New Coach With No Idea How To..

[abbeyfrae]

Hi everyone,

So let me first start by saying this is my official first post on here, *bows* thank you. I hope that by being on here I learn a lot of things about coaching. I've heard this site is pretty great, I'm gonna go ahead and try it out!!--

Okay! Well, this is my first year coaching. I got asked to do it by my cousin who took on the task and doesn't know the first thing about cheerleading. Me, having cheered my entire life, figured it'd be the easiest, most fun 8 months and was a little thrown off when I went into practice the first week. First of all, this is an elementary. I am coaching 9-11 year old girls. Don't get me wrong, for girls with little, if any, cheer background, they can tumble, jump (working on those) and hit beautiful, stiff motions. I just am having the hardest time getting them to FOCUS. I keep telling myself, "Amanda, they are third graders and fourth graders and fifth graders and this is fun to them. Do not look at them like an older team," but it is hard not to! Another way to put it is: when they get to the finish line of a halftime or a cheer, it is BEAUTIFUL! It's the GETTING THERE that takes FOREVER with them! I have girls turned around talking, one staring at the ceiling counting tiles, another down in her splits singing a radio hit, etc. They get so excited when they know they've all mastered something together, but to learn it literally kills them and it's slowly killing me I think! I just don't know how to get them to stay on track through a whole practice. I haven't really yelled at them nor have I made them do laps or wall sits, or sit in their splits if they don't listen (YET). Because they're younger and this is just a city wide thing, they have one competition in two and a half months that they're going to compete in. Starting next week, we're extending our two weekly practices by an hour and a half. If they can't go two hours now.. how are they going to do three and a half in one day?

I just am hoping to hear from other coaches who maybe had this problem, or have watched other coaches struggle with this too and how they handled it. I want to be assertive without being the "bad guy" who they then resent and REALLY don't listen to. I feel like if I just got them pumped up for comp, they'd be more willing to pay attention all practice.

Any feedback.. any?

THANKS! :cool:

 

[cupieqt]

Practice in small chunks. With younger kids they get bored fast (obviously you are experiencing this) so work on one section briefly then move on. As coaches we want to do it over and over until its perfect. After 3-5 times they're over it. So hit on everything a few times and eventually it all soaks in. Give them 1-2 corrections max each time too. More than that and you'll lose them and won't see any corrections made. Praise the little things and they'll want more of that too.

With my older kids we can spend an hour on ONE stunt and they're focused. With my 10 and under kids, we have to keep practice moving. It is better though because they are hitting on everything at least for a little bit. It comes together much better too because they'll surprise ya!

Good luck and congrats. The first step toward being a great coach is utilizing your resources and the boards are an awesome resource for hints, tips and ideas!

 

[DaniV]

I try to spend about 10 minutes on every section of the routine and sometimes offer incentives for good behavior - playing a game at the end of practice or they each get to pick one conditioning exercise and the number because they are "the coach" for a couple minutes.

Also, if you have trampolines those are great bribes. When I am having a particularily rough practice, I'll tell them that if they do XYZ we can use the trampoline instead of doing jumps on the floor or they get to open tramp time for the last 5 min of practice.

As you get into a solid routine of how to effectively coach them, they'll start to get into a routine too. They'll learn what is okay and not okay to do at practice.

Welcome to the boards and good luck!

 

[abbeyfrae]

Someone else also told me to sit down at the beginning of practice and go over what we would like to accomplish that day, and meet in a circle at the end again to talk about what we did do and have winding down, fun time with them.

I think because I know their potential and how great they CAN be, that it frustrates me more when they aren't as interested in knocking it out like I know they can all of the time. I'm going to try moving back and forth a lot with them and offering up more compliments with hopes it'll push them to get my approval.


Thanks everyone, super helpful.