Coaches Lacking motivation - Anyone else still in lockdown?

[Zivaah]

Hey all, long time no see/read,

we are in the second gym-lockdown since end of November (after being back for 3 months September/October/November). Hopefully we can return to outdoor training in April, but this also not for sure. In the beginning, we were all very motivated (the gymnasts and me as a coach). But I am now at a point, where my creativity for next workout is absolutely gone. I was never the "conditioning" coach.

Do you have any new, inventive fun ideas for zoom training? - My girls are on the older site of gymnastics (15+). We train right now once per week via zoom and during the week they have to do some challenges, and a conditioning plan (this one is changing every other week). Right now everyone is exhausted, so more than once per week of zoom training is not possible and the plans/challenges are more convenient and fit better the schedules of everyone.

Sadly, we cannot include any jumping in any workout plan. But a typical zoom training consists of cardio/tabata warm up in breakout sessions or all together, then some specific conditioning for different muscle groups. We are working on technique (turns, jumps and leaps, drills for bars, and a lot of press handstand/handstand) and we do a lot of theory and analyze different elements with pictures, videos). But I must admit, my motivation is completely gone. I don't want to do the same stuff (it feels like the same, since we are doing this for ages now) over and over again. The girls are happy with it, but I am not anymore.

At least the weather gets better now... We started with implementing running drills for vault (they film it, when they have time and I correct) and if they have access to playgrounds they do some kips and swing on the bars there.

Do you have ideas for drills, that can be done without equipment at home? I guess in US levels some of my girls would be level 7 and others level 8. We normally train twice a week.

Cheers,
Zivaah

 

[txgymfan]

Zivvah, where are you located? I don’t have any solutions. I do understand the burnout.

 

[Zivaah]

Hey txgymfan,

Thank you. I am based in Germany in a big city. I guess it helped me already to write down my feelings here. Afterwards I came up with a nice plan for todays zoom session. Looking forward to try it.

 

[Aussie_coach]

We did a few fun things. I sent the girls their conditioning programs and had them send me back videos of them completing it. They got points for each completion, and when the gym reopened they could exchange those points for prizes (we already had a prize box).

You can take idea from other sources, why not run a ballet or modern dance class, Pilates, yoga, soccer speed drills.

Find things around the house they can use for conditioning like food cans, water bottles, using bit of cardboard as sliders etc.

Teach a few sideways skills, things they don’t usually work on, elbow stands, different kinds of hand balancing, break dance freezes,.

Give them a piece of music and have them choreograph their own conditioning routine to it, or a floor routine with dance but no tumbling.

Go through the COP and work on some of the different types of unsuspecting hold, jumps, turns etc that are rarely used.

Why not split them into teams and have a chart and do conditioning comps, stick the best turns, handstand comps etc and award points to the teams.

 

[trampolinemom]

Still in lockdown in the Netherlands. Zoom strength training here but motivation is spiraling downwards. What I saw somewhere is a mixed zoom training with different clubs (or even from different countries). They brought in some quiz time or made couples from different gyms and it seemed a very nice idea. Suggested it to our gym (I am just a parent) but no success this far . Also when outdoor training is allowed I saw a gym taking their competition squad to do other outdoor sports in cooperation with like a tennis and an athletics club. That seemed fun as well.

 

[Zivaah]

Heya,

thank you for the input! Like I already posted, it helped already to "complain". Last training we were having a blast with a ballet-like class (jumping excluded) to work on our leaps.

We did a few fun things. I sent the girls their conditioning programs and had them send me back videos of them completing it. They got points for each completion, and when the gym reopened they could exchange those points for prizes (we already had a prize box).

You can take idea from other sources, why not run a ballet or modern dance class, Pilates, yoga, soccer speed drills.

We are quite good in yoga now, but modern dance sounds nice. I guess we will have some choreo sessions soon (I totally forgot about them, we started with choreo in the beginning of the lockdown and didn't go back to it, since competitions seem so far away).

Find things around the house they can use for conditioning like food cans, water bottles, using bit of cardboard as sliders etc.

Teach a few sideways skills, things they don’t usually work on, elbow stands, different kinds of hand balancing, break dance freezes,.

Give them a piece of music and have them choreograph their own conditioning routine to it, or a floor routine with dance but no tumbling.

I directly included that for last training! Thank you

Go through the COP and work on some of the different types of unsuspecting hold, jumps, turns etc that are rarely used.

Yes, we are working a lot with the COP especially since it is changing now again in 2022. We love to play with the code of points and all of my gymnasts are forced to get a judging license so this really helps.

Still in lockdown in the Netherlands. Zoom strength training here but motivation is spiraling downwards. What I saw somewhere is a mixed zoom training with different clubs (or even from different countries). They brought in some quiz time or made couples from different gyms and it seemed a very nice idea. Suggested it to our gym (I am just a parent) but no success this far . Also when outdoor training is allowed I saw a gym taking their competition squad to do other outdoor sports in cooperation with like a tennis and an athletics club. That seemed fun as well.

Good idea, I will ask some other clubs to make a joint zoom meeting Might be fun!