MAG How important is a great coach as compared to just a good coach

[Gym dad]

I feel like the coaches at our gym are good but not great. We have another program in the area about 45 minutes away that seems to have much better coaching as well as more invested coaches. I have always been curious if my Ds would excel more with better coaching. Any thoughts on this?

 

[profmom]

Depends on how you define a great coach.

To me, a great coach has the technical knowledge and experience to take guys where they want to go, but ensures that it is their journey. What I'd want to see if I were looking for a gym is a program that has happy, healthy upper optionals and can manage to get a few of them through to high school graduation as gymnasts, whether or not they go on to do gym in college. I have seen programs with superb compulsories and early optionals but somehow, they all seem to quit or switch gyms once they get to around age 12-14.

 

[skschlag]

Agree with profmom.

I would add....a great coach gets your kid. The coach could be the best in the world, but if he doesn't get your kid, it doesn't matter.

 

[Gym dad]

I just get aggravated when I continually see the same mistakes and it doesn't get corrected. I feel a great coach fixes the problem.

 

[acam1103]

I think it also depends on which aspect of coaching you’re talking about and also what level athlete (I don’t mean level 4, 5, etc but more natural ability and commitment). Our coaches are very focused on details, basics and drills. The kids do tons of conditioning and drilling. I would say they are “great” technical coaches. You would not see errors repeated without correction and they address the errors from multiple perspectives. Do we notice the benefit at meets? I would say absolutely. With regard to “getting” the kids and keeping all boys interested I would say there is more of a range with our coaches. So much so that I would say coaching is “great” for committed and focused kids with some degree of natural athletic talent (not saying only the “hotshots” but definitely the more serious kids) and “fair” for kids who don’t have the natural drive but really could excel with coaches who naturally “get” kids. But on the plus side they are very open to feedback from Parents to try to help with understanding those kids.

 

[profmom]

I just get aggravated when I continually see the same mistakes and it doesn't get corrected. I feel a great coach fixes the problem.

Depends on the mistake and what's being prioritized in the skill progression.