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USGTC Skills Camp Coaching System

   Emotion    Passion    Energy    Simplicity

Our campers come to USGTC with high expectations. They want to learn new skills in a safe environment and have lots of fun with you, other campers and staff. They can’t wait to go to your first class and see what you are like. They are hoping that you will bring fun into their lives and help them to improve their gymnastics ability. Our goal is to provide our staff with a training program that will help improve their coaching ability and introduce them to new ways of making coaching fun! USGTC is all about sharing knowledge to benefit others.

The USGTC Training Script

At USGTC, a gymnastics class is like a movie or a speech. It has three simple components. They are the beginning, body, and conclusion. You are the producer and your gymnasts are the stars. You can always add and delete things in your script that you feel will improve it. You are going to assign a certain number of minutes for your introduction, body and conclusion. USGTC will provide you with a basic script for each class. Our goal is to provide you with solid progressions for teaching skills. We will go over skills and progressions during our staff training program. We will also provide you lesson plans on skills and progressions that you can keep at your teaching stations. We want you to be innovative and take chances with new ideas. Remember, some of our major goals are to help you become better coaches, have more fun, and help us improve our overall USGTC gymnastics program.

Before continuing, we want you to know that intelligence will not be the deciding factor of how well you coach and the response you get from your gymnasts. Its integrity, passion and carefully directed energy.

Introduction:

This is where you tell your gymnasts what you plan to cover during your class. What, how and why. Less than a minute should be all you need.

Body:

This is the time you spend on coaching your gymnasts. It will take up most of your class time. A proper logical structure for each of your event classes will make it easier for your gymnasts to learn.

New Skills:

This is the time for your gymnast to experiment with new skills. Plan on approximately five minutes.

USGTC Fun:

This is the time you have a meaningful fun contest. It can be the same challenge for all gymnasts or a different challenge for each gymnast. Plan on approximately five minutes.

Conclusion:

This is the time to tell them what they accomplished and to pump them up with words of encouragement. This only takes a few seconds.

What do you do if you didn’t cover everything you planned? Nothing, there is always another class or open workout. Just remember that you want to end a class with your gymnasts wanting more of you. How do you reach that level? Be prepared and practice your well thought out script.

Your first class sets the tone for the rest of the week. "Emotion, passion and energy are key elements in setting the tone you desire. Install them immediately. They will help keep your gymnasts focused. Let them know that they must be ready when it’s their turn to perform. Let them know that the more turns they get, the harder you work and the more they learn."

Some helpful hints in preparation for your first class:

• Practice and more practice
• You might want to practice some coaching techniques in front of other staff
• Well organized class preparation
• Necessary rest
• Healthy food
• appropriate clothing

A few more things to think about for gymnastics and other camp activities

1. Never use your cell phone while working
2. Rain or shine, an upbeat personality
3. A warm smile
4. Encouraging words for everyone
5. Be super energetic
6. Let every child know that they are important to you. "Mary Kay, let’s do lunch!"
7. Lots of passion and flavor it with humor
8. Create excitement, fun and team spirit within your classes.
9. Utilize our USGTC simple, sound gymnastics progressions and spotting techniques
10. Never have negative comments about gym clubs, their coaches and coaching methods
11. Never sit while coaching
12. Never show favoritism
13. Give each individual camper the very best instruction in a safe environment
14. Only coach and spot at your ability level

Check out some of our USGTC senior staff classes. Don’t be afraid to use some of their teaching techniques in your own classes.

Here is a goodie bag of USGTC considerations

Say something unique to get your gymnast’s attention at the beginning of a class - like "Welcome to our magic carpet!" or "Are you ready for greatness?" When coaching it is important to keep in mind the following:

1. A monotone voice can put your class to sleep
2. Use gestures and non verbal communication
3. Unexpected movements can get their attention
4. Use arms and body movements
5. Use the old USGTC pause and give them your special USGTC look
6. Make eye contact with everyone
7. Ask questions
8. Carefully select your vocabulary
9. Say something unique to end your class
10. Never sit or cross your arms while coaching

Things to avoid while coaching:

1. Humor at anyone's expense
2. Embarrassing campers or staff
3. Negative remarks about others
4. Discussing personal matters in front of gymnasts
5. Picking favorites
6. Bragging (directly or indirectly)
7. Undue familiarity
8. Inappropriate language, poor grammar and clothing
9. Laziness, sitting and looking like you would prefer being anywhere but here
10. Allowing yourself or your gymnasts to stray from the agenda
11. Allowing a gymnasts to do a skill that you don’t want them to do

Remember, we always protect the integrity of gym clubs, their owners and staff. We want to send gymnasts back to their gyms with enthusiasm, new gymnastics skills and a stronger desire to stay in gymnastics.

"You will learn more from listening to a child than from talking."