tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
Tony Retrosi:
In the gym I try to build new habits. Usually, we will work to get a particular healthy habit established or eliminate an unhealthy one. …
Basic Habits to Establish: Some Thoughts to Share With Athletes in Your Gym
Click through to read the tips.
Acrobatic Arts from New Zealand posted a good summary for coaches tweaking their yearly training plan.
One resource you might want to save is their annual calendar template , an Excel file.
Wayne Goldsmith overstates as always. But he’s correct on this point:
… a workout which engages the heart and mind of every athlete so that all activities are performed with passion, precision and perfection is a great workout. …
Engagement can be defined as the ability of a coach to create a performance environment where every athlete wants to give more than can reasonably be expected.
Motivation is the desire: the fire that drives an athlete towards a goal or achievement.
So, the key to great coaching is not sports science and it’s not actually coaching per se: it’s providing athletes with the environment and opportunity to express their engagement and motivation through their training: through the way they complete their workouts. …
Contests, games and short term objectives can make training more motivating.
In general I’m not a fan of privates.
Scheduled group training should be enough to meet the individual goals.
But I have to admit — privates work. When parents & kids are motivated to add an expensive additional lesson to the regular training week, they often succeed.
Chalk Bucket has a thread on the pros and cons of privates.
An alternative is to offer an additional workout for ALL gymnasts in a given group. Those who want extra can sign-up as desired.
Jim Holt posted An Open Letter to the Gymnastics Community of America on March 31, 2017.
And followed up with a more specific missive to the USAG Board on April 11th:
The Board must go public with an apology.
“USA Gymnastics is profoundly sorry for the pain and suffering the victims of child abuse in our sport have suffered, and deeply apologize for whatever organizational shortcomings have led us to these circumstances. USAG vows that this will be rectified and that never again can this happen on our watch.”
A new CEO must be identified, hired, and installed with all urgent deliberateness. …
USAG needs to identify what it stands for. …
USAG must make a REAL commitment to service, not just corporate blather! …
STEWARDSHIP …
Click through for the details. A good read.
Tony Retrosi posted some tips:
In my experience, those who overcome the gym’s inevitable crises have three basic principles in place.
- First, they have a strong and varied network of trusted advisors.
- Second, they avoid panic and instead break the necessary responses down into component parts.
- Third, they maintain flexibility, knowing that even the best plans are going to run off the rails.
HANDLING A CRISIS IN YOUR GYM
Steve Penny resigned. Yet it seems nothing has changed at USAG.
A long time coach weighs in on USAG structure, governance and core function.
Jim Holt:
Dear colleagues and friends,
The turmoil in which USA Gymnastics is currently embroiled is not exclusively the ongoing controversies stemming from sexual abuse. It is a result of a lack of true leadership and systemic failure as a consequence of historic actions based on flawed premises. …
It would, however, be a great mistake to suggest that this is simply the failure of specific individuals. The real problems lay in USA Gymnastics’ structure, its concept of governance, and what the organization perceives as its core business function …
Competitive international results are good. That’s not the problem for USA Gymnastics. Click through to read specifics on what could be improved system wide.
Number 1 – Raise Your Standards
Number 2 – Foundations (Basics) First
Number 3 – Invest in Education
Number 4 – Make Your Athlete’s Practice ‘Purposeful’
Number 5 – Deliberate Technique
