- Jan 6, 2011
- 374
- 362
Safety - the kids are not unsafe, coaches put them in unsafe situations. The fix for this seems to be for AACCA to tighten up their safety training and USASF to tighten up their level 5 certification standards and enforce them. How about a Youth L5 certification if we think it would improve youth skills profession safety?
Sloppiness/progressions- a simple sure-fire way to fix this is DEDUCTIONS. Hit coaches on the scoresheet and they will surely fix this problem or not risk sloppy skills. This is also the cheapest way to enforce standards for many other problems. If this was really a concern for coaches an gym owners then we should restrict Senior L5 standing fulls and doubles since many of them are sloppy and scary and scary as well.
I completely agree with Shardads statement above. If we use DEDUCTIONS as a simple way to help enforce proper progression and safety it will help every division and would be a positive step in lending credibility to this sport. My daughter was on a Y5 several years ago and sustained some injuries that were caused by the coaches putting these children in unsafe situations. So in the case of that particular gym eliminating Y5 may have fixed the symptom but not the problem. My child was hurt more from the small kids trying to do level 5 stunts more than tumbling. I say limit the division especially on stunting and as Shardad said fix the sloppy, potentially harmful tumbling with deductions on all levels not just Y5. As an example it is amazing how many doubles I see that are actually 1 3/4. These kids (all ages) are landing and still twisting which has to put a lot of stress on thier knees and ankles.
Ultimately as a parent it is my responsibility to do the necessary research and make the best decision for my children. We changed from a large gym to a smaller gym (no Y5 squad there) and they actually pulled her back to clean some of her technique then her double began to look much better and SAFER. Oddly enough just two weeks before making a change her old gymnastics coach mentioned how her technique, if not corrected, may lead to an injury in the future. Again I believe that Y5 needs to be restricted, especially in tumbling and let deductions address the unsafe, sloppy tumbling.
Sloppiness/progressions- a simple sure-fire way to fix this is DEDUCTIONS. Hit coaches on the scoresheet and they will surely fix this problem or not risk sloppy skills. This is also the cheapest way to enforce standards for many other problems. If this was really a concern for coaches an gym owners then we should restrict Senior L5 standing fulls and doubles since many of them are sloppy and scary and scary as well.
I completely agree with Shardads statement above. If we use DEDUCTIONS as a simple way to help enforce proper progression and safety it will help every division and would be a positive step in lending credibility to this sport. My daughter was on a Y5 several years ago and sustained some injuries that were caused by the coaches putting these children in unsafe situations. So in the case of that particular gym eliminating Y5 may have fixed the symptom but not the problem. My child was hurt more from the small kids trying to do level 5 stunts more than tumbling. I say limit the division especially on stunting and as Shardad said fix the sloppy, potentially harmful tumbling with deductions on all levels not just Y5. As an example it is amazing how many doubles I see that are actually 1 3/4. These kids (all ages) are landing and still twisting which has to put a lot of stress on thier knees and ankles.
Ultimately as a parent it is my responsibility to do the necessary research and make the best decision for my children. We changed from a large gym to a smaller gym (no Y5 squad there) and they actually pulled her back to clean some of her technique then her double began to look much better and SAFER. Oddly enough just two weeks before making a change her old gymnastics coach mentioned how her technique, if not corrected, may lead to an injury in the future. Again I believe that Y5 needs to be restricted, especially in tumbling and let deductions address the unsafe, sloppy tumbling.
