Programming Squats for Young Girls

Jeff, you're hilarious man. I meant Greg as in Greg Everett from PerformanceMenu and Catalyst Athletics. He posted an article in response to K-Star's blog shortly after it was posted.

I actually tried Bulgarian Split Squats today and couldn't really get a hang of them. This was with a barbell on my back versus dumbbells in my hands. I got sick of screwing with it and did lunges instead. I stopped@225 mainly because I was starting to gas out and a failed FS@245 was showing why I was slowing down.

Right now, a lot of the girl's lunges are piss poor pathetic which is why I'm doing the split squats. The Olympian we have who was coaching his "special" group (and is big into the East Blok materials/programs) didn't have a problem but those girls have been training for a couple of years so they are typically stronger with better awareness and they are some of the toughest girls we have in the gym. Not like my beginners.

I also like doing the split squats because it takes less room and in a gym as small as ours, that's a big issue. More often than not, I don't have the room to have the girls do lunges or broad jumps or ag walks, etc because of all the groups going on around 630-7.

As for my fellow coaches, while they are helpful and catch on quick to the cues I give the girls and demo, I cannot trust them to know anything when it comes to lifting. There are 2 gals who are kind of against the girls lifting anything more than 5lb dumbbells so I just ignore them or give the girls the choice of getting stronger or whatever.

Best system...that's a loaded question there and one we could argue all day at the seminar for and get jack done.

A very efficient system for time and space and simplicity is an olympic weightlifting program. Sacramento HS has the Hassle-Free Olympic club on their campus and I remember the trainer talking about it in regards to strength training in the 1hr they get per day. Unfortunately there are costs and space is required besides the the technical knowledge. By in large, most american gymnastics clubs that I know of do not incorporate strength training with external weights such as barbell or weightlifting. Some do and do that very poorly or dangerously.

From what I've been told, strength training with weights was done by the Czechs in the 90s and many collegiate gymnastics program use them from I hear. Unfortunately I have yet to ever see any of their programming to have an idea of what exactly they are doing and quite often all I hear is collegiate gymnasts bitching about it and skipping those days.

A good proper plyometrics program will develop the ability to be powerful. However, it's kind of moot if they are weak in the first place. Strength before power. We all know this here.

Conjugate system by Louie Simmons of WestsideBarbell.

So, basically the kids should be sprinting A LOT. or Enough, rather. Lots of jumping as well.

Quite often in mosts gyms we are short on time when it comes to Strength&Conditioning. I know I am but that is linked to how the program is set up and possibly the philosophy of the program. Physical Preparation is probably only 20-30% of the time spent training in our program currently.

I get maybe 30 minutes to do any extra strength and stretching at the end of the workouts. We do a lot of upper body and core strength during bars but not enough handstand work in general. Sometimes there is spotted presses during beam and I generally will spend some time in that extra strength time I have. I try to throw any back extensions and superman leg lift/reverse hypers in here after squatting or lunging. Any glute/ham work, more hollow/plank holds are done in this time as well. Sometimes I make it a circuit to get them through it faster but I am generally more hands-on for now with the lunging and squatting to focus on form and safeyty, ATM.

I generally introduce basic lifts with the goblet squat and sumo deadlift using a hex DB. I use the CrossFitKids approach to sumodL regarding it being called a "gorilla" position. It also allows more girls to be working at the same time.

Blairbob said:

Best system...that's a loaded question there and one we could argue all day at the seminar for and get jack done.

A very efficient system for time and space and simplicity is an olympic weightlifting program. Sacramento HS has the Hassle-Free Olympic club on their campus and I remember the trainer talking about it in regards to strength training in the 1hr they get per day. Unfortunately there are costs and space is required besides the the technical knowledge. By in large, most american gymnastics clubs that I know of do not incorporate strength training with external weights such as barbell or weightlifting. Some do and do that very poorly or dangerously.

From what I've been told, strength training with weights was done by the Czechs in the 90s and many collegiate gymnastics program use them from I hear. Unfortunately I have yet to ever see any of their programming to have an idea of what exactly they are doing and quite often all I hear is collegiate gymnasts bitching about it and skipping those days.

A good proper plyometrics program will develop the ability to be powerful. However, it's kind of moot if they are weak in the first place. Strength before power. We all know this here.

Conjugate system by Louie Simmons of WestsideBarbell.

So, basically the kids should be sprinting A LOT. or Enough, rather. Lots of jumping as well.

Quite often in mosts gyms we are short on time when it comes to Strength&Conditioning. I know I am but that is linked to how the program is set up and possibly the philosophy of the program. Physical Preparation is probably only 20-30% of the time spent training in our program currently.

