The following blog is guest-written by the incredible Hannah Lobdell – Rec Program Director at Bounce Gymnastics in Denver, CO and founder of Rising Tide Gymnastics (hooking you up with helpful tools and lesson plans for your recreational gymnastics programs). ALSO – during quarantine, Hannah was one of the first I saw to pivot and embrace teaching virtual classes and she has great tips for us!
5 Tips for Teaching Amazing Online Gymnastics Classes
Is the gym still closed? Are you thinking it’s time to start some online classes, or time to spice up your existing offerings? Here are some practical steps you can take to teach a slammin’ online class, every time!
1) Get a whiteboard, and fill it up.
Without a plan for every moment, it’s going to be like you’re giving a eulogy when your students showed up to enjoy Cirque du Soleil: glum and disappointing.
Unless your gym has been doing online classes for years now, even the most experienced coaches are in a new ballgame.
Create a plan of action for your class- from the intro, to the warm up, every skill, drill and stretch, and your wrap-up. Then execute with magic! As a great gymnastics mentor of mine once said, “Don’t just think it; ink it!”
2) Ask a coworker to moderate the class.
The moderator is in charge of muting and unmuting the kids, spotlighting the screen, recording the class, answering chats that come in, and kicking out any intruders that might make their way into your room. Zoom now requires all meeting rooms to have passwords, which should cut down on uninvited guests, but I moderated a class over quarantine where I had to kick out an adult who did not belong in the room!
When you coach at the gym, you are in 100% coach mode. You’re not stopping to answer an email, or schedule the team’s meets for the season. Having someone else manage the technical stuff allows you to purely focus on your students gymnastics, and teach a great class.
3) Build in the fun!
Come up with three ways your class will be superfun.
I like to open with a dance, a joke or a magic trick. No, I never did a magic trick for my students before quarantine. Yes, I felt the need to do this during COVID to make sure I was grabbing their attention! Don’t know any magic tricks? Google is your best friend!
Another way to add fun to your class is with a game! We played one card game that worked great and never looked back- the kids ate it up and we played the same game for 6 weeks in a row. Offer a prize, (we doorstep-delivered water bottles with our gym’s logo on them.) Our students were showing up every class, and getting competitive because they were HUNGRY for that prize!
4) Give all your energy, plus 75% more.
There’s a reason why professional actors and actresses keep us locked in to our favorite TV shows. They bring a high level of passion, energy and commitment to their performances.
Your online class is an educational, interactive TV program: you must deliver a larger-than-life gymnastics coaching performance so your amazingness can radiate through the screen to your students.
5) Show them you care.
Start your class 10 minutes early and greet your students by name. Ask them how they are, and get them talking about their life. Have them to show you their dog, or a project that they’ve been working on. After class, stick around and invite kids to share one thing they’d like to tell the group.
Purposely creating a feeling of community while social distancing will keep your kids feeling like they belong in your class, and later when you reopen, in your gym.
Want to talk more about offering online classes, and how to build this as an effective program at your gym? Email Hannah at gymnasticsfg@gmail.com — or if you haven’t yet, head over to Rising Tide Gymnastics and hop on her mailing list!
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