DrillsAndSkills.com

shanzacoach · Joined: 11 Mar 2006 Posts: 166

http://mishaparis.blogspot.com/2008/09/gymnastics-classes.html

On the first day of class the student gets a booklet with all the skills in it. Every class they get stickers and things to put in the booklet. When the book is full, they can go to the next level. This "level 4" gymnast from Hong Kong seems to be in a beginner recreational class. Do you have books like this for your rec kids?

TipGuy · Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2008 4:46 pm Post subject:

I'm split on ideas like this. It is nice to set goals, but something like this is hard to keep consistent. What defines "getting a skill". Just making it, or doing it well? There has to be a lot of clarity between different coaches if this is to be done otherwise some gymnasts will feel they are being treated unfairly.
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Coach Blair · Joined: 09 Jan 2003 Posts: 1492 Location: Bay area/Sacto

All of our team kids had a pamphlet of about 4 pages that was a sort of workout journal. In fact there was 10 or more total journals in the series. A lot of these had to do with skillwork but also their day to day workout and how they did or could improve, etc.

Generally most gyms have a skill chart up or the coaches will have skill charts in a folder per class/team group.]

We would give them stickers to put on their charts, but only when we gave them the numbers of the skills for them to put a sticker on. Some gyms would have their own charts they would bring in so we could sticker them once a month.

Many gyms will have a check off chart where they are marked with a slash that they have gone over the skill. This does not allude to any proficiency but that they have been introduced. Another slash for when they can do it with a spot, yet another slash when they can do it inconsistently by themselves and perhaps another mark when they can do it consistently ( 3x or back to back weeks ).

This can be a system of slashes, circles, etc. This allowed me to have an idea exactly where gymnasts were and what they needed to work on and for me to adjust my lesson plans for the day/week.

Castalia · Joined: 28 Sep 2004 Posts: 26

We have assignment sheets for the team girls for competition season. We actually just started it this season so it's a work in progress.

Basically, we have meets every two weeks. They have an assignment sheet that has weekly goals on it with "week 1" and "week 2". They need to complete the assignments before they can compete at a meet. If they don't finish on any one event, they can compete the other three if the assignment is complete.

So far it's working out pretty well. We do have guidelines on what counts as complete - right now it's less than .3 deductions on any one skill, except vault, which we say has to be around an 8.5 or higher. (I'm a judge as well as a coach, so I just estimate the vault score when I'm working with them). It's working out decently so far, but of course we do have a couple that are slipping through the cracks by "magically"finishing the weekly goals and doing pretty crummy at the meets. Hopefully we'll be able to get the kinks worked out soon!