Flossyduck
Proud Parent
- Feb 2, 2012
- 936
- 744
I have to admit that I have from time to time encouraged my dd to ask her coach about something. When she is getting frustrated with something she tells me about it, of course she does, she's 8 and I'm her mum. I can't help her with the gymnastics, I'm not a coach. I know when her coach tells her to adjust something she will always do it if she understands. I also know that when her coach tells to to do something she doesn't understand she will still nod and not question it. For example (a while back now): she gets in the car and tells me her vault went badly, again. I asked her what her coach told her to do and she said 'drive your heels more'. Do you understand what that means? I asked. 'no idea' was the response. So after a few sessions of this I told her she must tell her coach that she doesn't really know what 'drive your heels' means and could they try and show her or tell her again. She did and got quite a bit of help, which made an immediate improvement. If I had gone wading into the gym and asked the coach myself to explain it, or if I had tried to explain it to her myself, that would have been getting too involved. But to my mind, telling you 8 year old that it's ok to ask the coach to explain something in a different way is fine. I would do the same if she was struggling with something at school. Because my dd was a late starter I sometimes think she's still catching up on terminology and basics coaches might expect her to have because of her skill level.