional resiliency challenges occurring in the world of gymnastics. I am a former college gymnast and coach so I was delighted that gymnastics Olympians Justin Spring and Wendy Bruce-Martin agreed to share their stories about how they bounced back from tough set-backs. I sought out renowned leaders from the gymnastics community because their beloved profession is faced with dire resiliency co-action challenges. Gymnastics is a risky sport and serious gymnasts are routinely recovering from intense mental and physical challenges. Related to this, in a sports syndemic of sorts, the gymnastics industry and profession itself has also been facing existential risks. For women’s gymnastics, their sport’s leaders are facing the most fundamental of challenges; that of rebuilding trust after exposing young athletes to horrendous sexual and emotional abuse cases. For men’s gymnastics, the business model clearly needs thoughtful retooling after decades of waning financial support from universities.

As you will learn in this interview, Bruce and Spring, both All-Around event performers, are eminently qualified to take on more than one daunting challenge at a time. You can readily find extensive, and incredible, profiles and biographies of Bruce and Spring via online searches.^5-8 By way of a brief summary, both Wendy Bruce-Martin and Justin Spring are Olympic team bronze medal winners and both have sagging shelves full of trophies from USA and World Championship podiums. Bruce was inducted into the USA Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2010 and Spring won the 2006 Nissen-Emery Award, an honor (like the Heisman Trophy) that goes to the top male gymnast in the nation.

Currently Justin Spring is head coach for University of Illinois Men’s Gymnastics and, at the time if this interview, he was in Tokyo, Japan supporting team USA and one of his Illini gymnasts who qualified for the Australian Olympic team.

Wendy Bruce-Martin is a mental toughness trainer and coach and regularly writes about “getting psyched” on her web page. ⁹

As a lifelong gymnastics fan, I never imagined I’d find myself comparing the challenges facing a sport that produces our nation’s sweethearts to the kinds of legal problems faced by oil or drug companies. You will see both Bruce and Spring share a comfort with accountability and role model the creative problem-solving skills that will be needed for a coaction approach to resiliency.

Paul Terry: You each showed extraordinary personal resilience as athletes. Wendy, you got a lot of attention for balking at some vaults during competition but then beautifully performed an exceptionally difficulty vault when it mattered most. Justin, you struggled with serious injuries and, in spite of limited training, came through with peak performances to qualify for the Olympics. It’s tempting to credit elite athletes with superhuman qualities but can you describe in normal human terms how you bounced back from such high stakes public set-backs?

Wendy Bruce: Unfortunately, I had a lot of fears and anxieties in gymnastics. The particular “event” you are asking about is when I balked 3 times in a row on vault at the 1989 Championships of the USA. I hated vault, but it was also my best event. I never grew to like vault, but it was something I had to do if I wanted to make the Olympics. It wasn’t that I was superhuman or without fears and anxiety, in fact I had many times in my career when my fears and doubts worked against me. I am a very competitive person, and I was also my biggest competition. But when my success was in jeopardy, such as with that vault in 1989 or falling at the Olympic Trials in 1992, I always came back fighting and did what I needed to do to survive.

Justin Spring: I had 3 surgeries toward the end of my competitive season in 2006 and then tore my ACL 1 year out from the Olympic Games in 2007. It is very mentally challenging to work through injury, especially back-to-back injuries when you have big goals spread throughout the timeline. After months of rehabilitation from the shoulder surgery in 2006, it was especially disheartening to tear my ACL in 2007 and continue to go through the long, strenuous recovery process. All I wanted was to perform elite level skills to prepare for my goal of the Olympics, and instead I was moving my knee like an inch-worm trying to regain normal range of motion. Through all my injuries, I learned to do a really good job of rewriting the “story” in my head for how my career would go. Each surgery became another obstacle that I would overcome to be the “comeback kid.” I became the hero in a movie that would come back and win a medal, or make the team, or accomplish whatever the mission was. Each time there was another injury or surgery, I remember telling myself, “What a crazy story this will be!” Don’t get me wrong, I had really down moments after untimely injuries, but coming back and remaking the team always got me re-energized and back on track.

