A gymnastics skill tracker enables long-term success for gymnastics clubs, gymnasts, and coaches. Why? Because it’s central to the psychology of gymnasts, which means it’s central to your gymnastics club!
Need a skill tracking solution today? Check out Uplifter’s all-in-one gymnastics class software which comes with a built in gymnastics skill tracker.
Want to hear more about the benefits of a gymnastics skill tracker? Let’s take a deeper look!
Benefits of a Gymnastics Skill Tracker and Goal Setting
One of the most powerful development strategies in sport is the practice of setting clear goals and then tracking your progress toward them. When an athlete has a clear goal, difficult days become less discouraging. Challenges often seem smaller or easier when considered in the context of the progress you have already made toward your goal.
The world’s high-achieving athletes are often expert goal setters. The reason is best summed up by the fastest human to ever live.
“You have to set your goals so that you can push yourself harder. Desire is the key to success.” – Usain Bolt
Recreational athletes of all ages can also benefit from having a goal to focus on. That’s the driver behind incentive-based educational programs like the CanGym badge program.
When recreational gymnasts can focus on mastering small groups of gymnastics skills, they are more likely to stick with their training. Just like professional athletes, when recreational gymnasts have a goal in sight, setbacks are less discouraging. This means that gymnasts become more resilient and your gymnastics club thrives!
Achieving Goals Requires Data
The exploding popularity of fitbits and wearable fitness trackers highlights the value of monitoring progress toward a goal. Athletes want to see how far they’ve come and how much further they have yet to go in pursuit of their goals.
As a result, a gymnastics skill tracker has become more than just a nice “add-on” for today’s successful gymnastics clubs. Now, a skill tracker is essential because it’s feeds a gymnast’s desire to monitor their goals. This desire is one that benefits clubs and athletes alike.
A Gymnastics Skill Tracker Increases Gymnast Engagement
Having the ability to track Long-term Athlete Development (LTAD) helps keep athletes engaged in the sport and in their personal development. It also helps answer the age-old question, “How am I doin’ coach?” in a much more precise manner.
When gymnasts can see what they’ve already accomplished, it can be a great motivator! Knowing how much they’ve already achieved also helps put a new, more difficult skill into perspective.
In other words, viewing past successes helps a gymnast build confidence. For example, when a gymnast logs into their Uplifter family account, seeing a difficult skill marked as complete is just like seeing an “A” written on the top of their math test.
In this way, kids (and parents!) can feel accomplished at each step along the way to achieving their next badge or certificate.
Keep Parents Engaged with A Gymnastics Skill Tracker
Busy parents will thank your club for using a gymnastics skill tracker. On a business level, skill-tracking shows parents that their money has been well-spent; that their child’s time and effort with your coaching team are producing rewarding results. But, more importantly, it can help parents develop a more meaningful connection with their child’s growth and development.
As we’ve discussed in other blog posts, some children can be shy or quiet about their athletic performances. This can be a cue for the parents to hold off on barraging them with any “backseat coaching.” However, a child’s quiet demeanor doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t want to celebrate small successes or talk about gymnastics in general.
When parents can see a list of skills their child has learned, they can ask questions about those skills. Many kids enjoy explaining the skills they’ve learned. This type of conversation provides a good opening for parents to congratulate their child on the skills that they’ve mastered. And this sort of positive reinforcement can be comforting for any child.
Spot Potential Drop-out Triggers
Every gymnastics club is going to see kids drop out from time-to-time. As kids grow and change, some may have to choose between gymnastics and another past-time. However, as a club owner or coaching director, what you want to watch out for is a trend of students dropping out after reaching a specific level.
This is where gymnastics skill tracker data can reveal critical insights.
When clubs use skill tracking tools on a regular basis – such as Uplifter’s mobile class evaluation tool – they can clearly identify drop-out trends and put strategies in place to mitigate them.
A Gymnastics Skill Tracker Reveals Gymnastics Club Trends
Think about the coaches at your gymnastics club. What are some of their primary strengths?
Perhaps one of your coaches competed for several years, so they have hands-on experience in mastering the most difficult techniques. Perhaps one of your part-time coaches is also a supply teacher for Kindergarten, so you know they excel with the youngest gymnasts.
Performance tracking data for students can also enhance your ability to track the performance of your coaches.
A gymnastics skill tracker gives us an enhanced view of some of the quieter strengths and capabilities a coach might have. Plus, it can also reveal where a coach may need further professional development. If there are groups of students taking a long time to learn a skill, such as a back walkover, this may highlight the need for a different coach to teach that one skill, or for the coach in question to be more closely supported by a senior member of the coaching team.
Gymnastics Skill Tracker Data Helps Improve Coach Development
In our previous example, if the Head Coach was able to see a trend in which one or two coaches were struggling to effectively teach walkovers, that’s helpful! These coaches may be good at teaching other skills but, perhaps they’re missing something that could make them excellent at teaching all skills.
Coaches exchanging advice on teaching techniques often happens organically. But sometimes we need to see the data to realize a person’s strengths and weaknesses.
When it’s all said and done, the Head Coach may decide that the club’s best back walkover coach should lead a 1-hour intensive class on walkovers.
Helping struggling kids with a special intensive can help a club retain membership. More importantly, it can help build a gymnast’s confidence and self-esteem.
Skill Data Reveals Opportunities for New Gymnastics Classes
Some kids accelerate up a steep learning curve, while others tend to develop more slowly. For this reason, some kids may graduate to new classes while others get stuck. Gymnastics clubs don’t want to see a gymnast stagnate in the same class for too long.
Gymnastics skill tracker data can reveal instances where children are advancing at a slower pace. In these cases, it may be best to create a new gymnastics class. By offering a class that focuses on training these slower developing athletes, clubs can tailor their instruction. This means challenging movements can be focused on, in a variety of fun and engaging ways. With more practice focused on these movements, gymnasts can better their chances of achievement.
In turn, your gymnastics club increases the chances that these gymnasts will stay engaged and enrolled!
Opportunity to Congratulate Gymnasts
By recognizing which skills kids are universally struggling with, you’re also able to appropriately recognize those gymnasts who do achieve difficult-to-conquer skills. Letting gymnasts know that they’ve mastered a really difficult skill can be deeply motivating! So, remember to congratulate them on their accomplishment. If you miss the chance to congratulate them in person, you can always use gymnastics class communication tools to send your message!
The All-in-one Gymnastics Skill Tracker Solution
Save the headaches and get a true all-in-one gymnastics software solution with built-in gymnastics skill tracker functions. At Uplifter, we believe these features should be part of the core platform, not plugged-in or integrated through third party software.
If you opt for using sports software that partners with third-party skill tracking, you increase your chances for headaches. If both platforms weren’t built by the same team it means they weren’t built the same way. As a result, you may just find yourself in an endless cycle of support tickets with your software provider.
More importantly, it creates an inconsistent user experience for your members which can lead to complaints. And that’s not the type of experience you want your club to offer.
That’s why Uplifter doesn’t depend on any third-party software for it’s gymnastics skill tracker. If it’s integral to your business, it’s integral to ours. So, we’ve developed gymnastics skill-tracker functions as part of our all-in-one gymnastics software solution.
To try out Uplifter’s mobile skill tracking tools first-hand, sign-up for an Uplifter FREE Club Account today.
