Throughout her early career in the highly competitive world of NCAA gymnastics, Katelyn Trevino experienced a wrenching paradox. From a season-ending injury at the Air Force Quad Meet in her junior year to taking home the Big 12 Championship Floor Title, she has gone through it all. However, there was something that always caught her off guard. “It was never my physical ability or technique that held me back,” she has stated, “it was my mind and my self-perception.”

Trevino has become an essential supporter in the fight for gymnasts’ mental health, relying directly from her own experience and her subsequent academic research. The former gymnast from the University of Missouri has reportedly created “The Confident Competitor Workbook,” an instructional manual meant to provide other gymnasts the mental resources she lacked throughout her own competitive career, according to Planet of Gymnastics’ Instagram post. And her mission is deeply personal.

“As a gymnast, I trained incredibly hard—but when it was time to compete, pressure took over,” Trevino explained. “I overthought, doubted myself, and made mistakes that didn’t reflect my ability. I created this workbook because I needed these tools back then, and I know so many gymnasts still do today. This workbook gives gymnasts what I didn’t have—the confidence and mental tools to perform when it matters most.”

In a sport where mental toughness is just as important as physical strength, her work fills a crucial need. Reduced performance, greater injury risk, and less love of the sport can result from gymnasts’ usual struggles with overthinking, fear of failure, perfectionism, and tremendous performance pressure. Trevino’s authority on these issues stems from a powerful combination of lived experience and formal education.

Following a devastating NCAA career cut short by injuries like a damaged ACL and Achilles tendon, she went on to get master’s degrees in educational psychology, social work, and mental health counseling. Her research focused on positive coaching. But the workbook is just one piece of Trevino’s larger support structure under her KT Coaching brand.

The former NCAA gymnast has been taking vital steps to help other up-and-coming talents

One of Katelyn Trevino’s resources is a series of self-paced online classes called “How To Be Calm & Confident” that teach valuable skills and mindfulness practices. Through her podcast, “The Mental Gymnastics Pod,” which she also founded, she provides a platform for candid discussion around the psychological components of gymnastics.

Trevino’s approach is holistic, targeting not just the athlete but the entire support system. By providing tools like “The Mindful Parenting 101 Workshop,” she hopes to raise awareness about the importance of mental health in gymnastics and equip parents to assist their children mentally. Additionally, she provides educational training to gyms and coaches one-on-one, assisting them in incorporating mental skills into their coaching.

Medals and points aren’t her end goal. “Gymnastics is such an intense and focused sport that takes up so much of someone’s life and time,” according to her. “I feel it is important to maximize that time to teach them skills that go beyond the competition floor and set them up for success in their future career, relationships, and personal life.”

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Through her actions, the former NCAA star is changing the narrative in gymnastics, promoting the idea that mental training is just as important as physical training, and lending vital support to the movement for gymnasts’ mental health.