Coaches Conditioning for Rec Class

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K

kez

Hi - has anyone got any ideas for making conditioning sessions more interesting and a lot less like hard work. While some of my kids have a good strength base I also have some that desparetely need to improve their strength.

I need to find some new ways to disguise the conditioning in the class and am therefore looking for some fresh ideas to make the classes more exciting and fun while improving their strength.

Thanks in advance for any ideas they will be very much appreciated.


Kez

P.S. I'm teaching kids with an age range from 5 to 9 year olds.
 
Relay races! I add things based on what part of the body i need to work,lots of jumping, hopiing for legs, hands on floor in push up position, feet on a frisbee turned upside down and they "run" on their hands, log rolls, for core etc. Its fun and they will work very hard without even knowing it!
 
Conditioning tag! Best game EVER!

It's a form of 'everybody's it' tag. Each gymnast chooses a conditioning skill. When they tag someone they say their skill and the person who was tagged has to do 5( or 7, 10, whatever) of that skill before continuing on trying to tag people.

You can vary it too depending on what you work on. ie: everyone has to choose a leg skill, or if you want to work on a specific thing everyone gets the same skill (ie: split jumps).

This game keeps everyone running or conditioning the whole time. We always switch it up and play 3-6 rounds. They end up doing way more conditioning that way and they love it.

I'd be cautious with the younger kids though, the youngest we've played with is a group of 7-8 yr olds. They tend to tag a little hard....
 
We've played conditioning circle before with the girls. Basically it has to be conditioning exercises on the floor unless we were near bars.

Of course, we do circuits with each rep counting as a point. I try to keep track of how many points they can do in the same workouts over a month or two and if they improve perhaps there will be a reward.

And of course, should you dare, there always " Torture the Teacher. " Basically, the coach will pick an exercise and either match the students reps for reps per each student. Eventually one gymnast will win ( and the rest will laugh ) when they cause the coach to tire out. Sometimes, they strategize to have the strongest at the end of say all 8 of them.

Another variation is to total all of the reps and then have the coach see if they can perform it. If the coach can, perhaps the coach will choose yet 1 more conditioning element or they will lose out on a chance for 3-5 minutes of free time on tumble-trak or pit at the end. If they lose, perhaps the next practice there will be harder conditioning or something they despise especially. If they win, perhaps it will become a light day with added free time at the end.

However, this has caused some serious DelayedOnsetMuscleSoreness a couple of times, especially with lower body movements.
 
I learned a new one at work this weekend!

Its called jail I believe

All the girls line up and we give them a skill (it was with a prep op group so we did front tucks off the tumble track into thick mat) and they have to land it without moving.
If they move or fall they are in jail where there is conditioning we change what they were doing everyonce in a while.
The next girl goes and if she falls the girl in jail is out and now the new girl has to do conditioning. If she makes it the first girl stay in jail.
Its great cause they are working on form at the same time they are conditioning.
You can use beam skills, tumbling skills, dismounts off any apparatus. All kinds of stuff.


We also do handstand contests and the last one or two people (more if its a big group) get out of conidtioning for that round while the rest of the group does a certain number of push ups sits ups, etc. Sometimes you have to make it so the same person doesnt always win though.
 
Conditioning Games

Hi, i am not sure if these will work with your age group but here are a few, and they can be used for rec and competitive, even for elite or olympic athletes, we all need some fun in training.

I HOPE YOU CAN UNDERSTAND MY EXPLANATIONS AND IF NOT I WILL HAVE MY STUDENTS DEMONSTRATE AND I WILL POST A VIDEO ON HERE.

1.....If you have a spring floor and foam pit ? Take 8 foam cubs and place 2 (one of top of the other) in each corner of the floor. One student in each corner of the floor. When you say "GO" the student picks up the top cube and runs to the corner to their right (i think) and place the cube on top of the cube in the next corner and then runs back to pick up the next cube and continues doing that. I do not know how to draw a picture on the computer. You could also number the corners so that 1 runs to 2 and back to 1, 2 runs to 3 and back to 2, 3 runs to 4 and back to 3, and 4 runs to 1 and back to 4. With this age group only have them do it a few times and then put new gymnasts on the floor. The ultimate object is to have "NO" cubes in your corner.

2.....MAT TAG...Place as many types of mats all over the spring floor being careful you do not put a mat that will cause injury. Each gymnast stands on a mat and one of them is given a foam cube and they are "IT" and they have to chase the other gymnasts. If you step off a mat you are automatically "IT", and you get the cube. When you touch someone with the cube they become "IT". I someone is already it they cannot be tagged again.

3.....LADDERS...The gymnasts sit in pairs on the spring floor with the legs straight and feet touching. The pairs are lined up in a straight line so they are far enough apart that someone can step over their legs. Each pair is numbered. If you call number one both gymnasts stand up and run around the outside of their respective sides to the opposite end of the line and run/step over all the pairs of legs and sit back down in their spot. If yoiu call any other number they stand up and run/step over legs toward number 1 and then turn to the outside and run to the other end and step over legs to get back to their spot and sit back down. *****REMEMBER TO MAKE SURE THE CHILDREN DO NOT BEND THEIR KNEES OR THEY WILL TRIP THEIR FRIENDS*****

4.....SCORPION TAG....This is great for boys of all ages. Play tag on the floor with the space being relavent to the number of gymnasts you have. One person is designated as the Scorpion. The Scorpion can only tag someone if they do some kind of a roll before the tag. They could do a forward roll and then dive toward someone and tag their ankle, leg, but they must do some kind of roll, fwd, bkwd, sideward, log. Once you are tagged you also become a Scorpion and the game continues.

5.....SPRINKLER GAME.....MUST PLAY MUSIC.....

Four types of sprinklers

#1.....The wave
#2.....Lie on your tummy banging your arms and legs on the floor
#3.....Lie on your back moving your arms and legs randomly in the air
#4.....Stand in a small straddle and tap the back of your head with one hand and the other arm is pointing straight out as if shooting and your make the sshh sshh sshh sound of a sprinkler

Someone starts to play the music and everyone runs randomly around the floor but not in the same direction like a bunch of sheep or cattle. The music is stopped and someone calls out a number and that is the type of sprinkler you do then the music starts again and the random running starts. By the way there are two more types of sprinklers but i cannot remember what they are but i will try to find out.

Have Fun

Don
 
Torture the teacher sounds fun! I think I could beat my rec girls and boys though. :) Yet again, I am kind of cheating by still being a competititve gymnast myself!
 
9 kids is hard to beat. I generally only played it with pre-team/L3 classes for girls or boys. I don't think younger levels would ever get into it as much and they weren't ready for the defeat as much due to the challenge of skills ( even basic strength skills can be hard and no child should feel like they are losing in a game by not being able to do a pushup, pullup, L sit, or leg lift ).
 
Thanks for all the suggestions. I thought I'd better post one too.

A conditioning activity that I did recently for my younger class was pass the parcel. The kids sit in a circle and pass the parcel using their feet. When the music stops who ever has the parcel unwraps the parcel and inside is an activity that the kids can do eg. log rolls etc.

Kez
 
hi they are competeative divide them into teams and get them to compete to see which team can do the best and then reward them or make the loosing teams do more srength or something like that
 

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