Coaches beam

[sally]

Hi there, Just wanted to know a question if a coach could help me out. My daughter is 5 and she has a fear of the beam. The problem is I feel it is that height of the beam (a mental thing), the height of the beam is for idp10 gymnast and I feel she gets frighten. The problem is now she is learning tic toks she can do it on low beam , but the coach is telling me that they want to start it on high beam. How can I help my daughter by giving her the confidence to do it. I do keep saying that if she can do it on the low beam she can do it on the high, but she keeps saying it is to high. They won't put the beam down, which I believe they should as they don't even compete at that height. Your ideas would be great.
thanks
sally

 

[Deleted member D3987]

are you joking? a 5 year old doing tick tocks on a high beam?? i am unusually speechless...

 

[momofchalksters]

Maybe our gym is old fashioned but we always start beam skills on low beam. And I use floor beams too for my preschoolers. Don't have any words of advice for you

 

[sally]

she started on floor, then on to the low beam now they want her to do it on the high beam.

 

[sally]

she hasn't done it on high beam, they want her too but she won't do it, she can do it on the low beam though. And I don't want her to do it on high until she is confident enough to do it, otherwise it may cause an injury, which is not what I want.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Is your daughter training the IDP program as well? If she is that would explain why she is required to do tic tocs on the beam. They are an assessed skill for the IDEAL skill testing from the age of 5 or 6, as they are in the level 3 routine.

Do the coaches spot her on high beam?

Could they stack up extra mats under the beam to make it feel not as high?

Could a soft mat be placed over the beam, so if her foot was to miss the beam it would soften the impact?

Do they have a beam extender that makes the beam wider which she could try it on first?

If she is training IDP then they are going to expect her to learn skills with minimal coaxing. Which could be why they are requiring her to do on her own when she is scared. They will want to see how she reacts to pressure. This is the age they will decide whether to have her work towards international gymnastics in the IDP program or move to the regular levels stream.

 

[sally]

thanks yes she is doing the idp. She is currently doing 2a, but I think they have changed it this year. So really not quite sure how it is going to work. I think the mats under the beam would be a good idea, as she keeps saying there is no mat under her. I do tell her that the floor is soft which is just like a mat, but I think it might just be the thing of her thinking there is no mat. The coaches are really good, they don't seem to worried about it.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Yes, if she is doing 2a then she is doing IDP. They have changed the name from 2a to IDP 2 this year and yes changed the routines.

Its important to understand what this means. Your daughter has been selected for having the potential to possibly reach international gymnastics level one day. In Australia we choose those gymnasts at your daughters age and train them up specifically for this in a very intense program.

There will be high expectations and coaches will not give a lot of leeway for things like fears because of the type of skills these kids will be expected to do at such a young age. She will be expected to compete the tic toc on beam next year and the flic (back handspring) on beam the year after.

The training will be intense and the hours will increase dramatically. After a little while they will make a decision with her (usually by age 7) as to whether she will continue in the elite stream, and if thats the case they will send her to a specialist high performance training centre, or to put her back into the regular competitive arena.

This can sound scary but its not really, your daughter can at any time step back into the regular levels system. But its very hard to step up in the elite system, so its better for her to start here and then decide if it is for her.

 

[sally]

Thanks for that. I know her hours have increased a huge amount. She was only doing last year twice a week for a total of 5 hours. Now this year she has moved up a group and is now doing 15hours a week. Everybody said to me that it is way too much as she is only 5. I let her make the decision as she is a very good dancer as well. With the hours that she is doing in her gym she can't do her dancing anymore, and she will have to change schools as they have a bus to pick them up from school, so I don't have to take her to gym only to school in the morning as I need to work as well to pay for it. I told her the information about how she has been given a lucky break as, she started last year, and has only ever did 2 kinda gym classes in her life. and to be picked for something like this doesn't come very often, and if she does it and it is not for her at least she can say that she tried. So she went away and later came back to me to say that she wants to do it. I tell you now she is focus I have never seen her like it. Everynight now she is doing 150 situps. I couldn't believe it, I was telling her to stop or she might over do it. She is practising all the time now at home, even after her training. I think she has had a confidence boost since moving up and I think she is mentally ready. I just can't believe how she could get into something with out really doing any gymnastics before. They must see things. I am not sure what the new routines are but I have been told by her coaches that it is harder then the ones that she was doing last year. So we will just have to wait and watch, I think this is going to be the telling year.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

my only comment, and after coaching several elites, is that NONE of them ever did tick-tocks on high beam. was that one of peggy's bright ideas??

