Zach's Tumbling

Not too sure how many people still follow here, but due to some specific circumstances, I'm looking at potentially running some classes over the next month and a bit.

Long story short, I've been asked to fill in on twist for the rest of the year. I've said yes, however I will have to pay for the flights there and back, so I've asked to work a few privates if there's interest to recoup the cost.

I'm thinking of offering different things depending on what people are interested in.

Option 1:

30 min class. Specifically geared towards conditioning and body shaping to build strong foundations. The tumble trak should be repaired soon, however it's absence brought to light a certain lack of foundational training that is integral to gymnastics. I think having a shorter, dedicated option would be very helpful for long term development.

Option 2:

30 min class. Still not sure about this one, but please let me know if there's interest. This one would be focused on coed basics. Essentially going over the differences in flying in coed stunts vs. all girl with practial applications on the ground and in the air.

Option 3:

30 min class. Designed to be paired with the conditioning and body shaping half hour class. This would be a focused class for one/two specifc skills. Whether it's handsprings, tucks or running passes, this would be a very focused training to either rep out a skill or practice to learn a skill.

Option 4:

One hour class. Traditional private lesson with warm-up, stretch and working on various skills. Bit more relaxed for athletes who want to improve at their own pace. Will be subject to available space in the gym (Apparently the gym is quite busy at certain times, so will have to work within those constraints).

As of right now I don't have a schedule set up, so if you're interested or have questions, please send me a message and we can work out the times!

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Alright, we have officially reached the end of May! As of now, I am no longer a tumbling or team coach at Black Widow. I will be leaving this account active for now in case anyone needs to reach me for whatever reason, however I will not be taking on any new athletes.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone that I've worked with over the last few years for your trust in me; I hope that I was everything you hoped for when you signed up with me for the first time. It means a lot to me that many of you stuck with me for so long, and I look forward to seeing where everyone ends up moving forward!

I'm confident that I've layed out a solid foundation for each and every athlete I've worked with. I hope that I've also helped build confidence and a determination to get up and try again when something doesn't go your way, both in tumbling and out.

I will most likely be in the gym every once and a while to help with Twist or Legends, so I will see some of you around. For those I do not get to see much of in the coming years, I wish you all the best and I hope that you all succeed in both cheerleading, and wherever life may take you afterwards!

Thank you.
Zach

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Updated May 5th.

Alright, here's my current schedule for May everyone. As most of you know now, I will no longer be coaching as of May 31st, so this next month will be my last. I have opened up my hours to try and accommodate as many people as possible, so hopefully they're is a slot that works for everyone.

A note for everyone: please stay home if you are sick at any time over May, I coach more than just one athlete and I am specifically doing an extra month because I was sick so often this year. If you come to a class sick, I will not coach you and you will be charged a 25$ cancellation fee. That includes sniffles, coughing and anything else.

As per usual, if you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message and I will do my best to provide an answer/solution.

Here is the current schedule for January 2025 to April 2025.

First off, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and enjoys some time off and away from the gym! The gym is officially closed for the holidays and will be back up and running in January. Private classes for the Fall session are now done and I will be posting a blank schedule with this post for the Winter session (January to April).

As per usual, just send me the slot you would like from the schedule and I will organize a rough draft over the next week. I will be prioritizing athletes who have been with me in the past, but I will try and make a schedule that work for as many people as possible.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send them my way!

**Updated October 19th. Fall Schedule.

I hope everyone is doing well and excited to get into comp season! I am releasing my fall schedule for September to December for those of you interested in private lessons!

I started a High-Performance Program over the summer that is currently in its testing phase. If you are interested in something more intensive, please send me a message and I can give you more information.

As per usual, if you have any questions, please contact me and I'll do my best to answer them!

Alright, sorry it's up a little late but here is my current schedule for June through August. Most of my current availability is before 4pm, so if that works for you please send me a message!

Just a quick update for everyone!

I've received a very positive response so far for the program idea I pitched a few days ago, so I am trying to set up a schedule for those interested parties. I'm hoping to have that finalized by tonight. I will then post another update so that anyone who wants to do once a week classes with me can see if they can find a slot that works for them.

