Coaches Example Assignments & Goals for Optional Level Gymnasts

[JBS]

For those of you that use assignments for your optional level gymnasts. Can you please give some example assignments? Are your assignments daily...weekly...monthly...etc? How do you track these assignments?

As far as goals...how do you address the issue of goal setting in your club? Do the coaches set the goals or do the gymnasts? Do the assignments line up in a way that will help the gymnasts achieve goals?

(I am not looking for what skills to teach at what level...I am looking for the actual system that you use for assignments and goals.)

 

[Valentin]

This is a fantastic! question..

Yes in our gym, assignments are used daily. (My assignments at my gym in mind are on the low side, not because I want to but because the kids I took over this year, cannot handle more without over training and injury. We have had to slowly and gradually increase volume, while giving them enough time to adapt, seriously undertrained up until now)

For example at this point in the year (and this is not ideal in my mind but its just what needed to happen this year with this group) we are working on 1/2 routines and full routines.. (building up towards the first meet)
I give out assignments on an individual basis based on what that individual needs most and should be focusing on (we have about 12 kids so its not very hard to track)
For example today I will tell the Level 10 to do 2 full routines (with some extra padding and safety), Following that she needs to work on her weakest connection aiming to do 10 or so.
As the week progresses we do more 1/2's and skills cleaning up.. but always some routines or 1/2's at this point
When she was anxious about doing her dismount earlier in the year, I had her start every bar practice with 10 dismounts over pit into mats.. for example.. 10 Is not to much not to little either..

For vaults, we have slowly progressed to working 15 vaults per practice (this is a global figure, meaning for everyone)... This could be either full vaults and or + extra with timers. (Again not ideal, but for this year, that is what needs to be done)

On floor the assignment as usually numbers.. not focusing on sticking at this point in the year.. Sticks will come later for now I want them to focus on still trying to get bigger stronger faster.

How do I track? Well Ideally I will write it all down.. but I don't... I am working on making it something that can easily be done.. but at this point i struggle. I have a periodization plan laid out so I know what we are generally working on (1/2's or full routines, skills etc..) at every point in the year, and when we have to be really intense and when we can back off a little. That is what I do to track for now..


We have not done great on the goal setting....In the summer I had the kids write the goals that they want to accomplish and a data eg.. Giant over pit bar by self.. 3 weeks.. something like that.. So its always there.. and I hold them to it.. I always allow them to be involved in setting the timeline and deadline while keeping it within the periodization plan as much as possible (ideally it will, it does not always).. but I help establish what needs to be done.

The assignments focus is definitely derived from what the actual goal is.. Routine read goal requires assignments that have the gymnast perform the routine, or in 1/2s to develop the endurance and the the connections.

I am sorry if this is a little all over the place, but hopes its a start.. I will come back here later on.

 

[gymgurl]

I don't know if I would call it assignment but for beam we do a lot of 5-10 (depends on what number coach likes on the day) stuck of each routine skill. No moving on until 10 of each skill have been stuck and we then move on to extras and up training. We don't really have anything for floor. Like the above poster its normally numbers.

 

[Valentin]

I am having a change of heart lately. Over the last week or so, I think I came to the conclusion that the way I am applying the program and assignments and team management is not effective. I need a revamp, and to get back to good old fashioned pen, paper... PLANNING-

I have started keeping track of weekly plans, assignments... I would like to implement assignments on the principle of planing out number of Routines, Halfs, Combinations etc.. per day, plus return station drills and sets per event, per level, per week. Yes a fair bit of work to setup indeed.. But Without having actual control and record of the numbers, I can't keep track of intensities, volumes, nothing.. I need data basically. I would ideally like the kids to be able to complete the assignments and rotate themselves around to next event.. If you get down with all assignment per practice (YAY!!) but you get time to work on new stuff, or fun stuff..Of course there will have to be some reward system..

Anyways its never a bad idea to accept that something does not work, and try something new...

 

[Deleted member D3987]

I am having a change of heart lately. Over the last week or so, I think I came to the conclusion that the way I am applying the program and assignments and team management is not effective. I need a revamp, and to get back to good old fashioned pen, paper... PLANNING-

I have started keeping track of weekly plans, assignments... I would like to implement assignments on the principle of planing out number of Routines, Halfs, Combinations etc.. per day, plus return station drills and sets per event, per level, per week. Yes a fair bit of work to setup indeed.. But Without having actual control and record of the numbers, I can't keep track of intensities, volumes, nothing.. I need data basically. I would ideally like the kids to be able to complete the assignments and rotate themselves around to next event.. If you get down with all assignment per practice (YAY!!) but you get time to work on new stuff, or fun stuff..Of course there will have to be some reward system..

Anyways its never a bad idea to accept that something does not work, and try something new...

truly 1 of the ten commandments of coaching.

 

[iwannacoach]

Anyways its never a bad idea to accept that something does not work, and try something new...

My formula has always been to rely on my past experiences 20%, my intuition 30%, followed by 20% guesswork, 20% fine tuning the guesswork, and 10% smacking myself in the forehead.......

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i told you, that's why my forehead is FLAT!

 

[sleeplessinnewyork]

Hi! I'm not really sure if this counts as an assignment, but, on bars, we have to do 5 full routines, and then after the five full routines, work our weakest/least consistent skill and make it/fix the correction 5-10 times in a row( depends on the skill/day). Then we can uptrain new skills. In my gym, uptraining (on bars) isn't done in assignments. It isn't that you have a specific order/ assignment, it's more as if our coach decides what skills he wants us to try, some girls would work new dismounts, others would focus more on circling, it depends on the gymnast.

 

[iwannacoach]

i told you, that's why my forehead is FLAT!

For like the tenth time!!!!! Would you just hold still for a minute....I gotta write this down, and I need a flat surface to lean my clipboard against.....

 

[BarCoach]

And if you are supposed to be rotating to the next event at a certain time, as a group, what happens if someone doesn't complete their assignment?

 

[Valentin]

I would like to know too. We have a very flexible policy to keep people on events till assignments are complete. However because of shared space, and apparatus, mental troubles, that does not always happen very often

 

[raenndrops]

In our gym, if someone doesn't complete her assignment, she will have to skip munchie until it is finished. Usually talking instead of working keeps assignments from being completed. If there are more than 4 that did not complete their assignments, then we do extra conditioning the last half hour of practice.