A Gymnastics Blog
Archive for September, 2009
A quick update…
Sep 30th
Earlier this month I mentioned that I was beginning the new term with a brand new group. Our first training session went as well as could be expected. I’ve now spent the last 2 weeks with the girls and they are wonderful, all absolutely gorgeous!, always smiling and laughing We have great fun and I can already tell that they’ll try everything. I’m really looking forward to preparing for our first competition together in December.
Protection in your gym
Sep 26th
I recently read a blog post on Mashable regarding the use of the new iPod Nano’s in a chain of gyms across America. I understand why the ban has been introduced considering the laws of child protection and I think it is fair to introduce this in an adult changing room too. I’m sure there is plenty of footage on youtube of people in different situations that they are completely unaware of. Personally in our gym, our gymnasts don’t tend to bring iPods, camera’s etc with them as we ask them not to bring anything valuable to training as we don’t want to be responsible should anything go missing.
You can read the article here and feel free to let me know what you think.
Young Gymnasts Code of Conduct
Sep 22nd
Recently enough, I attended a Child Protection Course. During this time we were spoken to about codes of conducts which should be made out by our sporting Governing body for coaches and participants and also for the coaches to establish our own code of conduct – as such, what we expect of our gymnasts. We have always had an unwritten code of conduct. Generally speaking, it is what is expected of any person but overall care and respect for others. In the last week or 2, a Code of Conduct was emailed to our club. Below are the points which are in the code that gymnasts are expected to sign and abide by. See what you think.
Young Gymnasts should undertake to:
- Participate fairly, do their best and enjoy themselves
- Represent themselves, their family and Club with pride and dignity
- Shake hands before and after events / competitions respective of the result or performance
- Respect Officials and accept their decisions gracefully
- Respect fellow team members gving them support whether they do well or not so well
- Respect opponents and be modest in victory and gracious in defeat
- Improve and develop their skills
- Set high standards of fair play for others to follow
- Let the coach know when you are unavailable for training and competition
- Approach the Club’s Children’s Officer with any concerns or questions you may have
Young Gymnasts should not:
- Cheat – always participate by the rules
- Use abusive language
- Shout at or argue with an official
- Spread rumours
- Bully or use bullying tactics to isolate another young person
- Tell lies about adults or other young people
- Take banned substances
- Harm team members, opponents or their property
Young people are entitled to:
- Be safe and to feel safe
- Be happy, have fun and experience a sense of enjoyment and fulfilment
- Be treated with respect and dignity
- Comment and make suggestions in a constructive manner
- Be afforded appropriate confidentiality
- Make a complaint appropriately and be listened to
- Be believed
- Experience competition at a level which they feel comfortable
- Get help against bullies
- Say no
- To protect their own bodies
I’d be interested to know what peoples take is on this. What would you add to it? What would you remove from it? What might you change in it? Your comments are very welcome.
First Training Session
Sep 17th
As mentioned in my previous post, I had my first training session of the 2009 – 2010 season. It was slow to get started as the children were so excited to see each other (as we had taken a five week break), wanted to tell me all about their holidays and everything new about school. After the excitement died down a bit, we began training.
I was happy to begin training on Floor as two new girls had joined my group. They had begun in the competitive class in January with another coach so I hadn’t really had a chance to look at them. They’re not too far behind my other girls but it’s going a while for the gymnasts to get used to me and also for me to get used to their temperaments. Within five minutes I heard one of the girls say “I can’t” so I’ll have to encourage her to be more positive. In regards to moves, the girls need some fine tuning, I think mostly I will have to remind them to tighten up and push through their shoulders for moves.
We then move to vault. Unfortunately the girls are still struggling to do handspring prep to land on their back at 90cm’s, whereas my existing group are working on full handspring. Vault has always been a poor piece for our club so I’m going to really try hard to get the girls doing excellent vaults from the beginning. Overall I think the whole group could really benefit from some running skills and also some plyometric work.
For our final piece, we moved to bars. I need to get the girls working on upstarts as soon as possible. They’re nowhere near ready but they will need the move and it will be easier for them now as they are very small and petite. We have seen our mistakes as coaches leaving it too late with our older gymnasts, so when they reach the competitive level where they must do upstart they find it impossible. We worked some swings on the loop bar, the girls really not understanding the shaping. It will really take some time for them to get used to it as we spent 5 months working on it with the existing group and they still find shaping difficult sometimes!
Overall I was pleased with how the session went. Yes, I did miss my other 3 gymnasts but I’ll just have to get on with it and bring up the new generation of star gymnasts from this group! I’m looking forward to our Saturday session where I’ll meet my new recreation groups and have a longer training session with the girls.
Right now, I’m off to plan for the competitive season ahead and hunt out some fantastic floor music!
The new 2009 – 2010 season begins
Sep 15th
Tonights training session will be the first for me in the 2009 – 2010 season. I hope that this year will be a very successful year for all gymnasts and that throughout this season that they find out more about themselves and continue to enjoy the sport.
Throughout the year, I hope to continue to write more blog posts about the adventures in the gym. As I explained in my previous post, three of my best gymnasts have progressed to another group so it will take me some time to get used to not coaching them. I’m looking forward to meeting my new recreation groups too.
I imagine that I will be very tired by the end of this evening and by tomorrow, my poor muscles will be aching from lifting the equipment in and out and also putting the gymnasts through moves. My new group in the competitive class have some great potential so I’m really looking forward to seeing what they can do!
To everyone else who’s season is just kicking off, good luck and enjoy it!
