Coaches Do you write lesson plans?

[BarCoach]

I have on and off over my years of coaching. Mostly I have. I am currently, as well as a written evaluation of how practice has gone and notes about what we need to work on or things to do again. I do think its really helping me be more organized and I'm hoping it helps us get the most out of our workouts

 

[marie83]

Yes and no...

For recreational classes, yes, definitely - I do a 12 week plan including the skills I want the gymnasts to learn and the progressions - I do these for myself and all the coaches under me.

For squad, I have an overall month plan, then break it down - I don't write an actual session plan, but I know exactly what I want to achieve and by when. I find it too time consuming to actually write session plans for each session as I'm in the gym every day. I do keep a diary of training though and evaluate my sessions afterwards - sometimes on my own, other times with my assistant coach and sometimes with the head coach.
I'd love to be able to fully plan my sessions on paper but working 10.00-4.45 and coaching 5.00-8.00 every day and all weekend it's just not going to happen!

 

[JBS]

We are getting there. Lesson plans...skill charts...attendance tracking...strength and flex tracking...it's all great...but what I really need is more team coach meetings. We have 8 JO team coaches...and sometimes they seem to all be on their own lesson plan.

 

[Aussie_coach]

All our lessons run to a plan, these days we find this essential in case of an injury. If a child was to get hurt in class we would need to prove to the insurance coamy that the child had been warmed up correctly and the correct progressions had been followed before doing each skill, that kids had mastered prerequisite drills and so on.

But we don't have our coaches write their own lesson plans, I write all the plans.

 

[JBS]

To answer the question better...

Our rec and preschool classes are on weekly lesson plans.

For team...we come up with a general direction and adjust as needed...while much of the compulsory stuff is written down...much of the optional level stuff is verbal as 3 of our 4 optional coaches are in the gym 5 days per week. We have written things such as rotations...strength phases...etc...but we are more verbal when it comes down to each individual gymnast and their path.

 

[marie83]

To answer the question better...

Our rec and preschool classes are on weekly lesson plans.

For team...we come up with a general direction and adjust as needed...while much of the compulsory stuff is written down...much of the optional level stuff is verbal as 3 of our 4 optional coaches are in the gym 5 days per week. We have written things such as rotations...strength phases...etc...but we are more verbal when it comes down to each individual gymnast and their path.

This is similar to us. We need more coach meetings IMO too but we are getting there!

 

[iwannacoach]

The idea of documenting due diligence is a good one that needs to continue it's spread through the industry. Not just for the insurance companies comfort, and not just to cover protect ourselves from lawsuits, but to act as a conscious reminder of what it takes to protect the kids and to eliminate gaps in their training.

Me...... I just want to remember and implement the ideas I had in my head when I walked through the door.

 

[AmandaLynn]

Me...... I just want to remember and implement the ideas I had in my head when I walked through the door.

Definitely. I think my memory is decreasing exponentially by the day.

 

[JBS]

Honestly...the ability to archive videos of gymnasts and look 3 months...6 months...or 2 years back on their skill progressions has eliminated much of the writing. If a picture is worth a thousand words...then a video is worth a million.

 

[catou]

I make lesson plans... which I try to adapt every 3 weeks, depending of the phase were in my annual plan. In fact, it's the first year I really stick to it for an extended period of time. We've been asked to do it by our head coach. We also have to keep track of the attendance. Some parents in the past have complained because their child wasn't successful at meets. Now, we can say: well, your kid missed (insert number of trainings here) training. Usually, it's enough to make them stop complaining...

 

[hammy1207]

For my PreTeam--yes and adjust as needed.

For my Level 3/4s---I come up with more of a goal and adjust as needed.

 

[GymMom&Coach]

most days yes. I like to keep things familiar to the girls (team) and note what drills work best. That way I dont spend a lot of time explaining the station, showing, and working on fixing them if its not done right. I focus on specific events and conditioning every day IE Floor/vault, Beam, bars, (day three) we hit all events, then start over.

