Welcome back to my blog for the last post! This week I want to wrap up my project and discuss future goals, and goals I had planned to reach.
As I started this project my goal was to overall become a better coach, and help each gymnast be as successful as possible. As being a gymnastics coach it is more than telling them how to do a certain skill. I have to create drills and get them ready before they actually attempt the skill. I felt like this project made me grow in creating drills to benefit my students. Having this project motivated me to think outside the box for new drill ideas, and new ways of coaching. I believe I met my goal of becoming a better coach, and believe I will continue to be a better coach as time goes on. The great thing about gymnastics is it is always changing, and there will always be new ways to coach, or train new skills. This project made me realize this very quickly. I also felt like I succeeded in coaching because I had a few gymnast move to the next level, but that is not the only reason. I saw kids who did not move up, but put more effort into their gymnastics which made me feel good too. I cannot wait to see how all my students do in gold medal day, and see how my coaching and their hard work has paid off. I really enjoyed this project as it allowed me to become a better coach and work on something I love for 12 weeks. I will continue to coach as long as I can, and hope to grow from it each and everyday.
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Welcome back to my blog! This week I will discuss the drills I found and talked about last week, and some ideas for routines I have come up with.
The first drill I discussed last week for back-handsprings went well. I feel it helped most of the gymnast understand how to snap their shoulders back. It also made them engage their core which is important. The other drill I tried with my red team class for cartwheel scoops went well, most of the girls made some progress on the skill. The leap drill I discussed last week also went well, although I may need to adjust the height of the block as the weeks progress to make it more difficult. As for routines, I would like to start working them more, but do not want them to be all the girls do, because it can get quite boring. I decided to try doing stations and one of the stations will be to do a routine. This should work well for beam, but may need some adjustments for floor. I think the girls will enjoy this so they can also work on others skills, along with routines. As for next week, I plan to continue with the drills discussed in the past two blog post, and work on routines. For next week's blog post I will most likely wrap up my failures and accomplishments for this project, along with how that week went. Come back next week to read my blog to get informed on my week, and for a wrap up of this project. Welcome back to my blog. This week I’m gonna explain some drills that I plan to try with my classes.
The first one I’d like to try is for back handsprings. I will use a wedge to the gymnast to sit on the floor and snap back to the mat on their shoulders. This will help with the correct arm shape and hopefully the speed of snapping down in a back handspring. Another drill I’d like to work on is for leaps. Split leaps can be difficult for some gymnast to get, and it takes time. One drill I’d like to do is having the girls jump up to a block or mat in the correct position. Hopefully this will help with form as well. As for red team, I want to find some drills for cartwheel scoops. One that a fellow coach suggested was using a jean mat with arrows to show the girls where to place their hands, so they can focus on feet placement as first priority. I will also began working on routines with both red and blue team because gold medal day will be coming up the beginning of June. Below I have a picture of the back handspring drill that I will be using. Next week I hope to give feedback on how drills and routines are going. Only a couple more weeks of this project, and I already feel like I have improved. Make sure to come back next week! Welcome back to my blog! This week I plan to explain how the evaluations and drills went last week, and hopefully have some pictures of drills used.
The evaluations are finally finished and went very well. It was good to see the progress from all the gymnast. I am very proud of my blue team classes, because many are able to move up. On the blue team class for Wednesday a couple girls were able to move up to bronze, while a few moved to a new class called advanced girls. Bronze is the first level of real USAG team. The new class, advanced girls, will be for girls that are too advanced for blue, but not ready for bronze. The red team class on Wednesday had a few girls move to blue, which I was very happy about. I also had a couple girls from my blue team class on Saturday advance to new level, along with some gymnast from red move to blue team. Most of the drills from last week went very well. The first one I tried was spotting the red team girls on backward roll to push up, and this helped many of the gymnast. The red team class also worked on cartwheel step together, so I plan on working on the scoop part next. For blue team the power hurdle round off drills went very well. Many of the gymnast started to get the concept of the power hurdle. One thing I would really like to work on this week are turns and jumps on both beam and floor. I plan to use the dot or hula hoop drill that I have mentioned before on floor. This is where the gymnast stands in or on the dot or hula hoop, and does a half turn by stepping out in front of them. The hula hoop or dot should help so they have a visual of were to step. Below I have a picture of a diagram that explains what a roundoff is for anyone that does not understand. Come back next week to see my progress an new drills I would like to try. Welcome back to my blog this week I am going to discuss how fun meet and evaluations went at the gym. Overall the evaluation sheets went well. It let me know what I need to work on, and how each gymnast is doing. This week I want to find some drill to work on the skills provided on the evaluation sheet. I believe coaches will be doing another evaluation this week, or next. The fun meet was also last week and it went well. It was great to be able to see how hard the red and blue team girls have worked. The girls also got to earn medals and trophies for placing, and completing the meet.
