Parents Privates

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I was just wondering how many privates your gymmie average a season. We are heading into our compeitive season and right now we have 6 privates scheduled between now and Christmas. I am sure we will have more after that but to get DD ready for her first couple of meets. I was just wondering what the average number you all do is and your thoughts on privates. DD has been doing one a month for the past couple of years and has enjoyed the individual attention. I am just hoping this year they can really tweek her routine to get the higher scores.

I don't like the price but I do want to see her skills sharpened a bit so she can achieve her personal goals. Is this a common practice in all gyms? We have 18-20 girls on our level 4 team to one coach if that helps paint a better picture.
 
Our gym actually has a "no privates" policy for our team girls. I'm not exactley sure why, but I think it is because our HC believes the parents pay for the team training monthly and he doesn't want them to pay more on top of that. It also has something to do with expectations. If the parents are paying extra on top of team tuition for privates, they may expect the scores to reflect that. That being said, we do not have a team anywhere near your size. We have 4 L4's right now. Our gym is very small compared to most, but very competitive. All of our girls do very well at competition. With such a small size, they all get alot of one on one at the gym, so really, there is no need for privates.

If your dd enjoys it and you don't mind the extra money, go fo it! I think it would be great to have that time, especially if there was one specific skill a child was struggling with.
 
LOL, I have paid for ONE private in 3 years. That was when she was 6 and landing on her head doing ROBHS for the first time. I just don't believe in them. I am not a super competative person and my DD is not going to the Olympics. She is in the gym for 15hrs a week and has all the skills right now. They are not beautiful, and I am sure she will be repeating L5 again, but we are in no rush to go anywhere. At old gym a couple of the girls did get privates during the L4 comp season, they also enjoyed the one-on-one time, but at the new gym I am not sure anyone has done them yet now that our hours are increased.
 
My gym usually only does private lessons for children with special needs and acro dancers, aside from that we discourage private lessons for competitive athletes. I had a competitive athlete (7) a few years ago whose family was always requesting private lessons to work on certain skills and my answer was always " There is more than enough time in practice to be working on these skills, and the corrections and drills have been given to help the athlete succeed so there is no need for private lesson". In this case, and in others that I have seen wanting them, the kids don't use their time in practice or make corrections. If a competitive athlete had been away for a while because of severe illness or other unfortunate circumstances then I would have no problem doing a few private lessons to get them up to speed.
 
Abby had a few (at no charge though) when she was at her old gym from her devo coach. She was in a huge group of girls and they let mistakes go without correction over and over. It helped her during her private, but then she would go back to practice and with no correction, etc, would do the same things. At her new gym, not sure if they even offer privates.

I don't see anything wrong with them, especially in your situation and if you are happy, then go for it. I would rather NOT have to pay for them, but could see them being beneficial for certain situations. DD is at a gym with smaller gymnast to coach ratio and does much better in that environment. She is progressing and happy and that is enough for me. :)
 
Beth's never had one--I ask occasionally when she's struggling, but the coaches always say there's no reason and she's doing fine. I'm fine with not spending more money :)
 
Bean's gym doesn't offer privates, or if they do it's a very well kept secret because I'd never even heard of them before reading this board!

If they were available I'd pass. She spends enough time away from home by training 16 hours a week.

It's interesting to read about other people's evperience with them. Great topic!
 
DD's gym does not offer privates, so we have never done any. DD is L4, and will likely repeat it, which is fine. We have 4 L4's like gym-fl-mom we are a very small gym. Less than 20 team girls L3-8. We have several state AA champions and a regional AA champion. Most of the girls place within top 3-5 at the meets. Sometimes it is harder to win team titles against the large teams, they have so many more scores to use, but we sure hold our own.
 
I dont think privates are common at all in the uk. I asked our head coach why and he said the coaching should be enough in the session planned. I think it is a money spinner from the sounds of it. I can see someone returning from injury needed some 1-1 help but at our gym that would be done without payment - for 15 mins here or there after or before a session. I can see why you would want it in a big team, I would too but we dont have that sort of situation.
 
gymmomntc, that's how it is for us too! So hard to win a team award! For L3 & L4, we have only had 3 girls competing so all scores count, no pressure! We have a new girl who will start competing next meet and our girls are so happy...4 scores to use! Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread about privates:)!
 
