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Regarding private lessons.

1. Parents- Do you talk to your child and decide on a coach before approaching the coach, or do you decide alone what coach you want? Have you ever gone with a coach who's never coached your child before based off of watching them coach or reputation? When it comes to privates are you more concerned with time spent getting a skill, or more relaxed 1 on 1 time between your child and the coach of choice?

2. Coaches- Do you have any standards you go by before accepting a private? If what the parents want out of them and what the gymnast wants are totally different do you proceed anyway and hope for the best? Would you do privates for a gymnast you don't coach?
 
I use coaches who can pull the most out of my dd. There are two coaches at our gym that I use for private lessons b/c my dd seems to want to do her best b/c she knows they expect it. Sometimes there are certain skills or events that I have them work on, but most of the time I let the coach decide what they feel she needs to work at.
 
I usually try to match the coaches coaching style with my dd's personality. When she cheered, we tried a couple different coaches and stuck with the one that helped her the most with her "head games". For dd, she was very physically able to do the skills but needed extra reassurance with her mental game. It does take some time to find the right coach that works with the childs particular needs.
 
None of the gymnastics gyms I've worked at have really done privates. One of them doesn't have the facilities to accommodate it and the other two have such big programs they've found it's just more trouble than it's worth to deal with them. One of them will do it for team gymnasts if the coach decides it is beneficial (of course the parent can decline) but you can't really sign up for them. It's very rare. The other gym has a flat policy that they don't offer them.

In cheerleading, it's a little less complicated, in my experience, because typically everyone is on the same page about what the private is for (working back handspring, for the most part - sometimes fulls). Sometimes older girls will just want a general private before high school tryouts to have skills evaluated, in that case they'd probably request a copy of anything that has been provided to the girls as far as tryout criteria and try to go from there.

There is a policy though, and it states that if the coach feels conditioning is necessary, they will spend some of the time showing the girl conditioning exercises she needs to improve. I think this is important because sometimes people have an unrealistic idea of what it takes to learn these skills.
 
Thanks for the replies. Lately I've been in situations where I think I'm being asked general questions about privates, but it's really a set up for me to offer to coach a private. I don't assume that I'm the coach in mind for them when I'm asked, so I just answer questions and go on my merry way. When I get a phone call later I wonder why I wasn't just asked in the first place.

I like to get the details and goals of a private in person with the parent and the gymnast. Once I had a parent say her daughter needed to work on front hip circles, and the face the daughter made... WHEW! Stuff that you don't see when on the phone adds a lot of depth to the situation and makes a plan everyone can be happy with much easier.
 
To start with, my gymmie does not really like privates, so we rarely do them. At her age(12) I tend to go with the coach she prefers. We have 4 coaches that work with the optional girls and all have their strengths---2 probably better for bars/vault and 2 stronger on beam/fx. They are all open to doing privates, but we don't do them unless my child says she needs one or a coach recommends it. Right now, she prefers her team coach---she really knows how to connect with my kid.
 
Our gym doesn't offer private lessons and if a gymnast is having trouble with a skill - too bad! The main reason is not enough coaches to go around and it would probably foster an even more competitive vibe between the girls. My dd would adore having private lessons and is thrilled with more hours, just increased from 12 to 15 this year. She is constantly asking me to watch/help her at home (which I hate doing) as everything I know comes from youtube! Private lessons would certainly reduce the stress in our household. You are quite welcome to pop over to NZ and help us - although you will probably need to increase your fee ;)
 
Our gym doesn't offer private lessons and if a gymnast is having trouble with a skill - too bad! The main reason is not enough coaches to go around and it would probably foster an even more competitive vibe between the girls. My dd would adore having private lessons and is thrilled with more hours, just increased from 12 to 15 this year. She is constantly asking me to watch/help her at home (which I hate doing) as everything I know comes from youtube! Private lessons would certainly reduce the stress in our household. You are quite welcome to pop over to NZ and help us - although you will probably need to increase your fee ;)

Don't tempt me! I would SO love to see NZ. Do they have a Lord of the Rings tour for nerds like me? I swear the locations in that movie were so beautiful, I watched that part of the DVD about 3 times when I got it. Especially the Rohan locale.

There are a lot of privates at my gym, and some coaches I've known book a full or half day on their days off! Then there's me, who's done privates for 2 gymnasts. Both L4 that needed a skill. I would do them for a rec gymnast, but the situations I was presented with seemed not to warrant a private. Their parents just said they loved it and wanted to do more, so to me it sounded like another class would be better.

Privates have been on the brain lately. I am REALLY BAD at reading cue cards from people that I don't coach or live with.
 
Regarding private lessons.

