Archive for August, 2009

Before the new season of gym starts back in September, the senior coaches have a meeting. In this meeting we review the year, what has worked, what hasn’t. A major part of it is organising the groups for next year, what coach takes which group etc. As already discussed, I’m not too much of a fan of taking the brand new three or four year olds, so I tend to take a group of existing members for the recreation class. We also have to review the progress of our competitive gymnasts and see where we might have to adjust the groups. Due to group sizes changing as we have lost some gymnasts through the year, it was obvious that there would be some readjustments to all of the groups.

 For the last two years I have coached the group that are third from the top (out of five groups). A few months of the first year were difficult, three girls crying and arguing  over who was best friends with who and then one poor girl being left out because the rest were jealous of her because of her excellent ability and willing to try. Pretty heavy stuff for some six and seven year olds! This last year with them has been really great, I’ve gotten to know them and understand their moods and how they work. They’ve become really tuned in and grown up a little all the while remaining as cute and fun as ever, if not more! I often arrive late from work for evening training, as cocky as it sounds,  I love seeing their faces light up when they see me, run over to me and tell me their stories from the last few days and what moves they had already been practising in my absence. It really worked both ways, I love seeing them come in the door, knowing that there is some things in my class plan that they will absolutely love doing, always excited at the potential that they each have. Needless to say, a lot of the time when I was down in the dumps about something, they could relaly cheer me up with their silly stories!

 Our meeting earlier this month decided what I have dreaded over the summer. To evenly distribute numbers between all coaches and because of their progress throughout the year, my three star gymnasts are being moved up a group. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much say in the matter I think this was decided on between other coaches before the meeting. I am delighted for them that at such a young age they will be in the second top group, working on moves that they are very capable of but naturally I am upset at the loss. I know that this is great for them but at the same time, I worry how they will cope in a tougher group, will the other gymnasts be nice to them, will another coach push them too hard and change their mind about the sport. I’ve never become so attached to one group and really I shouldn’t but sadly this year, I’m really not as excited about returning to gymnastics as I normally am.

 I wish the girls well and hope that they’ll be as happy and as comfortable with another coach as they seemed with me. I’ll always only be one piece ahead of them but I’ll really miss my special girls who have been an absolute pleasure to teach.