All-Star Coaching Babies

[Mom2Cheergirls]

Had to chime in my Tiny would loose it if she saw the title Coaching Babies - that girl comes to cheer to work. Sometimes she works harder than her much older sisters - and they are know for being hard workers.
That said where she does dance uses vinyl mats with numbers on them and places them where the girls go and the girls remember their number and it helps them. Cheer uses something similar and it helps (but in some cases a few Tinies then become obsessed with their mat and know one else better accidentally touch there mat or if the number is not just so then they start messing with their mat). Have to say teaching or coaching this age at times is like herding cats - their sweet and cuddly but sometimes have a mind of their own and they all go a different direction at once.

 

[INeverStopCheering]

Had to chime in my Tiny would loose it if she saw the title Coaching Babies - that girl comes to cheer to work. Sometimes she works harder than her much older sisters - and they are know for being hard workers.
That said where she does dance uses vinyl mats with numbers on them and places them where the girls go and the girls remember their number and it helps them. Cheer uses something similar and it helps (but in some cases a few Tinies then become obsessed with their mat and know one else better accidentally touch there mat or if the number is not just so then they start messing with their mat). Have to say teaching or coaching this age at times is like herding cats - their sweet and cuddly but sometimes have a mind of their own and they all go a different direction at once.

Mine would too. I've had some fierce Tiny teams in the past, I only say babies because these girls are way to young to be on an actual Tiny team. Some of them are barely three.

Anyways... anyone found something kids aren't tempted to fiddle with? We have exactly what you said happen. We use colored squares but they are the kind they you can connect and make bigger mats out of so kiddos are always linking up with their friends. Maybe I should just Velcro them to the floor...

 

[Trolldance]

I used plain construction paper circles with their names on them. I had them laminated and stuck some Velcro to the back. Some of the kids fixated on them a tiny bit at first (mostly just my kid), but they got over it. I would map out the entire routine in dots on the floor before they got there. As we added a section, we would add a new color. Our Tiny team last year started out with 4 - 3yr olds (one of which was mine and didn't turn 4 until December), some 4yr olds, and only 2 older girls. It took longer than the previous year when we didn't have all those babies, but by the end of the season I was so proud of what they accomplished. I cried like a baby at the last comp when they went out there and hit that routine and were so proud of themselves. Kind of still makes me tear up.

 

[Mom2Cheergirls]

Mine would too. I've had some fierce Tiny teams in the past, I only say babies because these girls are way to young to be on an actual Tiny team. Some of them are barely three.

Anyways... anyone found something kids aren't tempted to fiddle with? We have exactly what you said happen. We use colored squares but they are the kind they you can connect and make bigger mats out of so kiddos are always linking up with their friends. Maybe I should just Velcro them to the floor...

I think they would love the ripping sound of Velcro even more :) I think with a 3 year old fiddling comes with the territory little spurts is all your going to get and if your lucky the majority will be at the same time.

 

[UEAcheerchick]

Something you can do is if for example you are teaching stunts have some of the "big girls" come and demonstrate how to do it. We did this just yesterday while trying to teach the minis how to do a prep and got a huge response from them because they wanted to be exactly like the older ones and "show off" to them in a way. Their reward for hitting the stunt was getting to fly with the older girls and the ones who were normally on the floor loved getting the chance to fly. Remember rewards go far!

 

[KING-EVOLUTION]

im coaching minis this year,
its tough but I agree its rewarding seeing them improve and hit things.

is there any suggestions to what I can do to make them remember things well?
I find myself working on the same few 8-counts over and over for a long time..

 

[NJ Coach]

I agree with what has been posted before. The little ones want to impress you. They want to work for you. The biggest thing I've found (and it can work with youth age too) is to not only make it fun, but make it a contest. Who can be sharpest, best smiles, remember their spots ect. They want to win, and you get the muscle memory.

 

[CAjessica45]

I helped coach a tiny team the last 2 years and formation wise we used stars with their names on it for the main formation. We would tell them to go to their star. We used getting a turn on the tumble track and a stamp as a reward for good behavior during practice. Don't stay on one thing for too long, when they get bored of it they will most likely start togoof off and do other things. And as someone stated before me, teaching the basics the correct way from the beginning to try to keep bad habits from forming. It took me forever to fix my bad tumbling habits from years ago when I learned them.