Paul Terry: Too often resilience is merely cast as an individual’s ability to think positively or is about learning self-talk skills that replace negative emotions with positive beliefs. That’s part of it, to be sure, but resilience has psychological, emotional, physical and even community elements. I so admired how Simone Biles modeled what it takes to overcome the stigma related to mental health by putting her own emotional health ahead of the pressure she was feeling in the recent Tokyo Olympics. As coaches, what systemic supports do you build so young athletes are more apt to bounce back from, rather than suffer under, set-backs?

Wendy Bruce: We commonly think of a rubber band and its ability to bounce back after stressed to its extreme length. But that rubber band will lose its elasticity and/or break when it isn’t taken care of. Athletes need to know they will be physically, psychologically, and emotionally safe. This means they trust their training, they have been properly physically trained and are able to successfully perform the skill. They must trust they can control their focus and use the mental tools like positive self-talk or imagery. They also need to know they will be able to put themselves out there, and regardless of the outcome, they will be okay. They will not be embarrassed, ridiculed or punished by their coaches, parents, teammates, or themselves. If the athlete is training in a harsh environment, eventually they will lose their ability to bounce back and could break. It is imperative the athletes know they will be loved and accepted regardless of their performance. They need to be able to separate who they are from what they do.

Justin Spring: I think one of the most important things a coach can do is create a strong team culture where the team feels everyone is invested in the mission and there to support one another. Coach-led teams are good teams, but player-led teams are great teams! As the head coach at Illinois, I hold a lot of team meetings, but twice a week we have meetings that deliberately get the athletes talking about things outside of our gymnastics mission. Meeting topics range from politics, leadership, current events and really anything that gets the team talking. Creating a safe space to respectfully have differing opinions can make people feel vulnerable, but that feeling is critical to strengthening our team support system. Another way we keep things in perspective in a highly competitive environment is by committing time to help our athletes develop skills for post-graduation. We really want to win, but we have other very important goals for developing our players too. We always tell our guys, we have 25 coaches in the gym, not just the listed 3 on the website; that way there is always something to do to help or advance your team. Their contributions to the program aren’t tethered to their scores in competition. Lastly, we have a step-by-step mental training program that we go through every year in addition to other mental toughness exercises we do to help focus and guide the athletes.

Paul Terry: The sexual abuse crimes committed by Larry Nassar were a devastating tragedy for his victims as well as a serious blow to the credibility and trustworthiness of leaders in the gymnastics community. The gymnastics community is clearly not alone in garnering public antipathy. Pharmaceutical companies responsible for the Opioid addiction epidemic, energy companies guilty of environmental crimes or media companies caught promulgating serious lies are but a few other recent examples of organizations that have difficult recoveries on their hands. What are the top 3 priorities gymnastics leaders should focus on to rebuild trust?

Wendy Bruce: There were so many failures that enabled this type of predator. But until the organization takes responsibility for their actions, I don’t think trust can truly be earned. I know USAGymnastics can’t admit wrongdoing because of ongoing legal battles, and I am not sure they can ever admit it publicly. But if they can’t, USAGymnastics may need to start over with a new generation of leaders.

Justin Spring: Take ownership of the problems. Like Wendy said though, I don’t know if the organization can do this. Create a platform for members and athletes to voice their opinions easily and anonymously. I know they have done this for the athletes after major competitions and camps. Clear and concise communication from the national office and supporting committees is also a priority.

In an interview with Dr. Amy Edmondson in these pages we discussed how leading organizations foster psychological safety at work. ¹⁰ Leaders who inculcate safety understand deeply that fear is not a motivator. Rather, acceptance of individual differences, dissenting voices and continuous learning, including learning from mistakes, is the norm. Can you reflect on a mentor or role model who you would credit as creating a safe environment? Were they the norm or the exception in your experience of leaders in the gymnastics community?

