BlueCat
Roses are red, cats are blue
- Dec 14, 2009
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@BlueCat - can you tell me approximately how many of your kids youth age and under get and/or have gotten badly injured seasonally? I define "badly" as broken bones, concussions, torn and/or severely sprained ligaments and/or tendons, etc., not like mild ankle sprains, bruises, ocassional bleeding from being hurt at practice (like the nose for example), etc?
Eta- I also mean specifically while at practice or a comp, not at school, not on your property after practice, or once you're done w/them the day of a comp(so like kids stunting outside of your gym w/o permission, or at a comp when you're not coaching them, etc).
This is a sincere question btw- I'm just trying to get an idea for comparison.
Oh, and how do you go about picking qualified coaches? If you hire 'in house' (so like a former level 5/6 athlete of yours for example), do they start by teaching the minis and/or youth aged kids on the lower level teams or do you place them elsewhere? Do all of your coaches teach tumbling or are their special/specific tumbling coaches?
Severe injuries are very uncommon - particularly for youth age athletes. I'm not the one that info gets reported to, but from memory, I would put that number at 1 or 2 a year - and that is for at least a couple hundred athletes in that age group.
Most coaches come from "in house", but we do occasionally hire from outside. There is no set age group for new coaches to start working with, that mostly depends on their background. Younger and/or lower level teams are not necessarily "easier" to coach, but the youngest new coaches tend to coach non-senior teams because of the small age difference. However, there are no specific guidelines for where coaches get assigned.
Generally, our all star coaches are pretty well-rounded. We do not have "head coaches" and everyone teaches all of the skills. Some are better at certain aspects of coaching than other (choreo, pyramids, etc.), but everyone is supposed to be helping at all times during practice.