coachmolly
Coach
- Jan 18, 2009
- 2,990
- 3,124
So I've mentioned before that I'm in a place where club gymnastics is non-existant. If I wanted to coach at a club, I would have to travel at least an hour each way, and with winter weather being pretty unpredictable in this part of the country and working full time on a Masters degree, that's not really a logical option. So I coached a HS team and when the season was over was asked to help out at the local recreational program. They meet once a week in a school gym for 4 sessions about 5-6 weeks in length each. The gym is decent for what it is, but they pack about 50 kids into each session so it's VERY crowded, there is no freedom in setting up stations for your group, and you just kind of go where you're told for however long they tell you to stay there. As a result, the kids are pretty often running all over the place, not paying attention, not listening to directions, and just totally out of control.
To make matters worse, the powers that be have no concept of progressions. Kids who cannot do a passable handstand are thrown through bhs and girls who have never even heard of a tap swing are chucked through flyaways. As I was teaching the upper level rec girls yesterday, the "head coach" was on my case to push the kids to harder things, after about 5 minutes of tumbling the girls still couldn't show me decent ro-bhs and he informed me we NEEDED to move on to back tucks and layouts. One kid did a ro-bhs for the first time and wanted to move on to ro-bhs-back tucks. While it was powerful, it was out of control. I told her to try it because, what choice did I have? Her steps were off and she was totally out of control, she bhs INTO me and fortunately my arms were positioned in a way that I caught her feet, or else I probably would have had missing teeth, black eyes, and a broken nose- best case scenario. Even the more advanced girls in this group can rarely RO with a proper hurdle and land with their feet together, they are also totally lose and just all over the place.
We then did vault off an above ground tramp with an old vault horse attached to the side. The HC explained to them that to do this they had to reach down for the vault (and how many times do I need to remind kids to keep their chests up on the board?) and that when they landed they need to keep their chests down.
On bars, I had to spot kips- most girls don't have a decent glide. We then worked on back and front hips, which many cannot do unassisted and if they can, they're ugly- and the "head coach" comes over and informs me we NEED to get to flyaways. WHAT?! So I threw kids ages 11-14 (so not itty bitty ones) through flyaways for a few minutes. And boy am I sore today!
I really don't think I want to do this again after this session, and am only doing in the first place because I can't say no, but I hate that the parents in the area think this is quality gymnastics training. It's dangerous! I guess there is no point to this post other than wanting to vent to people that understand and saying how much I wish there were a USAG club around here. Hopefully none of your kiddos are at programs like this!
To make matters worse, the powers that be have no concept of progressions. Kids who cannot do a passable handstand are thrown through bhs and girls who have never even heard of a tap swing are chucked through flyaways. As I was teaching the upper level rec girls yesterday, the "head coach" was on my case to push the kids to harder things, after about 5 minutes of tumbling the girls still couldn't show me decent ro-bhs and he informed me we NEEDED to move on to back tucks and layouts. One kid did a ro-bhs for the first time and wanted to move on to ro-bhs-back tucks. While it was powerful, it was out of control. I told her to try it because, what choice did I have? Her steps were off and she was totally out of control, she bhs INTO me and fortunately my arms were positioned in a way that I caught her feet, or else I probably would have had missing teeth, black eyes, and a broken nose- best case scenario. Even the more advanced girls in this group can rarely RO with a proper hurdle and land with their feet together, they are also totally lose and just all over the place.
We then did vault off an above ground tramp with an old vault horse attached to the side. The HC explained to them that to do this they had to reach down for the vault (and how many times do I need to remind kids to keep their chests up on the board?) and that when they landed they need to keep their chests down.
On bars, I had to spot kips- most girls don't have a decent glide. We then worked on back and front hips, which many cannot do unassisted and if they can, they're ugly- and the "head coach" comes over and informs me we NEED to get to flyaways. WHAT?! So I threw kids ages 11-14 (so not itty bitty ones) through flyaways for a few minutes. And boy am I sore today!
I really don't think I want to do this again after this session, and am only doing in the first place because I can't say no, but I hate that the parents in the area think this is quality gymnastics training. It's dangerous! I guess there is no point to this post other than wanting to vent to people that understand and saying how much I wish there were a USAG club around here. Hopefully none of your kiddos are at programs like this!