Coaches Not making corrections

[WavyNavy8]

How do you handle athletes who aren’t making corrections during practice? I don’t mean when they don’t understand or need assistance. I mean like deliberately just doing the same thing on repeat over and over without trying to make a change. Not expecting perfection, only expecting effort to make a change.

I’ve worked with coach’s in the past who punish with conditioning - rope climbs, mat pushes - in hopes to motivate them to NOT have to do extra conditioning. I’ve tried this method and have been met with either flat out not caring, or defiance/poor behaviors. The behavior has been discussed with parents as well and they are also at a loss on how to handle.

I’ve thought about rewarding the behavior of those who do put in effort but worry that will also lose its effectiveness on those who give that full effort every time. I also don’t love constantly awarding athletes for doing what they are supposed to be doing.

I’ve also tried to just let it be and allow their scores to reflect their effort but it seems to bring the moral of the team down, and frankly it’s my job to coach them to the best they can be and I want to see every single one of them succeed. They are all talented and I know can do better.

 

[estamey21]

I feel you pain. I have a a few gymnasts who just don’t care. In my opinion, the real problem with these athletes is not that their progress is stagnating or that they perform poorly in competition, it’s that their work ethic really infects the “mood” of practice. I like to conduct classes with a competitive spirit, but if an athlete isn’t feeling all that competitive, it’s common for other athletes to lower their standards of excellence, as well.

My strategies are:

1. Strong positive reinforcement (mostly words of praise and public recognition) for athletes who work hard.
2. EXTRA strong positive reinforcement for the “problem athlete” when they show small improvements.
3. Sit an athlete out (10-15 minutes time out) if they are excessively distracted or distracting others.
4. Notify parent if problem persists. I like to do this right before the competition season (“Your daughter is a little behind in her training, so she might score lower than her peers during competition. We are still working with her to improve her training habits so that she can finish the season strong.”)
5. If a parent asks how their kid is doing, I’m always brutally honest. (“We love working with your daughter, but unfortunately she doesn’t make great use of class time, which is stunting her athletic potential.”)
6. If permitted by your team handbook, make the athlete repeat a level. Continuously remind athlete throughout the season the consequences of their actions.
7. If it’s clear that the athlete simply doesn’t care about improving, spend less time with the athlete. You can’t make somebody do something they don’t want to do, so it’s better to spend more time with athletes who can benefit from your instruction.


In general, my strategy is positive reinforcement and early communication with parents. Sometimes the parent can inspire their kid to work harder, other times the parent will remove their kid from the program (win-win). I don’t really believe in kicking kids off the team unless they are severely endangering the safety of themselves or others. I also don’t believe in using conditioning as punishment because it is a necessary part of training. In fact, I generally use conditioning as positive reinforcement by giving harder assignments to athletes who are up for the challenge.

I hope this helps! I greatly sympathize with your struggles

 

[Mthegymqueen]

One time during the year last season, Our coaches sat me and my teammates down and asked us if we wanted to improve in gymnastics, because some of the girls would not try and it would frustrate our coaches. They had us write down on a note card (with our names on it, but only they would read it), on if we cared or didn't care about gymnastics. The people who wrote that they wanted the help, would get the same amount of help they needed before, and the girls who wrote that they didn't care, would not want as much help as the others, but would still get help if they asked for it.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

How do you handle athletes who aren’t making corrections during practice? I don’t mean when they don’t understand or need assistance. I mean like deliberately just doing the same thing on repeat over and over without trying to make a change. Not expecting perfection, only expecting effort to make a change.

I’ve worked with coach’s in the past who punish with conditioning - rope climbs, mat pushes - in hopes to motivate them to NOT have to do extra conditioning. I’ve tried this method and have been met with either flat out not caring, or defiance/poor behaviors. The behavior has been discussed with parents as well and they are also at a loss on how to handle.

I’ve thought about rewarding the behavior of those who do put in effort but worry that will also lose its effectiveness on those who give that full effort every time. I also don’t love constantly awarding athletes for doing what they are supposed to be doing.

I’ve also tried to just let it be and allow their scores to reflect their effort but it seems to bring the moral of the team down, and frankly it’s my job to coach them to the best they can be and I want to see every single one of them succeed. They are all talented and I know can do better.

To me if they're not making a correction, it's irrelevant whether it's because they can't or because they don't want to. Either way, the solution is to break the skill down into smaller components to isolate the error away from the complexities of the rest of the skill, and then drill that component into muscle memory, so that they do it correctly even when not consciously trying to.

But also, athlete motivation often has more to do with coaching energy than anything else. Are you excited to be there? Are you animated and fun to work with? Are you energetic and outgoing when you coach? Athletes generally pick up on the excitement -- or lack thereof -- shown by their coaches. Now this does certainly vary depending on the age range, but if you're working with athletes under about 12 years old and they don't seem motivated, the problem is probably that you don't seem motivated and they're picking up on that.
(If they're teenagers, all I can say is good luck -- if there's a trick to getting them motivated when they want to be lazy, I sure as hell haven't discovered it yet)

 

[Coach Kate]

A tip I got as a young coach was that if I give a correction three times with no improvement/effort, give a small drill to help with it before trying again. So if it's "point your feet", maybe they sit in a pile and point and flex their feet 10 times, and then hold a tight point for 10 seconds.

 

[Aussie_coach]

It’s until that your gymnasts are failing to make corrections because they don’t care or they don’t want to be better gymnasts.

The ability to apply corrections is a complex thought process and some kids master it earlier than others.

There are lots of reasons why kids don’t make corrections.
1. They may not understand the correction. Lots of them just pretend to understand because they don’t want to say “I don’t get it”
2. They may understand the connection but not know how to make it.
3. They may not understand the importance of the correction and what an amazing difference it will make to their skills.
4. They may not think they can make the correction because it feels strange to them, due to previous developed habits.
5. They may be forgetting: honestly it’s common to give a kid a correction and two seconds later when doing the sklll, they forget. Because they are used to thinking in a different way doing the skill and forget to think about the change:
6. They may not believe the correction will help, it’s not an act of defiance or disrespect, it’s simply because their body has become used to a certain way of moving and it doesn’t feel the new way.
7. They may not be visualising the correction:
8. They may be embarrassed or worried that if they do it differently they will fall in front of everyone.

If you give a correction to a gymnasts and they don’t make it, never assume they don’t want to, always assume that for some reason they can’t and the need extra help to make it.

You can try

1. Phrasing the correction in a different way.
2. Demonstrate or get a gymnasts to demonstrate the correction so the kids get a visual of it.
3. Spot them and stop them in the position.
4. Break it down and do a drill for that position or movement.
5. Have them continue in the drill and not live into the skill until mastered: or send them back to the drill if they don’t make the correction.
6. Praise their efforts and what they are doing well. A gymnasts who believes they are doing well will be more likely to make a change.
7. Leinster a way to make it a challenge or a competition. This often brings out abilities in children and teens that they never knew they had.
8: Find a way to make it fun, make a game out of the drill, use fun equipment etc. This works wonders because the excitement of wanting to do the fun drill can over power the fear and doubt the gymnast has.
9. Ask them if there is something you can do to help. If they are scared they may know what will help them feel safer.
10. Teach them to visualise the correction before they go for it, or to check what they are thinking abou t before they go.
11. Make sure they understand the purpose and value of the correction and why it will help.