Gymnastics Coach Taught Lessons to Succeed Inside and Outside the Gym

Patch and When the Game Stands Tall are asking about the coaches, teachers or mentors who inspired you.

Sam Aparicio’s mentor was a gymnastics coach who taught him how to succeed inside and outside the gym.

Mentor Name: Vladimir Kovalenko

Known Mentor for: 11 years

School: Darien YMCA Gymnastics

Town: Darien

State: Connecticut

What mentor taught about success: It would take years to tell how Vlad has impacted my life. There are countless ways that he has taught me how to succeed. Throughout my years competing for Darien Gymnastics, Vlad has taught me and the rest of the gymnasts how to succeed gracefully, how to succeed outside of the gym in our daily lives, and how to succeed in the first place. I find it hard to answer this question because Vlad has taught me so much about success, lessons I could never learn from anyone else.

What mentor taught about dealing with failure: After every meet thatI compete in and am disappointed about my scores and place at the end, the next day at practice, Vlad will imminently talk to me about what I was upset and disappointed about and assigns me to the event that I scored lowest on to help increase average score.

Best advice from mentor: I can’t even start explaining what Vlad has taught me. There has been so many important lessons that I have learned from Vlad, that it would take months to tell them all. 1. Don’t settle for less than perfect 2. Do your best, and if your best isn’t good enough, make it good enough :) 3. Pick yourself back up after you fall down. (and check for injuries :)) I chose the three best pieces of advice that Vlad has taught me because just one wouldn’t do him justice.