Coach to Gymnast Ratio

[Ingymmom]

I am curious to know what a good coach/gymnast ratio is for a competitive team...

What is your level/childs level... What is the coach to gymnast ratio for your level?

For coaches - what is your gymnast/coach ratio?

What would be the preferred gymnast/coach ratio?

Thanks in advance for any responses

[Drowning123gone]

On a average day at our gym, we usually have 1coach/10gymnasts and on they day we have all the lvl4 through lvl9, we can have up to 1coach/15gymnasts.

When I am coaching regardless of level, I like to have 10 to 12 gymnasts in a group because if you just have a couple of kids, they are going to get tired real fast and their hands can get really hot on bars. If you have to many kids, there is alot of standing around and its hard to get anything done.

[bogwoppit]

preschoolers 1 - 6 with some extra assistants around.

Rec - 1 - 8

Team 1 - 7/10 Depending on the coach.

[Shawn]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ingymmom I am curious to know what a good coach/gymnast ratio is for a competitive team... What is your level/childs level... What is the coach to gymnast ratio for your level? For coaches - what is your gymnast/coach ratio? What would be the preferred gymnast/coach ratio? Thanks in advance for any responses

I think our gym might be set up a little differently than some others. There are 4-6 coaches for the team girls. They work a particular apparatus and the girls rotate doing three events at each practice (usually). So we'll have one coach on vault, one or two on bars, and one or two on floor, for example. On L4, there are 14 girls and they work with 1-2 coaches at a time. Usually they work through stations with the coach spotting the girls that need it.

[catesmom]

We have 4 team coaches and about 40 girls on team. They work all 4 events everyday and rotate through the coaches. There are usually about 8 to 10 girls per coach. If coaches are missing, due to meets etc, practices are cancelled for some girls. They always keep the coach to gymnast ratio workable. Conditioning is done at part of the rotations under the supervision of a coach, usually with bars.

Pre team comes at night during the summer and are always seperate from the team girls, they work with a fifth pre-team caoch and one of the team coaches.

[Shawn]

Quote:
Originally Posted by catesmom We have 4 team coaches and about 40 girls on team. They work all 4 events everyday and rotate through the coaches. There are usually about 8 to 10 girls per coach. If coaches are missing, due to meets etc, practices are cancelled for some girls. They always keep the coach to gymnast ratio workable. Conditioning is done at part of the rotations under the supervision of a coach, usually with bars. Pre team comes at night during the summer and are always seperate from the team girls, they work with a fifth pre-team caoch and one of the team coaches.

Our girls do their warm up first, then conditioning, then stretches all together. They do divide the conditioning into event-specific stations but it is all done before event practice. Then they split off into teams and start rotating through the events.

[hammy]

Generally: This is what I would say as a coach.
Preschoolers: 1:6
Schoolage (rec): 1:8
Level 4-7: 1:10-15
Level 8-10: 1-10

I think it also depends on the girls in the group--can they work well and hard on their own or are they the type of kids that need someone constantly watching over them.

Now, when I competed as a gymnast we had anywhere between 1:10--1:-20. Personally, I loved one-on-one time with the coach, and/or small group work.

[gymdog]

Team doesn't really have an exact ratio anywhere I've been since it's set up differently and can be more independent. Although, it seems to roughly stay around 1:10. Sometimes more, sometimes less. I was in a really big group of 8-10s one year when we lost a coach and it was a very successful year.

Classes are capped at 8 for my preschool and early grade classes but the class usually isn't filled. The other gym I work at is only grade school - up right now and it's a 1:10 ratio on paper but it actually works out a lot lower usually. For the high school groups it's at 1:10 for the gym instructors although their own coaches come along (but they usually just observe).

[gymmomntc2e6]

Our team girls all warm up together (about 45-50 min) then will split by level. The L5's will usually have one coach (7 girls) will have one, L6 & 8 (5 girls) will have one. The L3's (8 girls) will have one to two depending - we have a small team which I really enjoy.

[BlairBob]

I prefer preschool to be about 1:6 or 1:7. 1:7 is pushing it, but can be easy if you don't have any wild child or a few crazy awesome daredevil boys.

I've done 1:9 for rec girls and boys and probably could do 1:10 with stations. Unfortunately, it just means they don't get a lot of on-hands time.

In general for developmental and compulsory levels I like 1:7 or 1:8. Once you get into optional, you can push 1:10. With compulsory levels, I just have to be more watchful of perfecting small points and spotting more often. Once they hit optionals, I only have to spot hairy or new skills and they can get a lot more feedback from their peers.

For compulsory boys, 1:7 is about the furthest I like to go. 1:6 is nice actually. 1:8 generally with compulsory means too much work policing them besides perfecting small points.

The only problem with going past 1:7 or 1:8 is if you need two spotters to double spot ( I don't like double spotting unless it's a hairy release as too often the other spotter is there for emotional comfort ).

With optionals, they typically will follow other stations a lot better than compulsories or developmentals. By this time in their career, they can provide their own feedback versus relying on yours 100% of the time.