Coaches Parents and Playing Favorites.

[gymnastike30]

This is more of a rant. I am currently a compulsory coach at a gym that my L4 daughter trains at. Now I treat all of my athletes the exact same, no special privileges. Absolutely none. I'd rather not coach my own kid....but sometimes it doesn't work out the way we'd like. This past meet my daughter did very well for her division. We had several other girls do very well also. I received a complaint that I favored my own child over the other girls. One particular mother was upset that I competed her child on beam first on purpose. That I knew she hated it but did it anyway. The athlete didn't score very well, but I would never do anything intentional or conniving like that. That's just ridiculous and what kind of coach would I be?! I've really taken this complaint pretty hard because that is not and was not the case. Has anyone ever had to deal with a situation like this? If so....what helped?

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Tell her that in a few years she will realize how child like she is being. But in the mean time zip it. My top level 10 beam girls (2 of them) love going first.....

 

[sevenatenine2]

I coach my own daughter too, and it is just awful. I was particularly careful about order this year. She only had one other girl her level, and at the start of the season my daughter was stronger on vault and bars, and the other girl was stronger on beam and floor. At the very first meet, my daughter didn't do very well on vault. I mean, she did fine, but not her normal really high score. The other girl beat her by a tenth or two. I kept the order at the next meet and the other girl insinuated it was because of favoritism. Down the road, my daughter outscored the other athlete on floor and beam occasionally as well, but I just kept to my order because it was fair and I wasn't about to start changing things.

I do feel your pain, though.

 

[Gymsanity]

Life is full of 'no win' situations (and petty people), and that is clearly one of them.... As hard as it may be, try and rise above it, and know that you are doing the best you can with a difficult situation. Welcome to coaching.....

 

[gymnastike30]

Absolutely! Pretty sad that she advised me that it should of been her daughter that took 2nd all around instead of mine.

 

[gymdog]

Next time put your daughter first on beam and her kid last and she'll see it doesn't matter.

 

[aerialriver]

You guys pick the order? Ours are just randomly assigned by the host gym.

 

[gymnastike30]

Yes we pick the order. Randomly would be great for instances like this.