The Top 5 Misconceptions About Gymnastics

Zara Turton on Becoming World Champion and Going Viral

ABOUT THE EPISODE: Host Winston Powell sits down with Zara Turton, the 2015 World Down Syndrome Rhythmic All-Around Champion, who has recently picked up tumbling alongside her rhythmic training and gone viral on Instagram with over 5 million views. This is a more light-hearted conversation than usual, covering Zara's gymnastics journey, her gymnastics family at City of Birmingham, her plans to start coaching, and why disability gymnastics deserves much more visibility. For listeners on audio only, the YouTube version with captions is recommended for the best experience. KEY TAKEAWAYS: * Zara started rhythmic gymnastics at seven years old, brought into the sport by her mum, dad, sisters, nan, and aunties, with Olympians Mimi Cesar and Frankie as her early role models. * At the 2015 World Down Syndrome Championships, Zara competed across five pieces and came home with five medals, including the all-around gold. * After years of dedicated rhythmic training, Zara has now added tumbling to her schedule and has already competed five times in the discipline. * Her recent Instagram reel reached 5.3 million views, bringing a huge wave of new visibility to disability gymnastics and the athletes within it. * Zara is currently working through her coaching qualifications in both rhythmic and tumbling, with plans to coach development groups rather than recreational classes. * Joe Fraser has been a long-time personal supporter, attending Zara's competitions over the years and welcoming her into his own gym community. * More mainstream representation, like seeing Down syndrome athletes on shows like Strictly Come Dancing, helps break down outdated assumptions about what is possible in elite performance. * Zara's message to young gymnasts with Down syndrome is simple, come and talk to her, and she will help. BEST MOMENTS: * (when asked what gymnastics means to her) "My life." * "I'm strong every week." * "I got to have my photo up in the gym." * "If anyone does (judge), you just leave it." * "More worlds." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ [https://winstonpowell.co.uk/] Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk [info@winstonpowell.co.uk] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ [https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 [https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5] E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV [https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV] ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

Bryony Page: Silver, Bronze, Olympic Gold

Google Form: https://forms.gle/hbNgoCSsBPhQbJto7 [https://forms.gle/hbNgoCSsBPhQbJto7] ABOUT THE EPISODE: Host Winston Powell sits down with triple Olympic medalist Bryony Page to walk through her full Olympic journey, from missing out on London 2012 to winning silver in Rio, bronze in Tokyo, and finally gold in Paris. Bryony opens up about the hardest year of her life leading into Rio, the mindset shifts that turned her career around, and what it meant to be chosen as Team GB's closing ceremony flag bearer at Paris 2024. KEY TAKEAWAYS: * Missing out on London 2012 became a turning point. Watching Team GB athletes' families celebrate became a positive motivator that drove Bryony forward for years to come. * The build up to Rio 2016 was the toughest period of her life, with injury, illness, grief, and the pressure of fighting three women for two team spots all colliding at once. * Real change came when Bryony stopped trying to control the outcome and focused entirely on the process, taking ownership of her own journey instead of waiting for things to fix themselves. * Going into Rio she set three targets: enjoy the experience, learn from it, and try to do the best she could. Hitting the best routine of her life in the Olympic final delivered all three. * Tokyo 2020 brought a bronze medal but also unexpected guilt, the strange experience of feeling disappointed with an Olympic medal because she had been chasing something bigger. * Paris 2024 was her most successful Olympic cycle, going in as reigning world and European champion, with the strength to win gold even without delivering her absolute best. * Trampolining is often dismissed as not a serious sport, so being chosen as Team GB's closing ceremony flag bearer felt like a huge moment of recognition for the discipline as a whole. * Olympic dreams come down to a 30 second routine, but the years of training that lead to it have to be worthwhile in their own right, regardless of the outcome. BEST MOMENTS: * "I was so proud of myself for the efforts that I put in. I was proud of myself for the person that I was becoming." * "I couldn't be disappointed in myself. I could be disappointed in the performance that I would deliver, but I would never ever be disappointed in myself." * "The silver medal is still my gold medal. It feels more like mine than it does the gold." * "Lightning doesn't strike twice." * "I just took more control of my journey. I was like, right, this isn't working. Let's see if I can change this." * "Make it worthwhile, no matter what you want the outcome to be." * "It feels like it was always meant to happen, but it also didn't happen. It's such a weird feeling." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ [https://winstonpowell.co.uk/] Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk [info@winstonpowell.co.uk] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ [https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 [https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5] E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV [https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV] ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

