understanding and teaching skills

Rick McCharles

Gymnastics Canada recommends coaches use the “Understand – Teach” model.

This is a simplified representation of the process that every coach uses when teaching gymnastics skills.

The fill-in-the-blank form below is the one I use in Canadian coach education workshops to:

describe an ideal model of a skill

identify important biomechanical “movement patterns”

list prerequiste physical qualities necessary

list important progressions

list common errors seen in the skill, usual causes and possible corrections.

It’s a useful tool for coaches.

larger version (.pdf format)

If this form is of interest to you, you can get a detailed 8-page description of how it works. Below is sample content.

entire document (.pdf format)