Okay, one of the coaches that I work under is a know-it-all. The problem is that she knows very little. Basically, she’s one of the “problem coaches” that I think are a big factor behind all the cheer injuries out there. I’m surprised no one on our squad has gotten seriously hurt.
She can whip up amazing choreography like it’s nobody’s business and put a great stunt sequence together. The problem is her tumbling. Her tumbling experience ends at a round-off. Despite this, she thinks it’s okay to try to teach girls how to do back handsprings, tucks, and layouts. She also thinks she knows more about tumbling than me, even though I can actually tumble.
If I’m spotting a back handspring, she’ll try to give me pointers or ask me to move so that she can spot instead. Sure, that’s fine. What really kills me is that she encourages girls to throw tricks that they are not at all ready to do on their own. Because she doesn’t know how to tumble, she can’t recognize what is and is not good form. Even worse, a girl will barely have a back handspring with two strong spotters, and she’ll convince her that she can do it on her own. The girl will try it with no spots and fall flat on her face.
Every practice I’m waiting for one of these girls to snap a wrist or sprain their neck. I don’t understand what she thinks she’s doing. Even if these girls don’t get hurt, she’s scaring them half to death, so that they psych themselves out every time they try to throw a skill.
She’s a know-it-all and you can’t tell her anything she doesn’t already know. So, for now, the best I can do is follow behind her and clean up her mess.
