I am a strong believer that as coaches, we should spend a lot of time  in class on conditioning and basics. With my current group of gymnasts, I have spent a huge amount of time on handstands and the all important core conditioning rather than trying to learn new moves. The latest competition has just proved how far my gymnasts have come.When I began to coach them they were beginners, they had each spent 9 months or so in the Recreation class until they were invited to join the Competitive class.  They then spent a few months with another coach until we had a shift in training groups.

Over the last while, I’ve watched the mistakes that other coaches have made, pushing the gymnasts to achieve moves when they are not physically prepared enough to do so. While the gymnasts are achieving the move, they’re performing it in sloppy and untidy way, such as an upstart with bent arms and doing that “wiggle” to get themselves up on the bar. Other coaches are allowing it and accepting that doing this is enough. I’ve seen them  move on and not correct the very obvious errors. It’s a matter of “you’ve got the move – great” or “great, you managed to get over the vault” and not concentrating enough on getting the technique correct everytime, when you, as the coach are well aware that the gymnast can perform the move better. I’ve seen these coaches just settling for satisfactory and not perfect (or at least one small error away from perfect). I don’t see myself as tough coach, I am fair and am well aware of what my gymnasts capabilities are individually so I would never push them and allow them to do something they are not capable of doing correctly and risk damaging them emotionally and physically.

My main concern that the gymnasts will cause serious harm to themselves. There is so much at risk if we are careless and let a gymnast “throw” herself through a move just to achieve it so that she can compete at a particular level for example.  She can become seriously injured. For these reasons and more for I have reviewed my own coaching style and have become a lot more particular on how moves are performed. In recent months, as a result of a lot more conditioning (often specific to each gymnast) the girls are finding it easier to perform new moves and achieving them quicker because they are physically conditioned. They are  able to put themselves into the correct shapes as opposed to flinging themselves into a “straight back” which looks like a long and awkward arched whip flip with bent legs.

As I said, we have spent lots of time on handstands and conditioning but also we’ve spent a lot of time explaning to the girls why they’re doing this conditioning and explaining the benefits to them. I’ve also spoken to their parents about this too and we’re all on the same page - the girls love gym and want to do well, I think they’re brilliant,want them to do well and want to do everything I can to help them and their parents want to support and encourage the girls in anyway they can so they do all they can to ensure the girls are putting some extra work in at home too.

The most recent competition the girls entered was based on set moves. The moves involved are really to show who is the strongest and most flexible (bridge, splits etc). The girls really excelled when compared to their club mates who would have competed at the same level a year or 2 ago. Yes, each gymnast is unique but the girls performances were definitely stronger than those of gymnasts from our club in previous years.  Physically, the girls look strong and it showed in their performances and results.

I’m really proud of the girls for the work they’ve put in. They really did excellent in their competition and since then they’ve not rested, it has only spurred them on to achieve bigger and better moves. I’m also very impressed with their attitude towards conditioning, for them it’s not a task.  Sure, it’s not their favourite thing about coming to gym class (nor mine to teach!) but they don’t moan and groan about having to do their planks or handstands because they know that it’s all part of progressing in the sport.

When I think about my role as a gymnastics coach, many thoughts and images come to mind. When people I meet for the first time ask me what I do and I tell them I’m a gymnastics coach, they ask me to tell them all about it and have many questions. I tend to give a brief outline, similar to what is written on my CV , simply because I could talk about my role as a coach all day!

My main role as a gymnastics coach is to teach them the core skills of the sport. Being children, they ask many questions. I do my best to answer them but I try to refrain from answering opinion questions, as I don’t feel it is my place to do so. In saying that, I do like to teach them new things outside of gymnastics but I always keep it gymnastics-related as there do need to be some lines drawn between the relationship of a gymnast and coach.  I don’t feel it is my place to tell the children what to eat and what to not eat. It is up to their parents to decide whether they are allowed to eat sweets and drink fizzy drinks, although we do not encourage it in the gym (also because of the sticky mess of clearing up a spilt drink that is anything but water!).  Part of my role as a coach is having the responsibility to educate the children I teach about their bodies. Luckily, this is fusing two of my passions in life; my gymnastics hobby and part of my college education, Anatomy & Physiology. It is extremely important that children are educated as to why they need to look after and respect their bodies. We only have one body and we should do our best to look after it.

 I make a point of teaching my gymnasts about posture, why they should look after themselves and how to do it.  I recently taught my 7 – 9 year olds about posture. They had already been told about standing up tall and keeping their shoulders back and head up on the beam but I wanted to give them a little more information. We had great fun with it, looking at pictures of different postures good and bad. I realised that they understood what I was hoping to get across to them as they began to call a “Lordotic” posture (arched lower back with buttocks sticking out) “Bendy Back” and a “Kyphotic” posture (curved upper back, forward head) “Banana Back”. They have even started to correct me if I slouch!

I promised my gymnasts that I would make them their own “Conditioning and Stretching” book. Since they are young and do not train as often as girls in other clubs that they would normally compete against, they still need to do some additional conditioning at home. This way with pictures and easy to follow instructions, they have no excuses for not doing their extra work at home! It had various stretching and conditioning moves, I also included a small bit at the back about posture. Their parents told me that they were delighted that I had given them this and said that they had even learnt a little bit themselves!

Every so often they ask questions such as “Why when I do this does this bit of my arm move” – as in when they have their arm extended and bent at the elbow and they move their clenched fist, why does their bicep move. In these cases, I give a  very simple explanation about their muscles, sometimes it goes over their head, sometimes it doesn’t .  I just hope that any information that they do retain, how ever small it is, that they benefit from it.