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From: treasurerush
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  • they always say SUCK IT UP

  • The reason they want to quit is because of coaches like that. This girls were coached way too hard. "Do you have dreams? Or do you just like to bobble? I'm very angry at you."

    WOW! She's harsh. Maybe that's why these so called elite gymnasts have gone NO WHERE.

  • i loved annies double front punch layout that was amazing

  • tbf i would have quit if i was annie!

  • wow thats harsh. she did her best.

  • The proof is in the pudding: In 35-40 years of existence, Parkettes have had only TWO gymnasts make it to the Olympics. Their gymnasts are well-known for poor form/technique, lack of expression, burnout and frequent injury. No one can deny any of that.

  • Whats the music at 4:33?

  • Pain in mandatory, suffering is optional

  • I love Annie's attitude. She's so down to earth and rational.

  • Ugh Donna Strauss is a bitch. I agree about teens lacking a work ethic, but this is overkill.

  • i think that the best coaches are the ones who are NICE and SUPPORTING and that actually CARE about the gymnasts. hint hint donna strauss...

  • Most times young gymnasts push themselves more then anyone ever does. My 5 year old gets rips on her hands from the bars and she keeps doing it regardless of what me or the coach says. I don't push her. She pushes herself. Coaches should not insult gymnasts. It is wrong. But half the time the girls train through injuries because they want to, not because they are pushed into it. Half the parents I know don't even share an olympic dream. They just support their kids.

  • 5:45 mark, if any coach EVER spoke to me or anyone I care about like that, I'd be out of that gym so fast it'd make her head spin.....how is that effective? What a bitch.....

  • there is no way to turn the hormonal teenage mind into a finely tuned machine. Especially a femal hormonal teenage mind.

  • @redrock54100 lol thats funny and insightful

  • Hasn't parkettes only had 2 girls in the olympics? I mean thats alot if you compare it to the less elite gyms but this documentary seems to be overrating it's success.

  • I feel bad for Annie because she said that she just wanted to have fun and try her best but that just wasn't enough for her coaches

  • These coaches think that they are the experts on teenage girls; but in reality they dont approach any situations correcty like the eay they teach by threatening and yelling

  • Donna deserves to be slapped.

  • @ladodgerschick ... with a baseball bat.

  • Okay, most of the time, what Donna says is BULL SHIT. coaches ned to be motivating people who boost their athletes instead of tearing them down and hoping they get the message. Jeez

  • They have the elite team that they have that never makes it! When I see a gymnast rutine and they fail in a trick or anything i try to encourage them to do better instead of making them feel useless and all the hard work and effort has gone to waste! Be positive Dona and make your girls feel appreciated and worth something, no wonder why no one makes it to the end!

  • I'd give Annie a 10 if she turned around and clocked Donna one!

  • Did any of them actually make an Olympic team??

    I know Nicole Harris got selected in the trials, but she was forced to drop out because of a ankle injury.

    So I'm presuming none of them made a Olympic team?

  • @xoxogossiplauren Nope, none of them did. "Lou" and Annie quit within the next year (though Lou eventually came back and now competes for the university of Alabama). Krista Jasper had to quit for quite awhile due to a serious elbow injury, but eventually was able to come back as a level 10 at a different gym; she now competes for UNC. Kristal quit shortly before the 2004 Olympics.

  • @xoxogossiplauren Tia Orlando and Nicole Harris both made the National Team in 2004 and qualified to compete at Olympic Trials, but injuries kept both of them from competing. Both went on to compete for Arizona State University. Kristina Coccia (Sharky) qualified for Nationals for I think four years in a row, and each time ended up injured and unable to compete. She competed for the university of Denver.

  • Yes I agree with you Annie! She IS mad!

  • annie seems like an old soul :-) i dig her!

  • Donna is just a straight up flat out bitch.....

  • annies triple punch front layout is absolutely outstanding! she is so talented. she is so young too! My little sister just turned 13 in late december 2010 and she looks SOOOO young compared to annie! My sister thought she was 16 and I was like 'no belle, shes only 12!' Shes so amazing annie! Wish she hadnt quit :(

  • "I tell myself to have fun and try my best cause thats what really counts"

    Annie was not only extremely talented but so mature for her age. Such a shame but at least she secured a diving scolarship and ended up being successful

  • It's weird how when you get a group of people together that spend so much time together, they can lose a sense of perspective. Gymnastics, or any sport, just isn't that important in the grand scheme of things. They're not saving lives or something... The ONLY person it benefits is the one doing it... and honestly they probably would benefit a lot more if they were doing it just a few hours a week as part of a balanced healthy life. In that situation learning to use their body could be great.

