Coaches Too much fun?

[flip4u]

Our gym has been open for four years. We have finally built our team program up & are seeing our first homegrown team members this past year.

We just lost 3 L4 girls to the "gym down the street" (about 40+ miles away since we are in the boondocks). Two of these girls just won 1st and 2nd place at state. Their parents gave the reasoning of they wanted a "more serious gym." We are "too much fun". Seriously? Isn't that the best of both worlds? Fun and winning? I just don't understand.

So my question is... how do you run your team program?

How do I build my team and stop being a feeder gym to that "gym down the street"? I have developed some good lower level gymnasts but can't seem to keep them to show others that we can keep up with the big gyms and thus won't be able to develop an optionals team if they keep leaving for that bigger gym that's been around longer.

I don't want to stop having fun. What do I do?

 

[Linsul]

You don't have to stop having fun! I think what parents are saying when they give that reason is they have a problem with standards, not with fun. I don't have any room to comment on that with your gym, so I'm not trying to imply anything. Obviously you guys are no strangers to scoring well, you're doing something right!

Since a lot of parents judge on perception, we do check our pre teams and teams, even our advanced classes, if things digress quickly into pure silliness. Fun within the bounds of what the game is trying to achieve, or the game is over. Make sure the kids know what the goal of the game is, in case the parents ask later. We end our workout 5 min early to review the terms and skills we worked on; having the girls repeat them back to us usually in a 'fill in the blank' review type of game. That way any conversation they have about it is going to be informed and educated.

Games for our girls usually come at the end of conditioning or the event they worked on. A sort of physical review before we move on. Who can hold a chin up or handstand the longest, do the most leg lifts in 30 seconds, who can hit a position or climb the rope fastest, etc. I'm only speaking to advanced rec through compulsory methods. Emphasize form in the games, it will still be fun and make it a learning experience. When it comes to speed games, we let girls know in advance that form breaks are a disqualifier. Instill a good gymnastics vocabulary, a lot of parents I have say they learn a lot from conversation after workouts or at home and take it as a good sign.

 

[MamaOf2Gymnasts]

Can you give some examples of how you make it fun? I think it's great that you can make it fun and still get the scores!

 

[traceyd1]

There's learning in a fun way and having fun whilst in a gym. Maybe there's a differentiation that the parents are making. Newsletters and commmunication are important, what may seem an obvious progression to you, may seem like time wasting to a parent, and lets face it, some parents can decide they are experts very quickly. For some examples. Check out TGFU (teaching games for understanding) on the web. Thewe are heaps of ideas out there. TGFU means training in a fun way basically to make the learning fun but can also be used to 'trick kids into enjoying conditiong. I find that TAG games and other more kids games are best for recreational and younger gymnast (i.e. some sort of freeze tag where a static hold is kept until freed by another gymnasts who crawls under, or jumps over or cartwheels around) and circuits or competitions are better games for older and more competitive gymnasts (as long as the competitions aren't elimination types, as often the first to be eliminated are the ones who need the most coaching/training time). E.G Hold a hands stand for 30 seconds total. Who can do it in the least number of tries. i.e. 1 gymnast may do two 15 second hand stands. 1 may do 30 x 1 second handstands. Each gymnasts then tries to beat that total next training session etc. Or circuits where basic movements for a skill are reinforced. For example. Bar skills. Construct a circuit where there are 1/2 a dozen stations. One is dish holds, 1 is front support with hands on floor bar and feet on raised surface or swiss ball, another is on bars doing sportted casts, next is on high bar doing tap swings, next is on wall bars doing leg lifts etc, then move beteen station every 2 minutes. Also search for warm up games or fitness games. OOnch Neech is a great fum warm up game that ALL ages just love!!

 

[CoachTodd]

Our kids enjoy gymnastics when they are at our gym. We've had more that a few move to "more serious" gyms over the years. It's funny how many of them come back to either take one of my tumbling classes since they burned out and left the sport, or they are not coaches at our gym. I say keep the kids' best interest in mind and you'll do fine as a gym.