Nikolaj Refshauge

”The most important thing is to get a little away from the competition and a little more back to the game. Then you keep the motivation and curiosity – and you become good at it! ”

Nikolaj grew up on Sydfyn, just on the other side of Svendborg, in a real gymnastics family. Four siblings in two bunk beds have contributed to his core values being community, togetherness, play and trust, and now that his parents met at Ollerup, gymnastics was an obvious way to go. Since he himself went to Ollerup in 2010, he has been an after-school teacher, and then he has read half a bachelor’s degree in sports, which was interrupted when he became an instructor for DGI’s World Team in 2016-17.

”What I’m good at is creating a team. Where you support and celebrate each other, and develop and raise your level, without having to be tough on yourself. Where it is comfortable to be. It’s something I work on a lot.”

After many years of association and competition gymnastics, a number of years as an after-school teacher, a year as a world team coach and 6 years on the elite team – until he took over the role of instructor – Nikolaj has a strong foundation. It has given both insight into how to most effectively train yourself and others – and perhaps especially how to train others to train yourself when you are back in everyday life.

Creating a climate where the gymnasts are involved, have a say in the training and where you move from the classic competitive mentality to the so-called “mastery mentality”, is the core of Nikolaj’s teaching. To maintain the playful, searching, astonishing and fun, and to take his training seriously while experimenting, makes a lot of mistakes and takes ownership of his development. It creates a positive learning space, a much fatter community and simply makes training more fun.

” There’s a good quote from Benjamin Franklin that I obviously can not quite remember… Tell me and I forget, or something like that. It’s about the difference between being told and getting involved. If you have been involved, have been involved – that’s right – then learning has greater value. It fits better. You remember that. ”