I get maybe 30 minutes to do any extra strength and stretching at the end of the workouts. We do a lot of upper body and core strength during bars but not enough handstand work in general. Sometimes there is spotted presses during beam and I generally will spend some time in that extra strength time I have. I try to throw any back extensions and superman leg lift/reverse hypers in here after squatting or lunging. Any glute/ham work, more hollow/plank holds are done in this time as well. Sometimes I make it a circuit to get them through it faster but I am generally more hands-on for now with the lunging and squatting to focus on form and safeyty, ATM.

I generally introduce basic lifts with the goblet squat and sumo deadlift using a hex DB. I use the CrossFitKids approach to sumodL regarding it being called a "gorilla" position. It also allows more girls to be working at the same time.

Hmm how long do you get on each apparatus? My girls train twice a week for 3 hours each day and we have 30 mins warmup and stretching, 30 mins strength and 30 mins on each apparatus... I spend basically 50% of my time on strength; that is 15 mins on each apparatus spent doing strength. I'm finding that they are really improving quite rapidly in their skills as a result. That is simply because they are just so much stronger.

So do you think split squats with a sandbag instead of normal back squats? I tried bulgarian squats but I'm finding I don't like them as much.. I would rather have them doing normal squats with more weight...

Rotation schedules were already set in place when I got on. As well, I am not the Head Coach for the compulsory girl's. Just another coach though what I get what I want to get done as far as S&C and bars, vault, and floor because I'm older and knowone else puts any effort into planning things out. I don't have a lot of say on beam, but they do have a warmup which is basically a lot of releve and leg swings besides acro work, turns, etc.

There is a general curricula for the events that I went over with another coach senior to me who I look up to, but he basically only coaches the optionals and so has set what he wants for the compulsories and I do what I can to see that out.

Our L5 work out 12hr/week and L4 work 9hr/week. 3days at either 3 or 4 hours. A quick warmup I'd like to change which is 15m tops. No wrist or any mobility series is done though I manage to do some wrist series with them at the end of the day.

3 events for 45m for L4 and 4 for L5. Basics on FX sometimes. Generally some straddle-L and presses are done in the beam rotation. Vault has a basic WU which includes lunges and broad jumps, punches and single leg jumps/hops.

So officially at the end of the day there is supposed to be 30m for any extra stretching and conditioning. Very often, this ends up being 15 and is spent on stretching.

Some strength work is done on bars. Generally I like to WU with L sits and hangs, then straddle-hangs with planche leans and inverted hangs (cradle) on a single rail and maybe some spotted cast to HS and maybe some chin levers besides long hang pullovers. Then we hit event work with any side stations we can set up and end with 3 rope climbs and 3 sets of HLL. Recently, I've added 3 sets of single rail dips because it's just more efficient to get them done then than try to get it done later. Most cannot climb the 6 or 9 foot rope in V or straddle-L by themself so they get a light spot but a few can.

When I ran my boys program and girl's team, we spent more like 40-50% of the time on physical prep which is more like what Coach Sommer does. But I am not the director. I would prefer about 15m after WU for just HS presses and HS stuff and a dedicated 45m to physical prep at the end (strength, conditioning, stretching, specific mobility).

Currently, my girls do one day of split squats and one day of regular squats with DB. A dumbbell squat is very similar to a DL and I would like for them to do that as well. Generally, we end the day with plank work and HS on wall besides presses if we haven't or ag walks. Occasionally I'll have them work PB walks, swings or ring skin the cats and holds. Depends if I can get access to them.

Our pre-team group which works out 2days for 3 hours does not even do what you do. And the jr pre-team which is 2x1.5. Their coaches mean well but we really need to revamp what they do. Less skill training, more foundational work; which they get if I have to sub them.

Yeah I know what you mean; the foundation of strength, flex and basic shapes are what makes a good gymnast in the long term. I find lots of coaches think too short term and work too much on the skills that they immediately need without thinking enough into the future. Yeah I work some ring stuff as well. One of my girls is working on muscle up at the moment :twisted: but she is a beast and the exception haha.

I have found the best option to improve coaching knowledge is to just run some workshops. I'm only 20 myself but I run workshops for a lot of the junior coaches to try and impart to them my knowledge or even get senior coaches to help me out and tell them what THEY know.

With each of my rotations I set up a strength program that best suits what they need for that apparatus and I find that is working best for me at the moment. When I started having the extra strength time I put it at the end of the day but found they were generally too tired to work hard so I have put it just after warm up. They are bit tired, as a result, when working their skills but as the SSC progresses they are getting more used to it and are not suffering in their technique as a result.

Good luck with your classes. Make sure they work hard

I prefer working presses and SSC at the beginning and lower body strength towards the end with any conditioning stuff. Wall HS towards the end, but specific HS work can be done anytime, though I prefer early on.

Working a SSC towards the end is not optimal in what I have tried with kids.