WAG The 'private': does your gym offer them?

[l.c.o]

Yes. But it doesn't seem to be a regular, year-long thing for most. Tweaking routines before state? Yep. Struggling on a specific skill? Sure.

Rarely, the whole group will need a boost on an event/skill, and they'll hold a group clinic at a super reduced rate. It's nice because the gym is mostly empty, and coach can generally move them around at will and use multiple tools to help girls with their shapes, etc.

 

[MomIdidit!]

when dd was on pre-team, parents could schedule a private as often as they wanted. now that she is on team, they do not offer privates in level 4. my dd friend in level 7 was able to schedule about four privates this summer at the coaches request bc she was having difficulties with her giants.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

He will have 4 routine construction privates. After that, if he asks, he has to have a good reason...and a plan

I wasn't counting those. We have those to. My daughter is getting new music this year. Individual routines are done in privates and are required.

 

[gwenmom]

Yes our gym does them. All you have to do is ask the coach and find a time that works.

 

[JessSyd]

I do not think our gym offers privates. I have never seen one or heard of anyone having one and I think they have enough trouble getting enough coach time to cover classes, let alone extras.

Sometimes just before a competition they will ask one girl or another to arrive 15 minutes early or stay back 10 minutes late to get a little bit of quiet time working on something specific, but that doesn't cost any extra and seems to be something the coaches throw in out of generosity or team pride or something.

Because I have never seen one, I have often wondered if the concept of the gymnastics private is just not as widespread in Australia.

 

[momof2gymmies]

Our gym offers them in theroy, but they are very difficult to get. Unless you have a good relationship with a coach you will not get one. There are over 200 kids on team, and all of the coaches either have outside jobs or also teach rec classes. The gym is sooooooooooooo crowded after school hours that even if you were able to get one you couldn't do anything. I usually end up pulling my girls from school 3 or 4 times a year for them.

 

[vbdb]

You can get them at our gym but they aren't easy to come by and usually are only done during competition season if there's something an athlete is struggling with. I've never done any with either of my girls and only know of one other kid in another group who did them.
Our coaches make some extra money on the side doing privates for cheer or acro kids with tumbling skills. The gymnasts have lots of time in the gym to work on skills already.

 

[Gymbee06]

Until a few weeks ago there wasn't any gym close that offered them I don't think privates are common in the uk there is a new gym that's offers them to any girl from any club and our new gym is happy for any girl to take privates with the new gym or any gym for that matter they are even
fine if we want to train at another gym the days she's not practicing with them I don't know if this is a good thing or not though

 

[gymmiemom]

Nope, except for choreography. I wish they did though. At least under certain circumstances.

 

[Sasha]

In the 2.5 years we have been at our gym, I have seen the practice change. When we first started (gym and team was smaller, fewer coaches..), privates were somewhat rare, and had to be approved by the HC - in other words, there had to be some specific, legitimate reason why a kid would need a private. Coaches or parents could request, but it was not a common practice.

Fast forward to now, the team and staff has probably tripled in size, and it seems everyone is doing privates for whatever they want. Some kids have multiple event privates every week. Many have a standing 1 hour weekly private for the whole season/year. I would say more than half the Compulsory team had at least 1 private on at least 1 event prior to comp season, and again prior to states. These are girls in the top, middle, and lower scoring segments. My DD has had 2 privates ever, though I admit it becomes tempting when 'everyone is doing it'.

I kinda wish everyone wasn't doing it, to be honest..though, I can see how it would be helpful to coaches for extra income, so I wouldn't deny them that certainly..

I am not sure why the tide turned to where it is now.

 

[z2akids]

DD has had privates for a variety of reasons. She was stuggling with her BHS at level 3 and we had a couple for some one on one time. They were pretty helpful. Last year, she repeated level 3 and was a bit bored. We did a few to work on uptraing to give her a little excitement in the gym. This year at level 4 she has all of her skills safely and they do more uptraing, so we haven't don't any.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Not very common, but they can be requested. DD has done a couple to polish specific skills, and they have been well worth it. The coaches are willing to do them if we really want to, but the main gym philosophy is that the gymnasts should get their skills in practice, not have to do privates.

 

[3gymgirlsmom]

We do them , it helps since there are times the goofing of other kids do cut into my kids time , or like recently 2 girls would not let other girls have there turn on the beam , coach was busy on the bar with another girl , so I like her getting a private ( tho we do them with other kids and not my girls as well go together to save on costs )

 

[wgagym]

We will offer them occasionally if a kiddo is struggling on a specific skill that the rest of the group already has. Sometime just a few privates so that the child can spend a good amount of time one on one with the coach is all they need. I see a huge benefit to this. it gets them caught up so that they can have a more effictive practice.

