Preparing At Home

Coach Wayne,

The video tape arrived last Friday. My kids love it. They had fun following the tape for their exercises. They're in their second day now.

Thanks for your prompt response to my purchase and my questions.

Remember that I asked you in the last emails. "How can the kids prepare at home without the equipment for routines like bar, beam, and vault?" Are you still thinking about another video tape?

Cynthia

Cynthia, who is a mother and a gymnastics coach, asks an important question about preparation at home. If we all could practice our gymnastics in the gym for ten hours a day, seven days a week, we wouldn't even think about practicing at home. We wouldn't need to.

But the fact is, most of us are lucky to get an hour or two of instruction time in the gym each week. Being able to expand our practice time to the HOME environment can help us to achieve the skills we want.

So, how do you do it?

How to you PRACTICE at home? You don't have any equipment, You don't have a gymnastics coach in the room with you.

How do you know WHAT to do and WHEN do do it?

When I was a young gymnast here in Savannah I had a friend who happened to be one of the best gymnasts in the nation. Something I noticed about him was his PRACTICE habits when he LEFT the gym. When he went home, he didn't QUIT his training; he continued it with the equipment and facilities available to him at home. Sometimes that meant a BRICK hanging from the end of a shoe-string that was tied to a piece of a broom-handle.

"What's that for?"

He held the broom handle in both hands, and WOUND the shoestring (& brick) up... then unwound it very slowly, to STRENGTHEN his WRISTS. Wow!

He also had a chin-up bar in the door-way to his room.

"Why?

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So when he walked through his door... he could reach up and PUMP a few chin-ups... It wasn't a HUGE routine... it was a HABIT of FINDING ways to strengthen his body at EVERY opportunity. You can get a chin-up bar from a local sport-equipment supplier, or online!

Here are some SIMPLE tips to help you get into the habit of practicing at home:

1. LIMIT your practice to activities that are SAFE - Obviously if you don't have a 12" soft-landing mat, you don't need to be spinning double back salto flips in your kitchen, but you CAN work on your ANKLE strength while your standing on the stairs!. Use good common sense.

2. TALK with your parents - Share your goals with your parents. Find out when and WHERE it's OK to practice. Putting your new "Coach Wayne Training Video" into the VCR when your mom is watching the 6:00 evening news may create friction in the house. She may prefer for you to use the VCR at 5:30 instead, then at 6:00 when she's watching the news, you can move out to the back-porch for your handstands.

3. CREATE a workout environment - Sure you may not have a 4" wide 16' long BALANCE beam in your living room. But did you know that almost EVERY single skill on the balance beam can ALSO be performed on the FLOOR? SURE! The trick is to only use 4" of the FLOOR.

4. GET a practice buddy- Do you have a friend who will come over and work-out with you? S/He doesn't have to be there EVERY time you work-out... but every once in a while it's fun to work-out together. Maybe that's a neighbor, or a fellow team-mate, or even a parent!

5. COLLECT ideas - Get into the habit of collecting ideas for things you can do at home. Read books from the library, watch videos (hint, hint) read articles, search the web, ask your coach, share ideas with your friends. When you're ready to work-out but you don't know what to do... GO TO YOUR COLLECTION and read UNTIL you find something that MIGHT help.. and TRY it!

6. SET clear goals - Even if it's something as simple as " Tonight I will do 10 EXTRA handstands". Having clear goals can inspire you to greater things

Do you have a FUNNY or INTERESTING exercise that you do at home? (Like...push-ups in the bath-tub!!!)

:-) Tell me about it, I'd love to know!!!! Send an email to Coach@CoachWayne.com.

~CW!