What make you a great coach?

A great coach should be flexible, understanding,  knowledge of the sport, reliable, and  communication. I believe these are important when it comes down to the chararistic of a great coach.

Flexibility: Coaches should be flexible in ways that they can adjust their coaching based on the child's learning curve. No one learn the same way. Everyone learn differently but still get the same outcome at the end. Some kids are visual learners, auditory learners, and kinetic learners. A coach should be flexible to adjust those types of learners. I have coaches claims they teach the same way all the time and reality is that they don't. If we are learn differently it is impossible to teach the same way. Coaches should be flexible and find other methods of teaching the skill. Keep in mind there are more than one way to teach the skill and get the same outcome.

Understanding: A coach should be understanding that not all athletes are created equal from a personality and development stand point. They should be able to identify the personality and development of their athletes. Boys are different than girls and I don't coach boys the same way I coach girls and vise versa. I don't coach a 12 year old the same way I coach a 5 year old and vise versa. Some athletes like to be pushed hard and like their coaches to be hard on them and some athletes rather have their coaches be nice and friendly and not be so hard. So as a coach I look and to identify those personality and development of each athletes.
   Coaches should always be understanding the child feelings and work those out accordinly. Not only you have to understand them physically but also understanding thier minds on the pychological aspect.

Knowledge: Coaches should be reading the rules, looking for drills ideas, and improving coaching and spotting skills. Nothing more frustrating to go to a meet and realize your athlete did the wrong thing or missing a special requirement because these coaches didn't read the rules throughly. As a coach its my job to do my homework to look for resources and take full advantage of them. The USA Gymnastics University has many courses and great staff to help you gain more knowledge. Other resources you can learn is by attending USAG National Congress, Regional Congress, and even attending a gymnastics camp such as Woodward Camp in Woodward, PA.  I may know a lot but I don't know everything or ever claim I know everything. So more tools I have the more resources I have to help make my program better. So you never stop learning or ever too old to learn more. The more knowledge the bigger my fire! Knowledge is power!

Reliable: Coaches should be reliable at all times. They should be able to make all practices, spend time working with each individual athletes regardless of level of ability. Favoritism is not tolerated when being reliable.Coaches should be consistent on rules and practices. Most importanly being reliable is dressing professionally. Coaches should also be prudent of their own behavior even on a bad day.

Communication: Communication is very important and its critical to have good communication. Without proper communication everything falls apart in your program and the relationship you have with you clients. If I don't know the situation due to lack of communication then I can't help. Nothing more worst than someone to accumulate the problem by holding on to it for months. This causes problems because the person that holds on to it tends to make excuses or not seeing the reality of the situation clearly. The simple way I put it, is speak of your thoughts or concerns otherwise forever hold your peace.

What makes you a great coach?

Good Luck!

Got Fun?

What is the number one reason for kids to stay in their sport? Study and research has shown that fun was the number one reason kids stay in their sport. Having fun is a motivator for kids to starve for more attention to learn more and get better on their skills each time they come back. I love my sport and I remember the fun I had in my career. It is important that I have fun with the kids. I want the kids to have every opportunity to have just as much fun as I did.

While at Woodward Camp in Woodward, PA, I know the kids are having fun. They continue to ask the staff for a spot or asking for more tips to get better or to learn new skills. The kids enjoy learning new  things and challenging their own limits. Nothing more fun to watch these kids having fun achieving new skills and going farther than their own expectations. I believe if the kids weren't having fun they wouldn't be coming back for more.

So how do we put the fun in the sport and be able to achieve good results in your program? I have learned from a friend who came up with three divisions of fun. The three divisions includes the intermediate fun, short term fun, and long term fun.

Intermediate Fun: This is best describes as playing fun games and activities. These games and activities can be related to what they are learning or non-related to help keep their minds off of their own sport (nice to learn something different once in a while). This can be a warm-up or an an award for having a great practice. I know some kids like to show up late for practice so they can skip the traditional warm-up. So I use the intermediate fun as a warm-up and of course the kids who showed up late missed out the fun. Over time, kids were showing up on time for practice to find out what the fun was all about! Yes, we randomly still did our traditional warm-up.
At times kids hate conditioning. You can make conditioning fun by playing a game with the muscles you want them to work on. Example in doing V-ups, I have my kids hold the block between their ankles and have them pike up to grab the block. The idea is how many times can you transport the block back and forth with out dropping it. You can also challenge them how many times can they transport the block in such amount of time (20 sec, 30 sec, 45 sec, or 60 seconds).