My DD loves to take privates but I feel that since she is at the Gym 20+ hours a week that is plenty of time to get skills, clean up routines etc.
 
Olivia's done a few privates over the years but none recently. We did them mostly to help her get some one-on-one time on a specific skill. She was on a Level 4 team with 18 other girls. Now, her team is down to only 8 so they get a lot more time. And like canadiangymmom said, she's already in the gym 16 hours a week. More time there just isn't in my schedule! But, if they work for her and for you, go for it! :)
 
Olivia has only had one private. That was last year when she had just learned her Mill circle and wanted her to practice it over and over again because she had a meet later on that week. Other than that I think there is more than enough time for coaches to make correction and such at regular practice. I may change my mind by the time lvel 5 comes around but as of right now we haven't needed any.

If it's working for your dd and you don't feel your throwing away your money than by all means continue.

When does your dd meet season start? I have a feeling she is going to do great. She's been preparing for this moment a looong time and with 6 privates.....she's going to rock!!!
 
Boo has only done a few privates over the last couple years. When she was first starting out, she did two privates to work on her floor routine. She started on team late in the season and didn't feel comfortable with the routine. Then this past summer she did two privates to get her back walkover on beam. She struggled with that skill for several months in regular practice. But it only took two private lessons for her to nail it.
 
Boo has only done a few privates over the last couple years. When she was first starting out, she did two privates to work on her floor routine. She started on team late in the season and didn't feel comfortable with the routine. Then this past summer she did two privates to get her back walkover on beam. She struggled with that skill for several months in regular practice. But it only took two private lessons for her to nail it.

That is the use I would want for privates (if they were offered here). Sometimes they seem so close to a skill and just need something a little extra.
 
Oldest has had four privates in her 6 years of competing, they were all when she was coming back from injury before a meet so she could refresh her routines.

Youngest has had 1 to learn a new routine before a meet.

They don't train a lot of hours by the US standards, they are gone enough for me.
 
Last year when dd was a L4 I think I paid for 4 privates all year. She needed a little extra help learning and polishing her routines. She definately learns quicker with the individual attention. We also have a large team and sometines she needs a little more attention then she is able to get during regular practice. I know of other at our gym have used privates to work on a particular skill that they are struggling with. Sometimes the extra repetion they get at a private is enough to help progress the skill.
 
We only add private session for our daughter when she is stuck at certain skills so that she can pass the hurdle. We also did some private sessions in preparing her TOP national test. The gym prepare the girls very well for the physical ability test locally to qualify for the national test. However when we found out the my daughter made it to the national test we realized that she is lacking many of the skills needed in national test. We only have about five to six weeks to prepare and we didn't want her to go to the national test knowing that she was missing those skills. We were concerned that she might feel discourage after the test if she was not be able to do those needed skills for the test while most of the girls tested could do it. We did four or five private sessions once a week for half hour each prior to the national test. Those private sessions paid off especially when we found out that her primary coach forgot/miss to teach her one of the required skill which she acquired from her private session. The private session was with a different coach that she is very comfortable with.
 
Our gym actually has a "no privates" policy for our team girls. I'm not exactley sure why, but I think it is because our HC believes the parents pay for the team training monthly and he doesn't want them to pay more on top of that. It also has something to do with expectations. If the parents are paying extra on top of team tuition for privates, they may expect the scores to reflect that. That being said, we do not have a team anywhere near your size. We have 4 L4's right now. Our gym is very small compared to most, but very competitive. All of our girls do very well at competition. With such a small size, they all get alot of one on one at the gym, so really, there is no need for privates.

If your dd enjoys it and you don't mind the extra money, go fo it! I think it would be great to have that time, especially if there was one specific skill a child was struggling with.


Ditto. The exception is a girl with a fear or struggling with a specific, needed skill. My oldest has maybe had 3 privates - this will be her 6th competitve season. Little Monkey has had 4 I think. Both girls had them only for bars.
 
I am glad to hear that are other gyms not encouraging privates is very common. I got the feeling that our head coach does not like privates and the only time that they talk about them is if they are going to miss alot practice during the summer. Like many of the other posters here my daughter practices in a group of 6 girls so they get alot of individual attention that there is really no need for privates. My daughter has never had one. I wonder are privates encouraged at certain gyms in order to make more money for the club.
 

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