Starting a Program in an Undeveloped Area

TAT 97 Program: Nicole Preston, Beth Morgeson, Keely Thomas, Melissa Martinkus, Sarah Stanton, Chelsea Henretta, Jill McMillan, Matt Gaffin, and Sarah Sevick

This is the most important part of the Texas Acro narrative. There are many readers who love acrobatics and want to start a program. The problem is that they are in an area where there is no acrobatics taught. Perhaps they are in places where no one even knows what acrobatics is. So, how does one start a program? This is what I did.

I started my program as a Saturday morning class. Fortuitously I had several team kids quit Artistic gymnastics and join my Saturday class. Having previously trained athletes enabled me to jump into competition faster. However, I need to state an ethical point. I began my program in an existing Artistic Gymnastics school. I have been coaching for 30 years and have watched many coaches begin a program, become successful, then take those athletes and families away from the gym to start their own business. I am a Christian today, but even before I came to Christ, I was grieved in watching that procedure. It is unethical. The athletes belong to the parents, for sure, and the parents can do what they want, but if you are employed by someone who has taken the risk of lawsuit through injuries, debt in acquiring equipment, and time in building a reputation and clientèle, then to take those kids and parents to form your own business is theft from that owner. To carry this standard further, if you are starting a program in a school with many other programs, to solicit kids without cooperation of their current coaches is a discourtesy to those coaches at the least. Ethically you will have a better relation with the owner and other coaches if you are considerate of this and assure them that you are not going to "steal" the kids. Granted, you can be aggressive in building your program in a gym, but such aggression will create further ill will in the staff. Acrobatics is a team sport, and if the new acro coach does not see him or herself as a team player in the business you are participating, how can you instill that sense of being a team player amongst the athletes in each group? The prosperity of the business is your income as well as the owner's. The final point of this ethical issue is the longterm effect on the kids, parents, other coaches and owners. We all have a responsibility before God to consider our long term impact on others.

Educate Kids and Parents

The first need in training is educating both the kids and parents as to what acrobatics is. Acrobatics has two venues of performance: shows and competition. I made a point to educate them in both veins. The main tool of education is the videotape back then and DVDs today. Having already been a participant and follower of the sport I had a library of video tapes to share. If you have none, you can order videos or DVD's from Mr. Video. Texas Acro has some routines on line, and it is my intention to load some more of my personal videos for the benefit of growing the activity. Competition videos of Elites will show the families where the training can go, but you also need to show the low level routines so they will see the that the steps there are not that hard. The natural tendency as a coach is to want to fast track to the high level skills. The fastest way is too only coach those skills outlined in the USAG Junior Olympic Program, for that is their goal, too. However, when you are pioneering a program where there is no other competition, then that will not necessarily be your first priority.

Your first priority is to build the program. That means training kids, that do not have a prior gymnastics background. You may also be a dance teacher who is trying to establish a program for your dance studio, and you will not have the kids with that background, either. Incidentally, one of the larger regions in the nation with acro is almost entirely built through dance studios. Acro is not limited to the gymnastics community. For these reasons I also shared videos of circus acrobatics, cheer leading (I have quite a few videos from the 1980's when cheerleaders performed much more than they did in the 90's and today). Sharing the exhibitional material will slow down the high level training, but will provide a variety of simple stunts that can be done while the strength, flexibility and individual skills of the kids are being developed.

Partnering Athletes

It is practical to mix and match kids in training initially, but soon you will have to match partners. One discovery I made as a male coach with female athletes is that partnering girls together requires an understanding of their friendships. Girls who do not like each other do not work together. I had paired up two girls based upon their mutual skills ability and heights and weights. I did not think of their comparabilities as people. They hated each other. Being an adult and a man, they did not tell me and pretended to like each other simply because I put them together. This is less of an issue with boys than it is with girls. With girls the social element is everything. Boys will work together if they mutually respect each other's abilities. In that first year at Trevino's, however, I had only one boy who had to quit when the parents could not afford a private school and the program. Needless to say, the two that I had mismatched in personality did not stay together and quit the program. In the trio that went to Nationals, the base was a non gymnast working with two ex competitive gymnasts. However, the lack of equal skills did not hinder the girls working with that base because they got along and enjoyed being together.