Short Term Fun: Short term fun is not just about playing games and activities its more about achieving through hard work.  Its not about how you fall, its about how you get up. Day in and day out kids are working hard and they are starving to want it bad. Nothing more rewarding for the kid to achieve a new skill and watching them jump for joy! It is also rewarding and fun for the kid to get on the award podium regardless of the placement. It not always about the podium but it is also about beating their own personal achievement by increasing their own performance scores. I believe that this short term fun is often overlooked when coaches only see success at the highest level of achievement while everything else is failure.

Long Term Fun: After many months and years, kids makes sacrifices and determination to stay in the sport. Kids show they have fun achieving things such as moving up a level, competing nationals, world age group, world championships, collegiate level, pro level, and the Olympics games. The kids have fun traveling around the world and learning different cultures in the world they live in.

"Remember this taste no matter how many times you go through it because when you finally get it you appreciate it more" - Ray Lewis (Baltimore Ravens)

Best of luck!

Drill of the week-stability strength

This week focus is on stability strength. Stability is important in almost all aspect in every sport. Stability strength can fire up almost every muscles in your body and sure be a good workout !
This week the athletes were working on the lower extremity to help make their legs stronger for landings. However due to working all aspect of the leg muscles from the ankle to the gluteus, it also helps the athletes run faster and jump higher. The reason is that power comes from proper stability and strength to withstand the amount of force that is applied when you are running and jumping. If you didn't have the strength and the stability you would lose control if you try to max out your running speed or jumping higher on the trampoline, floor, and vault. I'm sure you see this in beginner to novice level kids who would try to run fast and they loose control and fall (expecially the ages between 2-7 years old). I'm also sure you will see this when kids at any age that try to jump high on the trampoline and they loose control on the trampoline bed (this also core strength as well) Like always control is more important! That control requires stability strength!
Here are some pictures below of my athletes working on stability strength in the lower extremity. The 1/2 squat stand should be done with good form as if they are sticking a landing. You can have them hold a medicine ball above their heads to make it harder after they master these exercises.


Step 1: Using a half fitness ball. Squat stand 3 sets for 15-30 seconds.



Step 2: Place the half fitness ball upside down. Squat stand 3 sets for 15-30 seconds.



Step 3: Using a full fitness ball. I place some blocks around it to give a little stability room. Squat stand 3 sets for 15-30 seconds.



Step 4: Squat stand on fitness ball. 3 sets for 15-30 seconds.

Good luck!!

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Maximizing Performance through Training Repetitions

More is not always better! It is  important to me that my athletes get the most out of practice productively and safely at the same time to keep them healthy to stay in the sport longer. The reason I believe that  quality is more  important than quanity. I tell my athletes at time to manage their energy so they can save the best for last. I have seen kids do too much over time that their performace declines. The more you increase the repetition, the less performance outcome you will see the more injuries you team will have.

In this case, I set a number of repetition that are expected to be completed based on the time of the year (off season, pre-season, season, and post season) and my goals for the team. The training repetition numbers to be as follows, 2,3,5,6,8,10. Im not exactly sure why I don't  or ever rarely do 1, 4, 7, or 9 in case you may ask.

Here is the break down of training repetitions:

Reps.                                                   Reasons
2-3.                                 - Attempting a new skill for the first time
                                       - Warm-up to preperate for higher skill level
                                       - Work on full routines during meet week (Hit or Miss Chart)
                                       - Working on 1st and 2nd half routines (meet week)
                                       - Warm-up routine (meet day)
                                       - Belt work

5-6.                                - Drills for new skills
                                      - Review old skills
                                      - Working on 1st half routines
                                      - Working on 2nd half routines
                                      - Cleaning up individual skills
                                      - Doing mini routines (3 skills)
                                      - Working on consitency
                                       - Belt work

8-10                                - Drills for new skills
                                       - Doing mini routines (3 skills, break into sets)
                                       - Clean up individual skills (break down into sets)

Some reps can be mixed together. Example: My kids will go 3-5 first half routines and 3-5 second half routines. Once that is completed then they do 1-2 full routines. Their break time is about 2 -5 minutes in between. This allows the body a chance to re-energized and get re-focus before their next turn.