1. Parents- Do you talk to your child and decide on a coach before approaching the coach, or do you decide alone what coach you want? Have you ever gone with a coach who's never coached your child before based off of watching them coach or reputation? When it comes to privates are you more concerned with time spent getting a skill, or more relaxed 1 on 1 time between your child and the coach of choice?

Nastia (an L3) has a standard 45 min private lesson weekly. Normally, it's with an L4 coach that all the girls love. Shes nice, patient, and will correct errors in a way that keeps the girls happy, and not deflate any enthusiasm. Before meets, we have a private with her L3 head coach because she is more detail oriented. DD doesnt mind either, as long as shes doing gym. But she does have her preferences.

When we traveled to PA over thankgiving break, we had a private with a Parkettes coach that we never met, but was recommended. She was tough as nails. Good for her training I guess...but Nastia admited she didn't have much fun...with all the corrections to her form and all. We attended a Parkettes open gym also (which was skant with athletes that weekend) and got an 'almost' private with one of the Elite coaches. She absolutely LOVED that! Her smiles beamed for 2 full hours. She was taught some new tumbling skills (BHS to back tuck), got good tips for conditioning at her level, and got her very first Kip lesson. (something shes wanted for a while). "Miss Stephanie" is by far her favorite Parkettes coach. It's just too bad we live 18 hours from Parkettes. lol.
 
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I guess in comparision to alot of gyms out there, we are relatively small. We have 2 coaches that do privates. One specializes in bars and vault, and the other does floor and beam. For the most part, if parent and child want to have a private, they contact the coach for the event that they want to work on.
I, myself, am barely generating the finances to keep dd in gymnastics, so privates are not on our list of most important:eek:.

Our head coach did come to me with a tumbling semi-private class that he wanted dd to participate in. It is one extra hour per week for two months with about 6 girls in the class. It was more affordable than a one on one private, so I found a way to fit it in;)! DD has only been to one class, and I already noticed a difference:D!
 
At our gym, the parent has to contact the director of the gym to request a private and she will let you know which coach is available at which times....everything is set up through the gym director.
 
Well from reading what you guys have to say you all want privates for the same reasons I'd personally do them. I'm going to get really specific for a second here and see what you guys think.

I had a parent ask me or privates that wanted to focus on core strength and flexibility, to help their daughter with another sport. Totally fine with me. The gymnast in question didn't look too thrilled about focusing on that, but there are ways to make it fun so I didn't really consider the reaction too much. Before I commit to coming in on a day off though, and before the parent commits to the time and cost, I showed the parent hollow and arched body rocks, how to safely stretch a split, and bridges. For her bridge I wanted her to push up, come down, then push up and rock 5 times, and on the 6th push it as far she could and hold it 10 seconds, then tuck and roll. If she could do those things once a day with her parents watching for a week and not hate it, then I'd do a more intense/thorough private.

The week isn't up yet, but I thoroughly intend to not not go forward with privates if I find that it's not happening. Or if her parents had to beg her to do it. Do you guys think this is too harsh? I don't want her to burn out, or associate me/the gym with something she hates by forcing the private issue.

*EDIT* Even if I refuse, they could still find another coach to do it, and I wouldn't stop them. If a once a day request of a pretty simple nature can't be met though, then I don't want to strong arm it. Maybe I have privates built up in my head, but I've only ever taken on 2 gymnasts for privates. The only reason I did is because those girls were hungry to get skills and achieve what the private was meant for. Any other reason seems pointless, but I may have a harsh view.
 
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How old is the gymnast? I am asking because even if a child wants the extra help - be it private lessons or extra conditioning at gym or home - I think most if not all of them would need a reminder - especially for the conditioning. I think that for a lot of girls they really do want to put in the extra work, but have trouble w/time management skills and can't figure out how to :do it all"
 
How old is the gymnast? I am asking because even if a child wants the extra help - be it private lessons or extra conditioning at gym or home - I think most if not all of them would need a reminder - especially for the conditioning. I think that for a lot of girls they really do want to put in the extra work, but have trouble w/time management skills and can't figure out how to :do it all"

A reminder is all good, and understandable. I mean if her parents have to beg, plead, bargain, or ultimately give up on doing anything at home. Ultimately I just want a sign that strength and flexibility are things she wants, not something an outsider is going to have force upon her.
 
I completely understand where you are coming from:). I think you are being reasonable about it. If she can do it at home for a week without a battle, then I also think that would show the parent that she is ready for it. If there is too much of a battle, maybe the parent would have second thoughts about putting their money into something that may not have optimal results. My dd's prior gym (and coach) did not do privates at all, and everyone got by fine without them:)! We were a small gym, but our team still usually came in in the top three!
 

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