Alright, I have been working on lesson plans and looking through your website and other ebooks. The more I think about things and after I found the article “Continuous Improvement” what I am wanting to do with the team program is model my program after what you have already done. I have purchased all your ebooks at this point and continue to reread them, finding more tips I missed but do you have more than that if I paid for a consultation so I stop trying to recreate the wheel?
Two other area’s that if you have any resources that would assist is the gym doesn’t have any formal employee handbook or training. They only require 10-20 hours of unpaid coaching with a current coach. That is one of my ‘projects’ for the summer. The other project is we are revamping the rec program. They have a great program for ‘fun’ but we are going to address what skills are needed at what levels and try to address the inconsistent coaching with the coach training (maybe get that from you?).
That are the areas of concern I see in the program that relate to the kids. This is because we peaked at 575ish kids this year, we have 12 on the team, and 4 more that chose not to do team because of the cost. If the average is 10% of kids on team, the gym isn’t doing something right. The preschool program appears to be working well but still the same coaching problems. I guess I am looking for any other suggestions you have for me modeling around the information you have provided me.
The reason I am telling you this is my goal and dream is to own a gym that provides the type of education that you have done. The more I research and try to understand and learn skill progressions the more excited I am to go coach every day. Thanks for your inspiration!
Planning Can’t Trump Real Progress
You are exactly right now about this. All I could see when I was looking over your training plan was regardless of how well organized it was, the most important part of training gymnasts was not represented and that was making daily progress. You have a very organized plan, but no indication of how and where progress was going to be emphasized.
Continuous Improvement is Key
Continuous improvement, one step of progress per day, setting new Personal Records – these are the things that make a team great, not a workout plan where you basically do the same thing every day (or the same thing each Monday). Same with the strength and conditioning – Strength comes when you stress the muscles. You can’t do the same strength workout and expect strength won’t grow for 4 weeks, plateau and the it will drop. Some variety in the program will help some, but you really want to be increasing numbers, intensity, weight, etc.
Employee Handbooks area Low Priority
I personally like to learn from reading, but most coaches would prefer and benefit way more from training than a handbook. Formal employee handbooks can also be something of a liability if you want to fire an employee or if there is an accident in the gym. They can be considered a legal contract with employees, which makes it necessary, or at least, highly advisable to have a lawyer review them to protect your business.
Coaches Training Seminars Available
I actually do have much, much more than is in the books that is eventually going to get into other books or training materials. The materials in the books is more of a basic level of information and includes only a small percentage of the coaching concepts that I teach in coaching clinics. I have all that material currently outlined and formatted for coaches training clinics and seminars, but not in book form or program form. I really like my coaches training seminars and have much more material than almost anyone else I have ever seen.
Rec Program Plans
I can and could put together a rec program with materials and/or a team training program. I can show you how to set up a program that will make it easier for you to get coaching consistency and make your parents happier at the same time. My philosophy for rec programs and training teams and teams is that they are two completely separate animals. Rec programs are for fun and you want to have lots of flash in your program. You want to run fun programs and you want them to learn, but this is where you make your money, so you are going to run a program to please gymnasts and parents, but you also want to train kids for improved physical fitness, train them for potential team participation and, in general, train them to be young athletes.
Team Training Programs
But if you want to train team kids, then you pull out strong kids, flexible kids, motivated kids and so-called talented kids and put them in TOPs like programs, Jr. Team programs and train them seriously for team. Your Rec program allows you to survey the talent, but as soon as you identify some exceptional potential gymnast (by body shape, determination, good work ethic, etc.) you want those kids pulled out into special team training programs.
The Percentage of Team Gymnasts Should Be Part of Your Business Model
I don’t know that 10% is an average for the number of kids on a team. I used that number because that was what fit into my business model (paying the bills through the summer, primarily on loyal team participation). It was also the number I determined gave me enough potentially talented gymnasts onto my team to actually have some come out at the top.
Calculate Your Ideal Minimum Team Size
You have 12 kids on team. 25% of Americans move every 4 years (or at least they did before the housing crisis). 4 years from now, 3 of your team will have moved, 2 will become cheerleaders, 1 will quit because she got a boyfriend, 1 -2 will not have what it takes to get to the top, etc. You’ll have 3-4 kids left in four years from now and will have to start a training cycle all over again. You must build an inverted funnel – feed in as many potential team gymnasts as possible at the bottom so you have some reasonable chance that 1 will come out on top. Look at your team dropout rate and calculate ow many gymnasts you have to feed in at the bottom to have enough to get someone to Level 10 or Sr.International Elite. I can tell you, that number is not 12. 60 is a whole lot more realistic number for any kind of high level optional success.
Preschool Programs and Preschool Area Design
I have a lot of material for Preschool programs but I haven’t done as many clinics on preschool, primarily because I think there are other people who can do that about as well as I can and it is not my main interest to duplicate what others are doing. That said, I do have some of the best preschool gym area designs. I have one of the only preschool program plans, that is designed not only to meet the developmental needs of children, but to also fit into the long term future high level gymnastics training.
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