Coaches Skill Chart

[k2bdeutmeyer]

After a 5.5yr hiatus from coaching, I'm coming back to coach a young (4-5yr old) hot shots class. Progression from this class is a little uncertain, but they will likely move to a 2nd hot shots class (6-7yr olds) before moving to (current) level 4. I'm putting together a skill/incentive chart for them and already have a pretty good list going, but I'm curious....if this were YOUR class, what would you include?

 

[chalkbowl]

This is kind of a run down of what I work with my class, but could work as a skill chart as well (just updated some of the things to include more work towards the 2013 routines):

Vault
* Running Drills
* Run with correct form
* Hurdle onto board with correct form
* Handstand fall flat back on 8 inch mat with straight body
* Handstand against wall
* Straight jump drills on board
* Run straight jump onto 8 inch mat
* Run straight jump onto resi

Bars
* Pullp-up Pull-over with straight legs to front support
* Cast drills
* Back Hip Circle Drills
* Back hip circle w/ spot
* Cast shoot through drill on floor
* Cast shoot through drill on bar
* Cast shoot through w/ spot
* Front Hip Circle Drill
* Front hip circle with spot
* Glide Drills

Beam
* Releve Positions
* Releve Walks
* Straight Leg Kicks
* Straight Jumps with water fall arms
* Tuck jumps
* Pivot turns
* Leap Drill
* Passe Walks
* Lunge-Lever-Lunge

Floor
* Step kick handstand
* Step Kick handstand forward roll pass through candle
* Straight arm backward roll to push-up (down wedge or off panel mat)
* Cartwheel on a line
* Cartwheel against a wall

 

[JBS]

We are now working in concepts...get your base concepts on each event and hit them. There should not be much to hit.

For example...our uneven bar workouts are always based on two or more of the following concepts...

…KIPPING, CASTING, TAPPING, CIRCLING, PIROUETTING & FLYING!

Kipping = The kip...not the glide kip. Kip drills and movements can start long before an effective glide is developed.
Casting = Developing a good planching action.
Tapping = Swinging...we consider the glide swing to fit under this category. Start teaching them about different taps at this young age. Allow them to tap and target shoot off the bar in a safe way...onto pit mats. (Thanks Jon Aitken!)
Circling = Do you do basket hangs and swings...I hope so. The hip circle or clear hip is not the only inbar circling action.
Pirouetting = How about some one arm handstand work.
Flying = If you are starting to teach the kids about different taps at a young age...you are laying the groundwork for future dismounts and major releases.

We do many of the above in both the over grip and under grip.

Don't forget falling safely (rolling), your base skill (the handstand), body line (shaping), body tension (shapes are nothing if you cannot hold them).

 

[JBS]

Here's a bunch of casting ideas...love this video.

[video=youtube;pk_cDUZmQCI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk_cDUZmQCI[/video]

http://youtu.be/pk_cDUZmQCI

 

[Marino]

Hi,

For the tumbling part I would everything included here: Level 1 » Tumbling Drills

Also including videos:
[video=youtube;eetGyqo4iWI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eetGyqo4iWI&list=UUxBp9vzik-ACpZuKHYxKcvg&index=7&feature=plcp[/video]

good luck,
Peter

 

[marie83]

Handstand......My way - YouTube
very useful video for handstands. We haven't got as far as handstands with our development squad yet. We are still working on stage 1 of the video, where the gymnast's knees are on the block! We have also tried some of the other shaping exercises lying on the floor and on elbows. We have been working on this for 1 month now and the gymnasts are really only just beginning to understand it and are applying it straight away!

As we are taking such a long time to work on the handstand we haven't really taught any skills yet where a handstand is required, so are focusing a lot on the run up and hurdle step on vault - pretty much what was described by chalkbowl in post 1.

Bars we are working on pull ups, leg lifts, pull overs, casting (using all the drills in the video JBS posted) and swinging

Beam - Releve walks and balances, Passe balance, Pivot turns, stretch jumps etc. The only 'skill' we do is called a 'roll back' which can be seen in this video at 1.00 Skyla Sims - GRADE 14 - Welsh National Gymnastic Final 2011 - YouTube and we only really do this for confidence building! Once we are happy with acro skills and more advanced jumps on floor we allow the gymnasts to try them on the beam.

We focus a lot on correct shapes and conditioning drills so our development squad work on very few 'skills', so we have a series of charts with the drills we want them to be able to achieve, eg a timed sprint of the vault run up in under 4 seconds on the first set of charts, goes down to under 3.5 seconds on the final chart. The gymnasts get a star on their chart each time they achieve something consistently - basically if we don't have to correct their shape. Once one chart is full they get to move on to the next and when they have completed the final chart they move into the competition squad. The final chart also has skills on it which they get to demonstrate at our club championships at the end of the year.