- Mentorship Hours Log
- Contact Info:
- Address: 13928 E. Valley Blvd, City of Industry, 91746
- Gym Office Phone: (626) 333 1145
- Grace Contreras (gym owner): (626) 391 8788
Literal (Need to Know)
- What is the most important thing to keep in mind while coaching?
- What's the difference between coaching a senior level (age 10 +) and a youth level (under 10) team?
- What are the best coaching methods for cheerleading specifically?
- Do you need to be able to perform the skills you are teaching?
- What is the best way to "reprimand" a team when they aren't treating a coach with respect?
- What level of respect does an athlete need to have for their coach?
- What makes a coach a coach? What makes a good coach a good coach?
- What are bad coaching techniques?
- Does an athlete who coaches a sport they also play act differently than an athlete who just plays it?
- If an athlete also coaches a sport they play do they perform better in it?
Interpretive:
I believe that the most important thing I gained from coaching was finding out that you have to put into something what you want to get out of it. There are some days where you're just having a bad day and you're mad at everything and you have all this pent up anger. It's really hard to coach little kids and put up with them messing around and not paying attention on those kinds of days without blowing a fuse or taking your anger out on them. If you want to have a good practice you have to put into it what you want to get out. Having my athletes come up to me after practice and asking what days besides practice days I'll be there so they can come in and train makes me really happy. It's really a great feeling to see the girls come in on days off and work their butts off because they want to gain a skill. It makes me proud of them to know that they have that drive because I know they'll be like that during practice. My coach always says: "I'd rather have a kid who gives 110% every practice and doesn't have amazing skills than a kid who never tries at all but can throw a standing full." The more I am there for my athletes and the more I push them and encourage them the more they're going to try, until they're trying for themselves. The best accomplishment I, personally, as a coach can have is when one of my athletes gives everything they do their all because they have the desire to do it not because I'm forcing them too.
Applied:
In order for my hours to count (since my topic is on a sport) I had to coach cheerleading. I honestly am not 100% sure what aspect of cheerleading I want to do my senior project on, but I'm definitely not as against choosing coaching as I was before. Along with coaching I'm also on a cheer team so I got to experience it from both points of view. Cheerleading is made up of the combination of different types of skills into one routine so it's really hard to focus on just one aspect of it when cheerleading as a whole is every aspect of it. I do like the dancing and choreography part of cheer a bit more than everything else but that's because it's the thing I'm the best at. I want to talk to my team coaches and my fellow coaches a bit more before I decide exactly what I'm doing my project on but this experience definitely narrowed it down to more specifics and opened up a few more doors of opportunity for topics I wasn't considering before.
