Here’s a sweet deal for a coach who wants to upgrade their skills and experience.
The Professional Coaching Diploma (PCD) program is held at International Gymnastics Camp (IGC) in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania and offers an intensive instructional coaching curriculum for gymnastics professionals.
As one of the premier training facilities in the world, IGC has offered gymnasts and coaches the best training facilities and educational opportunities for over 39 years. This collective knowledge is the foundation of the PCD program designed to teach a full range of technical skill development, coaching methods, and spotting techniques in a safe and applied manner.
The time and effort commitment at the entry-level is 260 teaching and classroom hours spanning a four-week period.
Daily lecture demonstrations, written and practical tests, as well as observational and critical coaching reviews build throughout the second, third and fourth years.
This challenging program is designed for the career-minded individual intent on becoming a top-tier gymnastics coach.
You will graduate from the PCD program with a gymnastics portfolio documenting your personal progress and comprehensive understanding of beginner through elite gymnastics.
Whether you have just started your coaching career or have been coaching for years, it is our mission to help you build on your knowledge and continue your professional growth.
USA Gymnastics’ Talent Opportunity Program (TOPs) is in its 19th season and is still going strong. Fifty-four athletes participated in the three-day National TOPs Team Camp at the Women’s National Team Training Center, held at the Karolyi Ranch in Huntsville, Texas, Dec. 1-5.
An additional 58 athletes participated in the TOPs B Camp, Dec. 5-9. For the first time in the program’s history, 8-year-old gymnasts participated in the training camps with tremendous success.
The athletes were instructed in all four Olympic events and dance by the National Team Developmental Coaching staff. Lectures were also given by the staff to the coaches on training techniques. …
Gary Warren, the USA Gymnastics Elite Program Director who oversees the TOPs program, said, “The training camps were, without a doubt, the most productive camps in our 19 years of existence and the inclusion of the 8-year-old athletes was a tremendous success.”
Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela and the United States …
Included on the staff were Steve Rybacki, Antonia Markova, Luminita Garcy, Enrique Trabanino and Debbie Kaitschuck. Sean Golden …
My family had a summer home near Nelson, British Colombia for 30yrs. I was pleased to be asked to be guest coach at a clinic / camp at Glacier Gymnastics in Nelson.
In a remote town population 9,258 (2006), this club has 600 kids a week!
The coaches there are doing a great job on this key basic skill. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The plan is to introduce baby sole circles (AKA froggie circles, monkey circles) to the beginners.
Next put them on the Tower of Power. (credit John Carney)
And work up to handstand step down to 2ft sole circle back to handstand, as shown. First on straps. Later on single rail.
When the kids start giants and free hip handstand on the real bar, early grip change will be no issue. It’s already been perfected on the easier sole circle.
A major weakness in the American compulsory program on Bars is that young girls get expert at “mill circle”, not bothering with the much more important sole circle.
Gymnastics camp is a great environment for kids to do new skills for the first time. In fact, it’s good yearly planning to schedule your kids to do their biggest new skills first at camp.
Yet even if you are a great spotter, as a camp coach you find yourself working with kids you don’t know.
Coach Eric Harrison sang high praise for the spotting at GymRep camp in Quebec. Here are a few sample videos he posted on his rickou2 YouTube channel.
Nice. I’d let Robert and David spot ME on Double Layout.
Sign up NOW if you want to attend this francophone camp. It filled fast last summer. GymRep.com (bilingual).
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Eric is a French / American coach most recently working in Ireland. He’s very active online with his Gymnet.org site, the biggest for French speaking gymnastics coaches on the net.
If you speak French, you already know Gymnet.org. If you don’t, Google Translate does work quite well French to English.
… Woodward U will offer a boarding program at the Woodward West campus in Tehachapi, California.
The Woodward U programs will ultimately include a winter tutorial program at Woodward Copper in Colorado; a semester-abroad program will provide students an opportunity to study at Woodward Beijing; and Woodward Everywhere will allow students to take Woodward U courses remotely with periodic visits to Woodward facilities to ensure a tie-in to The Woodward Family and Woodward U community.
Woodward U is now accepting applications. Whether you are an aspiring BMX rider, Snowboarder, Skateboarder, Photographer, Film-maker, Musician, Artist or someone interested in all of these things, Woodward U is the place to refine your skills while getting a high quality college-prep education. …
For more information about Woodward U, please visit woodwardu.com or call 661-750-2126.
No mention of Gymnastics or other acrobatic sports. But there’s no reason why those athletes could not apply. I’m assuming it will be made up of mostly High School age kids.
A personal thanks to Dana Brass, interim Head Coach of Go For It Gymnastics in Vegas, for organizing our clinic / camp last week. It was great.
Shout out to Kyle Shewfelt, inspirational headliner at camp. He made a lot of kids very happy.
From the Facebook album: Wall Photos by Amber
… Many of the girls had attended the UCLA camp with Nastia earlier in the summer. They told me they didn’t see any Olympic medals there. (Likely Nastia has hers locked up in a vault.)