 

[LabbyGirlMOM]

My Cp was a mini last year and I would have to say her biggest motivator was when the big kids would come over and demonstrate. She would always want to impress them and do her best because the big kids were watching even now on a youth team she is still the same way

 

[bobbijean13]

There is a special place in heaven for people patient enough to coach tiny and mini teams. I am not nearly patient enough. :)

I am writting this on the dry erase board in our practice gym!

 

[ChiCheerMom]

How adorable that must be! I have a 2 year old that is learning all about cheer from my CP. She has taught her a knee stand lib, scorpion, heel stretch and a toe touch - albeit she is two so we are basically talking about concept here more then anything - and now my 2 year old runs around saying, "I wanna do tunting!!" (stunting) all the time. She loves it!

Anyway - I can imagine it is challenge trying to teach that age group but I think they are totally capable of learning! I have to agree that patience will probably be the biggest obstacle but if you are used to working with the littles already, I am sure you'll be fine. Take video and share!!

 

[kaliangel01]

My CP started on a tiny team, them mini 1 now mini 2. And she has had the same coach all three years. Her coach would just teach them the correct way and had all kinds of stickers, goodies and prizes to the one who was the sharpest and things like that. And they had so many breaks to play freeze tag and different things liek that to keep them motivated. Once on mini level 1 they only did that at the end now they dont really get breaks like that. Btu they still get prizes for the stunt who did it best, best tumbler or sharpest dance or different things like that. I also think that some coaches are nto meant to coach tiny's and mini's. But her coach has the perfect balance between when to be hard and when to be playful.;)

 

[TheRealAlishaD]

I LOVE coaching the babies. I've been bouncing between Tiny and Mini for a few years now. Above all things, patience is going to be the key factor here. Over the years, I've adopted a few methods of keeping the girls focused, learning, and on task.

1) REPITITION: Drill the things they learn over and over and over until it becomes second nature to them. You can't teach them the same way you would a 5 year old, so every part needs to be broken down and repeated. Also having them explain where they should be on the mat, what count they do XYZ on and what the stunt/sequence is will help as well.

2) Sticker, Crowns, and Treats (Oh My): Stickers and the crown was my best friend last season. We had 12 girls on our Tiny team last year and at each practice, I would bring 2 or 3 crowns. Whoever had listening ears, quiet mouths and focused throughout the practice would get to take home a crown and bring it back at the next practice. These crowns were phenomenal lol so every girl wanted to take it home but they had to work for it. We would also get brown paper bags and put each girls' name on a bag and we lined them up at the edge of the mat. We had a huge bag of candy and every time we ran the routine, we would drop candy in the bags of everyone that gave their personal best. We weren't looking for perfection, we wanted them focused, counting and doing the best they could. When you talked, played or remained unfocused, you get candy taken away.

3) Games: As previous posters have stated, playing games is another way to release some of that built up energy prior to settling down to learn a routine. We did simon says, red light/green light, and ran suicides (which is actually a conditioning drill but they LOVED it as a game).

4) The "Big Girl" Mentality: Kids at that age simply want to impress you and make you proud. Many times, I've gotten a girl back on track simply by telling her to put her big girl hat on. "Big girls can stand still and wait for their music to being", "Big girls smile through their routine", big girls this and big girls that.......we constantly remind them that they are all big girls and not babies.

5) Parent Assistance: Sometimes, we had to bring the parents to the practice mat to 1) Bring their child back into focus and 2) Learn the part their child has to do so it can be practiced at home. It made a huge difference for us last season.

I'm sure none of these are new ideas, but I wanted to give my 2 cents!

 

[mollymags]

I dug up this thread because I felt silly starting a new one. I've done lots of camps and clinics over the years, but this is my first season coaching a team and working on building them up over the year. We've done okay so far this season, but I'm really struggling with fixing timing in running tumbling and jumps with my Mini 1 team. We drill these sections a lot but they still end up looking like popcorn when they jump and their tumbling passes never end up even close to synced when we run the routine. Any advice?

 

[eliteathletics]

You need to have them say HIT when they jump- EVERY time. also you must teach them the counts for putting their hands on the floor in their tumbling pass- and how many steps to get there- then make sure you are counting above the music so they hear you . Run it this way all the time and they will get used to it. Good luck