How gymnastics training can teach success.
“It all began with a little camp in Knoxville,” recalls John Macready, co-owner of FlipFest, the Crossville-based gymnastics camp that it arguably one of the nation’s top gymnastics training facilities. It has also become an ideal facility for camps and events of all kinds. “We started with gymnastics,” explains Macready, “but over the years we’ve discovered that, being located where we are – with this incredibly beautiful and rustic 150-acre setting on Lake Francis – that what we have is a terrific venue for just about any kind of camp or event, from cheerleading, CrossFit and musician camps to corporate adventure outings, retreats, and weddings.”
FlipFest is built on the hard work, vision and the talent of some of the gymnastic world’s most storied athletes. Macready is a figure well-known in the sport, with a roster of achievements, including being part of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team. He finished seventh all-around in the Atlanta games and won four National All-Around titles in 1990, 1992, 1993, and 1995, the first gymnast to do so in 29 years. He was named Sportsperson of the Year in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, and 2000 and has been a member of six World Championships teams.
Macready’s first experience with a gymnastics camp came around 2000. A shoulder injury caused him to stop competing, so he began doing camps around the country. Filling in for a teammate, he arrived at a camp in Knoxville, stayed with a local family and worked at the camp. While there he met someone and decided after he finished school he would move back to Knoxville permanently. Macready was living in L.A. at the time and treating the camp, more or less, as a “hobby.”
When he eventually arrived in Knoxville, he was asked by another accomplished gymnast, Phil Savage – gymnast and coach now turned Knoxville photographer, and the only Junior National Team gymnastics coach in Tennessee history – to “help make something bigger out of this little gymnastics camp in Knoxville,” the one he had originally worked at.
The camp kept growing. When 2005 came, he began thinking it was time to take it to the next level, to transform a camp of “50 or so kids coming here for a couple of weeks during the summer,” to a true training facility for serious, aspiring gymnasts. Macready knew that in order to get there, he needed even more top talent. So, he called on his good friend, John Roethlisberger, an athlete who is also well known in the sport: a four-time U.S. National all-around champion who represented the U.S. at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics.
Now, with both men committed to transforming FlipFest into “something bigger,” they set out to find the right location. After searching extensively across several states, the two settled on their current Crossville site. “It was crazy how it all worked out. We never imagined we’d find 150 acres with a lake.”
Twenty-five years later, FlipFest hosts more than 3,000 athletes each summer. Gymnastics training – as integral as it is to the program – serves as the foundation for an experience focused on building not just skill, but a thought process, as well. “Our goal is to not only give young athletes the best possible gymnastics training,” Macready says, “but to also teach them what it takes to be successful, whether it’s in gymnastics or anything else.” As Macready points out, many of their campers go onto other sports, but what they teach, he says, “serves as a fantastic foundation for success in any endeavor, how to dream, be successful, and understand that working hard will lead to something.”
As a motivational speaker, Macready shared his philosophy for success – one that has worked well in his own life – with audiences across the country. In order to succeed, he says, “we need to rid ourselves of unnecessary pressures and distractions. I think our minds are 90% occupied with things that we can’t control … things that we waste time on. When we understand that, put those things aside and concentrate on the things we can actually control, success will come.” Twenty-five years and 75,000 or so campers later, that formula for success has FlipFest going strong.