The Pros and Cons of Privates

[Bella's Mom]

My daughter has recently started weekly private lessons. The coach sat down with me, laid out why she thought Bella would benefit, set a timeline so we all knew it was a temporary situation rather than long term, and explained the cost, benefits, potential drawbacks. I was very impressed with her professionalism and thoroughness.

For our family and my daughter, it is a good situation. We are using private lessons as a motivator and relationship builder. Bella is working on some uptraining and also leadership skills because her coach wants to mold those. The lessons will be until move ups in a month or two at which point Bella moves up to the L3 team. That will be the end of them.

I feel she gets excellent instruction in her regular training times so that's not why we do them. But the training time is used to perfect the L3 routine and just a bit of uptraining right now. It fits our situation and Bella looks forward to the one on one time with her coach. It makes her feel special and helps keep her attention grabbing behaviors at a minimum during class times.

 

[gymjourneymom]

I'm going to go in a different direction here & suggest that this question is far too subjective to get a reasonable answers from everyone. People are comparing apples to oranges. As we so often learn here on CB, not all gyms or gym programs are created equal! So in many ways they cannot be compared. A "private" at my gym may mean something different then a "private" at your gym. A "private" at my DD's is $20 for 1/2 of one on one time, to focus on the gymnasts areas of need. But our gymnasts don't train as many regular hours other gyms I hear of.

At my DD's gym the L10's do 20hrs/wk & the training hours go down from there. Plus, we have rather large teams. Some of you have L5's doing the hours our L10's do. So you can see how are we are not on the same page for comparasion. We aren't all coming from the same place if you know what I mean. Each of us only seeing this question from what we've seen from our DD's or your own gym's perspective.

I don't have a problem with adding an extra 1/2 per week for $20 to focus my DD's individual needs. Especially since I DO NOT expect my DD's fear issues to be dealt with during regular practice. The help that she needs to overcome her fear issues should NOT hold up team practice!!! I pay to get my DD the help she needs to over come her fear issues. One on one supportive coaching IS what helps her. Without her privates I believe she would have given up & quit the sport years ago. Also, my DD is a teenager, she chooses to do this sport & privates. It is her choice. I think that also comes into play in the question. She's not a 6yrs old, she's 15yrs old and this is her choice. And privates at our gym are not a big money maker for the coaches or the gym. It is an extra service available for the gymnast who might benefit from it.

And the mom with her DD training at a Y & doing privates at a private gym sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

Lets all try to learn from each other instead of saying "My DD would never do privates, she doesn't need them". That's swell for your DD! But my DD does well at her gym with privates. It works for us. Every situation is different, there is no blanket right or wrong answer. The answer is as individual as our children and their situation. JMHO.

 

[lhmom]

^^^^^^
Excellent post!!

 

[Bella's Mom]

She's not a 6yrs old, she's 15yrs old and this is her choice.

Hey now! My daughter is 6 and her private lessons are also her choice. Six year olds can make choices too.

 

[gymjourneymom]

Hey now! My daughter is 6 and her private lessons are also her choice. Six year olds can make choices too.

Sorry didn't mean to offend! I was actually posting while cooking dinner last night. When my meal started burning I had to abandon my posting. Sorry I didn't get a chance to proof read like I usually try to do. Please forgive me!

But I think my main point came accross. That being--people's situations are different! You really can't compare them easily! Guess that's what I was really trying to say in a nutshell.

Oh, just to clarify my DD's privates are $20 & a 1/2 an hour long. This is 1 time per week, on top of 16hrs of regular training. Her & I do not find this excessive in any way. Paying $20 for a private is nothing compared to seeing her smile when she over comes a fear issue! When people ask me what has helped my DD overcome her fears? I tell them we have tried everything(seriously, we have), but the thing that helps her the MOST is privates with a SUPPORTIVE COACH!!!!

So if you want MY opinion...privates are the best thing since sliced bread, LOL! But I admit that's just MY perspective from MY DD's experience with them .

 

[Bella's Mom]

I wasn't offended....just wanted to tease a bit.

Our private lessons are $22/half hour and $40/hour. Bella goes for an hour because it takes us 20 minutes to drive to her gym so I'm darn sure going to make her stay for at least an hour.......

I do understand and agree with what you say about how everyone's situation is so different that it is difficult to compare. We have gymnasts who have standing weekly privates and take them throughout comp season. We have some that just take them around the big comps (state and regionals). When Bella moves up, we'll stop altogether.

I don't really know how are practice hours compare to others. Our L2s practice 2h x 2 day/week. Our L3s practice 3h x 2 day/week plus another two days on Sunday for conditioning and dance...so a total of 8 hours. I can't see adding another hour for privates when she's up to L3 but who really knows.....

 

[cis007]

If Reading or math were the issue- just saying

I have a DD that has always needed more repetition and more explaining than the next child her age. As far as reading and math goes, I do extra one on one with her on those subjects at home with an exponential return for my time. She works VERY hard at school and doesn't slack off because she knows that she has a "private" to fall back on. This is the same learning pattern she has for gymnastics. She took FOREVER learning her routines so I invest a half hour to an hour every week that it works out and also get an exponential return for the time invested. Just saying

 

[GetaGrip]

I've had private lessons before, and I do agree that they are usually pretty fun and productive, but very very expensive. At the time, I was only going for fun. This was because my coach wasn't letting me attend Woodward because he said it was "too close to competition season" and he didn't want me picking up bad habits. When I told him that I wanted to learn my strap giants there, we had private lessons instead and I got them there, as well as quite a few things on tumble track.

