Parents How do they learn the skills

[Newbiee]

My daughter is in gym 3 days a week and spends most of the session conditioning stretching and drills. She said they don’t really work on learning skills however I have seen a lot of kids in the group above her doing a lot of skills and even some from her group so they must come together eventually. I was just wondering how do they learn the skills without the help? I never see coaches spotting gymnasts. Is it just a case of they can eventually do them with doing the conditioning and drills?

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Depends on the skill, but in many cases, yes. Many skills can be learned from drills and conditioning without the need for spotting. In general, I think the best approach to about any new skill is to spend about 90% of the training time breaking the skill down into components and making sure the gymnast has the strength and understands the mechanics of the skill, and only a little bit of time actually doing the entire skill.

 

[Coach Kate]

Depends on the skill, but in many cases, yes. Many skills can be learned from drills and conditioning without the need for spotting. In general, I think the best approach to about any new skill is to spend about 90% of the training time breaking the skill down into components and making sure the gymnast has the strength and understands the mechanics of the skill, and only a little bit of time actually doing the entire skill.

I agree with this, especially at this time of the year! Basics, drills, and conditioning. I would see what things are looking like in 6-8 weeks as summer comes to a close. It's actually really fun to watch when it looks like not a lot has been happening and then there are suddenly big skills!

 

[3rd_time_around]

Summer is usually focused on conditioning, drills, forms, and basics because leading into the season, they start putting routines together and a lot of time is spent on that. Every summer my daughter's gym goes back to basics and does more conditioning.

 

[Dad1234]

My daughter’s gym has very minimal spotting. They do lots of drills and stations. My daughter has gotten most of her skills using this method. It’s possible to get skills, even the bigger skills, with minimal to no spotting. As a parent I don’t always agree with the lack of spotting, especially on beam, but my daughter keeps progressing so the coaches know how to break the skills down without the need for much spotting.