All-Star Privates

[Momager]

One private a week seems to work well for my CP when combined with practicing the skills 4 or more times a week. More privates with less practice do not seem to yield any better results. I think a key is to have the same tumbling coach as you have in practice so that there is continuity and some structure to continue practicing the skill. Occasional privates with a different coach can sometimes get her over a hump. No conditioning during privates, however the coach gives them an assignment to complete after the lesson before they leave. It usually takes a half hour to an hour to complete the conditioning assignment.

 

[calikaitlyn_]

Note about privates that this thread has me thinking about:

The biggest thing with privates is the quality of the session not QUANTITY of privates.

Many parents/athletes think 3-5 privates a week is benefitting their child.

However, they don't realize that their child spends 10 min of the private in the restroom, getting water, or that the coach is not efficient in managing time to help the athlete get the most out of the private.

So they wonder why, after 3 privates a week for 6 months, Suzy still isn't throwing (example) her standing tuck.

Meanwhile, a kid who has ONE private per week or every other week is cleaning up skills, and learning new passes, etc. all the time. Million Privates Mom/Kid are perplexed.

The more focused the child, the better the private. The more organized the instructor, the more "bang for your buck."

A million privates don't always yield better results.

Exactly! That's how I always saw it, but it seemed like everyone was intent of the quantity so I was making sure I wasn't the only one.

 

[calikaitlyn_]

One private a week seems to work well for my CP when combined with practicing the skills 4 or more times a week. More privates with less practice do not seem to yield any better results. I think a key is to have the same tumbling coach as you have in practice so that there is continuity and some structure to continue practicing the skill. Occasional privates with a different coach can sometimes get her over a hump. No conditioning during privates, however the coach gives them an assignment to complete after the lesson before they leave. It usually takes a half hour to an hour to complete the conditioning assignment.

My tumbling coach/flight coaches are who i'm taking privates with. I think it will help because they know my weaknesses etc.

 

[calikristin]

My privates are typically an hour in length, I usually will do 45 minutes of tumbling and 15 minutes of conditioning. Not sure what gym you go to but typically the average price point for privates is 30 dollars an hour.

 

[Jenniturtle]

My CP does privates once a week ($25 per 1/2 hour) Her coach is one of her tumbling coaches and she lovs him too death. She is having a mental block on her SBHS. Do you think it would help to have her take a private with another coach, maybe one of her team coaches? I don't want her regular coach to be upset or hurt. He is as frustrated as I am because she can do it but refuses to throw it without him spotting her. At this point I am willing to do anything to help!

 

[calikristin]

My CP does privates once a week ($25 per 1/2 hour) Her coach is one of her tumbling coaches and she lovs him too death. She is having a mental block on her SBHS. Do you think it would help to have her take a private with another coach, maybe one of her team coaches? I don't want her regular coach to be upset or hurt. He is as frustrated as I am because she can do it but refuses to throw it without him spotting her. At this point I am willing to do anything to help!

I think your best bet is to go and chat with one of your daughter's team coaches or another coach. I don't think the coach that currently does your daughter's tumbling privates will be offended if she has a new coach for tumbling, especially since he doesn't want to spot your daughter. At the same time if your daughter can throw the skill alone she should be. May haps another coach will be more understanding of your situation and accept to spot and encourage your daughter when she performs the skill alone.

 

[Jenniturtle]

I think your best bet is to go and chat with one of your daughter's team coaches or another coach. I don't think the coach that currently does your daughter's tumbling privates will be offended if she has a new coach for tumbling, especially since he doesn't want to spot your daughter. At the same time if your daughter can throw the skill alone she should be. May haps another coach will be more understanding of your situation and accept to spot and encourage your daughter when she performs the skill alone.

No he spots her, its just that he feels she is ready to throw it. He thinks she is too dependent on him spotting her. When he says she has to do it on her own she refuses. He has tried everything to get her to throw it. She has done it before, she fell once and i guess is afraid of getting hurt. He has shown her that she won't kill herself and that's shes ready she just won't try!

 

[calikristin]

No he spots her, its just that he feels she is ready to throw it. He thinks she is too dependent on him spotting her. When he says she has to do it on her own she refuses. He has tried everything to get her to throw it. She has done it before, she fell once and i guess is afraid of getting hurt. He has shown her that she won't kill herself and that's shes ready she just won't try!

Maybe trying out a different coach may help since some coaches have different methods of getting athletes to throw new skills by themselves. Your current coach may just have to continue to spot her until she feels more confident with the skill. He can also try getting to throw the skill by herself on different equipment such as mats or a resi.

 

[calikaitlyn_]

My privates are typically an hour in length, I usually will do 45 minutes of tumbling and 15 minutes of conditioning. Not sure what gym you go to but typically the average price point for privates is 30 dollars an hour.

From your name it sounds like you go to Cali? I wish I could pay 30 for an hour long private

 

[calikaitlyn_]

By the way- Thank you so much to everyone that responded to this thread! It helped me a lot. My first private was a few days ago and I was :cloud9::cloud9::cloud9::cloud9: And a have another tomorrow :cloud9:

 

[Momager]

My CP does privates once a week ($25 per 1/2 hour) Her coach is one of her tumbling coaches and she lovs him too death. She is having a mental block on her SBHS. Do you think it would help to have her take a private with another coach, maybe one of her team coaches? I don't want her regular coach to be upset or hurt. He is as frustrated as I am because she can do it but refuses to throw it without him spotting her. At this point I am willing to do anything to help!

