Personally, I think a coach with gymnastics experience of their own is the best. They know what it means to tumble on the hard floor and know from personal experience that it's good to do tumbling into the pit, tumble track, and mats as well, they know how to use equipment, they know the side of the gymnast, and when they say something like they know it's scary, or something is hard or something is easy, you know they are basing that on their own experience and aren't just saying it off of some book they read or some clinic they went to. I don't think gymnastics clinics, and just teaching experience can fill in all the spaces that gymnastics experience does as a background as well. Of course it doesn't mean that just because someone has an elite gymnastics background then they are a good coach. What do you guys think?

I like having coaches that have gymnastics experience too. They don't have to have the gold medal or be the star on the Olympics team, but high-level gymnastics experience for coaching high-level, plus the coaching experience counts for a lot.

my coach is strict and harsh but is the best coach at our gym.

and she had harsh training by the meanest guy

who's the meanest guy?

Yes I think gymnastics training is invaluable in a coach, however the best gymnasts rarely make the best coaches. For those who found gymnastics easy and never had to struggle to do the skills and go through all the mistakes often find coaching harder because they expect their gymnasts bodies to be able to do things that easily aswell. Those who struggled as gymnasts often had to go through every drill in the book to learn skills and really think about how to make them happen rather than just make them happen.

A lot of times the harsh coach is the inexperienced coach - the coach with no gymnastics experience/training of their own - and they are unnecessarily harsh and their program and gymnasts suffer because of it - they just don't fully understand gymnastics. Related: Parkettes program remains a gymnastics paradise (Philly.com) http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/showthread.php?p=72713&posted=1#post72713 No gymnastics experience there by the head coach/owner Donna Strauss either; it's interesting.

In one of the gyms I was at, the biggest opponent to the girls not wearing shorts over leotards during workout was a coach without gymnastics training. She just didn't get it.