Performance Opportunity

The kids must perform. It is not necessary to compete right away, but they must perform. Performance creates deadlines and motivates training. Performance reveals more of the personality characteristics of your athletes that help determine what coaching strategies you need to employ with those kids. It reveals how the teams are working. It shows how they respond to an audience. And it is not necessary to have a finished routine to perform. While that first year program was creating their competitive routines, we demonstrated stunts at various city fairs, public school functions, clinics in other gyms, church activities, and gym functions. When I began my first program in New Jersey during the 1980's I created performance opportunities by writing my own shows. Those shows invited athletes from other programs to perform, as well. In Texas we used the Acro Team as a promotional vehicle to promote the gym. In those exhibitions, other athletes from other programs were invited, too. The more your kids perform, the more competent they will be in competition. A stronger commitment will be created in your own program from the parents and kids for your retention. And those promotional performances advertise the gym you are in so that the business continues and your relation with the owner is stronger. And it is in these performances that low level skills can be done, yet be entertaining to the audience.

The gymnastics community (including the acrobatic community) have a difficulty delusion. Artistic gymnastics has suffered in artistry because of the undue emphasis on difficulty. I have seen the early gymnastics routines. While a non-matriculating student at the University of Washington I had the chance to watch the routines of Abby Grossfeld and Muriel Davis in a 16mm film that Dr. Hughes had in his library. I fell in love with gymnastics because of those routines. At that time, tumbling was a separate competition. Abby had a a masculine floor exercise that used acrobatic floor movements combined with rhythmic movements that made the work of Mas Watanabe look simple. I am an artist in heart and that was an artistic exercise that captured my imagination. Acrobatics has many movements that are not hard that can create entertaining and artistic routines. Difficulty is like the crescendo of a musical piece. It is not something that should be continuous, but a highlight. As a high school student growing up in the San Francisco bay area, I was part of a light show called Palantir. While visiting a demonstration in lasers, the professional making the demonstration made a comment regarding the use of strobe lights in light shows. He said that a strobe should be used only once as a single flash to catch the audience's attention. Constant strobe lighting creates headaches and has no artistic value. The same is true with difficulty. Floor routines in Artistic gymnastics today are boring tumbling passes, having no artistry. Acro can be in danger of the same boredom if the emphasis is only on difficulty. Fortunately with Acro, that is easier to avoid because of the pair/group possibilities. Beautiful exhibitions can be made with simple skills. Pyramids have two advantages towards audience appreciation. The first is that all people naturally applaud when a balance or pyramid stops moving and is held. The second is that unusual designs can be created that hold audience attention. Because Acro is still a relatively unknown activity in this country, even low level stunts will be enjoyed.

Competition

To get to Nationals I had to host meets of my own that had no competition but were judged by sanctioned judges. When I started the program at Trevino's in Dallas, acrobatic competition was hosted by the USSAF, which became the USSA, then dissolved and became part of the USAG. The people who ran the USSA continue to run it today with the USAG. I know these people. They all love acrobatics and long to see it grow. In order to get sanctioned judges, I had to hire them from out of state, pay their transportation, provide housing for their stay and pay them their judge's fees. I also had to pay all the fees to the USSA now USAG to get the sanction, and the fees to submit the scores for official record with the National office. There were no local meets against other athletes. Neither was there a state meet against other athletes. Their first experience competing against other athletes was at Regionals. At that time I had the choice between two nearby regions to bring my kids: Region 8 which was essentially New Orleans, Louisiana; or Region 6 which was essentially the state of Missouri. New Orleans has a long history of high level athletes, whereas Missouri was still building and had many lower level athletes. To compete in New Orleans would have meant very little competition, whereas in Missouri my kids would have faced more competitors. I chose Missouri as a better preparation for Nationals. So my kids essentially only had two sanctioned meets with other athletes (although Crickett LaPierre invited us to a small invitational with kids from Belgium.

The story continues later in part 4...