One size does not fit all

Good piece at the Hybrid Perspective:

If we give 20 girls the same assignment for strength, we are assuming that they are all at the same level of strength/capability/technical level, etc. The reality of the situation is that that this is rarely the case across all your strength and conditioning exercises. You create a situation where the more developed or stronger athlete’s won’t get any benefit, and at the same time we may be promoting compensation/lack of benefit for under developed athletes. I feel we need to use regressions or progressions in order to get people in their “Goldilocks” window for strength and conditioning.  If we are just blanketing an general strength program of 3 sets of 10 handstand push ups or 40 leg lifts on a huge group with differences between them, I think it’s a recipe for disaster both in terms of safety and missing out on athletic performance development.

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I’m not sure why so many gymnastics programs still demand uniformity with their strength where everyone does the same exercise despite the large gaps in ability. The one argument I can see for this uniform type is to monitor the gymnasts and keep an eye on quality.

Read the whole article.

Our team is relatively small at the gym I'm at.  So it's been easy for me to individualize a skills & conditioning program for my level 3s, who I am primarily with on most rotations.  I have 7 girls.  An example of how I've tried catering toward individual needs is:  A couple of them struggle at making 2-3 chin-ups without breaking form; one is at 11-in-a-row.  The rest are somewhere around 5-6.  Once they get to 10 with good form, I figure they have enough general strength and presence of mind on form that I start having them do it in a tuck with a foam block in the lap.  The last rep does not count if they drop it on the eccentric phase.  They have goals to increase their rep max and/or difficulty level each week; or improvement on quality.  I figure that when it comes to chin-ups and leg-ups, 20 is about the maximum they need to do.  Beyond that, I just don't think it's all that important.  I think time is better spent in development on other areas, and I will be happy with them maintaining quality at peak 20 reps.

Sometimes I do have a general "everyone does this" routine, such as an ab circuit.  Here, I don't give them a set number but time each exercise for 20 seconds with a 5 second break in-between.  If a kid cannot maintain shape on a hollow body rock, she modifies it so it's manageable for that 20 seconds, with correct shaping. 

Geddert on form and execution/quality over quantity:

Sunday Funnies

Teaching Quality Glides

Jason Mortimer's latest video reminded me that I had filmed a few of the level 3's doing correct-incorrect glide shapes, recently:

Also like doing hanging hollow holds and swinging hollow holds.

The crunch hollow holds at 37 seconds in Jason's video is the exact way my primary teacher used to have us do them for warm-up- palms resting face up on the knees.  Periodically through the 2 minutes, he'd demand us to crunch up another inch higher.  Having hands face up on the thighs/knees helped us have a visual of how high we were crunching and maintaining position.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Source

I posted the following last Thanksgiving.

Here is another telling of the "turkey person" story:

Bill Courtney has a book out, "Against the Grain". 

Sunday Funnies

Source

Measuring Dorsi-flexion

Trust the Process

So much work to do!  About 8 weeks left before their first meet.  They are making progress...

That's not my name

Coach David has been the primary coach for the level 4s since May or June.  He's with them for most rotations.  These days I get called "Coach David" by many of the girls before they catch themselves.  Last week, I also got called "Coach Stella".  And also last week, one of the level 3s accidentally called me "Mommy". 

Sunday Funnies

Lvl 4 vault rotation HS idle station

At GW, the boys pommel horse area is right by the end of the vault runway.  So I sometimes take advantage of the equipment for side stations.

Finding straight:

Can never get in enough handstand practice.

TGIF Conditioning Fun with the 3s

Building Momentum

by Nido R. Qubein

The law of inertia holds that a body at rest tends to remain at rest, and a body in motion tends to remain in motion, at the same speed and in the same direction, unless acted upon by an outside force.

With one major difference, that law applies very well to the pattern of our lives. 

People who are successful tend to remain successful. People who are happy tend to remain happy. People who are respected tend to remain respected. People who reach their goals tend to go on reaching their goals.
 
So what’s the major difference?

In physics, inertia is controlled by outside forces; but the real changes in the directions of our lives come from inside us. 

As William James said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a person can alter his life by altering his attitude of mind.”

Hat tip:  John Geddert

Happy Veterans Day!

Source

Your wish is granted

If you haven't seen it yet, first, go watch the Jubilee Project video and look for my gymnast, Scarlet.

That video was posted on Oct 29, 2014. When I linked to it here on Nov 4th, it had almost a million views. It is now up to over 4 million!

Scarlet: "If I could have teleportation in my body."

Today, I granted Scarlet her wish:

I want to be like her when I grow up

My small-talk conversation with an 8 yr old level 3 gymnast before practice today:

Me: "Zoe, what are you going to be when you grow up?"

Zoe: "I don't know. What are you going to be?"