Things are taking a bit longer then I was expecting to get organized, and I don't want people to feel like they are being rushed to make a choice. I will update everyone later tonight when I post the open schedule what my plans are for this upcoming week (whether I will be working or if I will take the week to give more time for everyone to find a slot that works for them).

There will not be too many slots for individual classes due to the high interest in my program idea, so if demand is very high I MAY open up a few slots on a Saturday or Sunday. Nothing has been decided yet but I will keep everyone updated!

As always, if you have any questions, please message me and I will do my best to answer them! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

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This will be a post on my plans for the summer, which will affect all of my current athletes/parents. Please read through carefully and give me some feedback with you're thoughts.

First off, a big thank you to everyone who has been with me for the winter session and beyond, it means a lot to me that all of you have trusted me with coaching your children! I hope to continue this year in a similar vein, however I have had a couple of ideas I would love to get everyone's input on.

The main idea I've been working on is a general purpose program that is geared to building up foundations in cheerleading as a whole. This includes jumps, tumbling, conditioning and stretching, with maybe some focus on stunt theory. Essentially, it would be a high-performance program with two to three classes a week geared to fast track an athlete up to level 4-7 (hopefully aiming to be on the higher end of the level as an athlete by the end of it).

I've attached a template for a draft of what the schedule might look like if interest is high enough.

Obviously it would be more of a commitment, and it is geared towards athletes/parents that want to be successful on a world's level at some point down the line. My current thoughts are focused on 10+ athletes (maybe 12+, seeing as they are closer to the threshold for world's level teams). It would be more intensive and I would be covering a ton of different material, not just limited to athlete specific topics (I would talk to parents about home life, things such as training, diet, rest and sleep).

These are most of the things I've come up with so far, so I'm looking to hear back from all of you with your thoughts and interest level in something like this. Obviously my schedule would have to change to accommodate a program like this, so things would be run differently this summer. It is also a work in progress, so I would be constantly changing and tweaking things to adapt to results as they come.

In terms of cost, because it is a work in progress, I would most likely reduce cost slightly to give an incentive to try it out, but I would be putting in a lot more work overall, so after the summer costs would most likely rise to reflect that. Again, this is definitely geared towards those families who really want to take cheer seriously, although I hope that a lot of the things I cover would be applied to all facets of life.

Please send me any of your thoughts on the idea and everything I've outlined so far, whether they are affirmative or constructive. If interest is fairly low or the idea is too rough and needs to be worked on more, I will send out a normal blank schedule sometime this weekend for the summer for everyone.

Just a note for everyone on my policy for sick athletes.

If any athlete is sick (Cold/Fever/Covid) please inform me beforehand and keep them home. Especially with school and the start of fall, this is the worst time for illness' of all sort.

The less time I spend sick the less classes I have to cancel. In the unfortunate case that I catch something, I will be cancelling all classes until I am recovered to avoid propagating things needlessly.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message.

Alright, so this will be some information on myself that you may or may not be interested in. Some of you may already know some of this, and others may be new to the gym and are looking for a good coach for their children. Hopefully this can give you a good idea of who I am and what my ideals as a coach are.

I'll do this as a F.A.Q. to try and keep it succinct.

Q. What kind of certifications do you have to be coaching my children?

A. I am officially certified as a coach for artistic gymnastics and Trampoline. I have my level 1 artistic certification and my level 2 Trampoline certification. I can safely coach athletes all the way from level 1-4 (Cheerleading levels). This would be layouts as the big skill. I can also coach half-twisting using a tumble track, as well as most forward twisting, although it's not used in Cheerleading. For twisting, I am currently not certified to coach it, especially on floor, however I have quite a bit of personal experience, which is why I can teach a half-twist but nothing more.

*(Artistic gymnastics mostly centers around floor work, which is the tumbling you see in Cheerleading. Trampoline is, well, trampoline work)*

Q. What is your mentality when it comes to coaching?

A. I am a perfectionist at heart, and I personally learn better through numerous repetition. Using that as my base, I move a bit more slowly then other coaches, stressing consistency above progress. I set goals for the athletes to achieve, like hitting their skills five times in a row every practice before moving on to learning new skills. This allows me to easily keep track of their progress and pinpoint what skills the athlete may still not be confident in.