Ask her coach if that would help. Sometimes there is another coach in the gym at the same time and a coach might call him over and say. "what do you think? she seems a little stuck at... " and just a suggestion or observation from another coach can help.

 

[cmghas3]

My 12 yr old cp was doing about 3 privates a week in March, April, and May. She does all star cheer. Now the only reason she was doing that many is that we were starting @ a new gym and they were basically closed due to comps, Worlds, and the Summit. I didn't want her to be "out of the gym" for that long. Did she gain skills?? Not really, but they were able to "clean up" some issues with other skills. I believe consistency is important and wasn't going to take her from gym to gym. Some of our tumbling instructors have a separate facility, which also does the tumbling for oldest daughters HS. I let oldest cp do 2 per week during the off season which she strongly benefited from. Youngest cp did a private here and there or sometimes shared one with one of her sisters. I got a "discount" for the privates because of the amount of them. But now that all star and school are in full swing, they do normal classes, open gym and about 2 privates each a month. Middle cp all star does them with owner and coaches. IMO privates should be used as a tool to "clean up" skills. Those off months killed my pocket book! lol

 

[WinstonsGirl]

I also like privates for cleaning up skills, or getting new skills that I'm super close on. It's much harder to find adult tumbling classes, and I like trying new skills into a foam pit. Not available at cheer gyms, but the gymnastic centres have a lot of people trying to learn cartwheels, so less time from a coach. Open gyms can only get you so far when the policy is no spotting allowed. The privates ensure the coach will be focused solely on me and not other athletes, and since I can afford it, I don't mind paying (not every week though). It's too expensive to make it my regular tumbling class.

I also like getting new coaches once in a while. I find a new set of eyes often gives me new ideas to get a new skill.

 

[Pebbles49]

I am responding to those that mentioned how their cp refuses to throw skills unless they are spotted or someone is standing ready to spot... Last week, my cp and I were driving from her PT session and started talking about mental blocks and why none of her gymnastics' friend have this phenomenon, but this is huge problem for cheerleader-almost 1 out every 3 (guesstimating) cheerleader had complained about mental blocks.
My cp theorized it is the way gymnastics coaches teach new skills, she mentioned, they used different types of matts, tumble tracs, tumble pits, etc and they never, never, ever spot a gymnast on any skills that they are learning, so no chance of them becoming dependent. She said in gymnastics, coaches teach using the highest level of safety and cushioning, but they will never be there to touch you and she also mentioned that cheerleading coaches do not use the mental tactics of visualizing yourself doing the skill, talking about each part of the tumbling skill before performing it and last, how to safely bailout of a skill. She said, most of the girls with mental blocks are afraid of landing incorrectly, so being able to bailout safely will help a lot with mental blocks and having the tumble pits is a big asset in gymnastics gym that you do not see at cheer gym...

Side note: My daughter's private coach knows that she came from that gymnastics background and he had training in a gymnastics facility, so he practice all of the gymnastics teaching on her... He has never spotted her while she is learning a new skill, he videotape her performing skill and then they discuss how she execute sections of the skills and isolate the sections and practice from there... This method works for my daughter and she is never afraid to execute a new skill when she is ready to perform it alone...

 

[Jenniturtle]

I am responding to those that mentioned how their cp refuses to throw skills unless they are spotted or someone is standing ready to spot... Last week, my cp and I were driving from her PT session and started talking about mental blocks and why none of her gymnastics' friend have this phenomenon, but this is huge problem for cheerleader-almost 1 out every 3 (guesstimating) cheerleader had complained about mental blocks.
My cp theorized it is the way gymnastics coaches teach new skills, she mentioned, they used different types of matts, tumble tracs, tumble pits, etc and they never, never, ever spot a gymnast on any skills that they are learning, so no chance of them becoming dependent. She said in gymnastics, coaches teach using the highest level of safety and cushioning, but they will never be there to touch you and she also mentioned that cheerleading coaches do not use the mental tactics of visualizing yourself doing the skill, talking about each part of the tumbling skill before performing it and last, how to safely bailout of a skill. She said, most of the girls with mental blocks are afraid of landing incorrectly, so being able to bailout safely will help a lot with mental blocks and having the tumble pits is a big asset in gymnastics gym that you do not see at cheer gym...

Side note: My daughter's private coach knows that she came from that gymnastics background and he had training in a gymnastics facility, so he practice all of the gymnastics teaching on her... He has never spotted her while she is learning a new skill, he videotape her performing skill and then they discuss how she execute sections of the skills and isolate the sections and practice from there... This method works for my daughter and she is never afraid to execute a new skill when she is ready to perform it alone...

I really like that approach. Sometimes I want to scream at the coach "She can do it, don't spot her" My CP said she asked her team coach (also the gym owner) if he could step in to spot her if she looked like she would fall. He said he couldn't do that, it was either be spotted or not at all