The gym owner I work for owns three gyms, and I've been working at two of them for nearly four and a half years. I want to share with ChalkBucket my full story though, because I really like how I got my job, and it's probably one of the most defining moments in my life.
So...
I was never a gymnast myself, but I always had a fascination with the sport and a deep appreciation for it as well. It really appealed to me, and I thought it was just amazing to watch. Right after I graduated high school I started training parkour with a good friend (for those of you who don't know, parkour is an athletic discipline that is all about using the body in creative and efficient ways to move through your environment. Watch a video or two on YouTube.
) and we got a bunch of other people into it too. It was actually quite amazing and life changing because I met a lot of great people through parkour and I still train, hang out with and see these people regularly. Parkour is also what got me a job as a gymnastics instructor. My friends and I were all looking for a gymnastics gym that holds an open gym we could attend in order to learn flips and other types of skills safely. We ended up at one gym twenty minutes from our town and it was like Christmas. All the mats and the amazing spring floor felt like it gave us super powers. Not to mention the foam pit, which we could literally throw our bodies into in any ridiculous way and be completely fine. Prior to this, we were learning flips on our own outside at our local playground, falling on ground-up tires for cushion. We were
hardcore. Anyways, my third week attending the open gym, I was about to try spotting my friend for a standing back tuck because he was ready, and I watched enough videos on how to spot a back tuck, so I felt ready to help him. Everything went fine, and I spotted him five times. The sixth time he wanted me to move away and he landed it. He was super excited and ended up doing them all night. At the end of that night's session, the supervisor walked over to me and asked where I coach. I laughed and told him I don't coach. He then said, "Well, you should. You really seem like you know what you're doing." I told him thanks, and that I researched how to spot online because I figured it was a useful thing to learn for what I do. He then asked me if I currently had a job and I told him no. I had actually
just gotten fired from a factory job that I only had for three weeks, and prior to that I was fired from my job at RadioShack that I held for eight months. I was really broke, and pretty depressed at the time. He then offered me a recreational coach position on the spot! I was
literally floored. I couldn't believe it. I brought my resumé in the following week and so started my job as a gymnastics instructor. Since that day, I've started a parkour program at my gym, rebuilt the open gym program, and amassed a very large following of students at both gyms, many of them loyal to me.
Lately, mainly over the past year and a half, I've truly fallen in love with gymnastics and the rewarding job of working with kids. I started seriously entertaining the idea of becoming a competitive team coach, especially after seeing so many of my students leave to go onto a team after I had prepared them so well. I found myself wanting to hold onto my students for the long term instead of letting them go off to a different gym or program. I really wanted to see them develop under my care over the long term. I wanted to test my own abilities as well, to enjoy the challenge of bettering myself and my job, and of course to make more money to support myself. I started doing tons and tons of research on every aspect of the sport and wanted more and more. I was surprised at how deep the world of gymnastics goes. I finally asked to meet with the owner to discuss my desire to start a team of my own. He gave me a green light, and after lots of planning and hard work, I am now a proud Xcel team coach of 11 crazy monsters.
My main goal is to reach my full potential as a WAG JO coach, but I figured starting with Xcel would be a great way to begin. I've never been happier to be honest.
So yeah, there's my story. I know it's really long, but I wanted to share it with the community.
ChalkBucket has helped me so much in the short amount of time I've been a member, and it's one of my most valuable resources now, so perhaps my story can help someone else, or at least provide a smile.