  • look at those lazy fat parents telling their daughters to "suck it up"...unbelievable!

  • sistersandthedino she has to be mean

  • the coach is a total bitch,

  • when the coach was talking to annie after her routine she obviously wasnt thinking about how you can do a skill perfectly a million times but its still possible to mess up...

  • Yeah Kristen Maloney was probably the most unsecure American at the 2000 Olympics...I haven't seen decent choreography from Parkettes ever...

  • I'd like to see this Parkette's lady with Marta Karolyi...either they'd love each other and be evil together or hate each other.

  • @KVHolland3 Oh two ego manics, who will be shamed by the calmness of Liukin, who seemingly has coached two top level gymnasts, both of whom have had decent choreography.. Rebecca Bross' new routine is the best American routine I have seen in years....Nastia Liukin, Shawn Johnson and others also went to school and had an outside life and education.

  • @emmyjo720 Ok but is Rebecca Bross in Parkettes? No. She's at WOGA. One of the only gyms to produce decent choreography. I'm confused by your comment...

  • @KVHolland3 I know Rebecca Bross is not at Parkette's, that is why she has decent choreography, encourged by a Russian coaches. Parkette's seem so to have this huge reputation for being a great Elite gymnastics club but you can see that they don't have much emphasis of choreography. The idea of Donna Struss being shamed as rude and nasty, next to the calm, quiet Liukin who is looking like a top US coach now, is appealing..Marta Karoyli was better behaved with him in Bejiing.

  • Has anyone notice those that tell these tiny girls too " suck it up" are fat.. Those parents look like couch potatoes and they are not taking care of their child.

  • Exactly how many gymnasts from Parkette's have made it to the national team?

    Nastia, Shawn, Carly, Rebeeca and Bridget did not come from Parkettes...

    Shawn made it without being treated like that and by training less hours.

  • LOL. "take that out i don't even want to see it!" hahahaha omg

  • When you're a gymnast, you should be pushing yourself harder than your coach. Any other way just doesn't work.

  • That psychiatrist guy talking about robbing childhoodd... I wanted to tell him off!!! Most of these girls chose to take this path.

  • @ilovelibertyTYC Really? Do you really think Annie enjoys being debased and degraded by her coach? Do you think "Sharky" enjoys being told to "suck it up" when she's in excruciating pain? Maybe these girls chose it at the very beginning of their careers, but the only reason they're sticking with it is because they can't see any other alternative now that they're out of public school and have devoted their entire lives to gymnastics.

  • @QueenieQue chill, dude. they could quit anytime. it's amazing that they got as far as they did. and i never said telling a young girl to suck it up when she tears a muscle was a good thing, because that IS going to far. but they know what they're in for.

  • I love how donna made annie feel like crap with all of that bs. Then when she talked to annies dad she basically said the exact opposite. Annie had the right mind set, ignoring everyone while doing her routine, and doing her best. Im pretty sure the video showed girls actually falling off the beam, but beace annie bobbled she got screamed at.

  • hey donna how bout you do these things

  • lets see the coaches do what these girls can do and give them a taste of their own medicine

  • I just think if Annie had a different coach, she could do a lot better.

  • Does anybody know why they called Kristina Sharky? She didn't really have a shark like disposition (hardcore, tough). 

  • @gymnasticsloverxoxo her last name kinda sounds a bit like shark, thats the only reason that i can think of

  • Annie could have gone far but her coaches were not supportive.They should have encouraged her but all they did was yell.It's no wonder she ended up quitting.

  • @skategurl1102  i agree

  • wow i would've punched donna if i were annie...

  • All the gymnasts that come out of this gym have the most horrible form and choreography..this

  • oh my god annie was probably upset after falling and donna didnt make it any better by degrading her gymnastics annie is great donna is making her life miserable my coach doesnt do that and i havent seen a coach do that until now donna should learn to be a bit nicer even if meanness helps

  • If a coach talked to my child that way she would hear from me...yes she creates champions, but it scares me to think what happens to the girls who don't make it.

    I mean she wants annie to be more showy or whatever...but maybe it would be easier for her if she weren't so miserable.

  • @capscoach shes only twelve i agree shes going through puberty which means she is more emotional

  • @capscoach Parkette's have had very few gymnasts make it to the Worlds or Olympics....The coaches that get results are Kelli Hill, Valeri Luikin and Liang Chow, they don't berate their gymnasts. Even Romania have got rid of B&B, for a coach that treats the gymnasts with respect. And Romanian parents are so reluctant to sent their daughters too gymnastics because of the bad publicity from

    Deva about the coaches. Parkette's is the worst kind of coaching and only good for college scholaships.

