South West Squad 'Sparkles' at Hawks

On Sunday 10th January Bristol Hawks played host to the first Women’s Artistic South West Squad session of the year. The squad was linked to an afternoon clinic open to all coaches from SW Regional Clubs. We were privileged to welcome guest coach & lecturer Carol-Angela Orchard.
Carol-Angela’s impressive coaching credentials are outlined below:

F.I.G. International Honoured Coach Award F.I.G International Coaching Brevet International Performance Coach – British Gymnastics Coach with the Canadian National Team for 30 years Coach at 4 Olympic Games & 11 World Championships Coach of Commonwealth Games Champion 1986 & 2006 Coach of Luisa Portocarrero – tied for 8th place on Beam at the 1992 Olympic Games Coach of Elyse Hopfner-Hibbs – winner of 6 World Cup Medals – Bronze Medal on Beam at the 2006 World Championships Created 5 World Original elements named by F.I.G in honour of her Athletes

The list of accolades above, impressive as they are, do not give you an insight into her equally impressive coaching style & philosophy which shone through both in her practical coaching of our squad gymnasts and during the technical lecture that followed.
Her coaching style, as she herself categorized it, is ‘positive-aggressive’ and not only is this a highly effective style but produces long term benefits for the children in her care.
What does C-A mean by ‘positive-aggressive’? Well the ‘positive’ bit is in abundance, with her favorite words and phrases all designed to empower the gymnasts and draw out of them their very best effort. She urges the gymnasts to ‘Sparkle’, to aim for ‘Wow’ to ‘Highlight’ their work. Successful outcomes are rewarded with ‘I’m proud of you’. Good try’s which are not entirely correct are still rewarded with the +’ve comment followed by the correction needed, then an encouraging comment e.g. ‘That was a good start’ – ‘Now I’d just like you to…..’ – ‘Are you comfortable with that’?
She urges coaches to reward good attitude with positive statements every time it occurs. Her manta for this is ‘Coach the attitude [by this she means good positive attitude] with attitude [by which she means the coach must be positive and energetic their coaching style]. The ‘aggressive’ bit is about the approach of both the gymnast and the coach to the goals they are aiming for. She wants the gymnasts to put effort into their work, to fight to achieve, to never give in and with this in mind C-A always verbally rewards the gymnast that puts effort into their gymnastics whatever the outcome of that effort. The coaches ‘aggression’ should be directed towards motivating the gymnast e.g. being very enthusiastic and excited when the gymnast produces excellent work and also towards striving to an outstanding performance by putting great effort into the development of every gymnasts work. Carol-Angela puts a great deal of energy into her coaching and her enthusiastic approach inspires the gymnasts to do the same ~ it’s infectious! We hope to welcome C-A to Bristol Hawks on many more occasions.