No spotting during practice

[Anonymous Post]

My gymnast told me recently that it is against the gym rules for coaches to spot gymnasts. But, she said that they still spot sometimes. My daughter is an xcel gold gymnast and I don’t see where she’s needs a spot on anything at the moment. I’m curious how no spotting works once she starts doing harder skills. Is it a safe practice not to spot? Should I be concerned once she starts doing harder skills?

 

[ProudGymnast]

It depends on the coaching approach of your gym. My gym is a mostly spot-free gym, but we have a foam pit and do heavy drilling. Yet, I know some other gyms, for skills such as ro bh bt, teach it by actively spotting when the gymnast is ready(and I don't mean just standing there) so the gymnasts get a feel of the stages. Neither approach is wrong. Both will teach a solid foundation, neither is necessarily better. It just depends on what resources you have. So to answer your question, no it isn't unsafe or a matter of concern, but if you are wondering I would look at how they teach new skills. Are they taking proper progressions, with drills, mats, pit, etc? Or are the gymnasts just throwing skills on the floor. Because the latter would be a very real red flag.

 

[Coach Kate]

I know I grew up in a gym where we didn't get spots on beam, but that's because everything you're doing on beam, you have already been doing on the floor for a long time. It would be weird to be completely spot free. I know when we re-opened after our initial covid shut down, we did avoid spotting as much as possible to minimize person to person contact, but beyond that we even love spotting the shape. We use lots of drills too, but we definitely don't shy away from spotting. I think it would be hard for me to coach like that!

 

[Aussie_coach]

I do spot when coaching, but not a great deal because I find most kids learn better via other methods.

Spotting is great when a kid is fully ready to do a skill to help them understand how it feels. Or to get them back on the horse after a moment of fear.

But in general I find skills are learned better by drilling them. The kids go through a variety of steps getting closer to doing the skill on their own, which is basically proving to their own minds that they can do it themselves.

The process can be slower than just spotting the skill. But I find it results in less mental blocks and lost skills in the future.

The kids also participate in the drilling process themselves. I give them a lot of options and they help to chose which drills they think will help.

In the past spotting was a lot more important that it is now because gyms now have a lot more equipment that they didn’t have in the past to set up drills.

Many coaches have to quit their jobs because of the incredible physical toll it takes on their bodies when they spot a lot.

 

[Deleted member 26368]

As a parent who rarely watches practice and is only a few years in, can you more experienced members define what constitutes a "spot"? I've seen several recent threads focused on spotting and I'm a little confused. I think of spotting as a broad term, which could refer to a "physical", hands-on guidance, or a more "visual" spot where the coach is nearby but not touching. So, if OP says there is no spotting at the gym, what does that mean for those gymnasts? No touching or no observing up close? From what I've seen at my DD's gym, I rarely see "physical" spots, at any level. There is some up-close observation/coach nearby for some kids or some skills, but otherwise skills seem to be taught through a lot of drills.

 

[gymnastics<3]

All of these responses sound crazy to me! (that was not meant to offend anyone…) I’m sure that it’s perfectly safe and you use lots of drills as everyone said, and I’m not trying to say that no spotting is bad or unsafe, just that I’m not used to that. Both of the gyms I’ve been at used a LOT of spotting for basically everything. We did drills, and once the coaches thought we were ready, we would do the skill with a spot, and as we got better we would get less and less of a spot. I can‘t imagine throwing a skill for the first time without having been spotted first! I especially can’t imagine no spotting on beam. Even if you can do the skill confidently on a line, most of us get scared and change it when we are on a beam. Especially for back walkovers…

 

[JBS]

I’m curious how no spotting works once she starts doing harder skills. Is it a safe practice not to spot? Should I be concerned once she starts doing harder skills?

There are progressions and systems to do everything without spotting. In my experience... spotting makes the skill learning quicker much of the time... not all of the time though.

We spot a ton on low level trampoline and bars. For example we do lots of spotting for things like back tucks... double backs... and cody's on trampoline. We spot lots of small circles... kip cast handstands... giants... and pirouettes on bars. Definitely spot lots of transfers and releases on bars too.

Vault is spotted when they are learning and at L8 (and some L9) competitions.

Floor we spot double backs... full ins... double layouts to save ankles on bad landings. Lot's of BHS's when they are learning to tumble too.

Beam?... no... not really on the beams. We do lot's of spotting and drills for beam while on the floor.