Along with the evaluations, I would like to do some drills so the girls can improve on certain skills. For both red and blue team girls, I would like to work on backward roll to push up shape. This can be a very difficult still to learn. For red team they just have to roll to the push up shape, while in blue team they need to go to push up shape with straight arms. After talking to a fellow coach, he advised me to spot these. He said it can be very beneficial to the gymnast. I will try doing that this week and hopefully it will help. Another thing I would like to work on with by blue team class would be power hurdle round-offs. This is different from a normal round-off because you have to start with your feet together. This can be difficult for some kids to understand. One drill I would like to try is starting on a spring board, and the gymnast has to jump off into their hurdle from the board. This is a drill I remember doing and it can be very useful. The last thing I want to work on with my red team class is cartwheel scoops. This is when students do a cartwheel, but land with their feet together. It is also different from a round off because you do not snap your feet together. This skill takes practice, so I plan on working on that a lot. Below are some pictures from the fun meet. Hope you enjoyed this blog post. Next week I plan to update you on the evaluations, and how drills are going. Welcome back to my blog! Last week, I was on spring break so we did not have a blog post due. This weeks post will be about all the drills I mentioned last week, and the new evaluation plan for moving up levels at Salem Gymnastics.
The first drill I tired with my red team class is the handstand drill, where students use a half block to then kick up to a handstand. This drill did not work very well, due to the fact many of the kids did not understand the drill, or were not squeezing. I may try this drill with my blue team classes, since they might have a better understanding of the station. The station for the blue team classes that I found worked very well was the handstand snap down with the springboard. This helped many of the girls with snap downs in round offs and back handsprings. I did not really work on drills as much on beam, but the posture and tight form worked well for most students. This week all the coaches at Salem will evaluate students to get them on the right track for summer. The evaluation will give parents an idea of what skills the child has and does not have in order to move up. Below I have a picture of the evaluation sheet. This year the gym has made some adjustments that make it harder to move up, which in my opinion is a good idea, so we can get gymnast ready for team if that is their goal. There is not much new to try this week since we are doing the evaluation process, but after I will be able to use this to make progress with each student. On Saturday the gym will host a fun meet, which is a little competition for red and blue team girls. The fun meet gives a good inside to what each gymnast needs to work on, and allows the girls to show off their routines. Hopefully I can video tape a few routines to post to my blog next week. Come back to read my blog next week to see the progress on the evaluation and fun meet. Welcome back to my blog! This week I want to work to find more drill for both my blue and red team classes. The first drill I wanted to find was to help the red team class with handstands. To do this drill I need to get a tall mat for them to put their feet on, once their feet are placed on the mat they will then try to kick up into a handstand. This drill will help the kids squeeze their muscles while in a full handstand. A lot of the girls will get all the way up in a handstand, but then fall over. Hopefully this will help. For blue team I want to find some drills for round offs. One that I found that I hope to will help is using a panel mat. I will lay the mat vertical and the kids will start with there good foot in front with a straight leg. To be able to do the round off the gymnast need to reach really far, and have a good snap down out of the round off. I plan to also have a station for handstand snap downs by using a springboard. I hope this will help them feel the position and power of a snap down. For beam I won't focus as much on drills, more on form and posture.
