In September 2023, junior Esha Verma decided to take a part-time job coaching younger students at her gym.
To qualify for it, she had to do a flurry of CPR certification, medical training and learn other safety measures. After completing all the legal requirements, Verma observed six classes, watching and learning from the way other coaches taught their classes before receiving her own group to work with.
Especially since Verma has left the competitive gymnastics team this year — where she used to compete at Level 7 — to focus on school and extracurriculars, coaching has been a way for her to stay more involved with the sport. Both Verma and junior Sanvi Bahn work part time at Gold Star Gymnastics in Sunnyvale, earning over $20 an hour for their coaching efforts.
Bhan, a Level 9 gymnast of 10 possible levels, has coached at Gold Star for three years. She is currently coaching for five hours on Saturday mornings and three hours during the weekdays, though her weekday schedule largely depends on her availability. She also trains from 10-18 additional hours weekly.
For her part, Verma coaches younger students for three hours on either Saturday or Sunday mornings, depending on her schedule.
At Gold Star, recreational classes are grouped by color in increasing difficulty along the spectrum — Red being the beginner class and Green being intermediate advanced. Level 3 and above students, however, are part of the competitive teams training for the gymnastics season. During her additional five hours of coaching, Bhan covers three classes: Girls Yellow, Girls Green and Level 3.
For each of her classes, Bhan sets up the space to practice the different gymnastics events — vault, bars, beam, floor, Tumbl Trak and trampoline. Bhan acts as the main coach for recreational Girls Yellow and Girls Green classes, while, in Level 3 class, she assists the two adult coaches by giving corrections or filling in if a main coach is absent.
“Right now, they’re in season, so we’re constantly doing their routines, going over any mistakes to try and maximize the scores,” Bhan said. “At competitions, [the job of a coach] is also to be the friend that they need when they’re stressed out or frustrated over a skill that they’re doing.”
Working as a coach has helped her learn to pick up social cues from students and alter her teaching style to fit individual needs. Sometimes when she explains a skill, some kids understand it while others don’t. So, she has learned to rephrase her instructions or physically demonstrate the skill or corrections.
Verma currently teaches three classes: MiniStars, the most beginner class composed of students in Kindergarten or younger; recreational Girls Red and Girls Orange. Since Verma isn’t participating in gymnastics competitively anymore, coaching over the weekends has allowed her to spend more time practicing the sport. She still trains for around five hours a week.
“If you coach, you can use the gym like it’s your own and sometimes even go to adult classes for free,” Verma said. “I can go to the gym, throw new skills and try whatever I feel like. Because I’ve had to give up competing full time, it’s honestly the best experience, because I can still be connected and be part of the sport.”
Both athletes say their favorite part of teaching younger students is giving personalized tips based on advice that they had not been taught by coaches in the past, but figured out themselves during their time training. Since they also learned many tricks just a couple years ago, tricks like how to land accurately on a beam while doing a back walkover are still fresh in their mind.
“[As an older gymnast], there are certain little tips and tricks you’ve learned by doing each of the skills, and there are mental tricks that no one taught you, but you learned yourself,” Verma said. “As a coach, you can teach them these tricks and empathize with them because you’ve gone through the same struggles.”
Verma is proud that she is able to give back to the welcoming community at Gold Star by treating the younger students with the same care that she received. Community is especially important to her because she originally attended a different gym in Campbell, where the environment got very competitive and coaches weren’t as supportive.
“The way you coach can help create the experience for the people, and you have the ability to make a difference,” Verma said. “I really love Gold Star because it’s like a family where everyone kind of trusts you. So I’m trying to give back to this environment because it’s something I didn’t have for a long time.”