 

[GymCoachR2]

ALWAYS. I'm totally neurotic about this. I want to have a plan for the day. That being said, a lot of the time it needs to be adjusted, based on equipment, space it. The planning level though differs for the different levels I teach though. When I teach rec classes, because they're short and because I usually have them back to back I write a short plan on a sticky note and stick it to the class sheet. This is not totally detailed but more the MAIN drills that I need to get done that day.

When I'm coaching team the plan is much more in depth. I'm also one of those people that really, really likes individual assignments for kids. Group assignments are good sometimes. But if I have time to plan, mostly I prefer individual assignments even for lower level team. A lot of the time I'll write everything out in a "team notebook" and then kids can scratch things out as the accomplish them (for some reason this gives them a great deal of joy).

 

[SXS524]

Interesting thread. I've been coaching for 4 years now (mainly rec and low level artistic) and have coached in 3 different clubs, none have used lesson plans... well one club I think might use lesson plans for their top elite girls but never have I had to write my own lesson plans/follow another coaches plans. I did, however, use lesson plans when on my coaching course where I had to plan and deliver sessions before taking my final exams. I like the idea of knowing what I'm going to do before the session starts, what equipment I need etc, and looking up drills. However when it came to doing the sessions they almost never went to plan- other coaches wanting to rotate apparatus, equipment being used, not keeping to time, kids not showing up etc!
I'd love to use lesson plans at one rec club I coach at but I don't think it would work as I know none of the other coaches plan sessions so it would hard to organize equipment etc. Even the head coach admitted he never plans sessions and just decides when he turns up at the gym I think I've managed to persuade him to implement a club badge system though so hopefully that should make things more structured !!
Those who use lesson plans- how much detail do you go into?

 

[GymCoachR2]

When doing rec lesson plans it's usually just what drills I want to use. All of the gyms I've worked at have had set skills that kids need to have to move up. So usually I start with those (and add in the things I think the kids need), and the build the drills out from there. I generally know what equipment will and wont be in use (or make contingency plans). I run my rec classes in circuits mostly so there is never a # of a skill to be done. For the most part I come up with one more drill per circuit than there are kids in the class. Ie. if there are 6 kids in the class, I come up with 7 drills to do during our floor rotation. This also provides enough room if you have a make-up kid etc.

When doing team lesson plans I am VERY specific. Both in numbers and in where they have to be done and how. Ie. 10 switch leap ATTEMPTS on the low beam must be _____ degrees. Usually with assignments like that I they have a friend watch to see if they made the requirement. Or 5 stuck bwos on high beam, if you wobble, don't count it.

 

[saddlupasb]

I do them because I am required to. It has been a blessing in disguise because I have such big teams that I can't be with every kid for every practice. That way I can assign a coach to an event and know that they will stick to my lesson plan so the girls are getting what they need.

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

For rec I have a lesson plan for every class and usually follow it pretty closely.
For competitive all my athletes have their own paper, with a list of what to do on each day on each apparaus. We go to the event and I will lead warm up of one of their papers, then they read what is first on their list and they get started. Whenever they need spot they just call me over. It works well as I have a group of girls that are all at very different levels (working handstands and cartwheels on beam, to girls doing back handsprings and round off back tuck dismounts.

 

[BarCoach]

I meant to reply so much sooner but life got busy (a 2 year old and a 3 month old, a valid excuse?).
Thank you to everyone who replied. Because I've been busy I've had days where I've gone in without even really thinking about what we'll do before I get there. Those days are good! I always come up with something off the top of my head that ends up helping or being something I wouldn't have thought of other than in the moment. But, I do think that when I'm prepared, our practices go better. I do a monthly goal/s and conditioning. Example: last month we were building bar strength. This month our (read:my) goals are presses and getting numbers of hit routines in. Then I plan each day around that. We do presses on each event and I'm trying to find ways to make getting the numbers in on new routines more fun. It's working for me for now. It also allows me to plan where I hope they'll be mid season, after season, and beyond.