Excerpt from Happy Gymnastics’ article, The Developmental Pillars Every Coach Needs to Know — Happy Gymnastics:
A couple of years ago, I had the privilege of speaking at Gymnastics Ontario Congress. Usually, I stick to my preschool world, but I wanted to change it up, so I went to a lecture all about how to teach release moves on bars. Yeah, I went WAAAY outside my preschool world!
While I did get some actual preschool ideas, the best take away was that the practitioner referred to his gymnasts as ‘children’ and ‘child’. Normally, when I go to these events, the kids are referred to as ‘gymnasts’ or ‘athletes’. I liked that this high-level coach was calling these girls what they actually were, first and foremost: children.
After all, you’re not just a coach, right? You might also be a gardener, student, jelly bean addict, jedi ninja or a folk opera rockstar. There are many layers to you, just like there are many layers to your gymnasts.
The blog post goes on to dig further into these layers, outlining the four main pillars (or areas) of development for children — cognitive, social/emotional, language and movement.
I highly recommend checking out the whole article — and sharing it among your coaching team. It’s easy to read — it breaks things down super well with examples and recommendations. I love the overall message that for coaches, it really needs to be KIDS FIRST, GYMNASTS SECOND. We do important work!