  • @emmyjo720

    When I was very young I took from Kelli Hill and used to Watch Dominique Dawes practice. I never saw Kelli even raise her voice to a gymnast.

  • @capscoach I believe that, in 1993 in Birmingham, the different between Kelli Hill and Steve Nunno was stark. Nunno seemed to represent everything the is loud and obnoxious, the worst of American behaviour and Kelli Hill seemed kind, intelligent and I think people prefered Dawes because of her coach and wanted her to win. In one of the clips at Parkettes they allowed a little girl to jump on foot in plaster and so did the parents, it showed they are not looking out for the child's interest.

  • @emmyjo720 do you seriously have to bitch at everyone who comments on this video? GET A LIFE. First of all, jackass, Liang Chow had ONE Olympian gymnast. And if B&B stands for Belu and Bitang, YOU ARE WRONG. Romania fired Forminte and Octavian and Mariana have returned as the head coaches. Someone needs to brush up on their gymnastics knowledge. Parkettes is an amazing gym. And whats wrong with college scholarships, with all the kids who make nothing of themselves nowadays?

  • @comanecisalto1 The reason that Romania hasn't got a so many gymnasts is because parents had woken up to the scandal and stopped sending their children away...Forminte was a kind, imaginative coach, someone like Pogras would never emerge with B&B, if they are back, then it is a step backwards for Romania, just when they began to get interesting. Secondly as someone that was a live when Comaneci was competing, I know more about life, gymnastics is not that important.

  • @emmyjo720 To be honest, I would send my daughter to Deva. It is her, not me that dreams an Olympic gold. Her, not me, that want to be the second Nadia... Regardless of what you say, the mums from my daughters club would send their daughters to Deva without a second thought. And i live in Australia.

  • @AlexandraDogariu Deva has had to vastly improve the way they treat the girls. They have to accomadate the fact that gymnasts like Ponor and Isbaza are not teenagers, therefore can not be kept under lock and key.

    They have had to respond to the reports of past abuse, so that parents are willing to send their children away.They also give have a high importance in education, Parkette's rely on homeschooling, which is not the key to a good education. Deva also teaches better technique.

  • WHEN WAS THIS MADE? gosh there just kids not world-class athletes

  • @swimmerhaha34 this was made in 2003

  • How irresponsible this is from the parents. They should know the Strausses are not known in the business neither for their impeccable technique nor for having healthy gymnasts.

  • 5:40 - FU, Donna Strauss. Annie's great & the sanest person in the place. Rock on, Annie!

  • @pupppt I know look at maloney she has tons of injuries and so do most gymnasts from parkettes

  • GOD donna is such a bitch

  • Donna is an old broken down HHHHHoooooreee!

  • gymnastics is as hard as they say, I have broke 2 ankles strained my back broke 3 fingers and got a freakin contusion in my arm..

  • @TheABShow43 all true!!! trust me!!!

  • I like Annie and Sharky. I'm not so crazy about Nicole.

  • what you have to understand is that being a high training athlete, the yelling, the pushing, the intensity all comes with the sport. its almost expected and in the end becomes a part of the training

  • The red head coach seems t me like a b-arch. Yes you need to push them but from what I see, she's the only one pushing them that hard.

  • Annie is a smart and talented girl, she shouldn't be spoken to like that.

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  • @MichaelKanJohnson No one should get spoken like that. This is abuse.

  • @MichaelKanJohnson of course she should, shes just a puppet

  • This gym should pay you to let them teach your children. There is no way my child would be treated this way by her coach and they sure seem to lack any of the traits of a top trainer/ sports psychologist. These kids are teaching themselves.

  • I had good coaches and bad coaches, you have to throw in some positive feedback to these girls. It is such hard work. That girls dad should have been more supportive and not taking the coaches side!

  • "Suck it up" a phrase uttered throughout Football, Soccer, Baseball, Rugby, Tennis, Basketball, heck, anything that requires talent and effort.

    If you can't say suck it up about your sport, then it doesn't qualify as a sport. like bocci ball or chess.

  • why do they keep saying "suck it up" that is not motovation at all

  • @flexikids they say suck it up because you can be a champion or even your personal best if your letting your fear get to you or your crying all the time, any olympian even tells themselves to suck it up at times. It's just the nature of ANY sport or heck life in general you have to just suck it up and push through at times in anything you do.