I wouldn't use a private lesson for anything but fun or being scared of doing a skill so I could have one on one with the coach without sucking it from the other gymnasts.

 

[virginiacoach]

We have a policy at our gym that we do not do any private lessons. We feel if we can't get it done in 18 hours per week, then we have a coaching problem. We have a very large team program (and looking like it is going to get even larger at the end of the season - our owner can't say no to anyone)! However, we also have a newly expanded facility with an entire 14,000 sq. feet dedicated to teams. We have a lot of equipment, small groups of 8:1 and lots of experienced coaches with little to no turnover.. if we can't get it done with that time, then we are doing something wrong. There are so many gymnasts who come to us from other gyms and they all breathe a sigh of relief that there are no privates. There is none of the private lesson scramble that goes on to see who can get the most with a certain coach especially before the state meet. It eliminates a whole lotta drama! Yet we manage to finish in the top 8 or so - and more often or not in the top 5 - at almost every level every year for the last 10 years at our states and send gymnasts to regionals, nationals and college scholarships... it is just not necessary if you have a good program with solid basics AND put kids in the levels that they belong.

 

[vagymmomma]

Not sure if virginiacoach is referring to all levels or just optionals, but if our compulsory girls practiced 18 hours a week and had an 8 to 1 coaching ratio then we wouldn't need private lessons either. Very few of our optionals have privates though (lot more hours and smaller team size).

 

[lilgymmie7]

We have a policy at our gym that we do not do any private lessons. We feel if we can't get it done in 18 hours per week, then we have a coaching problem. We have a very large team program (and looking like it is going to get even larger at the end of the season - our owner can't say no to anyone)! However, we also have a newly expanded facility with an entire 14,000 sq. feet dedicated to teams. We have a lot of equipment, small groups of 8:1 and lots of experienced coaches with little to no turnover.. if we can't get it done with that time, then we are doing something wrong. There are so many gymnasts who come to us from other gyms and they all breathe a sigh of relief that there are no privates. There is none of the private lesson scramble that goes on to see who can get the most with a certain coach especially before the state meet. It eliminates a whole lotta drama! Yet we manage to finish in the top 8 or so - and more often or not in the top 5 - at almost every level every year for the last 10 years at our states and send gymnasts to regionals, nationals and college scholarships... it is just not necessary if you have a good program with solid basics AND put kids in the levels that they belong.

I didn't think this were possible before DD moved to her new gym. They too I heard, from parents, do not believe in private lessons. But somehow they manage to have a team load of winners. I like that ideal!! So does my pocket book!

 

[MaryA]

We have a policy at our gym that we do not do any private lessons. We feel if we can't get it done in 18 hours per week, then we have a coaching problem. We have a very large team program (and looking like it is going to get even larger at the end of the season - our owner can't say no to anyone)! However, we also have a newly expanded facility with an entire 14,000 sq. feet dedicated to teams. We have a lot of equipment, small groups of 8:1 and lots of experienced coaches with little to no turnover.. if we can't get it done with that time, then we are doing something wrong. There are so many gymnasts who come to us from other gyms and they all breathe a sigh of relief that there are no privates. There is none of the private lesson scramble that goes on to see who can get the most with a certain coach especially before the state meet. It eliminates a whole lotta drama! Yet we manage to finish in the top 8 or so - and more often or not in the top 5 - at almost every level every year for the last 10 years at our states and send gymnasts to regionals, nationals and college scholarships... it is just not necessary if you have a good program with solid basics AND put kids in the levels that they belong.

I wish we had a gym like that around here!

 

[virginiacoach]

VaGymMomma - our level 5 & 6 gymnasts practice 12 hours per week, our level 7 & 8 practice 16 hours and our Level 9 & 10 practice 18 hours.. actually much less than every other gym around us - and we don't do privates for anyone. hope that clarifies

 

[NGL780309]

I've come to realize that a lot of girls at DD's gym do privates every week. I don't want to do that from a money and time standpoint, but I sometimes feel like it puts DD at a disadvantage. She could certainly use the extra attention.

 

[gymjourneymom]

VaGymMomma - our level 5 & 6 gymnasts practice 12 hours per week, our level 7 & 8 practice 16 hours and our Level 9 & 10 practice 18 hours.. actually much less than every other gym around us - and we don't do privates for anyone. hope that clarifies

Sounds like you have found Gym Utopia there in VA ! I think we'd all like this type of situation. But the truth is, we DON'T all have this situation. So we each have to do what is best for our children in their particular situation. For my DD it's doing privates, for some others it's not. To each their own. JMHO.

 

[gymdog]

VaGymMomma - our level 5 & 6 gymnasts practice 12 hours per week, our level 7 & 8 practice 16 hours and our Level 9 & 10 practice 18 hours.. actually much less than every other gym around us - and we don't do privates for anyone. hope that clarifies

Seems about right for most the gyms in the state actually. I'd say the gyms that practice much more than that are the exception, not the rule. And I've lived in the two most populated (i.e. gym-heavy) areas in the state.