How to deal with girls who refuse to condition?

[flipandtwist]

There is a girl on the team I coach, that refuses to condition correctly. We will be holding blank, and her butt will be in the air. I attempt to correct her, but she just goes back to what she was doing before. I constantly remind her, but recently I have stopped. I talked to her about the fact that the conditioning is not for me but for her but she just won't listen. Now, I just let her do what she wants because it feels hopeless. This has been going on for months.

I do not have authority to tell her to leave the gym.

 

[cher062]

Have you discussed this with her parents? or the gym owners to see if you can at least send her home if she is not going to do the work right?

 

[Deleted member D3987]

wait a minute...is this the same flipandtwist from the other thread? the one that wandrews and i were postjoking about? the 1 that wrote like a 2nd grader??

 

[Aussie_coach]

It is possible that she may not be strong enough to hold it like the rest of the kids. Sometimes kids pretend they are not doing it because they are being defiant or difficult but it covers up the fact that they actually can't do it.

You may not be able to kick her out of the gym but you don't need to allow her to do the same things as the other kids. You can make it quite clear to the group that if they are not strong enough to hold the positions they won't be able to attempt the more difficult skills and will have to stick with cartwheels while the others do bigger tumbling.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

wait a minute...is this the same flipandtwist from the other thread? the one that wandrews and i were postjoking about? the 1 that wrote like a 2nd grader??

my bad, that poster was flipsandturns. with that said, some kids just don't like conditioning.

 

[cher062]

Ok Dunno which kids do you know that like conditioning - I don't know of any LOL

 

[aerialriver]

Yeah most kids don't like it, true. How old is this girl? At my gym they sneak a lot of conditioning in especially with the middle school age kids by playing conditioning games. You can have races, who can do the most pull up's who can climb the rope the fastest etc. most gymnasts respond to the competition aspect pretty well. Also this way you are including her in this group rather than singling her out making her feel like she is doing something good by not conditioning. Also you can have team games, like split them into 2 teams and face off against each other, everyone has to join. You can also do partner conditioning like doing sit up's holding each others feet.

And I guess if all else failed you may need to speak with whomever would allow you to make decisions and maybe do conditioning at the start of class and until you do it you don't do any other events.

Good luck!

 

[coachmolly]

I currently have a group of high schoolers who just don't do the required conditioning at all, and if they do it's a total joke. For some it works to explain to them that they are doing this because it will help them be stronger, able to learn harder skills, and less likely to get injured. If they tell me it's not fun, I inform them that it's a heck of a lot better than an injury. For other kids I will have to stand and watch/monitor them constantly to ensure they get their conditioning done and not let them move on until it's complete, not so much of a treat for teenagers. If it comes to a point where the other kids are ready to move on, move along with them and have her go off to the side where you can still see her until she gets the work done, only giving her as much attention as she needs to do the skills correctly (this is provided she is capable of doing the skills- I wouldn't do this to a kid that tried their best and just couldn't get it).
If you think it's that she doesn't have the strength to get the skills done correctly, just remind all of the kids as a group to try their best and try to improve a little bit each day. Praise the progress they are making along the way. If you're not sure if she's faking it, talk to her parents. They will probably be willing to discuss it with her and find out what the problem is and report back to you. Some kids, especially younger ones, have a hard time controlling their bodies for conditioning and just need to be worked up to class expectations a little bit slower than other kids. In those cases I try not to call them out on it or make it a big deal in front of the other students, but quietly give them permission to do a few less reps as long as they try their hardest, because doing an extra 5 reps of sloppy conditioning just isn't worth it in my mind if they just aren't capable of it yet.

 

[skschlag]

At my son's gym, conditioning is often done first, and the boys don't move on to their event training until they are done with conditioning. And the coaches are watching. My son loves conditioning (has his own list at home that he does too) but sometimes he gets lazy and has to repeat things. I know one day, the whole team was being lazy with conditioning, and that is all they did for the entire practice.
Now, our coaches do make conditioning as fun as possible. they try to work it in with skills from their routines so that they are gettign 2 needs met (pbar handstands, drop kips, and rings back levers and handstands for part of conditioning). they also have rope climb races, etc for fun.
If it is done at the end of practice, it is sometimes a game that they play. Or, if it is a conditioning list, they don't go home until it is done.

 

[BlairBob]

One of our girls was like that. Probably are strongest, most talented L5. So we would tell her to just go do press HS or wallsits. Just go do something and get out of my hair. Either that or go sit against the wall or on the gym benches with the moms waiting for their kids. Yeah, I pretty much gave up on her. Mental case. You are either part of the group or you aren't.

 

[flipandtwist]

She carpools on the single day I am in the gym (long story) so her parents aren't there. Our other coach has talked to her parents multiple times, and she will be better for a day, but then goes back to normal.

I am quite forgiving whenever I see girls who physically can't do it, but try, but it is obvious she isn't even trying. I don't actually know what she is capable of doing, as she never tries to do anything.
She is 11, and we do play a lot of conditioning games, but some conditioning isn't easy to incorporate into games that need to bun (hollow body holds, v-ups, etc.)

Sorry for the scattered post, I was attempting to reply to most people's posts.

I think I will probably condition first and then don't let her move on until she at least tries.
Thanks everyone.

 

[All Chalked Up]

When I coach, I'm understanding if they physically cannot do it but they're trying. I'm cool with that. I had a girl flat-out refuse to condition and then back-talked to me when I told her that it would help her and reduce injury, so I flat-out sent her home. The rest of the girls are really good about conditioning. I rry to include at least one "fun" station!