In order to have your atheltes to optimized performance during meet week, it is best to keep the numbers low. Best when you have the athlete to save their energy for a good routine rather than waste it on warm-up or practice. Besides the warm-up passes doesn't count for their score!

Best of Luck!

The Illusion of Twisting

Help!  Which way do I Twist?

While I'm getting ready to head off to Woodward Camp, I'm ready to answer any questions about the biggest topic of all gymnastics, twisting. It’s truly a never ending conversation! So what is it about twisting that is such a debate? It’s all about which is the correct way to twist. For 23 years of coaching and hearing all the questions, conversations and clinics about twisting, I have come up with my own conclusion.

Which way should I twist?

No one really has the right answer for this question since everyone is different when teaching twisting direction to their athletes. The two theories come in mind about the twisting direction.

Theory 1: The twisting direction is all about what side your roundoff is on. Example, if you do a right roundoff then you twist to the right (right goes right) or if you do a left roundoff you twist to the left (left goes left). In this case it makes sense to them because if you were to step out of an arabian, front full, back 1/2 twist, or back 1 1/2 twist you will be stepping out while you are squaring upon the completion of the twist. It also makes sense when you do more multiple flipping and twisting skills on vault , floor, bars and trampoline.

On the visual aspect, you are using your right eye as a guide for both roundoff and twisting. More than interesting is using a car steering wheel. If I was to turn the steering wheel as if I was to do a right round off  the car will turn right! However, you notice the right arm is crossed over toward the left! We will get that in my experiment!

Theory 2: As for the some of us, theory one doesn't make any sense! Since you do a right roundoff your right arm is the lead arm (drops forward) and the left shoulder goes back, therefore you should be twisting left. So right roundoff goes left and left roundoff goes right.

On the visual aspect, it is opposite because you are using the right eye as a guide for the roundoff and then using your left eye to guide you for the left twisting. What is interesting about this, is thinking about a baseball player who bats right. The ball player uses his left eye to target the ball. As the right batter swings the bat, the body is twisting left! However, more than interesting I use my left eye to look through a camera or if I was to aim at a target for archery or shooting. I'm right handed, I do my roundoff  on the right, and I twist left.  So,  my left eye seem to be my dominate eye to guide me through my twisting skills.

However, stepping out of a twisting skill is not impossible but difficult since the body has to fully complete the twist to square out before stepping out.

The illusion of twisting:

If you were to stand in the front of a person watching a complete revolution of the full twist you see the front of the body at the start, back of the body (1/2 twist), and again the front of their body (full twist). So if you were to do a right roundoff and you see their back first (depends on what side you are standing on) on the first 1/4 turn of the roundoff, you should be able to see the front of the body next when they go into the first 1/4 twist going into the twisting skill. If you ever observe this, you be surprise what you will find out!

Depends on what direction the athlete is going and where the coach is standing:

1. A gymnast does a right roundoff and I saw the back first. Then the gymnast did a half turn to the right and I saw the back again. You may be thinking the gymnast is changing directions.

2. A gymnast does a right roundoff and I saw the back first. Then the gymnast did a half turn to the left and I saw the front. You may be thinking the gymnast is going in the same direction.

Now if you were to stand either behind or in front of the gymnast while doing a roundoff. It will be a different perspective of how you see things.

Now you are thinking, "That is not right!" So, what is all the fuss about? YOUR BRAIN! Your brain receives different information on how you see things in perspective. Twisting can really create an illusion because we see things from different views of being inverted, upright, sideways, front, and back.
So what is really going on here? Let’s do an experiment that supports all the fuss!

THE WATER BOTTLE EFFECT:

Experiment: You will need one empty plastic water bottle.

Hold the water bottle upright.

