Do your coaches coach a level or an event?

[BarCoach]

Right now, we have a vault coach, a beam coach, I do bars, and we all do a little floor for all levels. But I know some gyms have one coach per level. I'm wondering which is the better way to do it.

 

[cathiann]

I don't know which is better, but I know we have coaches that just do compulsories (level 4, 5, & 6)--and there some of the coaches only do one level, but basically do all events. At optionals it's different--we have 3-4 main coaches (others can sub but don't coach regularly). One coach does vault & bars, another does beam and sometimes floor, a third does floor & sometimes beam and the fourth does vault & sometimes bars. They're not all there every day, so it varies. I think having one coach do an event or specialize in a few events gives more consistency. I know one of the level 6 coaches (a friend of mine) had an issue when another coach that only subs for level 6 was teaching the girls things wrong about how to do the floor routine. Confusing for the girls for sure!

 

[gymch34]

From a business standpoint, best NOT to have one coach per level. If that coach leaves, there is usually a mass exodus of gymnasts at that level. Event coaching of multiple leevls helps when 1 coach leaves.

I like event coaching personally.

 

[NotAMom]

Our current coaches (2 full-time ones + a handful of others) share all the coaching chores. For a smallish mid-sized gym (about 50 on team), they are doing a super job keeping everything in line. We did have dedicated coaches per event and level (include preteams) at one point. That type of organization only works when there is stability in the staffing.

 

[cftmoonlight]

We have one coach for each event and we each do levels 4-10. I like it because as the floor coach I get to be in charge of all the progressions and don't have to worry about a coach teaching things that conflict with the way I like things done. Plus if one level is driving me nuts, I get a new group next rotation.

 

[NotAMom]

I like it because as the floor coach I get to be in charge of all the progressions and don't have to worry about a coach teaching things that conflict with the way I like things done.

Although frustrating at times and/or it may take a gymnast longer to master a skill, diversity in coaching (some other sports do it all the time) is not necessarily a bad thing, especially for older optionals. In time (grantedly only with good coaching), the gymnast becomes more cognitive -- more well rounded and more in tune with what works and what doesn't.

It's really not too different than learning more than one language or anything else.

 

[MissBear]

Each group has 1 or 2 main coaches, and then 1 - 3 additional coaches who are in most sessions, but might have a young family or other full time work. Because of the size of the gym there is at least one day a week where the whole team (girls and boys) train at the same time, so everyone knows where each gymnast is up to generally.
We also do occasionally switch things around for half a session or one rotation just to get a different view of things. Sometimes having a different coach say the same correction in a different way can fix a problem that's been going for months. Coaches also often go to each other for advice.

I think level coaching allows each coach to know the gymnasts really well which really helps, especially with things like fear issues. I've never really experienced event coaching.

 

[Flippers Mom]

Flipper is at a big gym for our area, but small by national standards (35 on team). There is one coach each for levels 4, 5 & 6 that work all events, then 3 coaches for optionals that work specific events (there is some overlap). The coaches started cross-training and spotting/working on events they don't usually work on this week. There is a meet coming up that neither of the vault coaches can make it to, so the other coach is brushing up her skills. This has Flipper worried because she is very comfortable with the other coaches. I like that the coaches use their expertise on specific events, but that can come back to bite you when one is gone!

 

[gymdog]

I have mixed feelings-ish. I'd rather just do a level myself. But then you have issues if someone isn't using appropriate progressions, etc.

 

[CoachGoofy]

I work at a small gym.

We have 3 coaches with the team groups (a team/preteam group & another team track group that is theoretically going to spend less time on compulsory routines, more time on skills to prepare for optionals). Two of these coaches work with the preteam/team group, and two work with the preoptional girls. There's overlap, & all the coaches work all events but we all have our preferences, strengths, & weaknesses.

 

[kristilyn73]

We have coaches per level.. and actually since we have such a small gym we have 2 coaches for 5 - 10. But they run 2 seperate practices a day...so the groupings still stay small.

I have a question to those of you who have event coaching. Who goes to meets? Do you take all 4 coaches to meets?

 

[MamaofEnS]

What a great question.

Our gym has several coaches. Some are strictly "elite" and only work with girls who are elite, pre-elite, or are in the TOPS program. They also only do specific events. One coach works with all levels at all events. The rest of the coaches work at the lower levels down to level 5 at specific events. The level 4 coaches only work level 4 and do all events.

Not only do the girls have to work up their way to the next level, they have to work their way up to the better coaches, in my opinion. (Except the TOPS girls get the elite coaches at level 4.)

 

[starmaker]

Our gym has event coaching for all levels. They've recently added more coaches and there is still some shuffling going on but last season it was mostly two main coaches. They are husband and wife. Husband coached bars and vault and wife coached floor and beam. Both went to meets as well as gym owner. There are also 3 elite coaches for the pre elites, fast track and tops girls. More recently they've added two optional coaches (also husband and wife) but wife is mostly compulsory and husband optional/tops. Recently my dd has 2 different coaches at each event plus the elite coaches for tops. Oh and I almost forgot, they dance an hour a week and that's with a different coach too.

Yesterday dd had tops training and her regular L5 workout and I just counted she had 8 coaches!! Never realized how many coaches she actually encountered in one day. She likes some more than others, some push her and expect more from her, others praise, others don't etc. I like that she gets a little bit of all worlds.

 

[pt coach]

We do a little of both. We have 2 coaches for level 4 and 2 for level 5 - they work solely with their group and do all events. For levels 6 and up we event coach. There are 6 of us but we don't all come to every practice. (only three coaches are full time - the rest of us have full time jobs and coach for fun) We each have 2 events that we primarily do. For meets, it depends on coach availability and how many kids are in each level competing at that meet. This weekend just myself and another coach are going to the meet for levels 7 - 9. It works because he coaches vault and bars and I do beam and floor.

 

[Optionals United]

we have 1 level for coach 1 coach for levels 5 and 6 and 2 coaches for our optinals!! it works out pretty well. our optinal coaches can coach on every event but one is better on one event than the other and the other way around

 

[gymgurl]

well its confusing in our gym - kinda

Our gym has no lvl 7 - 10s so our snr squad is National 4 - 6 and the less competitive version of this squad is the open 4 -6's

Our squad is the less competitive squad and we have 2 coaches (both do beam and bars and dancey floor) then another 2 coaches which do vault and tumble. however we only have 3 coaches at a time. The national squad is smaller so only has one coach so it really depends but its done by levels and some coaches coach 2 groups (e.g. rec and levels)

 

[GetaGrip]

I have 8 coaches. Three boys and five girls. Two of the guys usually coach vault and bars, as they are better spotters. Four of the girls coach floor and bars usually, and sometimes bars for lower levels. One of the guys and one of the girls just helps spot occasionally and spots for conditioning.

 

[gymfan4ever95]

We have 2 coaches. One coach teaches the level 4s and 5s, and the other coach teaches everyone else. But we consider both coaches to be "our" coach. For instance, if one coach isn't there, we are coached by the one who is present. And the other coach can always coach us if they would like...we have about 17 girls on the team, so it just kind of works out to where we are all kind of like a family

 

[floorlover14]

My gym is very small so we don't have certain levels of team that meet at different times. There are three different days a week that we can come. We have 19 girls on the team and each of us has to pick two days to come. Everyone is somewhere from level 3-5. Usually just my usual coach and one other coach is there. We have about 3 other coaches, plus my coaches daughter, who is my age. The head coach/ owner is always there though, she just gets other coaches to help with events such as bars and vault. She usually does floor and beam herself.