Anon learning things correctly.

[Anonymous (06ac)]

As a coach I am a stickler about kids learning things correctly, especially when it comes to basics, like handstands, round offs, BHS etc. I believe proper basics are key to better gymnastics overall. Like building a house, you need a strong foundation. This seems to be at odds with todays methods of having kids run from one station to the next doing pretty much everything incorrectly and it drives me crazy. Bad body memory is sometimes almost impossible to undo. It makes my job 100 times harder as a JO coach. I am old, and I had great foundational coaches. I'm very much at home with the Shift Movement Science, or Gymneo TV types. I can't get the owners, who were not gymnasts themselves to understand this, and I am thinking maybe I should just give up trying. I only have a few more years left coaching in this sport, if that, so I am thinking maybe I should just let bad body memory be my new normal acceptance level, and shut up about it and deal with what I have to. Anyone else run into this?

 

[Anonymous (4642)]

I hear you. I feel the same way...but its an uphill battle. Kids now need immediate feedback & lots of "fun". Parents/kids are seeing the social media blitz of kids just chucking skills into a pit and it looks and feels so much more glamorous than having to do things like leg lifts with locked out knees, etc. We teach the form, shapes & technique-but we do let the kids play around with fun skills into the pit every once in a while. That might be the middle ground that helps.