Acrobaticsports.com: The
double-back; when did you first learn it, and who was
instrumental in helping you learn it? Also when was the first
time you competed it?
Jack
Leonard: I learned the double in my first year
of college at David Lipscomb in Tennessee. I learned it in a
traveling spotting rig with coach Tom Hanvey
spotting. I remember clearly the day I took it out of the
belt. I was ready and coach Hanvey wanted
me to wait a
couple of more weeks. The thing is I measured the trick
mentally and knew I was high in my single tuck or double
timers that I would miss my head, so I knew I was safe.
Landing on hands and knees was no big deal to me, if I was
that low. We tumbled on Nissen blue/tans and to me they were
very springy. Well, here is the story. I wanted to do it out
of the belt and the coach said not yet. I asked if I could go
out in the hall and get a drink and the coach said okay, so I
got out of the belt and went for the drink. My intention was
to run back in from the
fountain and tumble down the mat and perform the double,
which I did. I yelled, "Watch coach". Coach
Hanvey guessed that's what I was doing and
yelled, "NO!" And I did it anyway. Well, I made it and he
went from mad to happy and yelled with
glee. From then on, I performed
it. I competed it first in a floor exercise routine at Ohio
State University.
Acrobaticsports.com: The
Punch Front (Reverse Tumbling), did you invent it or was it
something you 
learned
from somewhere else? If you learned it from somewhere else,
where? And do you know the origin of it?
Jack
Leonard: Back in my day, it appeared that
gymnasts performed and worked out for fun and not in a
business manner. I would always try new things to have more
fun. I actually did the back to front...in a tuc position
late in my high school career. I used to do
bounding back
tucks in high-school and point of interest...we had to do our
floor routines on the wood basketball court. There was
athletic tape to mark the corners. I would have several Dr.
Scholls pads in my gymnastics shoes to stop the pain. Luckily
I have some genetic gifts or I would have stopped that
craziness. Later in my career, probably college, when I was
doing double full punch front, I learned about tumbling being
in the 1932 Olympics and a US competitor getting the gold and
performing the double full punch front. At first I was
a little disappointed, thinking
that I was the first, but I realized I did it for the fun
factor, not because I thought it had not been done
before.
Acrobaticsports.com: In 1976,
the FIT decided to include tumbling into its World
Championships. The rules had changed drastically and even
though you did not compete in 1975, did you have any 
thoughts of coming
back in 1976 to try and compete and qualify for this
international competition?
Jack
Leonard: Yes, I did think about coming back,
even though I did not have the consistent workout slot. I
approached my local AAU, the Potomac Valley Association. I
had some money but not enough for the trip to Russia. They
could not help me, so that squelched my desires to pursue the
Worlds.
Acrobaticsports.com: You
became a coach in gymnastics. When did you start, and how did
this all come about?
Jack
Leonard: My first coaching experience was
working at gymnastics camps, and clinics, and I ran an inner
city gymnastics program at Ohio State during the summer
months. I also coached at the local YMCA in Columbus and then,
after attending college one of the contingencies for my
teaching job in Montgomery County Maryland was that I would
coach at the local high school. I wanted my athletes to get
as much practice as possible, so I got a job at the local
private gymnastics club, Rockville Marvateens. I coached boys
and girls in the school system as well as the private club.
From 1988 to present, I coached at Hills Gymnastics Training
Center in Gaithersburg, Maryland. I had also coached at the
University of Maryland where I first met Kelli
Hill as a gymnast on the team. Coaching to me was
just a natural way of evolving in the sport I loved so
much.
Acrobaticsports.com: You were
involved in the coaching of a very famous gymnast,
Dominique Dawes, what was your coaching
involvement with her, and what was she like as a competitor
and a gymnastic student?
Jack
Leonard: I was the assistant coach at Marvateen
and Tots, and known as Hills Gymnastics Training Center, when
Kelli Hill and I hooked up once again. I
helped in the normal coaching with a specialty in Tumbling. I
helped Dom understand the intricacies of the
reverse tumbling and she took to that technique very quickly.
She was also very genetically gifted. That, of course, didn't
hurt. Dom, during her gymnastics career, was
a fun, very very hard working gymnast who had incredible
determination and desire. She is unselfish and patient and of
course has that infectious smile. I feel lucky to have been
part of her career.
Acrobaticsports.com: You are
a volunteer expert in gymnastics on allexperts.com. How did
you get involved with that web site?
Jack
Leonard: I was recommended. I felt the process
of breaking a skill down would help me to understand it
better and would allow me to communicate my knowledge and
experiences to others in the process. This process has made
me a better coach.
Acrobaticsports.com: What are
your future plans, and do they involve gymnastics in
anyway?
Jack
Leonard: Just recently my wife and I made a
huge transition by leaving Maryland and moving to Kauai,
Hawaii. My wife and I both retired from many years of
dedication in coaching, teaching, and administration to start
a new life in beautiful Kauai. We bought the only gymnastics
school on the island, Kauai Gymnastics Academy. So basically
I am still a Gym Rat.
Acrobaticsports.com: Do you
have any good advice for anyone who may be interested in
getting involved in the sport of Trampoline and
Tumbling?
Jack
Leonard: Yes, please treat the wonderful sport
like an amusement park and make the new skills you learn the
rides at the park. Believe me, you will never run out of
rides and will always
enjoy the sport for the right reasons.
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