equipment and team question

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

we have decided to open a gym. I have found 2 coaches. I think I found the building. We are now trying to write our busisness plan. Does anyone have a good product list of what we need to get going I have a pretty good idea of the main stuff I am just not sure about what differant types of matts to buy.

Team question

how do you decide if the gym should have a team or just stay as a rec program?
 
I don't have an answer to your question but... congrats on opening a gym! that is huge. i wish you all the best, and want to hear all about it.
 
I can't comment on where you live but :

over here rec classes pay for team - It takes a while for gymnasts to develop and so I would stick for rec for a while and build up a client base and then develop your team from within.

as for equipment - don't go mad, build up over time, buy second hand - a penny in the bank is worth a lot more than the promise of more to come.

as for coaches, find and develop more - a club is built on the quality of the coaching staff and there can be a high turnover as its not great pay.

Good luck
 
we have decided to open a gym. I have found 2 coaches. I think I found the building. We are now trying to write our busisness plan. Does anyone have a good product list of what we need to get going I have a pretty good idea of the main stuff I am just not sure about what differant types of matts to buy.

Team question


how do you decide if the gym should have a team or just stay as a rec program?


you need both team and rec.

you need to have the 2 coaches get with suppliers they know and come up with a CAD design for your space. no messing around here or being cheap. you want to do it right the 1st time and some of our standards cost money. this includes the mats. remember, we lead the world in torts.:)
 
Take a look at this link. You can probably find a lot of answers here and possibly at gym.net. Jeff Metzger and Frank Sahlein are generally at the regional and national congresses holding clinics but Jeff also has a mini boot camp. Michael Taylor (gym.net) offers consulting as well and he is at region1 congress at least though I don't know if he ventures out to other regions.

https://usagym.org/pages/memclub/resources/biztips/
 
You will also have to make a decision on whether you will start out as a rec gym and slowly build that into a developmental and competitive program or something more like competitive-rec (prep-op) and if you have any interest in tumbling and trampoline or rhythmic or acrobatic or group gymnastics or cheer.

One thing is if you have one regulation floor is to have other floor space be it a tumbling strip or non sprung floor area just to warmup or do circuits with mats and wedges and what not.

Another question is whether you will cater at all to men's gymnastics. Equipment is expensive and takes space and don't expect to ever have more than 100 boys in your gym (unless you are counting kinder boys).

If you are going to have a pit, you'll want to do it when you get in.

For any gymnastics program, a tri or quad bar single rail system is very useful for rec gymnastic classes. 2 sets of uneven bars is nice besides a single rail system where you can swap out a women's or men's bar/strap bar.

A set of parallel bars and pommel horse still have a lot of use for a non competitive men's program for kinder and rec classes and conditioning. Ring towers are expensive and take a lot of space while ceiling sprung rings are about 1/6th of the cost and serviceable for a compulsory boy's program.

Inflatable tumble-trak like devices might be an alternative to a tumble-trak or possibly just buying a foam floor with a few air floor devices instead of a spring floor.

Most startup gyms will run numbers for their community as in how many children there are and economic status breakdown of that community besides what schools are nearby within 20 minutes. A bulk of your gym members will probably prefer to be within 20 minutes commute of your gym.

One of the most difficult things besides all of this is just staffing and finding coaches.

It's best also to always have an office open and staffed versus just an office that is only open when there are gymnastics classes occuring (2-8pm during the weekdays and 9-1 on saturdays).

Parents ands kids like well painted gyms with all kinds of color in the gym versus boring white wall gyms.
 

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

New Posts

Back