Here we have the girls in compulsories use them for entire beam routines. I don't like it. If there are any falls the ankle weights will make that impact more intense. And no matter how good a gymnast you are, everyone falls off beam sometimes. Even if the routine is perfect you are still...
Tricky. I teach 4/5 year old boys but in mixed-gender classes. I have some boys who are very good listeners and some who are very excitable and difficult to get to listen - perhaps on average they have more energy than the girls, but not consistently. I've also seen a lot of improvement from...
That's a complicated question. Getting stronger will definitely help gymnastics in general - but it isn't just a question of getting stronger. One also has to translate strength into technique. Different kids also build strength in different areas at different rates. The conditioning program...
Thanks to everyone for the advice. These are things I think I can implement:
Clarifying specific skills/prerequisites she would need to move to team or to Xcel.
Honesty about the team program's unlikeliness
Reiterating that rec is not a lesser experience than team (especially since she's...
It is hard for me to say these things to a parent because I also hate the age barrier to serious training and competition. I joined JO level 4 at age 13 - though I wasn't ever talented or too successful - but it was a valuable experience for me. Of course I didn't contribute anything to the...
Hi all,
Wondering if you all have any advice about how I, as a rec and preschool coach should break it to parents if they ask me about team possibilities for their kid.
I have one 7-year-old child in particular in intro girls' classes. Her mother keeps asking me about private lessons (I don't...
As far as the pain goes - it's hard to tell from an 8-year-old's response what pain means. To be perfectly honest stretching - particularly middle splits - hurts! Especially for a young child since they can't yet distinguish as well between the feeling of stretching and a harmful pain. I...
In compulsories we had practice 4pm-8pm and had a 15 minute break somewhere in the middle.
In optionals we practiced 4pm-9pm with no break. We were always free to go drink water from the fountain inside the gym, and at the end of a rotation we could go out to use the restroom or water (and...
Moisturize only when your hands are very dry/cracked. Keeping them soft will just make you rip more.
I'm very prone to rips too - it never went away for me. Getting grips, and then dowel grips, did help, but I always ripped way more than my teammates. I actually noticed that I rip more when the...
Also good to note that, while the scores that make the podium are different between regions, the harshness of the scoring is different too. My experience from my home state in Region 3 is that scores across the board are much lower than even at meets in a neighboring state also in Region 3. E.g...
Also if the gym is good, all the coaches will be good, whether they are assistant coaches or head coaches. In fact in my experience sometimes the HC is not great - even if they are generally a great coach - because s/he tends to be more stressed out and tired from managing the entire program...
I have heard that the organizational structure is annoying for coaches and judges. As a gymnast it was very exciting, very big. There was a shuttle from the hotel to the pier, but sometimes it was full or inconvenient so we wound up taking a cab. We got to see a college meet one night which was...
All of this would depend on the gym. So you should ask each gym for the cost estimate and if you could compete mid-season.
Also consider that JO will probably be more practice hours, more intensive training, more competitions, harder on your body, and you may be one of the oldest in your group...
Re: the elaborate set-up. This can work short-term but be wary of it becoming a crutch. Something that often helps is having the gymnast set it up on their own (or with a little help if that is too difficult) because eventually they will get bored or tired of setting it up and just go for the...
Having a "problem child" is always tough. I have one kid in beginner class who just cannot pay attention even though she is 9; I really think she has ADD or ADHD but the parents have not mentioned anything to me. What's worse is she is very coordinated but will never move up because she cannot...
In my school, we had twice-a-week cardio sessions where you had to maintain a heart rate of 140 bpm for 40 minutes to get an A (30 minutes to get a B, etc). The idea, I think, was to make the grade correlate with effort rather than ability. But it wound up being very difficult for athletes since...
I also do club gym, which is a breath of fresh air after training so hard in high school. There are some issues because it's all student-run, and students aren't professionals at doing things like submitting travel documents or reimbursement forms. However in general it's great, the cheapest...
My goal was originally to be on a competitive gymnastics team, which seemed way out of the question since I was in rec classes at age 13. But I worked hard and moved up to pre-team, and then to team. Competed throughout high school and did one level per year until senior year, when I repeated...