Doug Davis of TumblTrak published the results of a coaches poll:
Do you have trouble finding teachers/coaches? If so what do you do?
All of the respondents indicated that they have problems finding qualified coaches/teachers. We did receive some interesting ways gym owners go about looking for and cultivating staff; so we thought we would share some of their ideas with you.
Nathan from Ligthouse Gymnastics Academy in Norwalk CA usually trains from within, using older gymnasts to teach.
Brian Smith of GymnastiKids, Inc. in Pasadena CA uses Craigs List and has had luck with that. We did give you three options, A-train from within, B-recruit a parent of a gymnast and train them, or C-advertise locally. Of the three options A seems to be the most common option.
Matt McCann of Club Gym-Action in Gatineau, Quebec has many great ideas on how to find staff. He uses older gymnasts (between the ages of 12-14) from his classes and uses them as assistants in other classes. That way they start to learn how to put a class together. This works great because they can be demonstrators, extra eyes and can help be line watchers or even help take a student to the bathroom. Then when these assistants reach the age of 16 they can be responsible for their own group. This creates a great sense of pride for the “new coach”. Matt insists that the key to success is to do a lot of staff training. He has developed a library of drills for staff, new and old, to access any time. His staff keeps the classes fun and new through the use of a variety of drills. Matt also works with the local colleges and high schools to get additional coaches. He makes sure to work with school schedules and keep the lines of communication open. The staff of Club Gym-Action is expected to keep a good rapport with each other as well as the parents. They are responsible for talking to parents about the class plan; this keeps everyone informed. In order for Matt to keep his coaches current in their education he does fundraising to send his staff to clinics as well as bringing clinics to his gym. …
Encouraging your gymnasts to start training as coaches (and judges) is the way to go.
young coach – Athletes in Motion staff
Check out the all new TumblTrak website.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 