Well you're right, I've never seen it either, but that doesn't mean there's no circumstance or context where it might be the right thing to do in a pretty narrow context.....
I'm not talking about going out on the floor and doing the skill for them, but wouldn't mind seeing an occassional light spot to keep a kid's skill development in constant forward motion at the early stage of the season. I'm a little perplexed by the notion that some coaches think nothing of standing in close on release moves, and will spot them when needed, but the same sense of caution is way out of line on floor. Why should that be a problem when all the coach did was spot the kid lightly, possibly wouldn't even have touched her, except it seemed the kid and the coach had agreed on a touch on the way up, and you can't change that agreement during a take-off.
The context is simply that when this time of year comes around there's a destructive rush to "make it or break it" with the alternative choice of abandoning skills that have been worked on since late spring because they aren't ready. I consider tossing away the progress made from late May to early November a huge loss that can't be recovered by resuming work on the skill the following spring.
I guess I take a different view of what the early season is all about. I've never taken kids to meets this early in the year because it cuts the developmental training short, but if I did I would consider them practice meets and treat them more like practice than a meet. I have to admit I've never spotted any of my kids doing doubles in a meet except for a few in warm ups, and that brings me to another thought or two.
Many coaches spot during the warm up sessions and some don't. I assume the kids who aren't being spotted have the skill more solidly than those who get spotted, so just continuing that thought, doesn't that mean the kids who get spotted in warm ups are somewhat unprepared to do the skill. My feeling is the "what ifs" are at every large meet, so what's the big deal about a coach and a kid making a public statement about the kid's state of progress for the skill, at least they're being honest....and safe.
I wouldn't want to see more than a few kids getting helped this way because training the skill should be planned out by qualified coaches and progressed through with capable kids....but sometimes things don't go exactly as planned and a kid gets three or four weeks behind, and that's where I see room for an exception. If they take time to work some other skill, even if it takes away just 2 or 3 double back work sessions, it puts them even further behind on a skill they could otherwise compete safely in January, and have looking pretty skippy by late February.
I get that there could be a virtual flood of posers out there with kids that won't have the skill any time during the season, and I'd hate to see it get to that point. So what do you do......Stop, interrupt, or impede progress in early November.....Not schedule meets in November....or spot the skill just a wee bit in November. My choice is to not schedule for November, but if somebody forced me, under penalty of chalkless bar workouts for a year, to compete kids in November, I sure as heck wouldn't mess up a kid's chance to have a good skill by the time it was important to have it in January.
I don't know if that makes sense to you, and I doubt I'll ever be in a position to spot floor tumbling at a meet..... but if I see it happen in November or December I'm gonna assume the skills there, and the spotting is a matter of "economy" rather than neccesity.
Oh yeah, don't worry dunno. I'm not going to ask you to spot any of my tumbling at meets, and I sure ain't gonna spot any of your's, unless we both want rupture achilles tendons and torn bicepts. Of course there's always that darn Suzie and her kip problem...... we could take turns spotting her for the next five years.
Hey waddaya think....maybe she needs to push her hips into the exte..........
