timeline

In GYMNASTICS, time is not our friend. There are constant reminders through out warm up and competitions. Looking at time as a whole, it works against us. In college recruitment, in skills, on a path to elite. tic, tic, tic. Time only moves in one direction.

Reality is that technology makes you impatient. It used to take months to get across North America. Now it is a pretty easy flight. Did the continent get smaller? No- we got faster. If you wrote to someone in Europe from USA it could take as much as a month for the letter to arrive. Today it takes a fraction of a second for an e-mail to make it anywhere in the world (or even up to the freaking space station!).

In the gym, we view skills as “easy” because they are performed frequently. The double back on floor does not even raise an eyebrow unless is is tremendously HIGH or frighteningly LOW. Women must have been competing it for ever! Nope. Nellie Kim of the former USSR competed it at the Montreal Olympics in 1976 (An Olympics I was at as a 10yr old spectator). It was competed at other competitions (but not internationally) back in 1972. The Layout Yurchenko, also known as the “Level 9 compulsory vault” was first competed in 1982. In the grand scheme of things, these are pretty new skills. Are these skills done more frequently now because they are easier? Maybe yes, maybe no. Technology has made advancements in that Floors have gotten more springy and the vault table replaced the old horse. The innovations of numerous training aids like the Tumbl Trak and pits have allowed more attempts. Technically the skills have the same physical demands.

Looking at practices:
In a 45 minute rotation

At vault a gymnast, if they are VERY efficient, is going to take maybe 10 turns. Maybe 6 will be vaults that they are planning on competing.

Total time of work: 35 seconds. Counting return stations I will be generous and say 2 minutes.

At bars an efficient gymnast may do 5 routines plus a couple of parts.

Total time of work: 3.5 – 4.5 minutes.

At beam, 5-10 routines plus parts.

Total time of work: 12 minutes average .

At floor, 2 or 3 routines, plus extra passes and dance.

Total time of work: 7-9 minutes.

Warm up, conditioning and flexibility: Total time of work:

MAYBE 27 minutes (assuming the warm up run is about 12 minutes and flexibility is about 10 minutes)

In a 4 hour work out total time of work: MAYBE 50 minutes.

It gets WORSE when you think about competitions.

At a competition a gymnast is doing minimal amount of work. The focus is on quality, not quantity.

Vault: Total time of work: Maybe 30 seconds. Time of work in competition: 7 seconds

Bars: Total time of work: 2 minutes. Time of work in competition: 15-30 seconds

Beam: Total time of work: 3 minutes. Time of work in competition: 1.5 minutes

Floor: Total time of work: 2 minutes. Time of work in competition: 1.5 minutes

IF you were to compete EVERY weekend (not a good idea) a gymnast is spending on average :

3 hours on vault (8-10 minutes of work) for 7 seconds of competition.

3 hours on bars (16 minutes of work) for 30 seconds of competition

3 hours on beam (40 minutes of work) for 90 seconds of competition

3 hours on floor (28 minutes of work) for 90 seconds of competition.

We have a LOT of time that we spend in a practice NOT working. Are your gymnasts focused on what they did and the correction they need to make or are they thinking about what they are going to have for dinner?

In most gyms there is VERY little about what you can do to increase efficiency physically. Is there anything you can do to keep the gymnasts engaged mentally?

Time is NOT going to be your friend in the gym. You need to make sure you have a plan and a back up plan. Look not just at the big picture but also each event and side station.

I’d love to hear your ideas.

Problems with Linear Gymnastics

All too often coaches get stuck in a linear thought process with the gymnasts.
Level 3, then Level 4, 5 etc.
Reality is that with this system- you will run out of time.

It has been noted by coaches much smarter than me that you need to introduce every skill a gymnast is going to have by they time they are 13 if they are realistically going to get the skills into a routine.

Take any advanced skill. For example a double back on floor. Although the skill is quite common these days, the technical demands are essentially the same as when it was first competed and thought to be too dangerous! What we have now is smarter coaches, more training devices, springier floors and softer landings.

If you first introduce a double back to a child at 13 years old (meaning the gymnast has NEVER flipped over twice anywhere) you will have approximately a year of drill work where they are being heavily spotted, tumbling up to mats, a lot of time on trampoline, many turns into foam pits before they are able to consistently do this skill alone. This time could certainly be MUCH, MUCH longer depending on the amount of time that can be spent tumbling, how much time spent on current skills and routines. Time loss due to injury or illness.

Now at 14 the gymnast is able to perform a double back alone.
At 14.5 years she may have the skill in her routine although it is possibly still inconsistent.

14.5 is also the age where many gymnasts experience an increased workload in school and will therefore be missing more training sessions.

Also take into account that between the ages of 11 and 14 females experience (on average) the most rapid period of growth. Through adolescence the increased mass a female gymnast adds can also slow things down.

15 years (Prime college recruitment age) a gymnast now has the skill (hopefully) consistently.

You can see the pitfalls of delaying the learning process by not introducing the skill at a young enough age. The gymnast will simply run out of time to have the skill in a routine.

Taking this back into the USAG compulsory program. The average age of the Level 3’s in most gyms is 8 years old.
If they do 1 level per year
Level 4 – 9
Level 5 – 10
Level 6 – 11
Level 7 – 12
Level 8 – 13
Level 9 – 14
Level 10- 15

You are simply going to run out of time. How can you take the USAG system and use it to the benefit of most gymnasts and certainly for the more talented gymnasts?

In order for us, as gymnastics professionals, to become more efficient, we need to understand growth and development of the gymnasts we work with.

Children are not just smaller versions of adults. They have very particular needs and capabilities. One of the major issues in gymnastics is a lack of knowledge on the part of coaches and parents about how children grow and develop. This ignorance places unrealistic expectations on the child and often causes them to give up the sport.  Good coaches know and understand the many changes that take place from child to adult and structure their coaching to best suit the needs of the young athlete.

Some general rules:

●     Think about growth stages rather than ages. Kids develop at different times.
●     Think how changes in physical proportions will affect performance with certain skills
●     Encourage skill learning at a younger age for all your athletes, late developers could be very successful later.
●     Don’t use exercises which place excessive force on bone growth regions during periods of maximum growth (growth spurts)

Given the formula which many clubs use, you can see that we have set out unrealistic expectation on a great many of out gymnasts.

A more realistic timeline for long term development would have the gymnasts being introduced to most of their skills by the age of 13.

My reasoning is that developmentally it seems the best time to learn. They generally have not hit their growth spurt where you may end up having to scrap some skills that are no longer practical. They do not have a huge amount of school work and have the least amount of FEAR.

When ever I do a congress I always hear about this great 10 year old back in the gym. This gymnast is learning so fast she is going to be the next Olympic Champion. Then what happens? They grow, become afraid, have too much school work to train enough hours to finish the skills. My experience has shown me that you simply do not have enough time to introduce a skill , refine the skill and compete the skill after 13.5 years old.

In order to have program wide success you need to have a plan. A plan for each group and each individual. If you are doing 1 level per year. You are simply going to run out of time.

Questions to ask yourself-

What age will this group start competing?
Will they be skipping a level or at some point do 2 levels in 1 year?
What did I learn from the LAST GROUP that I will do differently?
What will I do the same?
What competitions do we NEED to be at (Large invitationals to see how you stand up on a Regional or National level)?
Should we get involved in USAG Developmental Camps or TOPs?
Are we looking at collegiate gymnastics or potential National Team?
What skills will these gymnasts need in 3 years?
In 5 years?
In 8 years?

With every group you need a plan. Ask these questions so that you have direction.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?