THE RECREATIONAL PROGRAMME
Our Recreational Classes boast a 90%* renewal rate each term and form the bedrock of our club (*correct as of Jan 2024). They offer children the opportunity to learn gymnastics under the supervision of British Gymnastics trained coaches and work on all of the FIG Olympic standard equipment!
SAADI Gymnastics have developed their own Recreational Plan to get the most out of our facilities and high coaching ratios. Below is a summary of this plan.
|Small groups, high number of coaches
Every group of 10 gymnasts will usually have a minimum of 2 coaches. You will probably notice that one of the coaches is taking the lead, typically due to their seniority and experience. We launched a comprehensive Internal Coach Training programme in 2023 so you may see the second coach working on this during the session. If you see a coach looking quiet and maybe not joining in quite as much it’s highly likely they are new and it’s important we give them the time to be trained properly and build their confidence. We also have a Young Leadership Volunteer Programme that encourages current gymnasts to learn ho to coach. These gymnasts may also be present in the group and where a purple t-shirt identifying their role. Again, these coaches will be learning so may not be interacting quite as much as the lead coach.
THE COACHING PLAN
WARM UP
10mins: Every session starts with a warm up taken by one of our coaches. During this time the children will take part in exercises or games to ensure that they are ready for gymnastics. During this time you may see other coaches working around the gym preparing their first piece or organising the children’s possessions.
ROTATIONS
10mins - 55mins: In gymnastics you will hear the term ROTATION used a lot to describe the movement of gymnasts between apparatus (or pieces), There are 6 or 7 core pieces in the gym: Bars, Forward Floor, Backward Floor, Trampette/trampoline, Vault, Beam, Rings/P-Bars.
After the warm-up, groups will have time to rotate around 3 or 4 pieces each week. We have therefore broken our Recreational Plan into 2 week blocks during which the gymnasts will have rotated around all 6 pieces (some classes with fewer groups will do some pieces twice). We are sometimes asked ‘why a child hasn’t been on a particularly piece during a lesson’. The answer is that if they haven’t been on it this week they will be on it the following week.
|Focus Skills ensure measured development
Each week the children will be working on a different Focus Skill on each piece. The Focus Skills for the week can be seen below. By having a clear plan of skills each week we can ensure that the gymnasts develop all the skills over the term.
We have an extensive online resource for our gymnasts including a number of Masterclasses on the core skills identified in green. You can access these masterclasses HERE.
|Focus skills are coached at multiple levels of difficulty to stretch gymnasts
Every Coach is now working from exactly the same plan (although they have flexibility to be creative when required). At the start of the lesson you will see the lead coach setting up the prep stations on the piece they will be using. These prep stations are clearly outlined in our new plans to ensure a consistent coaching approach. The prep stations can be used by the coaches in different ways and the new plans break down 4+ ability levels from beginner to advanced. It’s this break down that enables our classes to be multi-ability. It is the coach’s role to identify the skill level of the gymnast and adjust the difficulty accordingly.
|Stations reduce queuing and encourage learning through focussed repetition
One of the main changes you may have noticed is that children will be working more on a particular ‘station’ either on their own or with a partner. Stations are individual set ups that can be used to break down the progressions required for a bigger skill. This is a very common way of coaching gymnastics because it reduces queuing and encourages learning through focussed repetition. Gymnastics is all about getting the basics right!
NATIONAL GYMNASTICS AWARDS PROGRAMME (NATGAP)
We are currently running the NATGAP Awards Book alongside our Recreational Programme. This means that at various points in the class the gymnasts will get to work on specific ‘sticker’ skills. If they are successful the coaches will recognise this by a tick or sticker in their book. We will continue to use this book to help us measure progress but now it will be complemented by the coaches assessment. Please note that we may not work on ‘book skills’ every week and that the 3rd book is significantly harder than the first two so progress will be slower!
Moving forwards we will be developing our own Awards Scheme that aligns perfectly with our plan. We’re hoping that this will be launched after Easter.
RECREATIONAL GYMNASTICS COMPETITION
All our Recreational Gymnasts have the opportunity to compete in our Recreational Competitions. In 2023 we held two that were a huge success!
THE RECREATIONAL PLUS/ADVANCED AND SQUAD PATHWAYS
A common question we are asked is ‘how do children get into squad?’. We hold a number of trials through out the year for our advanced and squad groups. As of Jan 2024 we have a number of pathways:
Recreational Plus: 1.15hrs per week
Recreational Advanced: 2hrs per week
General Artistic Gymnastics: 4 -6hrs per week
Womans Artistic Gymnastics: 6hrs Plus
Men’s Artistic Gymnastics: 6hrs Plus
|The new plan will facilitate identification of high potential gymnasts
A few points on the squads:
· We are a small club and places are limited.
· It’s a privilege to be in squad and it requires a lot of hard work and time commitment. The top WAG squad currently trains circa 14hrs per week and this excludes additional clinics and holiday training.
· Trials will not always be successful however we give all our gymnasts fair and equal opportunity and if we feel they are right we will contact you.
· Not everyone needs to be in squad to be challenged and stretched. The new plan facilitates this within Recreational Gymnastics and we held our first Recreational Gymnastics Competition in 2023.