Special Needs gymnastics
Nate Hendrickson, Director of Kids Fitness and Special Needs discusses the Kids Fitness and Special Needs program and opportunities at TNT Kids Fitness.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
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Rick Mc
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Rick Mc
Tumbl Trak school visits
I’m visiting Tumbl Trak founder Doug Davis in Washington State.
Tumbl Trak sponsored some school visits recently, setting-up an appealing assortment of equipment, delighting students.
Quilcene school for 2 days, Nov. 2011
It’s called “Rec Kid Fit“, not gymnastics.
Blue Heron Middle School Tumbling Clinic
see more Blue Heron pics on FacebookThat was a cooperative effort involving Rec staff, YMCA staff and PE teachers.
Note: I’ve added a “school” category for posts like this.
via Diana Hughes. Thanks!
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Rick Mc
Christmas Gymnastics Show
Basingstoke Gymnastics in the U.K.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
I saw that on a new Men’s Gymnastics blog – GymnasticsPlanet.co.uk
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Rick Mc
best Gymnastics Report cards
I went through my file folder of OLD Recreation Gymnastics progress reports. It wasn’t a pretty sight. 😦
Most are too complex, too time consuming and the unclear to parents. In many cases, report cards are a waste of time.
The only two I like were home made. For example, here’s a system David Burgess and I used at Taiso Gymnastics during the 1990s. (click on image for larger version)
Page 1
Page 2
Those were photocopied back-to-back twice. Folded. One copy kept in the gymnast’s file, the other sent home to the parent on the second last week of the Recreation session.
Short. Simple. Not too onerous for the coach. Rather than test every skill at that level of the Canadian Gymnastics Report Card system, we selected only 30 KEY drills. Progress for each marked: Attempted, Learning, or Mastered.
Coach worked on filling out the DRAFT copy throughout the session, rather than all at once end-of-term.
Even simpler was a home made system I used at Altadore back in the 1980s.
One page. Single sided. Only 10 key skills from each level.
Those were the days when “cut and paste” meant cut with scissors and paste with magic tape. The drills were taken from an earlier version of the Canadian “badge” program.
Here’s the template I used.
Rec Report Cards are mainly for the parents. Kids and coaches are far less interested. Best practice is to make time to chat with each parent who comes into the gym, end of class. Update them on at least one point of “progress” for the day. Informal communication is more powerful than formal.
IEGA has continuous evaluation. They can print an up-to-date report card at any time. That’s cool.
The GOAL is to keep your reregistration rate as high as possible.
Leave a comment if you’ve a favourite way to monitor and report progress for once-a-week kids.
related
• 2nd Edition of the CANGYM recreation program
• Gymnastics Zone – Gym Communications Systems
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Dave Norgate
I think that skills testing, strength testing or report cards are great – not just for the parents, but mainly for the gymnasts. It gets the kids working their hardest and we often get breakthroughs and best results on testing day.
Rick – Thanks for the ideas, I love the pictures in your examples. Are there pictures like this in the CanGym manual? I might have to order myself one. I wonder what the postage to Australia will be… 🙂
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coach Rick
The illustrations have been completely redone, since then.
AND I’ve just heard the CANGYM report cards have been “improved” to a format more like this one. I don’t have a copy of the latest version myself.
Shipping would be expensive. But you only need to buy one copy and ship once. Everything is photocopy ready and photocopy legal.
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Dave Norgate, and 
Rick Mc
the family that plays together …
My old friend, coach Dean Kalyan and family having FUN at the gym. 🙂
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick Mc
gymnastics in Ireland
I visited 5 clubs in the Republic of Ireland last week, a good will ambassador for TumblTrak. Gymnastics Sports are surprisingly undeveloped there, but progressing RAPIDLY.
First, we dropped in on a pre-competitive training camp for the girls National Irish Super Squad for children under age-10. That was hosted at Excel Gymnastics near Dublin.
It was terrific to visit my friends at Renmore Gymnastics, Ireland. Here’s Recreation Director Samantha Marciano, originally from New York.
Renmore
more photos
Trojan Gymnastics has long been one of the strongest competitive clubs in the country. I was impressed by how much they could accomplish in a very small space.
Here’s Janz Gymnastics near Dublin, the newest facility of the clubs I saw. Big and spacious.
Finally, Sugarloaf Gymnastics.
a few more photos
Looks bright, clean and spacious too. Right?
That’s because it’s housed in Greystones Community Centre. Kids and coaches set-up and take down all that equipment 3 times / week. That’s dedication.
Thanks to all those clubs and coaches for inviting me in. 🙂
Rick Mc
gymnastics games Renmore, Ireland
A guest coach at Renmore in Galway, here are a few pics from one of my favourite games: Big Kids Carry Little Kids.
See more on the Renmore Facebook.
This activity is only appropriate for advanced children. We don’t want anyone dropped.
REMINDER – One of the worst gymnastics games is “Duck, Duck, Goose, Goose” :(. … It’s FUN, but not physically or technically demanding enough to improve fitness.
Rick Mc
new site – Gym Momentum
Launched this past November, I highly recommend Tony Retrosi’s new site gymmomentum.com. It’s being updated multiple times every day.
Here’s a sample …
PRE SCHOOL AND REC DRILLS
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rick Mc
‘Pac-Man’ backward handspring drills
Some elite coaches don’t like drills like this. Personally I always “introduce” the skill this way. It’s FUN and SAFE.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Of course there are many other similar equipment set-ups. Best is to have one the kids can use by themselves without needing a coach.
… Wondering what a Pac-Man is?
Rick Mc
how to make Gymnastics boring
By far the most common reason for dropping out of gym. 😦
… Gymnastics is a naturally fun sport of nearly infinite variety. If your cannot keep your classes interesting, you are definitely not doing your job.
… job one for a coach is to make sure gymnasts learn something every class. To do that, before every class, you need to know what skills each gymnast can already do and what skills you have a good shot at teaching them that day. To do that, you have to be prepared for each class and have kept track of your gymnasts and what they can do.read more on Gymnastics Zone – How to Make Gymnastics Boring
Christchurch School of Gymnastics
Recreational Gymnastics 
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