WAG Optional bars coach (male)- how essential?

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lotsofgym

Proud Parent
Interested to know from anyone, how important is a male optionals coach? Particularly on bars (or perhaps floor and vault). All else being equal when evaluating a gym, how important is this for progressing through the levels? Seems most people are concerned most about spotting but can good conditioning, drills and stations (and pits) prepare the gymnasts well enough that heavy spotting is not so necessary?
 
Unsure...my dd has male coaches for some of those events...she loves them. Hopefully some peeps will chime in who don't have them!
 
Unsure how important they are, I do know that when my DD changed from a gym with little to no spotting on bars for optionals to one with male coaches and spotting, her form improved immensely.
 
If the coaching staff is solid and they have a good track record with upper level optionals, I wouldn't worry about the lack of a male coach at all. I have seen some exceptional female coaches- both their ability as technical coaches with tons of drills and progressions and their actual physical spotting ability.
I don't think MG Elite has a male coach on staff, though someone might be able to correct me on that.
 
My dd's coaches rarely spot in a way that requires brute strength. It certainly can be helpful -- especially as the girls get older/bigger. But I think there are a lot of great drills and spotting techniques that make heavy spotting less necessary.
 
Not essential. Many years ago I would have said it was essential as spotting was really the primary way of learning skills.

But in this day and age, with the fantastic equipment we have now as well as the far greater access to information allowing coaches to access scores of wonderful drills it is no longer the main way to coach skills.

Lots and lots of spotting causes wear and tear on coaches bodies and doesn't nessesarily yield the best results.
 
Not essential. Many years ago I would have said it was essential as spotting was really the primary way of learning skills.

But in this day and age, with the fantastic equipment we have now as well as the far greater access to information allowing coaches to access scores of wonderful drills it is no longer the main way to coach skills.

Lots and lots of spotting causes wear and tear on coaches bodies and doesn't nessesarily yield the best results.
I asked my child tonight how much actual spotting there was, and she said (in her exasperated voice) "Mommmmm....it's only if we NEED it. Don't you know we drill and kill around here?"
Ok. Fine. Lord help me when she is a tweenager...
 
I don't think my daughter would have most of the bar skills she has w/o coaches who could spot - it would be a dealbreaker for me if I checked out a gym and they said none of our coaches can spot for that reason. That said, I don't think only male coaches are capable of spotting - even when it comes to larger gymnasts. My DD has a female coach who can spot our largest gymnasts no problem.
 
I don't think my daughter would have most of the bar skills she has w/o coaches who could spot - it would be a dealbreaker for me if I checked out a gym and they said none of our coaches can spot for that reason. That said, I don't think only male coaches are capable of spotting - even when it comes to larger gymnasts. My DD has a female coach who can spot our largest gymnasts no problem.

Except that most of the coaches were gymnasts themselves. I am a female coach who is about the same height as an average 11-12 year old. I am very strong and can spot well. But once they are teenagers and several inches taller honestly it is not easy.

However, I think this has made me a better coach. I have to really be creative with drills so by the time the kids come to being spotted for the skill they can basically do it themselves and I am just there for reassurance, not to heave them into the correct position.

This has made the students better gymnasts as well. The other advantage of spotting less is that you can get around and correct more. When you are spotting you are on one station, with one gymnast at a time working one skill. If you are using several equipment set ups to spot skills you can do so much more.
 
@Aussie_coach it was funny to read your post because for some reason I always visualized you as tall and male from your postings here. Your words must very powerful. :p

In terms of male coaches, I think it's a differentiator if all else is equal. I can't imagine not having coaches who can spot the larger girls on the higher level bar skills. Drills are great but at some point you have to let go. I don't think the spotting matters as much on the other events.
 
Wellll...my daughter is moving into optionals, is young, and is not the most form oriented kid. Our head coach has terrific technical coaching skills but doesn't really spot bars. We got a male coach in for bars and the spotting made a world of difference bc the girls were able to actually feel how high their casts should be and what the skills should feel like so they began making faster progress. In my limited experience, I think it helps.
 
Wellll...my daughter is moving into optionals, is young, and is not the most form oriented kid. Our head coach has terrific technical coaching skills but doesn't really spot bars. We got a male coach in for bars and the spotting made a world of difference bc the girls were able to actually feel how high their casts should be and what the skills should feel like so they began making faster progress. In my limited experience, I think it helps.
If you had a bar coach that wouldn't even spot cast handstands, that has nothing to do with being female. That is just a coach who refuses to spot.
 
We happen to have a male coach who spots bars. I really could give a hoot the gender of the person spotting. Bars however require a spot or at least they need to be prepared to spot.

So if you are a bar coach, you need to be able to spot. Male, female you just need to.

Even at the AT&T Cup for the men, someone was spotting are ready to mitigate a disaster.
 
Our boys have a coach that does not spot. My ds is like 5'5 and well over 130 lbs, and getting bigger. And there are 2 bigger than he is. Our coach is almost 70. He is not spotting bars. But D is learning his geinger. Other boys are learning jaegers. They are working cast-handstands. Sometimes he can spot a little gymnast on a kip or something, but that is about it. BUt with drills, they can get the skills without spotting.....

Now, for routines, I totally trust he would catch one of them to prevent them from injury.
 
Yep, same with us, Skschlag. Our program director is the only coach on the men's side with the expertise to teach vault catches, tkachevs, blinds, Higgins rolls, etc., and his shoulders aren't going to let him do any heavy spotting, especially on some of those bigger boys. Yet one of our L10s is on his way toward getting his tkachev and three of his seven L8s last year competed vault catches successfully. As I've said before, if a hulking 140 lb+ boy can learn skills with someone smaller and lighter than him doing the spotting, then why can't a 100 lb girl?
 
We have a male coach (part time… he also coaches rec boys that overlap team practice one night a week). He coaches mainly L4 (for the most part, he coaches bars… specifically kips). He is not as strong as some of our female coaches.
We also have a VERY part time male coach who spots flyaways and yurchenko drills (he comes in specifically for that). He is strong, but not essential.
 

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