Youth Gymnastics Coach

As a passionate gymnast and dedicated student, I embarked on a rewarding journey during my college years by taking on the role of a Youth Gymnastics Coach at City of Ames. This unique opportunity not only allowed me to share my love for gymnastics with young athletes but also played a pivotal role in enhancing my skills in coaching, communication, and leadership. Additionally, I gained some fun memories during my time coaching.

Key Responsibilities:

Event Coaching: I provided expert guidance to young gymnasts in the four major events: floor, bars, beam, and vault. My in-depth understanding of each event's intricacies, acquired through my personal experience as a gymnast, enabled me to help these young gymnasts in progressing their skill development.

Advising Open Gym: Recognizing the importance of practice and exploration, I actively advised open gym sessions. This allowed gymnasts to refine their skills in an unstructured environment, fostering creativity and self-assurance. By overseeing these sessions, I honed my ability to provide tailored guidance to individual athletes, addressing their unique needs and challenges.

Assisting with Recital: Being involved in organizing and assisting with the recital was an enlightening experience. Collaborating with fellow coaches, I contributed to ensuring a seamless event. This responsibility nurtured my organizational and teamwork skills.

Skills and Accomplishments:

Coaching Expertise: Guiding young gymnasts through their formative years demanded adaptability and patience. I learned to tailor my coaching approach to match each athlete's learning style, fostering a positive and productive environment for skill acquisition.

Communication: Effectively conveying complex gymnastics techniques to children with varying levels of experience improved my ability to articulate ideas clearly and succinctly. This skill extended beyond the gym, benefitting my academic pursuits and personal relationships.

Leadership: As a role model for these aspiring athletes, I recognized the impact of my actions on their development. This experience strengthened my leadership skills, prompting me to set a high standard of commitment, dedication, and sportsmanship.

Collaboration: Assisting with the recital underscored the significance of teamwork. Coordinating efforts with fellow coaches highlighted the value of collective contributions in achieving shared goals.

Favorite Memories as a Youth Gymnastics Coach:

At the end of a class session for very young gymnasts, I gave all of the kids a sticker for being well-behaved. One little girl was very excited to receive a sticker and her mother told her to come up to me and thank me for the sticker. After a bit of encouragement from her mother, the little girl approaches me and, to my surprise, she thanked me by singing "Old McDonald Had a Farm." Not just a verse, but the entire song.

During recital time, there was a large mix of dancers and gymnasts. I had only taught gymnastics to a few groups, so there were a lot of kids there that I have never taught or seen before. I was assigned one of the dance groups to help keep calm, quiet, and ready to perform. I asked the group if they were nervous and they said, "we're not nervous at ALL." I told them that when I used to perform that I would get very nervous all the time, so they must be a lot stronger and confident than me. After they got off stage from performing, they immediately told me "THAT was scary."

Another time during the recital, one dancer I didn't know came up to me while she was waiting to perform and asked me if I liked her hair. I told her it looked really good, and she was very excited to tell me that her mom did her hair and her dad put the bow in it. Yet another dancer I didn't know at the recital was very energetic, very eager to perform, and was dancing all over the place. As I was leading the group to the stage, she grabbed ahold of my hand and did a twirl with it. Across the entire time I was with her group, she had also given me a total of 3 hugs.

Finally, while waiting for their turn to perform, one girl was very fascinated by the door stopper. She just couldn't understand how such a little wedge could stop such a heavy door. Being an engineer, I wanted to really go in depth, but I didn't think they would understand much. So, I just put it simply and said, "a fun thing called friction." She said, "oh yeah, I've heard of that" and made a resistive sliding motion with her hands. Given her age, I was quite impressed.

I thought these experiences were funny, cute, and interesting with how outgoing the kids were with me, a complete stranger to them.