Coach
Wayne,
What I mean by balking is , she sometimes completes the skill, probably
20% of the time. Sometimes she throws all her skills at competitions,
but more often she will not throw all her passes, out of three, she might
throw one, or two. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason when she
does or doesn't complete the passes.
Have you encountered this before?
Marti
Hey,
Marti,
Balking is not uncommon, especially among female cheerleaders. Reasons
vary.
As you know, one of the important factors of well-formed tumbling is the
ability to DELIVER a skill (or combination) on DEMAND when it COUNTS.
We call that "consistency." Just as your daughter must be consistent
with her stunting, dancing, and motions, her tumbling passes must be consistently
reliable. Twenty percent is still moderately inconsistent. I would personally
NEVER expect a student to perform a tumbling skill-set in competition
if her consistency is less than eighty percent as measured at practices
over several weeks. The risk of injury, and point loss is too high. But,
coaching styles differ.
Ultimately, your daughter must TRUST her OWN ability to DELIVER a skill-set
consistently in performances. Her coaches, parents and peers may ENCOURAGE,
PROD, and even DEMAND her to perform, but the bottom line is, it's her
body that's at risk. She'll deliver DURING performances if she knows she
has been delivering with a high level of consistency in practice.
Two things come to mind to help your daughter:
1) MEASURE her performance over time in practice.
By implementing a system of measuring skill development, your daughter
can better appreciate the SMALL improvements she makes each day. Over
time she'll have a better sense of exactly HOW much she has actually WORKED
on a specific tumbling skill set, such as the round-off layout. And, over
a few months, she'll learn to TRUST her own ability to deliver because
she'll have PROOF of how much she can COUNT on her own abilities.
Athletic performance statistics are an AMAZINGLY powerful source of feedback
for athletes. So, get her a special notebook and pen to put in her gym
bag and take to practice. Inside, create a Tumbling Performance Chart:
List EVERY tumbling skill and skill SET she is working on. List ANYTHING
that needs improvement and is relevant to cheer-tumbling. Put dates across
the top of the page, and then establish a rating system; say: 1-5 with
1 being an attempt with poor results, and 5 being an attempt with exceptional
results. She should RECORD this for 90 days, to start. Most cheer coaches
do NOT use this sort of system, and it will be foreign to the practice
schedule. The challenge will be for her to find TIME between turns to
make a quick NOTE about what she's doing. She may have to take five turns
and then run to her notebook and record her results.
YOU, as key motivator, need to REVIEW this WITH her at LEAST once a week
to help with INTERPRETING results, short-term, and more importantly, LONG-TERM.
Well-formed tumbling doesn't happen overnight. It's the LONG-TERM process
of improvement that is important and contains the most value. Skill improvement
must be measured ONLY against the TOTAL number of ATTEMPTS. If a student
attempts to improve a specific skill-set 10 times a week, and another
student attempts improvements on that SAME skill-set 50 times each week,
you can guess which one will be better after a year. After a week or two
you may find that she's simply NOT getting enough repetitions for the
important skill sets, and you can encourage her to either take EXTRA turns
(instead of talking/standing/resting) or to invest extra time improving
the foundation SKILLS, COORDINATION DRILLS and STRENGTH work that make-up
those skill-sets so that she gets more progress out of each repetition.
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HOW IS YOUR TUMBLING?
Have ~CoachWayne!
come to YOUR gym!!!
Performance
tumbling for students &
Instructor training for staff
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Coach
Wayne is the Head Coach for the Savannah College of Art and
Design Cheerleading team and Executive Coach of Olympic Gymnast
Zuzana Sekerova. His articles, videos and books have been
used by students and instructors world wide since 1991. Coach
Wayne is available for in-gym instructor training and performance
tumbling clinics throughout the year. For booking information,
coaches/owners should call 912.398.8082. Students and parents
should request coaches/owners to contact Coach Wayne: www.CoachWayne.com,
coach@coachwayne.com or 912-238-1747, 912-398-8082.
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It won't take too long before your daughter uncovers ways to improve
herself more rapidly in each attempt and to do what it takes to get in
the necessary repetitions. This system of self-responsibility will allow
her to manage her own progress more effectively.
2) CREATE a higher quality learning environment for her to practice in.
Get better instruction. Every coach is not gifted in every aspect of cheerleading.
Seek out the best. Get private lessons outside of regular class-time.
There's a lot to do during a regular practice. An EXTRA 1/2 hour each
week with only 2 or 3 girls and one coach doing NOTHING but helping their
tumbling will make a big difference.
Take tumbling lessons at another facility outside of the regular social
group. Sometimes classes just get into a rut. Sometimes the social dynamics
don't perfectly match the specific learning style of every student. For
example: The social environment of her gym may put too much PRESSURE on
your daughter to PERFORM PERFECTLY in every attempt without allowing her
to LEARN and EXPLORE and freely make the inevitable MISTAKES she MUST
make to improve. She should then augment her regular practice time with
practice elsewhere.
Learn more about what it takes to perform her target skill correctly.
Sometimes a simple nugget of knowledge (hand placement, foot placement,
sequencing, etc) can break through the learning bottleneck and quickly
lead your daughter the success she seeks. She may get this knowledge from
a coach or from a more advanced student who has already mastered the goal
your daughter is working on. ( My collection of FREE TumblingTIPS is available
at www.CoachWayne.com.)
Have fun, be safe, push HARD.
~CW
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