Abstract Coaches and coach educators have recognised the difficulty of creating changes to traditional coaching practice. In this article, we draw on interviews with five successful coaches who, we argue, engaged in actively changing their gymnastics coaching practice through promoting alternative “games of truth” which challenged the authoritarian women’s gymnastics coaching model. This alternative truth game included a focus on energy levels (over thinness) and a belief that older gymnasts can learn new skills and be successful, which led to adaptations of their coaching. We demonstrate how coaches’ experiences of coaching older gymnasts and their observations of successful gymnasts’ older ages and powerful physiques produced critical reflections of their former views, which led to the recognition of alternative truths. This article illustrates the possibility of coaches changing their coaching practices, although we found that coaches were motivated by success rather than athlete empowerment.

中文翻译：

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年龄的到来：教练改变了女子艺术体操教练的小精灵风格

摘要教练和教练教育者已经认识到改变传统教练实践的难度。在本文中，我们采访了五位成功的教练，我们认为他们通过推广另类的“真理游戏”积极地改变了他们的体操教练实践，这挑战了专制女子体操教练模式。这种另类的真人游戏包括注重精力（瘦身），并相信年长的体操运动员可以学习新技能并取得成功，从而适应了他们的教练。我们展示了教练如何指导老年体操运动员的经验以及他们对成功体操运动员的老年年龄和强大体质的观察如何对他们以前的观点进行批判性反映，从而导致人们认识到替代性真理。