Will there be a shortage of gymnastics coaches due to COVID-19?

[JBS]

I guess the title states it all.

Do you all think the effects of the Coronavirus on the economy will cause a shortage of gymnastics coaches?

 

[RTT2]

Good question. I think there is no doubt that some gyms will have to close, so it's possible that there could be a surplus of coaches looking for work. Or, so many coaches may need to find higher paying jobs that they will leave the industry altogether. The whole thing is awful all around.

 

[JBS]

Good question. I think there is no doubt that some gyms will have to close, so it's possible that there could be a surplus of coaches looking for work. Or, so many coaches may need to find higher paying jobs that they will leave the industry altogether. The whole thing is awful all around.

Yes... we are a bit worried... but you bring up a good point... there may be gyms closing. Will that push coaches to other clubs or other industries... not sure? If a coach already had issues with there club will this be a good time to find a new place... not sure? Will there be new less athletes to coach... not sure?

 

[JBS]

You mean because they will have found other employment in the interim?

Sure... that could be one reason... but there could be many more reasons as well.

 

[RTT2]

I was thinking more because some coaches may need to find higher paying positions with full benefits. They may have a spouse who is now unemployed and need to earn more than they did through coaching.

 

[JBS]

I was thinking more because some coaches may need to find higher paying positions with full benefits. They may have a spouse who is now unemployed and need to earn more than they did through coaching.

This is a huge reason that the industry has been losing coaches long before the pandemic began... benefits. I know many many coaches that have left gymnastics for jobs with health benefits... retirement packages... vacation days... etc.

 

[jamieintexas]

I have been coaching for 34 years. The only people that I know that have been coaching forever either own a gym or have a spouse that has a job with benefits. There are some couples that coach together that don’t own a gym but that is more rare. I am able to coach because of my husband. I will be able to stay a coach because of him. I don’t know what is going to happen to the younger coaches after this. On the one hand, I do believe that some gyms will shutdown but I also believe this will push coaches out the door.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Yes, but there will also be a shortage of gymnasts, so it may balance out.

I think sports industries in general are likely to take a massive hit, both in participation and in staffing.

(I don't plan on returning to coaching when gymnastics comes back to life, but I'd planned on this past season being my last anyway)

 

[mommyof1]

The only people that I know that have been coaching forever either own a gym or have a spouse that has a job with benefits.

My daughter has had a lot of coaches who are primarily teachers, nurses, etc. and coach as a second job. Most of these people have been coaching for decades. I don't know how they have the energy.

 

[Aussie_coach]

I personally don’t think we will have a coach shortage. Quite the opposite actually, I think we will have a shortage of work for our coaches.

I have been in meetings with all my coaches and not one has found other work during the period where there is no work at the gym, none are looking for another job at the moments. For those who already had a second job, all but one have also lost that job as well.

Many people are unemployed, many jobs have disappeared, very few people are hiring new staff. Finding work is very, very hard at the moment.

I anticipate having to make some very tough decisions in the future as to which coaches will stay on and which will need to go. My countries government is helping with this by introducing a new scheme, called the Job Keeper scheme. Businesses that have experienced a significant downturn in their profits around this time, will be paid $1500 per fortnight, per eligible employee. We then pass this wage onto our employees, and this will continue for 6 months. So the government will either pay our employees full wage (and give them a pay rise) if they earn less than $1500 in a fortnight, or they help us fund part of their wage if they earn more than that.

This means that at least until mid September we can keep these staff on, to allow us time to rebuild our businesses (although at this stage we are not allowed to open and there has been no message of when this may occur) we could be closed the whole time. But once September rolls around, we may to start terminating employees.

But the government will only give this wage subsidy for people who were employed by our business on March 1st (ie before it all went south) so employers will be looking to retain old staff, or bring back laid off staff who worked for them on March 1st. But they will be hesitant to hire any new staff, because their wages won’t be subsidised.

 

[JBS]

@Aussie_coach Awesome post!

I guess that is the way I am seeing it too... a shortage of work for coaches. I just see that part as the part that will drive them out of gymnastics and lead to a shortage of coaches as we really recover in the long term.

 

[GymDadWA]

Team coaches have been able to interact and coach their athletes to a limited degree during this and I think they will stick around, but the rec coaches are primarily college aged kids and a lot of them went back home so it is hard to say if they will return, the other thing that is being assumed by the gym is that when the athletes are allowed back in the gym it would be under a strict capacity limit, so they just might not have the room to teach rec, team, pre-school, ninja, t&t, mens, dance, cheer, etc. all at the same time like they were before if they are only allowed a certain amount of people in the building at the same time.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

So.... not to be all doom and gloom, but what if there is no "recovery?"

During quarantine, all of the kids have had to find ways of entertaining themselves at home, and many of the parents are seeing their income decrease dramatically. At the same time, we are all spending months being reminded constantly that physical proximity to other people is to be avoided at all costs. I don't know about you all, but I've already gotten to a point where seeing people stand close to each other in movies or TV shows, let alone shake hands or hug each other, makes me cringe by reflex; I suspect this reflexive resistance to closer proximity that we are currently (and necessarily) learning right now will not simply leave us when the threat is gone; the human brain holds on to threat responses like that.
On top of all of that, sports as a whole have been essentially deleted from the world. The parts of our culture that center around sports have vanished.

