Hey everyone,
I have been getting upset over certain coaching I have seen that simply does not make sense. Before I continue I should note that these are my opinions based on my own experiences and not to be taken as an insult if these opinions do not coincide with your coaching philosophies. I just want to bring up some points to think about.
First of all I wrote an article about the importance of conditioning with all athletes ( Preventing Injuries in Sports). As mentioned in that article I force my athletes to condition half an hour a day. Once they are at a level of conditioning that makes me feel that they are not being held back by it in their sport specific side ( ie. trampoline) then i relax on conditioning and focus on other areas of development. It is a variable periodization technique that is determined by the athletes success, not the schedule of their competition season. I have had a few athletes now work hard and improve their flexibility and instead of having to take 10-15 minutes out of training every day to improve it I allow them to work on specific trampoline skills which they love. I believe this is a good way to motivate athletes to get the right work done instead of blindly telling them to stretch. I remember in my gymnastics days we sat in splits every training for 1 minute per stretch times three sets. ( pancake, pike, middles, right leg, left leg x 1 minute each x 3= 15 minutes of stretching a day. I had full splits and found it a huge waste of time. Maintain strengths but focus more on improving weaknesses. The kids will understand if you tell them " if you get your pike flat then I will allow you more trampoline time". That athlete will learn pike so quick that you will think he took muscle laxatives.
I notice that the chronological order of improvement sometimes makes no sense. ie, athletes who can do a back full and rudy but are unable to do a crash dive. And I mean, literally can not do a crash dive. I understand how fun it must be to teach a new skill but too many coaches are pushing the athlete to fast in hopes that either (1) other coaches will see the big skill you taught the athlete or (2) you want the athlete to grow fast to show the parents you know what you are talking about. Wrong way to go if this describes you. Any high level coach will tell you the same thing. Make sure basics are solid before anything. Sure the athlete can do a back full and thats good that without basics he can do it, it means that his spacial awarness and shear guts are enough to get him through the skill. But down the road when that 10 year old becomes a national athlete and needs to do a 16.5 to compete with the big boys then whats he going to do? Most would agree that you can not chuck skills all the way to the top. Assuming that is true then when does that 10 year old learn technique? In his head he learned a back full with no technique. So why would he need it for rudy, double back, triffis, quintuffis? He would get the idea that all skills can be learned by simply playing around. Eventually you grow an athlete who is unteachable because he learned many skills by what he thinks is his own methods because you as a coach weren't instructing him on the various critical physics related techniques. So 5 year later when he truly needs the technical support he's going to think he knows it all.
That is not for all athletes however and I agree that some can learn like that and then later improve the technique. This can work in an absolute way but why make so much more work for the athlete and yourself. Having to always back track and improve skills that were just learned a year ago and should be a piece of cake by now? The easiest way is to improve slowly but make the base as wide as you can. Ie. teach them everything you know about the skill before the skill is even attempted. If it is done correctly then the athlete will learn the skill properly in a short period of time. For example I have my athletes working on a full twisting crash dive. When are they ever going to use that? not until a full in half out is needed which is not for a long time. But the essentials of the full twisting crash dive apply to other skills. ex.
this drill improves:
using the feet to initiate rotation right before leaving the bed rather then piking or hunching. cant do the skill by piking. forces the athlete to keep stretched and separate the twist and the flip, a problem almost every athlete has from interclub beginner to everyone on canada's senior team ( albeit that they do it better then interclubs). If the athlete can learn at a young age to set then twist rather then all at the same time it will be a lot easier to teach many skills.
Another example would be the wall. The wall is a cirque technique used to liven up the trampoline performance. It has been incorporated in many different shows around the world. Here is a link to Julian Roberge, a Senior level trampolinist from Quebec.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj_zn2N4qWk
I have had many coaches ask me why I teach interclubs and provincial athletes the wall. Its very simple. If you do the wall properly then when you take the wall away it becomes a very nice needle. Which can be incorporated into 1/3 of all possible skills in trampoline. The child will learn to not be confident in landing on their back. Then porpises and back pull overs and cat twists can be learned on the wall then taken to the middle of the trampoline. All skills that are possible need to be broken down to their basic components. A lot of coaches forget how even seat drops lead to a big picture later in the athletes career.
I notice a lot of athlete take training as work and not fun. The coaches job is not to have the child come in and do the exact same thing. If I ask a coach to their face if they change up the program and keep it exciting I will always get the same answer; " of course i always do". Unfortunately I find that this is not the case. I am not pointing fingers, simply reminding. I take my athletes sometimes and we play a half hour of soccer instead of conditioning sometimes. We have certain fun days where its all constructive games, etc etc. The athlete should not always know what is happening.
I could find a thousand different issues that many coaches , including myself forget to prevent all the time, the key to being a good coach in my opinion is trying to always put the athlete first no amtter how hard our own individual lives may be. It is easy to havea hard day and sit on a cheese block and just yell out instructions across the gym. It takes an excellent coach to put their "outside of the gym" issues aside and focus on the athlete no matter how we feel.
I find to many coaches also put their reputation on the line. I believe that coaches who are only out to look good for themselves will always produce less athletes in the long run because the athlete knows that it is for you not him. It is always for the athlete. Please do not push your athlete too fast to try and impress other coaches. Not good for anyone and it is evident of what you are doing. I fully admit to breaking that fallacy but when I feel myself doing it I think about why I need their approval. I truly don't. Being that selfish is a problem I think too many coaches have. I have met some who are not like that and I have met some that make their own reputation the be all and end all of the athletes training. If you are a good coach, be patient, other coaches will notice later and if they are so close minded that they don't understand you are taking your time then they are even a worse coach then you and in that case you should not care what they think. Set an example.
This may be a controversial article and many may think im making a personal attack on coaches. Im really not. We all have things to work on and I think a simple little reminder is always a good idea. Just like athletes coaches sometimes need to be reminded of their mistakes. Its easy to think you know everything because you are the coach but remember there are always ways to improve your coaching from a technical and psychological aspect.
I hope this serves a nice reminder to keep doing what you are doing as a coach or gives you an idea of things you may want to improve on.
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