Fun Conditioning/Team Building Games or Ideas

[coachmolly]

I am in a new position working as the assistant to a high school gymnastics team. I've worked with this age group before, but not so much in a gymnastics setting. I'm looking for a few fun ideas for practices Thanksgiving week (and to carry over into the rest of the season) but am coming up blank as to what would be somewhat productive as either warm-up, conditioning, or team building as practice time is limited, but also fun and age appropriate for the girls. So any suggestions in the way of games or activities would be greatly appreciated. A good number of the girls know each other already, but there are definite cliques within the small team so it would be great to get them really working with each other as a whole group.
Fun "getting to know you" questions or ideas for themed practices would also be welcome suggestions!

 

[All Chalked Up]

I absolutely adore chicken fights on the beam! We have to do them on one foot and it's a ton of fun. That's more of a fun one then a working out kinda game per say, but they're just so fun

You could also have a handstand contest- half the girls on one team, the other half on another. The first girls go, and then when they fall down the second member goes, etc. I like that one too, especially when we can't walk so it's a little more conditioning-ish,

 

[Deanna]

Team Building/Games?

I was just wondering what kind of team building goes on with your gymmies? At DDs gym they have a couple outtings in the summer. (went to a couple cheaper (my momma would have said less exspensive..lol) water parks). They have lock-ins at the gym (going to have one the friday before halloween)...

chalkbucket.com

This is a thread I started about this kinda thing last month. No one responded to it..but it shows what they do at my DD gym..lol

 

[coachmolly]

Thanks for the ideas. I really like the team handstand contest and the rearranging themselves without talking. I've done that before but talking was allowed, so that would add another change/element of fun- however you want to look at it. I was about the dorkiest high schooler you could imagine, so things I would have thought of as fun at that age are probably not appealing to this group of girls. I've got a lot of learning to do!
Some ideas I've come up with so far are to randomly pair the girls up- either by counting off, pulling a name out of a bucket, or just pairing them up myself- and sending them off to do their conditioning assignment while also asking their partner questions about herself. When they are done, they will report back and introduce each other to the group. I'm not sure if I should provide a list of questions to ask or just let them ask what they think is relevant. Also not sure if this would be regarded as totally lame.
Since it's Thanksgiving this week I also thought of doing an activity about being thankful for each other based on an activity I've done in church groups that has generally gone over well. Again having each girl pick a random team member and writing a few words about what they are thankful for about them, what they bring to the team, those kinds of things. But again, I'm really not sure if this would go over well with this particular group of girls.
So opinions from gymnasts and parents of teens would be really helpful. Thanks for the replies so far, I really appreciate them!

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

how many girls do you have to work with?

 

[coachmolly]

how many girls do you have to work with?

Just 12 girls ages 14-18.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

not really enough for what I was thinkkng, would be over too fast.

our gym some times does 'beam queen' all the girls get on beam & coach gives a skill or trick: 1/2 turn, full turn, split jump, tuck jump, leaps handstand, bwo etc anything they can do. if they fall they are out. last one on the beam is the queen.

sometimes, also on beam, they eill be broken into teams. each beam is a team. a skill or trick is given. each member of each team has to do it. if anyone from the team falls the whole team has to do 'x' # of some conditioning for each person that fell. usually v-ups, push-ups, sit-ups etc. The girls have fun & really fight to stay on