  • Sorry, but the only "legacy" that Parkettes has is a bunch of broken-down, burned-out kids who never quite "get there." And let's not even talk about the absolutely HIDEOUS form and lack of expression displayed by 99 percent of their gymnasts. Yes, there have been a few here and there who broke through (Maloney comes to mind), but overall they don't have a good record.

  • My daughter did it for 2 years because of her petite and muscular shape they wanted her to go into competition .She refused .Gymanstic was a way for her to have fun with friends and jump around AND SaVE MY FURNITURE . After 2 years gymnastic was no fun anymore swiming seem more fun

  • I've always loved gymnastics, and wish I couldv'e done something like it.

    I'm obviously abit too old for it now so I thought maybe I could put my daughter in it. But at the same time I dont want to sound like a pushy mom who lives their dream through their daughter's life.

    I just want to be apart of it, because its just an amazing sport.

    Also, I work out 24/7 and yeah it is tough, I'm not like the tipical over weight mom who tells their kid to suck it up.

    Lets see them try to suck it up!!

  • 6:01 "I think she was... I think she was mad..." haha Im glad she can just shrug it off...that lady's harsh.

  • its the grim truth, but if you want to win, you have to train hard :/ (and face disapointment!)

  • dude I could see this Bitch speaking to Jennifer Sey like this...

  • Tendanitis is soooo painfull i have it and even the slightest jump hurts like hell i have no idea how sharky can train through that!

  • same here. i just quit gymnastics because of it. it is sooo painful... i had it in my ankles, and knees

  • i think that physictrist is wrong ...

    we choose to do this ? we have the choice to quit , we get hooked we want perfection we want to do good

    so yeah the coachs push them but see when the get a move and stick it there gonna be proud ..

  • that coach is a bitch.  luckily my coach was the best, i miss him ;x

  • everything looks a lot worse in slow moation!!!!

  • well im an elite gymnast and sometimes the coaches get a bit annoying there always hard on ya and with injuries, thankfully i havent had any bad ones but with gymnastics its so easy to lose your skill if you have time out for ingury rest that you keep going,, my tip rember the painkillers,,, :D

  • y the hell are the coaches giving sharky hard passes when she has an ankle problem?!?!?!?!?!

  • dude the coach is a fucking bitch

  • lol

  • listen to the dumb dad stick up for the coach at 6:13, clearly mental abuse, this level can be coached in a positive manner, look at all the beat up kids that come out of that gym

  • i'm sure mary lee treats her kids this way, i've been in several gyms coaching, top level and they coach this way, parents wake up

  • I can deal with pain thankfully, I have a very high pain threshold but the thing that gets me is when i injur myself it stresses me out, like i go "come on heallllll faster!" haha coz it takes out of my training

  • Annie was really good, but it doesn't seem like she had the heart :(

  • She did... But your passion dies out when you're constantly put down and made to feel like a failure. She was really quite mature for her age, and she knew what was best for her in the long run.

  • i know these people and they truly arent that mean. they are strict and mean when they get really angry at you. most of the time they are really nice

  • thats what im saying and everyone keeps doubting me but they just dont want u to get hurt

  • yep they dont. but everyone still does and when you are an elite gymnast you really have to watch out about injuries and anything that could lead to them. it is all for their own good

  • what i meant by mmy comment is that coaches are strict so the gymnasts stay focused and dont get hurt, but also the coaches dont have the right to go to the extent that these coaches do,,

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  • uh no...

  • This video puts such a neagtive feel on gymnastics. I teach and we are certainly not like that at competitions. Its a joint partnership from the kids and the coaches - you need abit of everything. Most childen work ten times better with motivation.

  • i know right! im an elite but my coaches are really nice. they only push you if your constantly doing it wrong! thats why this documentary caused a lot of controversy because of the negative impact...and its actually nothing like that

  • I think Annie could of made it a lot farther had she had different coaches. Although that brutal and harsh coaching attitude is thought of as the only way to create champions, that doesnt mean it works for every gymnast. She seems like she had so much promise, but how could she have confidence with donna yelling at her every 2 seconds?

  • My gawd .. you don't come down on a kid in competition!!! What's the point?

  • exactly

    all its going to do is damage their confidence so they go worse

  • god these coahes are nothing compaired to my hungarian coah jutika (utca) she is the biggest bitch i have ever meet

  • Those coaches are horrible. I would never let my kids take from them, no matter how talented they might be.

  • well then your kids would lose great coaches adn very nice people.

