Competitive Conditioning

A proposal to the SSMGC Board of Directors was presented at the August 2017 meeting about developing a Strength & Conditioning Program for their Competitive Gymnastic Program.  The need for such a program was brought to the attention of the board from Coach Kim when travelling to one of her many coaching clinics, questioned what some of the top Gymnastic Programs in North America were doing different.  The secret – these clubs were carving out technical training time on specific events for strength and conditioning.   Knowing that time, space and money are always barriers to overcome, Kim and Tyler sat down to hatch a plan that could give her club exactly what other top programs were giving their athletes.  Tyler’s extensive strength training and coaching background in body weight, conditioning and weightlifting as well as his passion and experience working with youth meant that SSMGC now had the partnership and resources to put together a strength and conditioning program that complimented the club’s existing program at no extra cost or time to the parents.

The goal of this pilot project for Sept 2017 to June 2018, as presented by 17 Barbells Strength & Conditioning Systems, was to develop a system within the SSMGC that focuses on the strength, conditioning and recovery training elements for a competitive team program.  The athletes endured a 30 minute strength and conditioning block each nightly practice that was aimed to compliment technical skill training and improve the function and performance of the athlete for each gymnastic event.

Sept 2018 to June 2019 – This year’s training starting off with a Strength and Conditioning 2 day seminar in September, put on by the staff of 17 Barbells Strength and Conditioning, for the Competitive Coaches about the new programming software, new movement progressions and working through strategies for athlete engagement and motivation.  The coaches endured 2 full days of lectures, workouts (oh yes, they worked hard!) and participated in coaching break out groups that focused on effective coaching strategies for skill acquisition and motivation.  It was a very productive way to get the whole team on board with the goals of this year.

We’re looking forward to this year’s results as we’ve introduced new tools to help improve performance and using last year’s program which identified the best practices for training and coaching, to help all our athletes succeed at the highest level!