Entries Tagged 'planning' ↓

Periodization: theory and methodology of training by Tudor O. Bompa is on Google Books. (2nd edition 2005)

There are some limitations as to how much of the text you can read online. Google Books service is free.

Google Books – Periodization: theory and methodology of training

The dead tree version is available on Amazon. ($15)

We are much criticized, as you know.

Here’s a good idea from Al Fong:

How efficient is your team’s workout? How many turns do your gymnasts get in a 30 minute rotation? A 45 minute rotation? An hour? …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

… as an example, our team doesn’t gather at the beginning end of the tramp directly opposite the resi pit landing. Instead they stand perpendicular to the resi so they can watch each other tumble, hear the coaching comments, and even help coach their fellow team mates.

Only 2 people line up at the beginning end as one is walking to line up behind them. This keeps the athletes totally concentrated on the task at hand. If everyone clumps up at the end, the line goes slower and it’s easier to be tempted to lose focus.

Many gymnastics coaches are lousy at dealing with parents. Especially young coaches.

That’s a required skill for a coach. As important as a handstand for a gymnast.

Here’s an excellent post from a gym Mom on Chalk Bucket forum:

… I just had the BEST parent-coach meeting that I ever went to, and I thought I’d share some of the things that this coach did. This was a coach talking to parents of L5/L6 girls fast-tracked (I use the term lightly – really it’s just girls identified to have the potential to go to Optionals in the next couple of years) who are 7-10 years old. We are all new to her team although not new to the gym.

She talked about her background. Now, I’ve had other coaches do this, but it always came off sort of braggy (e.g., “I was almost an elite gymnast”). This coach was very straight forward about her years of experience but also talked about why she coaches the levels she does and what she brings to it.

She complimented every single girl on the team during her talk. I don’t know if she planned this out, but she just worked it into the conversation. For example, she’d say something like “A is extremely flexible which is going to be great for her when we work on ….”

She made her expectations to the parents clear and gave specific examples from her experience. Most importantly she talked about what 8-10 year olds will not always share with their coach, even when they should. For example, she told a story of a girl who was normally a really hard worker who was just not doing her best. Finally she snapped “what is wrong with you today?” and the girl explained that her dog had died the night before. She said how girls will sometimes not talk about this because they don’t want their coach to think they are shirking, but the parent should email to help the conversation.

She talked about her own kids and family. Not too much, but enough so that I could related to her as a mother.
She talked about her goals for the team. She made it clear that if they give it their all, their scores should be in a certain range and showed a general roadmap of when they should be acquiring skills.

She talked about the need for balance in their lives and gave some specific examples of what will over tax a child vs. what will give a child a good time outside of the gym.

She talked at length about injuries and injury prevention. Even saying things like “if your child is limping at home, email me so that I watch them at the next practice.”

She talked about what we should expect as our children get older, both the good and the more difficult. She gave actual statistics about how many graduating seniors go on to 4-year colleges (not for gymnastics –just to study) and how girls who stay in the program stay out of trouble.

Most importantly, she actually asked us (as parents) what our goals were. That is, what do we hope our kids gets out of the hundreds of dollars a month we shell out. I just about fell out of my chair with shock.

I hope this is useful to coaches who plan talks with their new teams.

My personal tip #1 for all coaches = always escort your gymnasts to their parents at end of practice. Be available to chat and answer any questions at the end of each workout.

Coach Lukas Stritt used this graphic posted on the wall to emphasize some key points with his boys.

related page – Newfoundland MAG Winter Games Camp

Mas Watanabe:

Now we are done with the competition season evaluation so that the next step is to think about setting new goals for next year. …

Here is the main emphasis for setting a goals for the off-season.

1. Area of basic refinement for all the events

2. Retaining learned skills:
*. Maintaining good rhythm and timing
*. Further refining of technique & improving amplitude

3. Selecting new skills to learn:
*. Determining the proper progressions
*. Determining the area of specific strength necessary

4. General & specific areas of strength development

5. Artistry of gymnastics development:

*. Flexibility improvement
*. Improvement of dance and artistic expression

GymSmarts Mas Watanabe – Transitional Period and Goal setting

You might be interested in the current Gymnastics Canada planning document. … LTAD, for all participants, all programs, all ages, all ability levels. That’s over 200,000 participants!

Eight Stages:

1. Active Start
2. Fun, Fitness, and Fundamental Movement Patterns
3. Building the Skills of Gymnastics
4. Specialization in a Gym Discipline
5. Becoming a Consistent Competitor
6. Winning at All Levels
7. International Excellence and Podium Performances
8. Gymnastics for Life/Active for Life

… includes six different competitive disciplines – Men’s Artistic
Gymnastics (MAG), Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (WAG), Rhythmic Gymnastics (RG), Trampoline
and Tumbling Gymnastics (TG), Aerobic Gymnastics (AG) and Acrobatic Gymnastics (AcG). …

Gymnastics Canada – Long Term Athlete Development (PDF)

© Gymnastics Canada Gymnastique 2008

It’s more setting out goals of the Federation than actually “planning”. Gymnastics Canada disciplines plan based on this document.

