Coaches Tell about your job and your groups!

[pihlajat]

Hi! I'm a young coach and after one month I'm moving to a bigger city here in Finland because of my studies. I have changed e-mails with a (kind of) head coach of that city A's gymnastics club. She suggested me to start coaching FOUR recreational groups and one new pre-team. I'm quite excited but also little bit worried if I could organize my school (university) and friends and other stuff well enough to spend FOUR HOURS at the gym at least twice a week...

But at the moment I'm optimistic I would love to hear about other coaches, do you coach full time or are you studying or working elsewhere also? Do you think gym takes too much your time? How many different groups do you coach? Do you prefer coaching competitive or recreational/preschool gymnastics or maybe both?

You are also free to tell anything you want about your job's pros and cons or your groups I would also like to hear what it was kind when you changed a gym?

 

[gymgurl]

I am currently a year 12 student (Senior year) and am coaching once a week on top of training level 6. I am currently co-coaching a group of level 3s with another coach and i really enjoy it! Sometimes I cover for rec coaches. Personally I find that i prefer competitive squads when I coach as there is more focus, i struggle with rec classes, but thats just me personally, i also work better with slightly older gymnasts.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i coached all thru college. it kept me sane.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Coaching is the closest thing I've ever had to what is colloquially known as a "real job." (Other work I've done has all been freelancing, either as a professional juggler or as a music composer). I've been coaching since I was 16.

Right now, I coach (basically) full-time. In my current position (and keep in mind I just started at this gym a week ago), I'm almost exclusively coaching level 4-8 girls. In the past, I've coached just about any sort of group you can imagine. Boys, girls, young, old, upper-level, lower-level, you name it.

No such thing as gym taking too much of my time. I'd live there if I could. Heck, when I get a chance to go on "vacation," I usually spend it coaching at some gymnastics camp or other. If I can't do that, I'm usually doing some manner of gymnastics-related research. I pretty much eat, sleep, and breathe gymnastics, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[BlairBob]

I was a bit like Geoffrey where I coached this and that group for about 12 years straight. At times, I tried to get into the computer field but came back to coaching because jobs would fizzle out. Need to eat at some point.

I've also hit that point where I'm not as young as I used to be so burnout became an issue when coaching 6 days a week err 5 days a week during the week and saturday morning. My only vacations would be when the gym was closed or we went to meets or clinics somewhere. A lot of spare time during the day would be reading or watching gymnastic videos if I didn't also need to do that a bit at the gym to go over drills I wanted to work that day or week.

Because I got so used to being at the gym nearly most of the time, I would find even when we got off early or were on summer hours, I'd linger until my normal time. It's easy to make gym a second home. Way too easy. Especially if you train besides coach. Having retired from that, I find I just want to coach and go home. Maybe play a bit for no longer than an hour, preferably before coaching rather than after.

 

[CreateMagic]

I currently coach 10-15 hours a week over three days (several rec classes, preteam, and excel team), while working as a full-time middle-school teacher, and getting my master's degree. My senior year of high school I cheered on two teams (high school and all-star totaling approximately 15 hours a week) and taught 14 classes a week. Yes, 14. While taking honors and AP courses. I graduated with honors. However, I also had friends who couldn't handle that type of workload. You have to know yourself and what you can handle. Think about things like--how much sleep do you typically need? How well do you handle stress? How much do you need to study typically (this may have been my saving grace--I rarely needed to study, and my homework was done during breaks)? What will your course load be like in university? Is it important to you to also be involved in other extracurriculars? Good luck in your decision!

 

[Marino]

I'm a coach in Denmark, teaching Power Tumbling to kids in my free-time. I have 4 teams I teach and use around 17 hours a week teaching them. Our tumbling team are #1 in Denmark, which I'm very proud of.

I work everyday at a company creating 3D software simulations for the military, teaching them how to use military equipment. Before that I actually created computer games like "Hitman".

I enjoy teaching gymnastics and have done it for over 20 years now. In my younger years, I did artistic, trampoline and team-gym gymnastics. I would still like to do gymnastics, but all my time is geared towards teaching others (and I have taken 15kg on since

gymnastics forever,
Peter

 

[zooby]

Congrats on your new coaching position? How's it going so far?

I have been coaching part-time for a total of 11 years, off and on. I'm back coaching rec and team again and I love it! I would do it full-time if I could!! Some days are incredibly stressful and you'll have days where everything is falling a part, but you just go home, clear your head, and start over the next day. There isn't a better feeling in the world than seeing one of your students learn a move they've been working so hard to get, and being a part of that success is unbelievable!

I'm new to coaching team and new spotting techniques and I find that I'm constantly learning the sport, even though I've been associated with it for 18 years. If you really love it, like I do, you will do great. Just remember that there are good and bad days, but it's such a rewarding position! Good luck to you and have fun!

 

[gymgurl]

No longer coaching the level 3s, there has been a reshuffle of coaches and I now coach the level 1s and 2s haven't coached them yet but will coach them for the first time next saturday

 

[bribri514]

i coached all thru college. it kept me sane.

are you sure it didn't make you insane?? lol. just kidding dunno, you know I love you.

 

[bribri514]

I just started coaching the L 4 and 5 girls and love it!! Before this I helped with rec classes at the gym I was training at in high school and I was training L 10. I did some volunteer stuff for all levels because the highest they had was a girl at 8 after I left, when I came home on breaks from college. I'm starting my senior year now so this is really my first "real" gymnastics coaching job. last year I was the cheerleading coach at the high school for the Deaf nearby

 

[All Chalked Up]

Last year on top of training 12 hrs a weeks, school, "social life" (really just talking with my co-workers/coaches in between classes!) I coached around 12 hrs a week.

I coached kids ages 18 months thru 16 yrs (even though I'm only 14... awkward!)

I coached parent n tot, preschool, rec, hotshots and intermediate.

I loved pre school and intermediate, really didn't like rec most of the time and I really really liked hotshots too.

The most rewarding part of coacingh though were the autistic children I taught! I loved that and we really "connected". I coached two autistic siblings - a boy and a girl aged 3 & 5 - and another little girl who was 8. Also coached a non-verbal, autistic 7 yr old boy which I loved.Most difficult thing I have ever done but SOOOO REWARDING.

I have been doing quite a bit of volunteering at the gym this summer also.