Building up a consistent, powerful run

At my old gym, counting steps was so ingrained in them, that they seemed to have to count their steps in EVERYTHING.  It can be a helpful tool, however, in building a consistent run and hurdle that does not slow down or balk.  Although I had never been taught to count steps myself, I remember being able to always build up my run to a crescendo and adjust my strides accordingly as I neared the springboard without slowing down (and on rare occasions, hurdle off of my bad leg if need be from being way off).  I heard that young kids, however, have not fully developed their depth perception (I'd love to know if anyone can verify this).

As coach "dunno" writes:

the basics. start the run with the same leg that they hurdle off of. and keep the number to 9/11/13 etc; running steps. yes, there are exceptions as i'm sure someone will point out. but these are the basics and they work consistently across the board with most kids and both boys and girls.

Teaching from odd number stepping to a hurdle makes sense when considering future vaults down the road- a hurdle will eventually lead into a yurchenko (step with the bad leg and skip up with the good).  So odd number of steps as opposed to even number (unless your intention really is to train your gymnasts to hurdle off of their dominant leg as the last step before the hurdle). 

Due to compulsory State Championships this weekend, we canceled team practices yesterday.  I offered a makeup practice today and one level 3 and two mini-shots came in.  Here's something I experimented with:

This idea came to me while driving to work; so I tested it out at the gym today.

My spacing was a bit off on the number placements; but it definitely helped encourage a longer stride (the lvl 3 gymnast shown is in between deer runs and sprinting) and getting consistent number of steps down (had the girls go up to 9 running steps, stepping first with the "bad" leg- i.e., the non-dominant leg that is used to push from one a hurdle into round off or front handspring).

The original idea was to take a permanent marker to some foam blocks (but I didn't think the gym would fully appreciate that) and set them up as markers; but then I remembered that we had these placement mats for preschool.

Something else I used to do (and should still do) at my old gym with the optionals was to have them front flip over the table.  Wade encouraged me to do this as opposed to having the girls do "run bys".  Why?  Because the tendency of a lot of kids is to slow down as they get closer to the hurdle line and veer off the runway.  With the front tuck (or layout) to avoid hitting the table, the vaulter maintains the acceleration all the way to the hurdle and punch.  No need to hurdle off course into the "gutter".  With a powerful punch, the gymnast should be able to clear the table at her table-height setting.

 

Sunday Funnies

Post by Makita Tomomasa.

Hat tip:  Ganba Gymnastics

Team Work Makes the Dream Work- Region 5 Training Camps

Best Gymnastics Halloween Costume

Via Gymnasticscoaching.com:

It reminded me of this, linked in a previous post:

Compulsory beam handstand circuit

10-29-2014

I've used similar handstand circuits like the one below:

TBTh: Back Extension Drlll

Remi was always naturally good at this drill- no wiggle-movement at all in her chest and lower back.  I had always wanted to film a clip of her when she could bring it closer to handstand and candle roll back; but I never got around to it. 

What would you change about your body?

This was linked by Gym Gab Blog:

One of my adorable level 3 gymnasts (who misses a LOT of practice because of acting auditions and gigs) appears in this.  No one does her better than she does her; and is perfect the way she is (although I will keep stretching those tight shoulders for her...).

Almost a million views after only a few days!

Video description:

These days it is so easy to feel insecure about our appearance. Whether it is because of the mean comment that comes our way or the photoshopped image we see in magazines, it can be so easy to feel self conscious about our body. When was the last time you felt comfortable in your own skin? We are so excited to share with you our newest 50 people 1 question short - Comfortable. We hope that this video will inspire you to be more comfortable and confident in yourself. Beauty is not about what you don't have, but about being comfortable in your own skin. Thank you to iNatureSkinCare (http://www.inatureskincare.com) for sponsoring this video!

Saving Handstands Drill

For more thoughts on saving handstands....

The Power of Belief and Being Part of a Team

Via Proactive Coaching:

A man became lost while driving through the country. As he tried to read a map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn’t injured, his car was stuck deep in the mud. Seeing a farmhouse just down the road, the man walked over to ask for help.

“Clyde can get you out of the ditch,” the farmer said, pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the haggard mule, and then looked back at the farmer, who just stood there nodding. “Yep, old Clyde can do the job.”

The man figured he had nothing to lose, so the two men and Clyde made their way back to the ditch.
After the farmer hitched the old mule to the car, he snapped the reins and shouted, “Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull, Clyde!” With very little effort, the lone mule pulled the car from the ditch.
The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule, and asked, “Why did you call out all those other names before you called Clyde?”

The farmer smiled and said, “Old Clyde is almost completely blind. As long as he believes he’s part of a team, he always gives his best.”

Dave Ross on Different Coaching Philosophies

My teacher Mark Mikita used to tell us that he should be able to come to us and relearn the art through the filter of our own unique perspectives and colored with our own research and experiences. 

A good teacher is just a finger pointing to the moon...

Hat tip:  Rick McCharles

Sunday Funnies

International Gymnast Feb 1992

Gymnastie's 10 phrases that mean something different to gymnasts

This is a petty good list. Can you think of others?