Coaches Choreography rotation ideas.

[TravelingCoach]

I come from a MAG background and steadily transitioned into WAG over the years. I remember the more advanced or high level gyms I coached at in the past having choreography/dance rotations for the girls, but I never had any part in them or any idea what was going on. They were usually done in a dance room out of view of the main training area. There doesn't seem to be a big dance presence here and I'm looking at trying to incorporate a choreography/dance rotation in for certain groups. I don't plan on teaching it since I'm more of a upper level skills type of coach, but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or experience on how that type of rotation would work.

 

[raenndrops]

No clue, but my guess would be that they work on leaps, jumps, and turns... I know a couple of gyms in my area have a special "ballet for gymnastics" class, but that is a separate class outside of actual practice time.

 

[TravelingCoach]

I'm pretty sure it was more of dance or ballet type stuff since the leap or jump work was done in the main gym during floor or conditioning/flex rotations. I could be wrong though. I'm just working with limited space and am trying to figure out if there is a way to free some up by using another area to help with dance/choreography without losing out on technique and skill work.

 

[coachmolly]

Would there be a coach in there? Or would they be working independently? We just had a former dancer come in and give our girls some really basic ballet instruction. It was very basic, lots of posture, toe point, and foot positions, but the girls seemed to enjoy the fact that it was a different challenge. Not sure if you have anyone that could fill that role? Our was actually a parent of a recreational kid, so you might have someone right under your nose willing to jump in and help out.
I think any type of movement work, even if it's not ballet, is good for the girls to turn their brains on think about what their bodies are doing. As a gymnast we had a dance teacher that would sometimes do pilates with us.

 

[tucktwisttumble]

I think ballet training would do a lot of gymnasts well. I trained classical ballet throughout my gymnastics career, and often scored well with my floor and beam routines for my artistry/ performance. It also made things like leaps and turns very easy for me.