Hey y'all! My bronze kids are finishing State tomorrow so we are heading into upgrades and post season. This season was my second season coaching team (first season I coached level 3) and I think I was much more organized in my programming this time. I have a system now and everything, there's just a few areas I would like to address.
Little bit of background, my gym uses Xcel as an alternative/recreational path for gymnastics as we have a DP program. That being said, somehow my Xcel Silver team is to train 11(?!) hours a week so I have plenty of time to work with. We are however usually crammed into small areas since our DP program takes priority, but I didn't have any issues making that work this season. I'll have around 10 girls and probably be alone with an occassional assistant coach. My girls are average 9 years old and we are sitting at about a 36 average AA across this season, with the higher end being 38 and the lower being 34.
We've been regularly working upgrades (even have two that have gotten their kips!) and basics, but have taken a step back on conditioning. They're pretty much ready for silver so....
My two main questions are:
- What the heck do I do with that much time?? I'm a super efficient coach and always use the most simple drills possible to get the best results I can. I try to make set up take no more than 5 minutes so having 45 minutes on an event seems crazy!
- Games. I'm horrible, and I mean horrible, with games. I don't want my kids to burn out and everyone says "make up challenges" or whatever and I'm like "Yeah, but like... what kind of challenge...?" So if you have any great games you use to keep your younger athletes motivated, let me know!
- For post season my main plan is to work a lot of basics and conditioning but (again) I know the girls just came out of season so we need to have fun too, but I don't know what skills to let them play with and which to put the breaks on so we don't have to fix stuff later.
Anything y'all have as advice I'd love to hear! It's only my second year programming so I'd love to learn more!