I believe consistency breeds safety, as well as success. And I believe confidence breeds consistency. With that in mind, I may forgo learning something new during a practice in favor of building confidence in a skill that an athlete may already have, but is still struggling at making it consistent. This philosophy of mine is geared towards clean, safe tumbling, even in high stress situations like competitions.

These are my values as a coach, and I understand that they may not be in line with other peoples wants or needs. I will not compromise on these values, so if you are looking for quick results and rapidly moving through levels with unsafe tumbling, please look for a different coach.

Q. Will you do conditioning with my athlete? Will that waste the money I'm spending for my class?

A. Strength is a fundamental part of cheerleading and gymnastics, as well as any other sport. Technique is also a fundamental part of these activities. It is very difficult to be successful in any sport if you only have one or the other.

Unfortunately, it is very uncommon to find younger athlete who are strong enough to implement technique properly out of the gate. Strength also helps with coordination, which is an important part of learning technique. All that to say, yes, I will most likely do some sort of conditioning during practice to target any weaknesses an athlete may have. This can include a weakness in strength or coordination.

This may seem somewhat wasteful short term, however I can guarantee that any conditioning I do will help an athlete be successful in the long term, both in gymnastics, as well as other areas in their lives. This includes physical and mental health, as well as building healthy habits.

Ok, I think that was pretty comprehensive. Hopefully that is helpful to some of you. If anyone has something else they think I should add, please let me know!

Hey everyone, got a few things to go over with the seasons turning and cheer moving into competition season. This could be a bit of a longer post so please bear with me.

First off, cost for privates. For anyone doing other tumbling classes at the gym starting in the fall, I'm sure you are already aware of the increase in prices. For those of you that only tumble with me, you may still be unaware of the changes happening starting in September.

For a multitude of reasons, all tumbling costs will be rising starting in September. I will also be doing the same to remain in line with everyone else. I do not wish to raise prices too much, however I also don't want to affect anyone else's (other coaches) private lessons by keeping my prices much lower then theirs.

Starting in September, my 30 minute classes will cost 45$ and my hour classes will cost 75$. I'd like to apologize in advance to those whom this price may be deemed unacceptable, and no longer wish to continue with me. All I can say is that all the coaches are doing their best to work with what they are given at the moment.

I will also address semi-private classes, for which I have had a different pricing system compared to the other coaches. Again, to avoid unduly affecting other coaches, I will be modifying the pricing scheme slightly.

Going forward, the price will be based on a per athlete scale, and not an hourly rate. For a semi-private (2 athletes), it will cost each athlete 45$ for the hour, and I will not be running 30-minute semi-privates at this time. I do not normally do anything more then 2 athletes in a class, seeing as I believe the effectiveness of coaching decreases. However, should there be anyone interested in a 3 person class, it will be 35$ per athlete for the hour.

Now that I have all that out of the way, on to a more pleasant (I think) topic - the fall schedule!

As per usual, with the team schedules changing, I will also be modifying my schedule and work with everyone in finding the best time that works for all parties. I will be posting my current template in a separate post so that it isn't lost in all this text. If you have any questions about the hours posted, please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to answer everything.

There are no major changes to the hours, although I am extending a couple nights to 9pm seeing as most people cannot afford to come in from 2-4pm. As of now I have no plans of working on the weekends. That may change depending on demand, so I will keep everyone updated.

Last but not least, I will also be making a separate post and pinning it to the top of my page. This post will cover some pertinent information that may be of interest, concerning my certifications and history as a coach for anyone that is new or curious. It shouldn't have any *important* information concerning my actual schedule or classes.

Note*: As of now, I am looking at organizing some travel so I am still unsure whether I will be around starting in January. I will be around until December though, so don't worry about that.

Alright, that should be it for this post, hopefully I will get to see many of you in the gym as competition season starts up! If not, I totally understand.

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