- Nov 16, 2012
- 914
- 1,792
I wanted to ask a question from parents of gymnasts. Are your children given conditioning or stretching home work? How do you handle it? Do you like it or would you like to leave gym in the gym and not worry about it during off days?
During Christmas Holidays my team had almost 3 weeks off (I couldn't coach them because I was out of the town the whole time) and at the end of the last practices the girls (9-10 years old) started to ask for homework, one of them came to me and asked if she could borrow some of my conditioning sheets and then the others started to wonder if they could have one also. I was surprised because I didn't know they were so motivated, I thought they would want to spend the holidays eating chocolate and watching cartoons SO I made them fun home conditioning homework for Holidays and sent it to the parents. We made it a contest : they had to write down the days they did it and the parents had to sign the papers.
After Holidays they gave the sheets back to me and we awarded the hard-working ones. The girls loved it and I loved it too because the two of the three girls were those who never get awards in any other competitions. They really showed me how motivated they are.
Well, now I'm planning on giving the girls another challenge. Their flexibility needs more work so there would definitely be need of some homework in that area also. I'm planning on giving them 1 month long stretching challenge and the ones who do it the most often are given a prize.
My only concern is that some of the parents have commented gym homework in negative way in the past (like a year ago). One of the mums said they have so hectic schedule she doesn't have time to keep on track of any other homework than school work and the weekly activities. I understand that and I said the parents don't have to push their kids to do it - they do it if they have some inner motivation. But I'm still wondering if it was just her or are other parents feeling the same way in general and she was the only one to speak out?
So would you like it if your child came back from the practice with a home conditioning or stretching plan?
During Christmas Holidays my team had almost 3 weeks off (I couldn't coach them because I was out of the town the whole time) and at the end of the last practices the girls (9-10 years old) started to ask for homework, one of them came to me and asked if she could borrow some of my conditioning sheets and then the others started to wonder if they could have one also. I was surprised because I didn't know they were so motivated, I thought they would want to spend the holidays eating chocolate and watching cartoons SO I made them fun home conditioning homework for Holidays and sent it to the parents. We made it a contest : they had to write down the days they did it and the parents had to sign the papers.
After Holidays they gave the sheets back to me and we awarded the hard-working ones. The girls loved it and I loved it too because the two of the three girls were those who never get awards in any other competitions. They really showed me how motivated they are.
Well, now I'm planning on giving the girls another challenge. Their flexibility needs more work so there would definitely be need of some homework in that area also. I'm planning on giving them 1 month long stretching challenge and the ones who do it the most often are given a prize.
My only concern is that some of the parents have commented gym homework in negative way in the past (like a year ago). One of the mums said they have so hectic schedule she doesn't have time to keep on track of any other homework than school work and the weekly activities. I understand that and I said the parents don't have to push their kids to do it - they do it if they have some inner motivation. But I'm still wondering if it was just her or are other parents feeling the same way in general and she was the only one to speak out?
So would you like it if your child came back from the practice with a home conditioning or stretching plan?