Our daughter Shaivi has written Balance, Bounce & Believe, a practical guide for young gymnasts and the people who stand beside them. I wrote about what the book means to our family in June. This page is the plain tour of what’s inside.
Who This Guide for Young Gymnasts Is For
The book speaks to three readers at once. It talks to the gymnast who is scared of a new skill. It talks to the parent in the stands who doesn’t know what the judges are looking for. It talks to the coach who keeps a young athlete safe and still pushes for progress.
Shaivi wrote it from inside the gym, not from the audience. One line from the book’s own site says it best: “Every routine you admire was built in years of quiet, unseen practice. This book is about that work.”
Three Pillars in the Title
The title is the framework of the whole guide for young gymnasts. Balance is staying composed on something far too narrow to feel safe, and it’s as much a mental skill as a physical one. Bounce is the courage to leave the ground knowing you must come back down, and to spring back after a fall.
Believe is the quiet promise a gymnast makes in the half second before a skill, when nothing has happened yet. Everything depends on whether you commit fully in that moment.
What’s Inside: 30 Chapters in Nine Parts
The book opens with a dedication “to those who fell, rose, and kept going” and a foreword on why Shaivi wrote it. Then come nine parts:
- The World of Women’s Artistic Gymnastics: the sport, the four apparatus, and the real picture of gymnastics in India.
- Judging and Scoring: how competitions work, the Code of Points with its D-Score and E-Score, and what judges look for.
- Training: a gymnast’s training week, strength and conditioning, skill progression from beginner to national level, and injury prevention.
- The Mental Game: the psychology of the sport, dealing with fear, falls and failure, and a competition mindset.
- Nutrition for Gymnasts: fueling a gymnast’s body, Indian meal plans, and what to know about supplements.
- Balancing Life: being a student and an athlete, time management, and rest, recovery and sleep.
- For Parents: what your child needs from you, understanding the sport, and talking with coaches.
- For Coaches: building trust and gym culture, age-appropriate progressions and safety, and planning a season.
- The Progress Tracker: a goal-setting framework, a weekly training log, a skill checklist and a competition journal.
It closes with a glossary of gymnastics terms, resources for Indian gymnasts, and a letter to the next generation of Indian gymnasts.
Practical Pages in the Guide for Young Gymnasts
This isn’t only a book to read once. The progress tracker part gives ready pages for a training log, a skill checklist and a competition journal. The nutrition part is written for Indian kitchens, with meal plans a family can follow.
The mental game chapters are the ones I’d hand to any young athlete first. They turn fear into something you can map and work with, instead of something you hide.
In Shaivi’s Own Words
There’s one line of Shaivi’s I keep reading. “I did not become brave because of a result. I stayed because a coach refused to let me leave on my worst day, and stood beside the apparatus until I trusted my own body again.”
That’s the whole book in two sentences. A good guide for young gymnasts isn’t about the podium. It’s about the person who stays beside you on the worst day.
How to Read It Now
Right now the book is a private, curated limited edition. You can register your interest on shaividave.com, where you’ll also find the full table of contents.
We’re collecting honest feedback first, from readers, parents, coaches, gymnasts and teachers. That feedback will make the book better before it goes out more widely. If you coach or parent a young gymnast, your notes would mean a lot to us.
For the family side of this story, read From Baby SQLAuthority to Author: Shaivi, You Made Us Proud.
Most of a gymnast’s life happens far from the podium. This book was written for those hours.
Balance, Bounce & Believe is not a book about medals, it is a book about the ordinary hours behind them.
Published by Pinal Dave on SQLAuthority. More of my work at pinaldave.com.
