Coaches One-Day Gymnastics Camps

[AliyaMust]

Hi all,

My gym has decided to start holding one-day gymnastics camps on the days that kids are off of school (MLK Day, President's Day, etc), and I am in charge of coming up with the activities and the schedule! Have any of you worked one of these single day camps before? What sort of activities did you do? I'm thinking maybe an hour and a half total, split up into the morning and afternoon, of actual gymnastics instruction, with other things like games, crafts, and open gym the rest of the time. Does that sound like a good setup? Would you recommend anything different?

Also, if you could recommend good games to play and good crafts to do for this kind of thing, that would be highly appreciated! I don't know yet what ages the kids are likely to be; I assume elementary school age.

Thank you all!

 

[JBS]

We do 1.5 to 2 hour camps. We no longer do any activities that are not in our "niche". We are "gymnastics / ninja instruction"... so that is what we do. No arts and crafts... no snack... no open gym. Typically we run 15 minute rotations. If it's 1.5 hours... they will warm up and then do five 15 minute rotations of instructional gymnastics or ninja and then go home. Without the "babysitting" type activities (crafts... snack... open gym)... we have been able to charge much more per hour for the camp as they are fully instructional.

Never open gym... especially at the end when parents are picking up. They just see their kids running around doing nothing. Open gym also makes the staff lazy... instructors need to be instructing... not playing zone defense.

Games yes... very organized and well thought out... not games that go on forever while everyone sits out. Typically we will stop everything for one of the rotations and bring everyone together for a game or two and then break back into the rotations.

 

[AliyaMust]

I understand why you chose to do it that way, but the idea here is that we are offering a service to parents: A place to take their kids for the day when they can't just send them to school. 1.5 to 2 hours just doesn't provide that service.

Do you have some suggestions for good, organized and well thought out games?

 

[JBS]

I understand why you chose to do it that way, but the idea here is that we are offering a service to parents: A place to take their kids for the day when they can't just send them to school. 1.5 to 2 hours just doesn't provide that service.

We provide a service too... learning.

Do you have some suggestions for good, organized and well thought out games?

We do more team based games. If we do individual games where kids get eliminated... then we make sure they are played fast so everyone can get back in the game.

Just Google something like "group games for kids". There is tons of stuff online...

17 Games For Large Groups Of Rowdy & Restless Kids

Staring face to face with a gaggle of kiddos ready to revolt? You need some quick games for large groups to play and we've got you covered.

www.scarymommy.com

One of my favorite group games...

 

[JBS]

As far as crafts... I like crafts that they do not take home. For example... if you have a big bulletin board... put some black paper on it. Then... have the kids make astronauts... planets... rockets... aliens... stars... moons... comets... etc. to create "outer space".

 

[JBS]

The paper chain craft is great around any holiday... just theme it with the colors of the holiday...



We cut the paper strips with a paper cutter first and have about 20 staplers to make it easier.

 

[JBS]

@AliyaMust How many kids are you expecting? Under 50... 50-99... 100+? My biggest advice for camps is to make sure you have enough staffing. We will run groups up to 10:1 in camps... but we will actually have an 8:1 ratio with staff in the building. There will be an office staff and a manager as well as all of the camp staff.

 

[HopefulGymnast]

Some events just to give you ideas:

- gymnastics (group/individual) pose photoshoot? (note that I say pose, because you need professional equipment to photograph fast moving flipping and twisting moves, as you'd need a shutter time of 1/800 or smaller.)
- Hide and seek in the dark: so I know a gym that does this, and it always surprises me. To me it seems like it'd be a safety/liability issue. We aren't in the US though.
- learning a dance together, or if you have many kids you can have em split in groups and each group prepares a dance.
- Some basic cheer moves for variation
- some basic freerunning
- building a fort out of mats/foam blocks
- If you have a whiteboad, letting the kids draw on it. You can also use it for games like the game where they draw something and the other kids have to guess what it is.
- If it's a smaller group, you could do some kids vs coach gymnastics challenges.


it depends a lot on the age of the kids and what you're going for. However, I'm always of the opinion that just listing ideas (even bad ones) can help people come up with other better ideas.

 

[AliyaMust]

@AliyaMust How many kids are you expecting? Under 50... 50-99... 100+? My biggest advice for camps is to make sure you have enough staffing. We will run groups up to 10:1 in camps... but we will actually have an 8:1 ratio with staff in the building. There will be an office staff and a manager as well as all of the camp staff.

I honestly don't know. We haven't done a single-day camp like these before, so we don't know yet how many people will sign up. An 8:1 coach to kid ratio sounds about right, though. We'll probably see how many coaches say they can work the camp, and then decide how many slots to have open based on that.