This could have been 40yrs ago.

I waxed nostalgic. … Memories of digging up clams, splashing the girls, trying to drown the boys in the shallows. Family holidays at wonderful Rathtrevor Beach on Vancouver Island.

But that photo was taken last weekend.

Kids are the same. But one thing has changed.

A swimming pool with that many children would have only one lifeguard.

What year was it that parents became so much more protective?

Coaches today need skills. Parent management skills.

by site editor Rick McCharles

I’ll be attending part of our annual week long (May 30 – June 5th) coaching clinic following Canadian National Championships in Kamloops.

Presenters include Canadian National Coaches Vladimir Lashin (WAG) and Edouard Iarov (MAG). And MAG Youth National Coach, Markos Baikas.

As always, the course will be coordinated by Keith Russell, current President of the FIG Scientific Commission.

Welcome to our special guest, planning guru, Dr. Istvan Balyi.

You don’t hear much about planning these days. It’s fallen out of favour, me thinks. Istvan can light the fire, once more.

Any ideas of genius coming out of the course, I’ll post here.

I’ll be doing a short presentation to the group myself, “The Internet for Elite Coaches”.

… in order to go fast in the development of a gymnast, we need to go SLOW. Coaches need to make the athletes and parents understand that Gymnastics is a long term sport, especially if seeking to reach a high level of competition. Strong basics and fundamentals are key to the success of any athlete in any sport.

The tap swings(on Uneven Bars) are a perfect example of something we need to take a LONG time on. It doesn’t matter if a gymnast already has the correct body shape in the transfer between the hollow-arch-hollow….. it needs to be repeated many times so it can be strengthen and “recorded” in the brain. …

ET Gymnastics Coaching

Reading this post I was reminded of the philosophies of David Kenwright.

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

The bible for me has always been Bompa.

Periodization Training For Sports

Some pages of the book are available as a preview free online from Google Books.

But rather than fill in the complicated YTP (Yearly Training Plan) forms that he recommends, I’d love to use an online version.

Features should include:

The best I’ve seen in the past have been Excel spread sheets.

But an online database would be easier.

Leave a comment if you can recommend anything like that.

Recently I posted about DVDs available from preschool guru Beth Gardner.

This package is even better for preschool specialists …

Click on the RECREATION link on the GymSmarts home page to see the details of this and Beth’s other resources.

In Canada we have a mandatory 4 stage coach education system imposed by the Coaching Association of Canada:

Level 1 = Recreational
Level 2 = Competitive Basics
Level 3 = National Competitive
Level 4 = International Competitive

The Level 4 in Artistic Gymnastics is a 4-week program running over 2-years. Coaches must qualify to be invited. It costs money and time out of the gym.

Despite minor flaws, I much prefer what we have in Canada as compared with the hodge-podge of coaching education options in the USA.

Here’s the basic curriculum:

Required Courses:

Diploma Practicum
NCI coaches work within the high performance stream with athletes on a regular basis.

Energy Systems

Physical Preparation

Nutrition

Recovery and Regeneration

Mental Preparation for Coaches

Mental Preparation for Athletes

Program Design
The systematic integration and sequencing of training and competition activities within a comprehensive sport program; planning and periodization models; major and minor peaks to produce optimal athletic performance; volume and intensity of training; recovery.

Athlete Long-Term Development

Leadership and Ethics

Course work is also required in the following areas:

* Coach Effectiveness
* Coaching Philosophy
* New Technologies

Optional Courses

Sport-Specific Performance Factors

Environmental Factors and Performance

Biomechanical Analysis of Advanced Skills

The Business of Coaching

Canadian Sport System
Develop an understanding of the Canadian sport system and the role of the coach within that system.

Coaching Association of Canada

Gymnastics Canada Level 1 Introductory gymnastics (4th edition) and companion planning workbook.

Yup. It’s best English language gymnastics book available, in my opinion, succinctly explaining the movement pattern approach of principle author Keith Russell.

The 3-ring binder format allows you to add your own coaching resources.

The Coaching Level 2 and 3 manuals are also recommended though they have weak chapters and have not been revised in many years.

E-mail Gymnastics Canada for current prices as their website shop is “under development”. (Actually it’s been under development for months. Or years. … Don’t hold your breath.)

Far more than 100,000 copies of the Canadian Level 1 have been published making it, I believe, the biggest selling gymnastics coaching manual of all-time. You may find a copy in your local library.

Ruschkin Publishing is currently working on a major revision. I’ve seen drafts. It looks great.