I am in the middle of “Congress/ conference season” or as my children say, “Dad’s North American Tour.” I had the pleasure of working the Louisiana USAG State clinic with AL Fong and Beth Gardner. I Love teaching. Teaching gymnasts and teaching coaches. The coaches in Louisiana came ready to learn. Al, Beth and myself each commented how great it was to have such a receptive audience. Thank You goes out to Daniel Kelly for organizing such a great event.
Currently I am in Orlando at USAIGC/IAIGC World Championships. There are teams here from The United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, India, Bermuda, as well as from across the USA. I can not say enough great things about this program and event. It is back to basics to the the reason why so many people got involved in gymnastics in the first place. Competing for the love of the sport. It is a great break from the all the problems within USAG at the moment.
You need to plan for your education the same way you plan for practice. What do you want to accomplish? What can you do to improve your weak spot? What can you SHARE with those around you? I have always enjoyed going to Regional and National Congresses. The lectures are often well thought our and very valuable. Attending camps and clinics is that next step where you can watch and/or participate with a wide variety of gymnasts. It gives you the ability to think around problems and learn from others who have faced similar problems.
Duke and I had a conversation about the Migration period, also called Dark Ages or Early Middle Ages, the early medieval period of western European history when there was no Roman (or Holy Roman) emperor in the West. The period was marked by frequent warfare and a virtual disappearance of urban life. There was a great loss of technology during this period. Our fear is that GYMNASTICS will face a dark ages.
Because of the current climate of fear within the gymnastics community many new coaches with energy and ideas are NOT getting involved and many experienced coaches are getting out of the sport early. The question we both had for each other is:
“do we rely on this technology instead of progressions?”
The mechanical demands of a double back has not changed yet you are barely competitive without one at Level 9 or USAIGC/ IAIGC remier. Through great training devices like trampoline, foam pits and Tumbl Trak the double back can be performed many more times with less risk. BUT- are coaches getting away from solid progressions? Are they just having athletes do double backs into the pit until they figure it out?
When you have a team that is struggling at vault- do you go back and strengthen their ankles and work in their run or do you try to invent a springier vaulting board?
I had a pretty good Vaulting group a few years ago. We had 3 girls medal on Vault at National Championships. One with a Handspring Front Pike 1/2, One with a Yurchenko 1 1/2, and one with a Yurchenko 1/1. I stepped away from actively coaching for a few years and when I went back into the gym the vaulters were a little weaker than I had hoped. The current Vault coach told me it was because we didn’t have a loose foam pit to vault into. Only a solid foam pit.
Wow- I wish I had known that what I had done wasn’t possible.
