WAG How many stations?

[Hayleigh]

My group currently has 16 gymnasts in it. We then split off to our groups. 6 for the West Country league / national grades team and 10 for the grades / levels team. When we do a circuit on bars or as conditioning our coach sets up 12-15 stations for 6 of us to keep us busy, and calls us to bars one at a time. Then after your go you return to where you were on the circuit.

To prevent problems with forgetting the stations, my coach has laminated cards with station names on them, with explanations and the number you should aim to do on each station. I find this useful as by the time I get off of the bars after my turn I have forgotten what the remaining stations are.

 

[Lilly]

If this is something where each drill has been introduced one at a time and they have done these before, especially if the drills are more or less arranged in a circuitous route, students could remember 50 stations! Do they not remember dozens if individual little motions in their floor and beam routines, AND corrections in their head for each one? They are able to do this because the skills and corrections were introduced one at a time.

Do you not remember hundreds of people's names? words and definitions of those words in any language you speak? the turns you take to drive your daughter to the gym?

I wasn't there obviously so I don't know how it was done, but is it possible?

Yes! Absolutely.

 

[Lilly]

Puh-lease! My kid is 9 and forgets what I've just told her to do as soon as I walk out of the room! Remembering 12-15 stations? Not a chance.

Focusing abilities aside, these are children. Children focus on what is in front of them at any given time. Give 'em a break! My suggestion - casually mention to the coach that your DD is having a hard time remembering more than 10 stations at a time and ask if the stations can be written down. Mirror walls are great for this.

Kids are smart! I remember being 9 and I felt the exact same way I do now. The ONLY times I acted dumb is when it was accepted! People should be considered adults when they are 15. If people were expected to sink or swim when they are 15, most would swim just like they do when they are 18. People don't magically get more mature just because of age when they are in their 20s. They realize they better earn a living or they will STARVE to death so they find a way to survive and that includes acting more mature. Isn't it curious how the age people supposedly mature is the same age they are expected to take care of themselves? Kids aren't dumb!

There are hundreds of little thoughts and corrections going on through a gymnasts head during a floor routine, and they complete them just fine. If introduced slowly, a 9 year old could remember what to do in a circuit with hundreds of stations (not that a circuit with hundreds of stations would be necessary).

Try telling your daughter to attempt to get behind a girl who definitely knows what to do the stations. Then all your daughter has to do is keep an eye on the girl in front of her and go where she was last and do what she did.

Happy stations!

 

[MissLisa]

I think that learning the above is a bit different though. Corrections for example come over time and repeated constantly. They are verbalized, demonstrated and felt. The body it's self learns until it is no longer a cognitive process. As for names and learning long lists of things, as an adult now, I still cannot remember names or many verbal instructions, not because I'm not listening, not because I'm dumb (I'm actually very smart/ top of the class at Uni and a very good learner). It's because I'm not an auditory learner, I need visual cues such a written stuff etc. I also believe that you cannot expect a 9 year old to have the attention span or memory of an adult. It does develop as ones brain matures and as the child has more life experiences/ works out their learning style etc. we are a complicated bunch and to expect everyone to have the same cognition and memory abilities as everyone else is unreasonable and not going to be beneficial to those involved. One size does not fit all when it comes to anything involving instruction to individuals.