Wendy Bruce: I moved to Orlando to train at Brown’s Gymnastics with Kevin Brown. I could have chosen anywhere and the Karolyi’s were the number one gym in the country, but we all knew how harshly they trained and I knew I wouldn’t survive in that environment. My coaches were always on my side and I knew I would never disappoint them. They cared about me as a person first, a gymnast second. I think there were a lot of caring coaches out there, but when the Karolyi’s tactics produced gold medals, many coaches imitated their style. Then when USA Gymnastics made Bela and then Marta the head coach of the governing body, it sent a message to all the other coaches that this was who they all should be like. And unfortunately, many coaches followed suit and for way too long. They placed medals above everything else and many gymnasts suffered.

Justin Spring: My high school club coach, Carlos Vazquez, created a very supportive and collaborative environment when I was growing up. I saw him as a father figure. I remember we all respected Carlos tremendously, not because we feared him but because we loved him and wanted to make him proud. He was still an assertive coach, in fact, I remember being kicked out of practice a few times because I was disrespectful to him. He demanded we have respect for him and for each other. For that reason, I felt comfortable speaking up in the team setting and I think everyone felt comfortable being who they were in that environment. I have had pretty good experiences with mentors and coaches throughout my career.

Wendy, I expect you’d agree that it’s not only psychological safety that has been missing in many gymnastics gyms, some young athletes have stepped forward with stories of abusive cultures where fear of not making the team has been an intentional motivational strategy. This has reportedly occurred alongside body shaming, minimizing injuries and closed work outs to hide verbal abuse. In contrast, UCLA college gymnast Katelyn Ohoshi was a viral sensation who spoke out about body acceptance. ¹¹ Her coach, Valorie Kondos Field, now retired, stressed integrity and a philosophy of balance and love. ¹² As a mental coach, are there specific theories and philosophies you advocate that would shift coaches toward kinder, gentler approaches?

Wendy Bruce: Being kind isn’t a gentler approach. It’s just not being an asshole. These gymnasts can work hard, be pushed, and held to high standards without personally attacking, threatening, harassing, or bullying them when they make mistakes. Coaches and parents use these tactics when they lack the skills or education needed to teach the athletes. The athlete comes to the coach to learn, not just the technique of a flip, that’s easy to teach. It is much more difficult to teach the social, emotional, and psychological skills to their athletes, especially when there is no formal education standard set by the state for coaches to work with and mold children.

In an interview with Olympian Jesse Diggins in these pages, she candidly shared the depth of stigma she felt dealing with her eating disorder. She described how the stigma related to having an illness fueled her denial of a problem that was quite literally putting her life at risk. ¹³ Building the combination of lightness and strength needed to excel at gymnastics while discouraging eating disorders is a big challenge. Wendy, can you point to programs or systems that the sport should emulate that are striking the right balance? A system for disciplined training that doesn’t evoke extreme behaviors?

Wendy Bruce: I think it’s a lack of education situation again. The industry is afraid to talk to the athlete because under the Karolyi’s, Marta never wanted outsiders in. Marta went with what worked in the past, and she won medals, so everyone just kept on that path. It seems insane that our athletes weren’t taught how to take care of their bodies and minds. They didn’t have nutritionists or psychologists at the training camps and so other coaches thought of it as unnecessary. I think our mental health is being talked about by former high-level athletes and so people are starting to take it seriously. USAGymnastics has added a wellness program and the athletes are being educated on their mental and physical health. I think before athletes didn’t know how or what to eat, so they tried to figure it out on their own which usually leads to unhealthy practices.

Justin, men’s gymnastics faces a different existential threat than stories of abuse. The survival of the sport has teetered for years on NCAA accommodations to host a national meet and a shrinking number of Division One Universities are budgeting for men’s gymnastics. If resilience is partly about adapting to difficult change, what adaptations are you advocating that are needed to keep men’s gymnastics competitive on the world stage?

Justin Spring: Ultimately, men’s gymnastics is just too cumbersome which contributes to its lack of popularity in college athletics. We have large roster sizes, our facilities are big, expensive, and extremely customized, and our competitions are confusing and run 2.5 hours long. We need to simplify if we want to increase public engagement and support from our athletic directors. Ninja Warrior and Cross Fit are very popular and have participants of all ages! They each took some small but fun elements from gymnastics and made a great engaging product that people love to participate in and watch on TV; we can learn a lot from them. I’ve advocated for some pretty extreme things like altering or eliminating apparatuses to introducing new events altogether like rope climb races. I developed a head-to-head, single point competition format that some teams tested throughout past competition seasons. Our competition attire needs to be updated too; we need to raise our “coolness” level.

