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Tak Kikuchi has been a driving force in the sport of gymnastics in Nova Scotia and Canada for over 40 years. He has been a coach, judge, administrator, and club developer. Earlier in his career, he coached the Acadia University men’s and women’s gymnastics teams with both teams winning the 1973 AUAA Championships under his leadership.

As a NCCP Level 4 coach, he has been to two Olympic Games (2004, 2008), five World Championships, two Pan-Am Games, and two Commonwealth Games. He has coached Olympians Chris Burley, Richard Ikeda, and David Kikuchi.

As a judge, he has been involved at the provincial, national, and international level for over 35 years. He has helped develop three of the gymnastic clubs in Nova Scotia: Sackville Taiso (1974-1976), Cobequid Spartans (1979-1989), and the Halifax Tumblebugs (1989-1991). He is the founding member of Halifax ALTA Gymnastics Club and has been the Club’s Head Coach from 1991 to the present. In addition to his own coaching duties, Tak mentors younger, developing coaches. ALTA Gymnastics is home to current gymnastics phenomenon, Ellie Black.

In 2010, Tak received the Gymnastics Canada Life Membership award, Gymnastics Canada’s most prestigious award, given to a person who has provided long-term services in a significant manner to the sport of gymnastics.

 

Annual Program

“Just do your thing.”

That’s gymnastics coach, official, and developer Tak Kikuchi’s advice and it has resonated loudly with his students throughout his more than 40 years of coaching.

“He’ll tell us before competitions, ‘Just do your thing,”‘ says Hugh Smith, national all-around champion for 2013. “That’s something that has always stuck with me.”

Hugh started out at Taiso Gymnastics, a Sackville club that was started by Tak and a few friends. Taiso, at which Tak was head coach, provided a place for gymnasts to train competitively at a time when most clubs were recreational and competitive gymnastics were restricted to university athletics. After Taiso, Tak helped start the Cobequid Spartans in Truro in 1979. He then contributed to the development of the Halifax Tumblebugs, a club that later merged with the Maritime Academy to form ALTA Gymnastics. In 2013, ALTA was named best club by Gymnastics Canada and the club has produced star gymnasts such as Hugh Smith and Ellie Black.

“He’s been very persistent,” says Hugh, “It’s kind of been building block after building block, and that’s how he’s been able to bring such high-level athletes to Nova Scotia.”

Tak has been head coach at ALTA since June 1991 and he has taken athletes to many international championships, including five Worlds, while also serving as a three-time Canada Games coach and a two-time Olympic coach.

Among the male and female artistic gymnasts he has taken to major competitions is his son David, who Tak coached at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

“I think that the amount of time that he has been able to produce national team athletes is very rare,” says David. “He has had great gymnasts for a long time, and the sport has been constantly changing.”

David believes that one of his father’s best coaching qualities is an even-keeled personality, and anyone who knows Tak will agree that he always stays calm under pressure.

“That’s my personality, I guess… I’m a boring guy,” says Tak, laughing. However, boring is not a term that any of Tak’s students would use to describe their cheerful coach’s approach to gymnastics.

Vaughn Arthur, artistic gymnast and ALTA coach, explains that, starting out, Tak encountered a language barrier when coaching but recognized the challenge and worked to overcome it. “He would demonstrate a lot himself on the equipment,” says Vaughn.

At the 2003 Canada Games, Vaughn was expected to medal after excellent training, but then fell during competition. He says he appreciated that Tak didn’t show disappointment and always had reasonable expectations. “I try to show confidence whether at a little competition or the Olympics,” says Tak, who coached Vaughn at three Canada Games competitions.

“He has a good way of balancing expectation and motivation,” says Vaughn, adding that Tak’s coaching style encourages gymnasts to compete for themselves and not for their coaches or parents.

“He always puts the interest of the athlete first,” says Hugh, explaining that Tak is excellent at designing routines that his athletes will be able to execute 100% of the time.

Tak also excelled as an athlete and was inducted to the Acadia University Athletics Hall of Fame as part of the 1971-72 gymnastics team. He then began his coaching career at Acadia in 1973, followed by three years as the men’s gymnastics team coach for Dalhousie University.

In addition to increasing competition in men’s gymnastics and encouraging more athletes to join the sport, Vaughn says that Tak’s inspirational coaching has prompted the majority of his students to become coaches themselves. “We feel that we want to contribute to what Tak started.”

For Vaughn, who has recently co-founded Windsor Gymnastics with Hugh Smith, Tak has become an invaluable mentor. “He kind of says something every day that sticks with me,” says Vaughn.

Hugh agrees that Tak is a memorable coach: “I’ve spent more time with Tak than I have with my own father. He’s been there as a coach and he’s been there as a friend. I will use his style of coaching in gymnastics and in my day-to-day life.”

Tak says his favourite part of coaching is simply seeing kids learn skills. “It doesn’t matter whether they’re high-level skills or beginner skills. It makes them happy and then I’m happy.”

Annual Program Courtesy of Katherine Wooler