1. When you take the cap off, which way does the cap turn? Clockwise (CW- right) or Counter clockwise (CCW- left)?
        
2. When you put the cap back on, which way does the cap go? CW or CCW?
          
Hold the water bottle inverted.

1. When you take the cap off, which way does the cap turn? CW or CCW?
 

2. When you take the cap back on, which way does the cap turn? CW or CCW?

Hold the water bottle inverted.

1. Try turning the cap CCW. Does it come off?

2. Try turning the cap CW. Does it go back on?

Hold the water bottle upright.

1. Try turning the cap CW. Does it come off?

2. Try turning the cap CCW. Does it go back on?


                   Upright           Inverted
 Cap off         CCW                CW

Cap on           CW                CCW

THE STEERING WHEEL EFFECT:

Experiment: You will need a steering wheel, gymnastics ring, small hula hoop, or a bowl. Otherwise just imagine you are holding a steering wheel.

1. Hold the "steering wheel" in front of you and turn it CW (right). As if you were driving which way does the car go? Right or Left? Which way is the body pulling? CW or CCW?


2. Now hold the "steering wheel" above your head. Turn the wheel to your right (CW). Which way do you feel the body is pulling? CW or CCW?

3. Now hold the "steering wheel" down. Now turn the wheel to the right. Which way do you feel the body is pulling? CW or CCW?

4. Now hold the “steering wheel” down. Now turn the wheel to the right and you turn to your right. While you are turning the wheel and yourself to the right, raise the wheel above your head. What happened? Your arms get crossed over! To unwind your arm you will need to turn to the left!

Conclusion: So which way do I twist?

In conclusion, that there is no right or wrong way to twist as long as the back and front somersaults are twisting in the same direction. It is common that theory one is being used due to other twisting skills that are done on the apparatus such as doing full twisting giants and blind changes, and ect.  on bars.  Power tumblers, trampolinist, divers, cheerleaders are not so much of a problem because they don’t do bars. Its important that they do twist in the same direction while somersaulting forward and backwards. 

Can a gymnast be successful going to the Collegiate and/or international level using either theory of twisting?  I believe, yes! The difference will be the lacking of variety of learning more complex skills.  Example, I do a right roundoff and twist to the left. I have trouble doing 1/2 in full out. However, I reversed the process of doing a full in half out!  Yes, I did step out  into a roundoff out of a front full, back ½ and back 1 ½ . CRAZY!

As a coach, I make sure they don't twist to early that may cause confusion of the twisting direction. Example, doing barani like a no handed roundoff (old school).  As now as you see you really don’t want to teach kids twisting to early that may cause a lot of confusing on twisting direction. Flip before you twist! I have used this experiment trying to figure out why we all get confused of which way to really twist.  I prove that there is no answer to this issue. I support both theories. If the child can't figure out the twisting direction, I have them do a seat drop 1/2 turn on trampoline. It works most of the time. As a coach, teach the athlete to be successful and make the right choice for what it is best for the athlete and your program. While there are ways to help the athletes know which way to twist, what do you do to help the athlete to determine which way to twist?

Best of Luck!

What is Winning?

Over the Memorial Day weekend, I had a nice conversation with my former coach. With all the different topic we discussed, one thing came up that really hit me. It was about philosophy of winning. It brought memories when I was competiting. I never dwell on how many medals I have won, although I have won many including national titles, but it was about my scores and increasing diffuculty. The outcome of placement took care of itself. So, What is the definition of winning?

Winning means different things to different people. Winning for the most of us is all about first place, earning medals, trophies, banners, and/or plaques. In this case, everything else is failure! At one point in time we feel like a failure. It's really up to us how we cope with failure.  Losing is part of life. How you cope with it, can help you grow to be a better person and can make you a winner!  A good support system from the coaches and parents can help to deal to cope with the good and bad times.  I like to say that you must learn to cope from losing in order to win.