Another thing I would like both my blue and red team classes to work on is tight bodies, and shapes during basic skills and routines. Many gymnast can do the skill, but lack the tightness needed to excel in gymnastics. I want to start warm up on floor and beam by working on these tight shapes. After warm up I will work on all the drills. Next week I hope to share how all these drills and ideas went. Next week I hope to get more pictures, or videos of students. It can be difficult to do because of permission, but if I am not able I will take pictures of the stations for next week. Come back to my blog next week to see my progress! Welcome back to my blog! Since last week was demo week, I decided to let the girls try some upper level skills and new drills. I got the opportunity to do some of the drills I discussed last week. My goal this week was to work the drills and do some tight form work.
The first drill I tried was with blue team. I used the shoulder block on the springboard drill. I explained this last week and wanted to let you know how it worked. I felt many of the girls benefited from this drill because it helped them block through their shoulders in the back handspring. I also did the back handspring drill where the gymnast jumps back to a rainbow shape. This drill also went well because it showed the gymnast what shape to be in during a back handspring. As for red team, I was able to work back walkovers, but still need to find a way for the kids to not bend their legs. Many of the girls have bent legs. I found if after they kick over, I hold their legs out to the straight position. I felt this helped some. To work one tight form shapes, I got my blue team girls to lay down flat with their arms by their ears. After that, the girls squeezed all their muscles to a tight layout shape. This drill/form work will help with shapes and also work their muscles! Next week I hope to find more drills for tight shapes, and skills in their routine. Even though Gold Metal Day isn’t till June, I would still like to work on routines. I want the girls to have the best opportunity to move up. Welcome back to my blog! This week was demo day, so I was not able to try new stations or drills. I plan on giving some details about how my classes did during demo week, and looking up some new drills for next week.
Demo day went very well for most of my classes. I saw tremendous amount of improvement from my blue team class, and my red team girls are still working very hard to improve. Now that we do not have a demo day for a while I can take a break from full routines and break it into parts, to hopefully help the kids out. I plan to work little parts of the routines to make it neat, so when Gold Medal day comes they’re well prepared. Along with working small parts I want to start working on up skills. To work on some up skills I need to find some drills. I would like to find some drills to start working back handsprings with my blue team class, and a back walkover drill for my red team class. One for the back handsprings would be having the kids get in a push up shape and pushing through their shoulders to bounce off the bored. This will help the kids be able to block through there shoulders and not bend their arms in the back-handspring. Another back handspring drill I found that many coaches use is having the gymnast stand and jump back into your arms, then having them make a rainbow shape. A rainbow shape is a way to describe the body shape the gymnast should have in the air. The next set of drills I want to find are for back walkovers, and back bend kick-overs. The first drill I found that I wanted to try was having the kids kick up into a handstand, then falling onto a block with their feet only. If they can hold that shape then they can try to kick-over. This drill will help them be able keep their shoulders open, while giving an easier opportunity to try the kick over. Next week I hope to give feedback on how these drills worked and get a plan for the following week. Come back next week to see the progress. Welcome back to my blog! This week I completed the permission forms to give out to parents, and hopefully will be able to post some pictures and videos. My plans for this week is to work on routines. Next week the gymnast will complete a demo day, which is a time for coaches to evaluate the progress of the kids. This also prepares them for Gold Medal day which is in June. Gold Medal day is the final evaluation of the gymnast, and they get to show off their routines for ribbons and trophies. Routines can be very difficult for some girls because they get nervous. I like to have everyone sit and watch each others routines the week before demo day to get use to the nervousness, and understand its not that bad. This also gives me the opportunity to give personal corrections that I might not of been able to do if we were doing stations. After doing that, if there is time on beam I’d like to work on tight shapes and pointed toes. For tight shapes, a drill I found that works best is trying to lightly push them off the beam. This makes them think about squeezing all their muscles, and if they fall I usually make them to push ups. Most of the kids like this and find it to be like a game. This week since my permission slips were done, I was able to get a video of one of my students. I was so proud when she finally got her back-bend kick-over. This skill was very difficult for her to get, but now she’s got it! I am so very proud of her, and glad some of the drills used in past weeks helped her. Next week is demo week and I hope to document the progress of my students, and start brainstorming new drills for the following week. |
AuthorKimmy O´Rorke |