Coaches Class Behavior/Time Management and Drills

[bladereilly06]

Hello!
I am relatively new to coaching and started working at a new gym somewhat recently. I am a recreational coach and our gym groups the kids based on skill level and age: Beginner 1 (5-8 yrs), Beginner 2 (7-10), Beginner 3 (10-13), Intermediate 1, 2, 3 (13+). Currently I work with the Beginners, so most of the kids are pretty young. I don’t usually have much of an issue with the beginner 1 kids because their event rotation is pretty basic with a set structure/obstical course (they do the same thing every class). And even if the kids are misbehaving it’s typically not hard to get them under control. It’s always the slightly older kids that give me all sorts of trouble during class. They run around, doing whatever they want and just will not listen to me. I’m not sure if the front desk lets them know I’m relatively new or if the kids can just sense it, but they always complain that i’m doing things their regular coach doesn’t do or that they’re bored, want to go home, and even that they wish they hadn’t signed up for the class. Its very discouraging, but I try to use every class as a lesson for what works and what doesn’t. With classes where the kids are very well behaved, the kids seem to be having fun and are actually learning, but with classes where the kids are misbehaving, I become visibly overwhelmed (although i try to not be, and stay calm despite it), which I think the kids can sense and take that as “oh, coach is overwhelmed, they don’t know what they’re doing, therefore not an authority and I don’t have to listen.” Then class goes absolutely nowhere because I’m too busy trying to keep the class under control. How do I manage this behavior? I will say, just from my trial and error experience, i’ve found that being calmer, quieter, and softly firm has worked drastically better than when I first started getting overwhelmed and would lean more towards being louder and more demanding. Stating expectations beforehand, especially with a possible reward like trampoline time for good behavior has also helped a lot. But does anyone have any more advice? how do i keep these practices consistent throughout all my classes? But also to address the other part of the issue—the kids are bored—how do i make class more fun? I’m generally a more serious and focused person/coach; i want to get to business, i don’t feel like there’s time for much else (classes are only 55 mins, 3 15 min rotations and one 10 min). obviously i shouldn’t try to change myself or my personality but how can i switch my outward expression to be more energetic, fun, positive, and engaging for the kids? The other part of it is that I’ve just been doing only the skills on the skill sheet for each level without much variation or drills. I try to do some, but it’s hard to get everything set up and explained in the 10-15 minutes i have for each event. I also just don’t know what drills to do. Is there like some kind of skill specific drill master list somewhere that I could use? I try to observe what the other coaches do and use those drills, but i feel like that’s not enough. What drills would you guys recommend based on the skill sheet attached (mainly Beginners 2, 3 and intermediate 1, 2). If you read all that thanks so much! I appreciate any advice

 

[coach_M]

This really sounds like a gym issue, do they not provide any programming or consistent set ups across their recreational classes? Each of our rec classes have a weekly lesson plan to follow that everyone does in every class of that level across the week that uses the one set up on each apparatus with some small tweaks for different levels. It seems very slack of your club to not be providing any guidance to a new coach, is there anyone you could talk to for support?

 

[Coach Ella May]

Hi there! First want to totally validate the feeling of chaos when you are a much more composed coach. I am a very composed coach, but also happened to be a parent of children this age and one of the best pieces of advice I was given in working with younger children is lower your expectations. It is completely OK to lower your expectations and Coach to the ability of the class. If the older kids are giving you an issue, try asking them to be your assist or to be the person setting the example of the skill. When they know they are being watched or they know they are being used differently, they tend to behave a little bit better. In terms of drills, I can’t offer much support there without knowing what the gym has, but I will tell you that YouTube is your best friend.

I also think it’s important that you communicate at your gym and ask some of the more seasoned coaches what they do, this will also help build some camaraderie with your coworkers.

Some age specific information for you… the age groups you work with tend to grow in fast spurts, especially girls. It is more important that you help them identify the muscles they need for a skill than it is for you to teach that skill. This will inevitably help them when they grow. If you taught the skill and they grew very quickly, sometimes they lose the skill because they were not taught to feel the skill in their muscles and in their body space. Teaching body awareness is always more important in my opinion at this age strictly because if they want to be gymnasts long-term, this is a skill they’re gonna need.

Hope this helps some- and remember. Lower your expectation, always.