Getting 6 Year old to FOCUS

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I coach a very potentially talented 6 year old. She has only been in pre-team since July 2009. She is very strong, tight, lacks a bit in the flexibility area, but all around, a good gymnast.

My big issue with her is that she rushes, through EVERYTHING. I have tried so many things...talking to her, walking through routines and skills SLOWLY with her, having her mentally picture things before actually trying them - but she just seems to rush, rush, rush..which makes her sloppy. We have her first mock competition coming up, and I told her.. if she goes slow and focuses, she will be able to show off her BEST gymnastics.

I really want her to improve and do well at competition, because I think she can.

Anybody ever had a similar issue? Any suggestions or tips? I know you don't know this specific athlete, but I guess any feedback at all would probably be beneficial..
 
You can talk to her, and ask her why she is rushing through it could be becuase she is very bored and just wants to move, then she needs a challenge. I would suggest if this is the case then get her to do a few NICE slow routines then tell her she can work on some harder skills.
If this isnt the case she just rushes then i would get her a sticker book, and say for every routine that you take your time on you get a sticker and after you get xamount of stickers you get a prize (at 6 you can find cheap fun toys from the dollar store, or candy /chocolate-- but that is unhealthy)

Hope you find something that works!:)
 
Have you tried getting an older girl that she might look up to to show her a steady routine and then a rushed routine . Beam would work well. Watch together and talk about how you can see all the nice shapes and straight legs and pointy toes in the first one. After the rushed one ask if she can see the difference and which is nicer. Tell her she could get to be as good as the girl if she does her routines like the first steady one. Depends what kind of learner she is as to what works. I get all my little ones to count every position '1-2-3' I count out loud for them until it becomes second nature. I'm sure it will come as she gets older but anything is worth a try to help her for this meet.
 
Be patient- and be consistent w lots of verbal cues for what you want- tighter legs, long neck, etc. Whe she does make a change-LOTS of praise will help her figure it out.

Also use your hands to physically put her in the positions you wnat- move her in the way you want. With enough repetition you will see a difference.
 
I know this post has got to be about my daugther lol. Not really but it sounds exactly like her. She is also 6 and rushes all of her stuff. I see when she really rushes on the beam she wobbles a lot and when she slows down she does excellent. I keep telling her to slow down when she is practicing that it's not a race but so far to no avail. My daughter is constantly moving never stopping. In between walking from lets say beam to bars she is doing cartwheels on the way there or roundoff's. I tell her after class to stop because she's going to end up hurting someone when she's not looking she's going to accidently kick someone. I will have to try a few of your tips. I also look forward to hearing what is helping you Coach Angela.
 
Old post but thanks to everyone for the suggestions. We have started a sticker program for taking her time and working hard.

Last time she was in to train she had an unbelievable day! Even her warm up was spot on, and she earned her first sticker for our sticker program.

Thanks again everyone
 
try giving her verbal cues that she has to say either in her head or aloud to help slow down each skill...

For example, hs on beam:
she could say aloud, step, kick, turn out, lever, point, reach, stretch, push, touch, step down, lever, tight, finish

Maybe you wouldn't need so much, just an example.

when we do beam complex with the girls lifting and holding their leg in front and then in arabesque we have them say "lift and HOooooLD, step, lift and HOoooold" I heard Tom Koll at congress doing the same drill have his girls say "my legs are straight, my toes are pointed". Same thing, just helps the girls slow down and FOCUS.

Another thing we teach is "quiet feet". This is feet that don't wiggle, shuffle, step or move after each skill starting from forward rolls. Forward roll, stand to quiet feet, forward roll, repeat. It might help her with body awareness and controlling extra movements.
 
Some 6 year olds, even really talented ones, can't focus as much as we'd like.

If you give numbers of skills to do, have you tried keeping it to a small number? When you're 6, any number of repetitions sounds like a LOT. Quality over quantity. And little kids get overwhelmed with too many things to focus on changing & end up rushing & unable to fix anything.

Also, if out of it warmup = out of it practice, is there a way she can regroup? Some kids have real difficulty changing from an unfocused mindset to a succeeding mindset. Sometimes moreso if rewards are involved (the whole "feh it's gone now, why try" phenomenon).
 
I dislike the whole rewards/stickers thing. (Not to bust on you. If it is working for your situation - than great. I'm just betting that it does not last long before you have to up the anti.) For our homeschooling I use a technique I learned from dd's gym coaches - do X# of something prefect before you can move on. So instead of rushing through doing ten bad beam cartwheels, or ten wrong math problems, the kid works hard on doing all of them right from the beginning because the reward is to move on to or up to the next thing. If the gymnast or student is struggling to complete the assignment, then you know what needs the most help.
 
For our homeschooling I use a technique I learned from dd's gym coaches - do X# of something prefect before you can move on. So instead of rushing through doing ten bad beam cartwheels, or ten wrong math problems, the kid works hard on doing all of them right from the beginning because the reward is to move on to or up to the next thing. If the gymnast or student is struggling to complete the assignment, then you know what needs the most help.

My dd's coach uses this exact same technique and it works very well. This reward system also keeps their love of the sport alive and well--their "reward" is doing more gymnastics (something they love) instead of something irrelevant like stickers, candy or something non-gymnastics related.
 
I see what you are saying. Stickers are not the solution for every situation. I definetely do what you just described... 10 of X perfect before you move on to Z. For example, at beam, before even working routines, girls must stick 10 perfect jump series, turns, and then skills. Then they move up to high beam, do it up there, then begin routines.

So, I agree that stickers are not the best for every aspect of gymnastics. But for this kid, and getting her to focus and work hard, it just WORKS. I can't even believe the improvement in her.. just for a few gold stars. I think though what she likes the best about it is that its "OUR SECRET". Nobody else in class trains for the page full of stickers.. so, It's been great.
 
Yes and a good "reward" is gymnastics itself- the next skills. Cause everyone has a favourite skill they get to look forward to. And they know they gotta finish 5 or 10 perfect of whatever it might be before they get to that skill
 
My little ones LOVE sticker cards. They bring them each week and if they do well and listen and focus, they get a sticker. I don't often NOT give stickers, because I feel bad singling them out (I coach 3 and 4 year olds), but they don't know that, and I haven't had a single problem since. I also have an accomplishments chart I started a few years ago. It has the child's names along the side and skills along the top. Every time they accomplish something and are able to do it well 5 times in a row, they get to put a sicker in that space. We go over the things they need to work on, as well, so they understand why there is a sticker missing.

I go through a LOT of stickers, but I've never had a more focused group of kids.
 
You could try recording her with a camera (without her knowing) and showing her what your talking about. Maybe she doesnt realize that she rushes through her routines and if she sees it herself it might be easier for her to understand
 

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