Coaches Go-To Drills and Conditioning

[coachmolly]

We are gearing up for high school gym season around here and our team is looking to make a few changes to our program. One of the big ones is having set rotations requiring the girls to spend X amount of time at each event, even if it is not one they typically train/compete. So I am in the process of creating a list of basics, drills, and conditioning the girls who do not have routines can work to help with strength, skill development, and confidence on events they have not previously considered. We have limited supplies and coaches, so I'm looking for things that can be done largely unattended and with only basic mats- particularly things that can be done at that specific event or on the floor as we won't be setting up all equipment everyday.
So I'm just wondering if the coaches here have any suggestions for drills/conditioning that can be done at an event with limited spotting to help girls with a level 3-5 skill level. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! I want to have a kind of go-to list for each event that we can point to when we get the inevitable "I'm bored" comments. Hopefully all of this makes sense.
Thanks in advance!

 

[BlairBob]

I don't see the need for specialists to spend time on events they won't be competing. Spend the time on the events they need to be on.

Basic drills and conditioning?

L-sit, pushups, pullups, single leg squats, hollow/arch holds/rocks.

 

[coachmolly]

I don't see the need for specialists to spend time on events they won't be competing. Spend the time on the events they need to be on.

Basic drills and conditioning?

L-sit, pushups, pullups, single leg squats, hollow/arch holds/rocks.

I see what you're saying, but we ran into a problem last year of having 3 vaulters on a team of 12 girls because no one else was willing to step up. These are not club gymnasts who are choosing to specialize based on injuries/fears/etc., but kids just trying their hand at gymnastics with largely no background, meaning they have no clue what kind of skills they are capable of on events they don't try. We just want to encourage them to give all events a shot rather than just saying "I can't" without even trying.
We ran into a huge problem last year with having the girls work on "their" events and just floating around- 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there, nothing consistent and not enough time on any one event to really make any progress. We wanted to add some more structure to keep that from happening and with only 2 coaches and very limited equipment, this seemed like the best solution, at least for right now. It could very well change as we get closer to actual meets (not until January) or once we see how this plays out. We also had a lot of girls skip conditioning completely last season as we gave them a list to complete during the practice, so we wanted to include it with specific rotations this year for added accountability. Because as I mentioned, these are not club gymnasts and need all the strength they can get to learn skills.
I have a list of basic conditioning that we work from regularly and if nothing else we will continue to pull from that, I was just hoping to get some more creative ideas. Thanks!

 

[gymdog]

These are the basic exercises I use in rec gymnastics. Typically as they move from intermediate to advanced, the numbers and quality increases, but exercises are similar:

Vault
1. Knees up running
2. Grapevine
3. Hurdle onto edge of floor, rebound back
4. Toe snap jumps (straight knees, using feet to jump on board)
5. Jump rope
6. Barrel handstand flatback (fall to stomach from small block onto barrel, heel drive to HS flatback on 8 inch)
7. Run, hurdle, jump up to mat (tip: place board really close to a hip height mat stack, forces them to stand up on board)
8. Run, hurdle, dive roll to resi, progress to HS flatback, progress to handspring over sideways resi or 8 inch stack
9. Wall handstand

Bars
1. Chin up hold hands both ways
2. Jump up to front support, also progress to straight arms
3. Kip swings with feet on the rope or whatever you're using as the kip swing
4. Glide swings. 3 to 5 times in straddle
5. Sets of 5 casts
6. Pullover attempts, or walk up pullover (put a block in front of the bar, and have them walk to the top and kick off that)
7. skin the cat 3 to 5x in a row
8. regrip swings on a higher bar (supervise, make sure no one peels and they know which side to let go on)
9. Front support hold in hollow and front support hold with partner pulling feet forward (like the end of a kip)
10. Wall handstand

Beam
1. Releve hold
2. Toe taps (kick to waist height, only big toe touches beam)
3. Heel raises
4. Needle kicks
5. Bear walk on beam, or start in pike, walk hands out to push up position, push up, walk feet to hands, repeat
6. Straddle press hold forward and side
7. Basic position hold: lunge, arabesque, T, coupe
8. Wall handstand

Floor
1. Wall handstand
2. Rebound handstand (hands stay down, feet punch simultaneously up to handstand - easier if hands are elevated onto mat)
3. Rebounds up to a block
4. Jump down stick off a block
5. Plyo onto panel mats
6. Bear walk, crab walk
7. Candlestick
8. Jump rope

Notice anything in common?

 

[coachmolly]

Thank you SO much! Those are great! I love that you have handstands on every event, now I don't feel so bad about having them do them ALL the time. I've used a lot of these when coaching little guys but for some reason they just didn't come to mind when working with older kids, I'm surprised to see just how applicable they actually are for this group. And jump roping is a great idea, I'll have to dig around in our closet to see how many I can find.
It's just try-out week and we are emphasizing one event each day, today we are going to try to spend a good chunk of time on vault so we don't run into the same situation as last year. These ideas will be great to help introduce them to the concept of vaulting. Thanks again!

 

[BlairBob]

How much time per session do you have?

 

[coachmolly]

About 2 hours when you factor in equipment set-up/take down.