Just wondering - is this something your gym frowns upon for team members, or is it encouraged? Thanks in advance for your input!
For Parents Private lessons
- Thread starter GymMomStarQuest29
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Our gym doesn't encourage or discourage privates. Quite a few kids take them consistently. We have rarely done them unless there is a specific struggle.
D
Deleted member 26368
Same. The gym won't turn down more money, LOL. However, privates can be hard to get due to time constraints, especially during competition season.
My DDs gym has them, but seems to use them them very infrequently. My DD is in her 5th year of team (lv 8) and has never had one. I have also never asked about her getting one.
I know (from conversations with parents) of a few of her teammates that have had a few. Generally when they are struggling with one skill that is holding them back from competing at the level of the rest of their gymnastics.
I know (from conversations with parents) of a few of her teammates that have had a few. Generally when they are struggling with one skill that is holding them back from competing at the level of the rest of their gymnastics.
Neither encouraged or discouraged, there are some girls who have weekly privates. (Ridiculous waste of money IMO) and some who’ve never had a single one. We’ve done a few here and there to work on specific skills, but haven’t done one in over 6 months. Funnily enough the girls with weekly privates don’t seem to be progressing any faster, but the parents now think they are needed for their kids to “keep up”.
There may be some truth in this - the parents realizing that if they don't have the privates, they will not continue to move up with their team.
OP - dd's gym had privates but they were not encouraged strongly. If the gymnast/family wanted them, they were available.
Our gym doesn’t do privates. Occasionally there are clinics with 3 gymnasts max, open to first come first serve. The only issue is if you’re struggling, you better hope there’s a clinic when your needing it, on the event you need it.
Overall it’s a fine system, there’s no perfect system - if you’re really struggling, they’re going to find a way to work with you specifically. There have been times we were encouraged to sign up for clinics and either I felt like I wasted money because the other 2 kids needed help on basic skills and mine.. didn’t, or I felt bad because mine was getting attention and working upskills but the other 2 weren’t working the basics they were struggling on.
Overall it’s a fine system, there’s no perfect system - if you’re really struggling, they’re going to find a way to work with you specifically. There have been times we were encouraged to sign up for clinics and either I felt like I wasted money because the other 2 kids needed help on basic skills and mine.. didn’t, or I felt bad because mine was getting attention and working upskills but the other 2 weren’t working the basics they were struggling on.
Our gym doesn't offer them. DD coach said the girls have enough hours and if they have trouble with a skill they focus on it during practice.
Our gym offers them but I dont think anyone really does them. DD did one in level 3 to ge her BHS and it was totally worth it. She did another one another time for Giants and it totally wasnt worth it so we havent done any since. At the higher levels especially I think it takes so long to get a specific skill that one private wont really make a difference. And honestly for what I am paying I expect them to teach them what they need to know in practice. I do kind of wish they would do like routine touch up sessions with maybe 2-3 kids where they nitpick and fix routines mid season...maybe with a different coach who comes at the routine with fresh eyes.
I agree with this.
Great idea... this is definitely something I could get behind.
Our choreographer is also our dance teacher and during comp season she comes in once a week, runs each kids routine individually and corrects them and nitpicks at them.
Most of our girls routinely kill it on floor more than any other event (my child’s robotic spirit is challenging this woman)
I really like this idea!! anyone agree?
D
Deleted member 26368
Yes! DD's gym does optional meet clinics throughout the season and most of the girls attend. It would be nice to break it down into small groups or pairs though. I really love the idea of an outside opinion, too!
Our gym does do private but not routinely. If gymnasts need to polish up skills before comps or grading then they do a few extra hours each week on the run up with a couple of other gymnasts which I think works well.
Our gym does not encourage nor discourage them. They are available for anyone who wants them. We’ve have done a couple when dd was struggling with a specific skill, and they were very helpful. But I wouldn’t do them regularly. There is little to no difference in scoring between those that have weekly privates and those that don’t.
I'm not a big fan of privates and feel like kids should be able to get the skills during practice. That said, DD was doing a weekly private for a while after coming back from the long shut down for Covid when they were still doing reduced hours. I didn't really enjoy that and felt like she was putting so much pressure on herself to make the most of the private and get the skills it began to feel unhelpful to me and we stopped. There are girls at her gym who do multiple privates a week, which I think is crazy, but since those parents aren't asking me to pay for it, I realize it's none of my business. I do think it's adding an additional training load that may not be great in the long run- I think of an hour private as being similar to an extra two hours of practice (no other kids rotating in, not much time to catch their breath during that hour). Over time all those additional hours pile up and I wonder how many overuse injuries have some root in a lot of extra hours of training.
My younger daughter did weekly private lessons, with her assistant coach, during the summers when she was young, age 8-9. Mostly because she seemed to need the focused coach attention. Flash forward a few years and add in a gym change and amazingly no privates have been needed since that change. Once we were at the new gym and she saw how a child should be treated, she told me how her previous main coach would ignore her, made mean faces at her or roll her eyes when she spoke to her, and told her that she didn’t watch her turns because she already knew what she was doing wrong. I watched practice but it was done in a way so I couldn’t see or hear. My daughter had been treated that way for so long that it took a gym change for her to learn that was wrong.
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