  • Yeah and they also wouldn't be subjected to ABUSE.

  • defintily not abuse

    any otheer gym will have coaches like this. if you want to be elite your coaches arent going to say sweetly try aain. this how they push you towards your goals and from their past gymnast you can tell it has worked. also it really helps later in life. i would know. so dont assume things when you havent met these people

  • I'd like to see those parents too 'suck it up'

  • @daniiidanielllex3 The mom could do it I'm sure just ask her hubby!

  • If Donna spoke to me as she spoke to Annie (after her beam routine) I`d actually probably punch her.

  • @Gr33nkiwi She must have been really abused as a kid.

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  • @horselovergirl92 Yes, yes of course you were dear. Now, go run off and play and let the big kids talk.

  • @Gr33nkiwi

    She was so fucking disrespectful--it's beyond words. No child deserves to be spoken to like that.

  • Poor sharky! i have severs disease also and thats to bad she was an awesome gymnast!

  • Omg Annie's double front to punch front layout! She makes it look so easy.

  • I love Annie

  • It's true, you have to be like a machine; the moment you start acting like a human and having human worries about the next pass, how many steps to the springboard, etc. is the moment you wipe out.

    But you can't blot things out to much or you look blank and empty and your routines lack punch. You have to have a good balance. :|

  • i want to smack that coach

  • i feel so bad for these girls

    im a level 9/10 gymnastm our gym is no where near as serious and crazy as this, but i absolutely HATE competing, i would be fine with working on a ll the hard tricks but not competing, it is SO nerve-racking and theres so much pressure, i dont know if i should quit or not

  • If your gym won't let you train without competing, you should look into high school gymnastics. The competition is much more low key than club and can be lots of fun.

  • sharky is trying so hard she deserve to those skills

  • geez Donna is so evil.

  • if only i were an elite....i wish

  • ugh, this kind of pressure is why I quit gymnastics when I was 12.

  • these girls need a hug!

  • Oh my God. I know this is off topic but what are the odds I look down at the ticker tape and its informing that in 1985 MICHAEL JACKSON bought the copyright to the Beatles music?!?!? LOLOL!! Of all the news........

    Now on topic, I respect gymnasts so much. They are better than a baseball,basketball, football athlete and golfer combined. This is a FEARLESS sport. I wish media would air invitationals and trials as much as they do random competitions for golf.

  • what year did this come out cause they said o and maby they will go to the 2004 olypics?

  • It aired on CNN Presents in July 2003.

  • ooo i see

  • i kinda agree with the person below

  • for everyone who has left a comment about how horrible the coaches are and how upset the gymnasts must be, if you do research, you'll see that this documentary is described to have shown parkettes in a very negative light. Basically, they've made it look worse than it is, cause without that, whats the story to tell?

  • I think most of the coaches seem reasonable - at the elite level you have to push the girls and not always be nice to them. But I feel that Donna is simply a bully, destroying the girls' self esteem and being unnecessarily horrible to them.

  • i agree with almost everything u aid a part from the Donna part keep in mind taht at an elite level or any other level, it doesnt only require physical stregth but also psychological, in a competition they might hear bad comments in orther to upset them so they fail, this prevents taht kind of stuff

  • @OanyThePony Berating a 12 year old is always going to look bad.. Who has had more Olympian's this team or Kelli Hill? The Parkettes team make the Karoyli's look cuddly and kind.

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  • 1:40 hahaha her leg looks so funny, that just shows how flexible they are

  • i had tendonitis. it was HORRIBLE!!!! but i'm alive. but it hurt.

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  • its so sad to see how horrible donna was to annie. she looked so uncomfortable when they asked her about it and just looked hurt! im glad she went to diving

  • but if only she tried harder she could have been great!!!

  • I think the coaches push th kids loads too far! :s But I love gymnastics! And they are sooo goood! :)

  • That is how they produce olympic champions !!!

  • @prettyawesomegymnast They haven't produced any Olympic Champions..Nastia Luikin wasn't coached like that by her father, Carly Patterson wasn't either, her coach wasn't like that either, nor was Shawn Johnson..And I seriously doubt anyone spoke to Svetlana Khorkina like to often.

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  • All the montages people make

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  • becasue they are all over youtube and AshleyAKAFlipper makes them of nicole harris

  • do you go to parkettes?

    what level?

    you must be pretty good :)

    i found this video when i accidentally clicked on the wrong vid of gymnastics lol

    wb x

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  • Dude, let it heal. When you are seriously injured, let it heal otherwise you screw yourself over and wind up fifty years old and unable to walk