Motor Development and Body Awareness:
- Length of mat bear crawl and crab walk (basic strength and core stability)
- Proficiency at forward and backward rolls – proper body mechanics, especially neck
- Proficiency at dive forward roll to feet– kinesthetic awareness
- Front and Back Bridging (without hands) – for time
- Clock walking and hip heist mechanics
- Forward and backward lunge – length of mat
- Basic proficiency in knee over toe penetration step
- Ability to move from knee on mat to feet (and opposite) without using hands
- Cartwheel and round offs (agility and kinesthetic awareness)
- Defensive “Cat Reactions” – proper falling and landing mechanics (toward belly with intent to land on arms and hands).
- Defensive head and neck bracing when landing on mat in multiple positions
Technical Proficiency:
- Demonstrate proper starting positions for all three options without coaching.
- Proficiency in leg tackle
- Offensive landing mechanics – head on one side / body on other / hand contact on mat
- Defensive landing mechanics – cat reactions / head and neck bracing
- Proficiency in sprawl and go behind
- Proficiency in stand up and escape from bottom
- Proficiency in top breakdown and simple half from the top position
- Proficiency in basic rules and scoring
Other Factors:
- Maturity
- How will winning and losing effect athlete (and often parents)?
- Can athlete demonstrate skills while others watch (in circle)?
- Can athlete demonstrate fundamental “partner drilling” proficiencies and etiquette?
- Aggressiveness – does the athlete make contact or shy away from contact?
- Competitive desire – intrinsic or extrinsic?
- Personal bias toward 80 hours of instruction before competition
- Mandatory attendance at 2 events before competing.