Leading a profession toward changing its business model is every bit as daunting as coaching young athletes toward greatness. Justin, what examples are you seeing of your professional community coalescing and transforming itself? What are the key barriers to the profession’s adaptations needed to thrive, not just survive, under your current stresses?

Justin Spring: NCAA men’s gymnastics participation has been on the decline since the late 70’s. Over the last few years, we have created a working group that has identified what I believe to be the necessary steps to get gymnastics moving again in the right direction, but ultimately our remaining head coaches must vote for these changes. Most of these head coaches are traditionalists who fear that changing the sport will lead to its demise. This is so odd to me because under the current structure we lose about one program a year, and we have not added a new program in over 30 years. To make matters worse, NCAA Division one standard practices have only added more pressure to struggling sports like men’s gymnastics. Competitiveness in facilities, salary, and support systems are costly and have essentially made some athletics directors think, “If we can’t support the program at the highest level and win, it’s not worth it.” Gymnastics coaches need to start enacting change in order to save the sport at the college level.

Coaction Resiliency Lessons From Olympians

Spring and Bruce have compelling visions for meeting the syndemic challenges of the gymnastics industry, a crisis of trust and a faltering business model. What can their insights teach us about confronting the racism and Covid-19 syndemic? Though neither Spring or Bruce are formally trained in psychology, experience is the best teach so I was not surprised that their insights closely reflected those of resiliency experts. The American Psychological Association (APA) writes that “4 core components—connection, wellness, healthy thinking and meaning” are needed if we are to recover, learn and grow after traumatic experiences. ¹⁴

Like most successful behavior change, success at resiliency is a team sport that celebrates connection. Bruce and Spring are quick to name trustworthy people who they could turn to who provided their teams with empathy and support. Bruce reminds his guys “we have 25 coaches in the gym.” When racism and polarity are fueling a syndemic, who will we team with to help us break through isolation and build trust?

The APA’s wellness component needed to build resilience relates to the toll stress takes on both our physical and emotional health. Accordingly, self-care practices will be all the more vital after a syndemic. Bruce noted that USA Gymnastics has added a wellness program for athletes. This is a fitting acknowledgment of how important self-care steps such as sleep and nutrition and stress management can be in emotionally charged situations. At the recent Tokyo Olympics, the best gymnast of all time, Simone Biles, decided to withdraw from the team competition in order to cope with psychological pressures. Only months prior to that, top rated tennis star Naomi Osaka withdrew from the French Open due to her bouts with depression and before that, the best swimmer of all time, Michael Phelps, spoke out about his struggles with depression. It is just such role modeling from respected leaders that is needed to validate the importance of self-care and to overcome the stigma associated with mental health.

Healthy thinking and finding purpose will also assuredly factor into designing syndemic antidotes. Bruce spoke of unconditional love and how young athletes “need to be able to separate who they are from what they do.” Spring emulates a mentor who “demanded we have respect for him and each other” and notes such an environment enables everyone to “feel comfortable being who they are.” Given the political polarities reflected in vaccine hesitancy and the ideological fissures attendant to “Black Lives Matter” advocacy or resistance, what contribution can health promotion professionals make in modeling respect and enabling people to find healthier alignments between what they believe and what they do?

Spring became astute at writing “comeback kid” stories in his mind’s eye as he recovered from each serious physical set-back. As above, I don’t presume to have easy answers for how resilient organizations and individuals can bounce back from today’s syndemic challenges and come out stronger together. I do, however, think Spring and Bruce offer a compelling place to start. We need to “put ourselves out there” and “rewrite the story” about how this syndemic will be brought to bay. Like the great athletes featured in this editorial, health promotion professionals have the opportunity to role model anti-racist approaches to beating a syndemic. If we can bounce back stronger from these seemingly insurmountable social, political and viral set-backs then, for sure Justin, “what a crazy story this will be.”