All this is to say: even if the virus were to vanish tomorrow, we would be left with a world where kids have gotten used to entertaining themselves at home, parents have less money, everybody feels some level of anxiety at the idea of any sort of physical proximity, and sports in general feel irrelevant to current culture. That's not really a positive scenario for the recovery prospects of a sport like ours, which involves everybody's hands repeatedly touching the same equipment hundreds of times per day, and involves very close contact between athletes and spotters.

And that's just the situation we'd be looking at if the virus disappeared tomorrow.
Which it won't.
Some experts have suggested that a certain level of isolation may be necessary (at least seasonally) until a vaccine is developed; that may be as much as two years away.

I hope we can eventually return to something resembling normalcy, but it would also be wise to prepare for less-rosy scenarios. Gymnastics as we know it may not recover for many years.

Or it may never recover.

 

[sfts]

I am a part time coach (team, not rec). It is my side job - it is something I enjoy doing and it brings in money for hobbies/fun while my main job is dedicated to paying the bills. I am not sure if I will go back - I loved coaching, but I finding I am loving the time to spend on myself as well. I'm getting in better shape, eating better, feeling less stressed about my main job (which, thankfully, I still have), etc. I have no nagging muscle tweaks from spotting girls bigger than I am!

Obviously, I have a luxury not everyone has and the gym community would suffer no great loss if I left - only a few dozen girls at my gym would be affected. So, maybe I will go back, maybe I won't go back, maybe I shouldn't go back and take money from someone who needs coaching as their only job, maybe there will be nothing to go back to - I imagine the number of gymnasts who never return will be very high, especially among the 12+-year-old crowd who can be tough to retain anyway.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Geoffrey Taucer, I agree. Many kids (and parents) are jumping out of their skin to return but many will not. We have all been forced to consider just how easy it is to spread germs from person to person, even if not for Coronavirus, but for any illness. Agreed, that even if we find a cure tomorrow many people will hesitate to return to shaking hands, hugging, attending large gatherings, playing sports etc. Perhaps for a very long time.

No matter what government support we get, no matter which social restrictions are lifted some (possibly many) gymnastics clubs (and other businesses) will not survive in the long term.

It is not fun to be a gymnastics club owner right now! But it could be worse, lots of people have no prospect of work at all.

 

[Muddlethru]

Our area has always had a shortage of coaches, more specifically good experienced coaches. It has always been a revolving door of coaches. Not sure what the effects will be after the pandemic. Inasmuch as the coaches may like to seek employment in other industries for better benefits, higher income, etc, will there be enough jobs?

 

[SMH]

I have been coaching for 34 years. The only people that I know that have been coaching forever either own a gym or have a spouse that has a job with benefits. There are some couples that coach together that don’t own a gym but that is more rare. I am able to coach because of my husband. I will be able to stay a coach because of him. I don’t know what is going to happen to the younger coaches after this. On the one hand, I do believe that some gyms will shutdown but I also believe this will push coaches out the door.

Our head coaches are a younger, married couple with kids. We live in an area with no other gyms. I worry every day that the gym will close- it’s their only livelihood. If our gym closes, it would be the end of gymnastics for the vast majority of girls in our area. We already have a decent amount of kids driving 20 mins to an hour in to our gym. Most parents would not be willing/able to drive to the next closest gyms.

 

[3rd_time_around]

People need people. We can’t go around avoiding each other for 2 years. This virus, like any other germ (flu, stomach, chicken pox, strep, common cold, etc) will become part of the yearly cycle we will learn to deal with. More people will build up immunity, etc. A vaccine does not guarantee anything, if it did the flu wouldn’t kill 20,000-65,000 annually. We need to take precautions, but even these extreme guidelines, like 6 feet apart, constant cleaning, etc, really won’t make a lot of difference. Who picks these arbitrary distances? My husband is licensed in microorganism containment and clean up, and even he says masks don’t stop transmission and 6 feet might as well be 1 foot or 10 feet (I’m paraphrasing here). I’m not cringing at people in movies hugging or gathering, I’m jealous and mad and sad because we’ve been reduced to fearful, mistrusting, germaphobes who give everyone the side-eye and are afraid of each other. I miss my family, friends, and my kids friends and sports in general. My thoughts are it’s time to start living normally again. But that’s just me.

 

[mommyof1]

We lost a family member to the virus this morning. This is not the flu or chicken pox or strep or the common cold. Kids are vaccinated against chicken pox, and strep is easily curable. Even the flu vaccine is at
least partially effective. As a society, we should not give up so easily and just accept that COVID-19 will kill millions of people every year. We must fight to get it under control.

I am simply not willing to risk my child’s life for a sport, or school, or a haircut, or a dentist appointment. Our family will continue working, learning, and working out at home until we are vaccinated or the disease is contained. I know there are some who feel that a constrained life is not worth living, but I am not one of those people. Unfortunately, those people’s choices mean that the virus will continue to spread and my family will have to remain sequestered even longer.

 

[RTT2]

We lost a family member to the virus this morning.

I am so very sorry to hear of your loss.