Winning is not about earning medals and trophies. Being a champion is not about the numbers of medals your team brings in, not the number of trophies on the wall around the gym, and not about how many team banners you have hanging on the ceiling. Winning is a common goal for everyone.  I like to see the scores since they meassure their performance and success. Example, An athlete can get 3rd place all-around with a score of a 34.5 and then gets 5th place all-around with a score of a 36.0. The athlete was successful because of the increase of the score. The athlete has control over the outcome of performance not the outcome of placement (Judges are another story). Stats don't lie when you are trying to build a sucessful athlete. Medals and trophies don't measure anything. They are memories of the athletes'  hard work. Your athletes is successful due to the coaches leadership!

Coaches should be leaders, a mentor, a guide to help athletes to be sucessful and not worry  about the  outcome of placement. I can't control weather my athlete wins or not. However, I can control how I lead and how I deal with each ahtlete to help them be sucessful every way possible. Not every athlete learn the same way. Its my duty to find that learning curve of the athlete and guide them from there. Athletes has full control of how they excute the skills and routine at their best of their ability (mental imagery). If they make a mistake, it all part of the learning process (mental toughness). Me as a coach is how I guide them through it.

Ideas to keep kids to be sucessful:

1. Can you make the least amount of falls on the Balance Beam?
2. How much time can you take up doing your 10 skill trampoline routine? More time the better since the athlete is going higher or maintaining maximum hieght.
3. Hit and Miss chart. This is one of my popular charts I have made to keep in track of how many routines they hit and how many they miss. This teaches them to stay focus on being consistant.
4. Make a skill report card. This report card tells the athletes what skills they have and what they are working on. Also keeps track of score progress over the season. I do at least four report cards a year (one every three months). The forth report card should before the post season (Championships season).
5. Strength and flexiblity progress report. Pick only the most important sport specific excercise in your sport and make an assessment.

While there are so many ideas to help kids to be successful to achieve their goals, I can't list them all. Kids love to see their own progress on a chart or on paper. It serve as a motivator to achieve their goals of their own and see it on paper. When they are successful they are winners in their own way. This will help keep the kids in the sport longer! Trust me kids are naturally competitive!

WHAT IS WINNING?

"Winning is a happy byproduct of learning well." -Brian Payne

Best of Luck!

Feedback- Part 2

Giving out feedback:
  Okay, so we are all not so perfect coaches when we first started. Thanks to my coach who was also my mentor to be a better coach, my learning experience, and my education. So I'm sharing this with you and hopefully you learn from my mistakes. Sometimes I wonder why athletes are not responding or making changes I want them to make. It was so frustrating on me and the athletes. I ask myself is it me or the athlete.
At times, I used to give out too much feedback thinking people would think I was smart and knowing what I was talking about. Yes , I'm smart and know what I'm talking about therfore I was certainly WRONG about giving out too much as if I was lecturing. No wonder the kids are giving me the Scooby Doo look! So I guess it was me that was the problem.
In part one I have identified the types of feedback. The augumentive feedback can be qualitive and quantitive.
In my coaching experience giving out feedback, I believe that quality is more important than quantity. However that's really depends on the age and level of the athlete. The quality of feedback is more concrete of what you want the athlete to do. Telling athletes what not to do is not quality feedback. Telling the athlete what they did wrong and support it what they need to do to fix it, is quality feedback. Make sure you use words that athletes can understand. Do not use the big kinesiological science words. So put yourself in their world.
Quanity is how much feedback or information you give to the athlete. Have you ever go into a class room or lecture hall and listen to a 55-60 minute lecture? How much you really remember what was being said? I guarantee you may only remember the first 2 minutes and/or last 2 minutes what actually being said! The is the same for giving out to much feedback. The athletes may remember the first and last sentence you said. Too much feedback is like multitasking in their brains that can lead the athletes to be overwhelm thinking too much at one time. This results of poorer performance and frustration for both athlete and the coach. When giving out feedback try to keep it short and one focus at a time.
So what is my solution to my problem I used to have? I have what I call, bits and pieces. Bits and pieces help me give feedback one mistake, one focus, and one part of the skill at a time rather than the outcome of the skill. To help me, I deconstruct the skill in bits and pieces and focus on that. The outcome will come when the athlete organizes itself to understand the skill as a whole. Becuase the quality and quanity of feedback depends on age and level, my rule is to give them 1-3 things to fix and no more than 5-8 seconds to control the amount of feedback I give!
Best of Luck!