Private Lessons – Yes or No

Private lessons are an extra opportunity for those who can afford them. I feel like a mental block child needs to do private lessons. I also feel the athletes who learn best one on one should take privates. You can recognize these athletes because in a group they...

Tumbling Uphill

This is a way to improve both standing and running tumbling. We have spoiled our athletes by having them tumble downhill or into a pit. This encourages pulling off the ground and no set. You can do this drill two different ways. Either you can have the athletes land...

How Long to Stretch & When

Stretching is an extremely important aspect of fitness for many reasons. To stretch correctly you must stretch only 5 to 10 seconds before practice and save your long stretching till the end of each practice. Your long stretches need to be 45+ seconds to actually...

Timing of Feet Together in Round-Off

This concept is so important because it dictates what skills can be done after the round off. If a back handspring or whip occurs after the round off the legs need to come together shortly after vertical so the body can snap down with feet in front of the body. If you...

Back Leg in Round-Off

The drive of the back leg in the round off directs the turn over of the round-off thus insuring the speed of your pass thereby enhancing the height of the third skill. For this drive, strength is required in the hamstring and glute area. In addition to that a certain...

Faster Standing Back Handsprings

This is a common problem in our sport. Most of the time this problem develops because we don’t know how to strengthen our athletes in the proper areas in order to produce a faster back handspring. First, of all you need to check the plyometric ability (ability to...

P.I.C. Principle

In teaching our goal should be to maximize the potential of each child we teach. In order to accomplish this we must not only be strong in our understanding of technique but in our understanding of the emotional and psychological well-being of our athletes. Therefore...

Learning Stages

In the learning process for any skill we go through three steps. The first step is the Vision Stage. we see a skill and love it and want to accomplish that skill. At this stage you probably won’t do the skill much but you might do drills or exercises to build your...

Recommended Books

Recommended Books to Read The Women’s Gymnastics Journal – Tammy Biggs and Jerry Dykstra The Hidden Message in Water – Masaru Emoto Living the Gold Medal Life – Mary Lee Tracy Achieving Personal Greatness – Tim Lavender Positive Coaching...