A Different Kind of Deficit
By Brian Payne
Noah, 9 years old, is the only boy on the squad and a gifted tumbler, which is good since he has trouble standing still. The coaches have placed him in numerous tumbling passes, but because he’s not interested in paying attention during the dance sequence, he’s placed in the very back of the routine. Noah keeps turning his head and looking behind him at the loose foam pit that borders the practice floor. He loses track of the counts as he continues to back up a few steps at a time. All of a sudden, Noah somehow loses his balance and falls into the foam pit. The coach has to stop the routine to ask Noah what happened, which takes time away from the other 19 young athletes.
Suzie, 6 years old, is on a Mini Level 1 squad. She’s frequently looking at other members of her team during practice just to check and make sure that she’s doing the right motions with the correct timing. When the coach has to stop practice to address another athlete, Suzie, along with the others, is asked to stand still, be patient and wait. Suzie stands still for a few seconds, and then she starts swinging her arms, just a little bit. Pretty soon, the arm swinging takes over her entire upper body until Suzie is spinning around in circles. The cheerleader next to her thinks that looks like more fun than standing still and joins in. It takes about 10 more seconds for the coach to turn around and ask why two girls are laying on the floor, crying and holding their heads after crashing into each other.
Can you relate to either of these incidents with your own similar tales of woe? These may be the challenges for a cheer coach who has an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) cheerleader on her squad:
• The ADHD athlete who constantly has to be redirected and disciplined consumes the coach’s time.
• Time spent redirecting the ADHD athlete is time taken away from members of the squad who want to get work done.
• Unproductive actions of the ADHD cheerleader can influence borderline attention deficit squad members who are in proximity.
• Should ADHD cheerleaders be trusted with stunt duties where someone else’s safety is dependent on their own ability to focus and concentrate?
• Should strategies for practice time management and productivity be modified to accommodate the ADHD cheerleader?
• Is 5 percent of your squad entitled to 50 percent of your attention?
In much of the literature regarding research on ADHD, it’s fairly easy to take the words “school,” “classroom” and “workplace” and replace them with “cheerleading practice.” Parents experienced with ADHD recognize that children with excessive energy need to have it channeled in a positive, supervised environment. And gymnastics coaches have long known that hyperactive children tend to be more aggressive tumblers. So, it’s not surprising when a high percentage of children with this disorder wind up in cheer and gymnastics programs.
A roundtable discussion with coaches at the Cheer Expo in Montreal provided some of the following strategies as suggestions for coaches who may be struggling with ADHD members on their squads:
• Position ADHD athletes directly behind your best dance and motion personnel so they have the best model to follow.
• Break cheer/dance/motion components into thirds, done as a ripple so you only have to coordinate a third of the group at a time.
• Columns of people executing front to back ripple motions or dances take on the look and feel of Follow the Leader, and the ADHD athlete will get to see it three or four times in a row before it’s his turn, so it will seem like less of a “surprise.”
• Have verbal cues, countdowns or other commands that the ADHD student has to respond to within the stunt group, to keep them from zoning out.
• Use your gymnastics shapes to “control and contain” during practice. When a stunt group with an ADHD cheerleader has completed their task, have them all sit in a tuck, pike or straddle position while they wait on the next group to finish. It’s less likely that someone will spontaneously spin around in circles or bust out a cartwheel and kick someone else in the head if they have the directive and they’re all doing it as a unit. It also provides motor memory reinforcement and attention to form. It might not be a bad idea to have all the stunt groups do it.
• Do you have a younger squad that needs occasional breaks from the tedium of training? Does an ADHD athlete feign an overactive bladder and use constant bathroom breaks to escape? Find out what the group’s favorite activity is (tumble track, chicken in a henhouse, sponge pit) and use that as the half-time break for a job well done or go to that activity every time the emergency bladder leaves the room and see how quickly he comes back.
• Remember the “Unofficial Assistant Coach” who always wants to shout helpful hints, or the junior coach-in-training? Now you can put them to work by being your “classroom monitors.” Their job is to follow your ADHD athletes around the mat, keeping them on task and redirecting them, so that you still have your sanity and energy at the end of practice.
Jenn Bucchinal, coach and assistant tumbling director at Calvert All Stars in Owings, MD, sees athletes with ADHD from 3-year-olds on Level 1 to 27-year-olds on Level 6 Open, but she also lives it firsthand. She has two children, and the 7-year-old has just been tested for ADD, ADHD and dyslexia. She feels that her 4-year-old is also likely to have the disorder, based on current behaviors and trends. When it comes to ADHD athletes in your program, she recommends the following:
• Youth squads need to keep their workstations brief and use games as a reward break.
• Keep ADHD candidates close to the front of the routine so the coach can have constant eye contact with them.
• Coaches who sit down during practice give inattentive students permission to mentally wander.
• Take the time to learn what each child’s needs are, because not every child responds in the same way. Don’t let yourself get frustrated. Keep reasonable goals in mind.
• Parents don’t fill out forms completely and will omit details like ADHD and Ritalin for fear that their child won’t be accepted or will be treated differently. As a coach or gym owner, you need all the information so you can provide the best possible training environment for each athlete, so make sure to stress that to their families.
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