The Top 5 Misconceptions About Gymnastics

Google Form: https://forms.gle/hbNgoCSsBPhQbJto7 [https://forms.gle/hbNgoCSsBPhQbJto7] ABOUT THE EPISODE: Host Winston Powell takes on the five biggest misconceptions about gymnastics, from the idea that every gymnast must be ultra-flexible or built a certain way, to the stubborn belief that it's a girls' sport, to the assumption that success comes down to raw talent. Drawing on his own journey in the Senior Great Britain Squad and training alongside names like Joe Fraser, Harry Hepworth, and Zion Aserie, Winston gives a grounded, honest picture of what gymnastics actually demands. KEY TAKEAWAYS: * Flexibility helps, but it is not the deciding factor in who becomes a great gymnast, Harry Hepworth cannot do the splits and is still one of the best in the world. * There is no one gymnast body type, different builds suit different apparatus, from powerful rings specialists to slimmer high bar and pommel workers. * Starting young gives a strong foundation, but gymnasts who started at eight or nine have still made it to Junior Euros and beyond. * Gymnastics is not a girls' sport, rhythmic is the only female-only discipline, and men's artistic gymnastics is a huge global sport in its own right. * Judging is far more objective than most people realise, particularly execution scoring, which is tied to specific angles and technical deductions. * The goals of your gymnastics journey matter, recreational gymnasts, amateur gymnasts, and elite gymnasts all have different requirements. * Talent opens doors, but consistency, repetition, and routine building are what decide who actually progresses over time. * Hard work beats talent when talent does not work hard, and gymnastics rewards the athlete who can keep failing forward. BEST MOMENTS: * "Gymnastics is about making things look easy. That's the basis of the scoring system." * "Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard." * "The biggest thing in gymnastics is not giving up. It's the ability to fall down, to make a mistake, but then get up and try again and again and again." * "Just because I'm a male gymnast doesn't mean I'm gay or overly feminine." * "These things have elements of truth in them but they're not true." * "It's one thing to learn a skill, but then you also need to consolidate it." LINKS: Website: https://winstonpowell.co.uk/ [https://winstonpowell.co.uk/] Email: info@winstonpowell.co.uk [info@winstonpowell.co.uk] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/ [https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/] TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 [https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5] E-book: https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV [https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV] ABOUT THE HOST: As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals, qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

Bryony Page | Trampoline & Winning World Gold in Birmingham

Episode Description In this episode of The Game of Gymnastics, Winston sits down with Bryony Page — triple Olympic medallist, world champion, and Olympic champion in trampoline gymnastics — to talk through her journey in the sport and what has kept her performing at the very highest level for so long. Bryony explains how she first got into gymnastics and trampoline, why the discipline appealed to her so quickly, and how her early years in the sport gradually developed into a serious pursuit of Olympic competition. She reflects on the moment she first realised the Olympics might actually be possible, and why that belief took time to build. The conversation also dives into what trampoline gymnastics really is — from the feeling of performing a routine, to the technical demands, precision, and physical intensity that people often underestimate. Bryony gives a brilliant insight into the challenge of linking difficult skills together while maintaining control, height, execution, and accuracy on an unstable surface. A major part of the episode focuses on the Birmingham World Championships in 2023, which Bryony describes as one of the highlights of her career. She talks through the emotional shift of going from worrying about the pressure of a home crowd to fully embracing it, as well as the drama of synchronised competition, Olympic qualification, and eventually winning world gold in front of a British audience. A fascinating conversation about trampoline, pressure, precision, and one of the most memorable competitions of Bryony’s career. Key Topics • How Bryony first got into gymnastics and trampoline • When she first realised the Olympics could become a real goal • How Bryony describes trampoline gymnastics as a discipline • The technical and mental challenge of performing 10-skill routines • Why trampoline is often underestimated physically • What keeps Bryony motivated after so many years in the sport • The Birmingham World Championships 2023 and performing in front of a home crowd • The difference between individual competition and team-based events in trampoline gymnastics Best Moments “I wanted to see how good I could get.” “Maybe this dream of mine is actually something that can be a realistic goal.” “It’s like driving your own rollercoaster.” “I don’t quite feel like I’ve hit my absolute limit of what I can do on the trampoline.” “The home crowd went from something I was worried about to something that I really, really enjoyed.” Bryony's Social Links https://www.instagram.com/bryony_page/ [https://www.instagram.com/bryony_page/] My Social Links ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 [https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5] The Game of Gymnastics: Understanding The Game (e-Book) https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV [https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV] Host Bio As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His impressive achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.

Am I Actually Good Enough? Gymnast’s Honest Reflection

Episode Description In this solo episode of The Game of Gymnastics, Winston opens up about a question that’s been on his mind throughout his career—and especially after recent competitions: “Am I actually good enough?” Reflecting on performances at the Welsh, English, and British Championships, Winston breaks down the disconnect between training and competition, and why it’s so frustrating to know you’re capable of more but not deliver when it counts. He explores what “good enough” really means, how expectations can shape your mindset, and why these doubts are far more common in sport than people realise. The episode dives into how to objectively assess performance, the importance of context, and how small margins—rather than major failures—often make the biggest difference. Winston also shares how he reframes setbacks, shifting from “I’m not good enough” to “not yet,” and what practical steps he’s taking to improve consistency and performance moving forward. This is an honest, raw look into the mental side of gymnastics—something every athlete will relate to, whether you’re at the top level or just starting out. Key Moments • Why Winston has been questioning if he’s “good enough” • The gap between training performance and competition results • What “good enough” actually means in elite sport • Breaking down performances objectively (difficulty, execution, consistency) • How small mistakes can define entire competitions • The importance of context when evaluating performance • Reframing setbacks: from “not good enough” to “not yet” • Practical steps to improve consistency and mindset Best Moments “Am I good enough right now, or am I good enough to get there in the future?” “It’s not that I’m not good enough… I’m just not consistent enough yet.” “41 skills, three mistakes—that’s the reality.” “You’re not as far away as you think you are.” “It doesn’t mean I won’t be.” Social Links ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/wpowell05/⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5 [https://www.tiktok.com/@winstonpowell5] The Game of Gymnastics: Understanding the Game (e-Book) https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV [https://payhip.com/b/f6RjV] Host Bio As a member of the Senior Great Britain Squad, Winston Powell brings firsthand experience to every episode. His impressive achievements include being the Under 18 English Champion in 2023 and reaching the finals in three events at the Junior World Championships the same year: the All-Around, Parallel Bars, and Horizontal Bar finals qualifying 7th for the All-Around. With five international appearances as a GB gymnast, he has gained invaluable insights into the sport's highest levels. His passion for gymnastics, combined with his deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by elite athletes, makes him the perfect guide to exploring the strategies and stories behind gymnastics success.