 

[Vivianflips]

My gym does offer privates, anyone can get one even rec kids. Only team or pre team kids can get privates with the team coaches though. Rec kids can get privates with their rec coach. I did do a few privates when I was at my old gym to work on skills I was specifically struggling with. I haven't done any since, fortunately I haven't really needed them! From what I've seen, not many people do privates at my current gym.

 

[Pea'sMom]

No privates. Same reason you stated at your friends gym. I was told by the coaches that they used to do them, but found that kids would slack during regular practice knowing that they would be having a private. Sounds like the privates were for over invested parents and under invested kids.

I can see how privates could become a slippery slope, and am glad it's just not even an option (the amount of money i would have dumped into last years 'bar fears'? Oy! )

 

[poodlemomma]

Ours doesn't offer it either. The owner said the girls are there enough and if they are there too much, they can suffer burn out. They do offer an optional open gym and an optional conditioning class. Open gym is open to anyone. The conditioning class is open to select students only. The coach won't let a child go in the class if she thinks the child is already too overwhelmed with her current schedule.

 

[Gymmommy71]

No privates. Same reason you stated at your friends gym. I was told by the coaches that they used to do them, but found that kids would slack during regular practice knowing that they would be having a private. Sounds like the privates were for over invested parents and under invested kids.

I can see how privates could become a slippery slope, and am glad it's just not even an option (the amount of money i would have dumped into last years 'bar fears'? Oy! )

Haha - yeah, that's what I think happens a lot. Kid isn't working hard enough in regular class to get an important skill, so parents get frustrated and schedule a private so the kid is on the spot and must work.

I also hear of a lot of privating that I think is about making sure the kid moves up or skips levels (like level 3/4's working on back tucks and flyaways). I think a lot of the time what spurs these is one of the other kids in their child's class gets the skill, so now the parent starts to feel their kid is "behind" - when in the grand scheme of things, they are not.

 

[mommyof1]

My philosophy about private gymnastics lessons is that they are like academic tutoring. If the classroom teacher is doing a good job, most kids should make satisfactory progress without tutoring. Some kids may need short-term or long-term tutoring to address specific issues, but not every child should need tutoring in order to keep up. Same thing with gymnastics. I am perfectly willing to pay for a few private lessons if my daughter is struggling with a particular issue, but if everyone is taking weekly privates then I question the effectiveness of the coaching during regular practice time.

Old gym: Most families did weekly or biweekly privates starting at the preteam level. In the beginning we did a few to keep up with the Joneses, but I wasn't sure there was much benefit, my daughter didn't enjoy them because there were issues with that particular coach, and we stopped. I also thought it allowed the coaches to get away with managing their time poorly during practice.

New gym: When I inquired about privates while we were evaluating the gym, I was told that "Private lessons are not a good way to learn gymnastics, and we only do them if there is a specific need." That was a huge selling point for us. In the year that my daughter has been at the gym, we have done a single private lesson at the coach's request to work on dance elements and form. There are 18 girls on the L3 team training just 9 hours a week with two coaches, and the coach thought that Tinker Bell would benefit from more focused one-on-one attention to detail than was possible during regular practice. My daughter and the coach both seemed satisfied with the progress made during that one lesson. I am not sure whether parents can request private lessons (coaches are very, very busy and there is not a lot of extra room in the gym), but I've been considering asking the coach whether a series of two to four more lessons for additional detail work would be feasible and worthwhile. We will see how much her form has improved at the first meet this weekend.

 

[cbifoja]

I don't think we have any girls who take privates and then slack in class. Most of our slackers don't want to have to work as hard as they would in a private. Now we do have some girls who are "podium princesses" and take multiple privates every week but that's really none of my business so I just kind of giggle and move on.

My DD always used her privates (both standing and now this year as part of her regular training) to fix her dance and some form issues. I don't think there are enough hours of privates in the week to make her a podium princess though. LOL

Honestly, if I were Queen of the Universe, I would tell the parents of my podium princesses to suck it up buttercup if they don't place top 2 every meet. I would actually tell one girl to take a hike because she is so mean to her teammates when they place higher than her and if she blows a meet......Katie bar the door. No way, I would tolerate that if I were in charge! But then I don't have a podium princess...I have a middle medals Mary.