and if tick-tocks were relevant, i'm sure marta or tammy would have put that in the skills testing at some point.

spoke with my russian coach/friend about this. his response was "stupid".

 

[gymdog]

my only comment, and after coaching several elites, is that NONE of them ever did tick-tocks on high beam. was that one of peggy's bright ideas??

and if tick-tocks were relevant, i'm sure marta or tammy would have put that in the skills testing at some point.

spoke with my russian coach/friend about this. his response was "stupid".

Plenty of relatively high level US programs do them though. I'm a pretty big fan. I actually saw a Tammy Biggs presentation on beam basics that stressed trying a different combination of exercises like these, even as simple as having the kids bridge up on the beam and be able to lift arms and legs 5 times. The basic point was many programs are not assessing the readiness enough and so you have a lot of girls doing say, forward skills, struggling to consistently and strongly make them.

Personally they really helped my alignment and helped with forward skills. I don't think they should be in skills testing, but there is forward acro in skills testing and for girls with less than adequate flexibility or alignment, this is more of a "drill" for them that can help them gain some of those skills. Many girls who reach the higher levels of gymnastics can do FWO on beam easily, but not all. For those who are weaker but still working on the USAG progression and will compete say, BWO back handspring on beam as their highest series, this can be used as a really helpful tool (in my opinion). It's just another option, though similar results could be achieved through other exercises. The nice thing about this is that it helps with forward alignment/full kick into forward handstand, and also the alignment passing through handstand backwards and lunge landing position. not too bad for one exercise. Clearly we need to use care not to do too many, but the anecdotal response i've seen (and would personally agree with from my own training) is that it's easier on the back and wrists than BWO.

Not with 5 year olds, but clearly we have a very different systems in the US and I can't really comment. It would largely be considered not an appropriate skill to teach at that age, per many USAG programs. As with my comments above re: basic exercises and readiness, I would make sure the kids could confidently do several things before: bridge walk on the beam (able to lift arms and legs several times consecutively - without fear or falling), handstand forward roll (can they consistently kick past vertical, but with control?), and back walkover (standard progressions - I include the kid being able to do just the first part - arch back and leg lifts, no kickover - without falling sideways. this is too often ignored and the kids don't have this control). These are all important. It drives me crazy when you have coaches who see the only goal as "get the skill on the high beam" but the kid has no consistency or control because readiness in these basic positions was not emphasized. And i can say there are many girls coaches who think it is just a race to high beam, and you'll come into conflict with many of them if you try to implement something based more than "do 10 of x skill on high beam and 20 more if you fall on one." Such an approach may have its place but i often think it's overused to a detriment especially on this particular event.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i don't disagree. well stated.

 

[sally]

thanks for that. Very well written. I know that what you had said for drills is what they did as well. They started at first pushing up into bridge on low beam with a box to put their feet on. They still do every lesson practise handstands, bridges with leg going up and down. and back limbers. before they even start the other skills

 

[Aussie_coach]

Well they are part of our syllabus. For international levels they are a core skill at level 3 - which is aimed at 7-8 yr olds, and a tic toc into an immediate back handspring is the core skill in level 6 aimed at 9-10 year olds.

Lots of kids do them here in level 5 and 6 in the regular levels system as their acro skill.

 

[sally]

thanks for that Aussie Coach, I thought it must be, as I have seen plenty of girls a year above my daughter doing them and they did compete them at a comp that we went and watched, just to give my dd a feeling for it, since she has never competed and won't until next year.