Coaching the Little Tots

I am a gymnastics coach! I teach kids between the ages of two and six. There are many events and tasks we have to finish each week. To accomplish this we much follow a schedule, sort of.

1. Trampoline Time-I have found that the kids usually do better during the class if they have about five minutes to just jump on the trampoline. This lets them get some extra energy out while I take attendance.

2. Stretch- This part is easy. We all sit on the red carpet in a big circle and stretch. We always do the same stretches in the same order. We start with straddle and end with back-bends. There are about ten stretches. We try to make this fun for the kids by pretending that we are animals or that we are cooking, because sometimes they get restless.

3. Events- There are three events that kids at this age do: beam, bars, and floor. As soon as we finish stretching we see which event is open. Usually beam is open first so we go there. On beam we do many exercises to help the kids develop balance. After beam we usually go to bars. On bars the main goal is to hang on and develop upper body strength. After bars we go to floor. On floor we learn to do forward rolls, backward rolls, handstands, and cartwheels. Sometimes teaching floor can get frustrating because most kids do not get the concept of a cartwheel and that skill is hard to teach.

4. Stamp Time- At this time, if the kids were good we give them stamps. If the kids were really good they get to jump in the moon-bounce. The kids love to do this, but there usually is not much time so they only get to jump for about a minute.

Coaching gymnastics is fun but repetitive. Doing the same routine day after day and week after week gets boring at times but the kids usually keep my job interesting.