Women Allowing private lessons from another coach

[Muddlethru]

Coaches, under what reasons/circumstances would you allow your gymnast to take a private lesson from another coach outside of your gym? Also what are the reasons you do not want your gymnasts to do so?

Parents/gymnasts, what reasons/circumstances have you presented to your coach(es) where they've allowed you to take lessons from another coach outside of your gym.

Thank you.

 

[profmom]

I'm not a coach, but that's a bright red line at my kids' gym. Part of it is about not giving business to the gym's competitors and part of it is about not having someone unknown teaching skills and possibly not doing it in the ways the coaches would prefer for safety and appropriate progression. I think being caught doing it after having been read the riot act once is grounds for dismissal from the team.

 

[chalkbowl]

I MAY allow it in extenuating circumstances. Such as a gymnast is really struggling with a specific skill on my event & has already tried working with the other coaches in the gym with little or no progress. I would suggest a specific coach to contact or would contact the specific coach on my own for the gymnast/family. It would NOT be a coach from one of our neighboring gyms!

I would want to be able to pick out a coach whose style of coaching and technique I was familiar with. I would not use a neighboring gym as I wouldn't want to give them business or lose my athlete to that gym down the road.

 

[Muddlethru]

Ok. I think additional information is warranted at this point. We belong to a franchise of gyms. The owner (not coaching in any of the gyms) has a few gyms within 40 miles of each other (some 20 miles apart). The owner has a regional manager who just a couple years back was a successful college coach. He doesn't really coach anymore but he does help out the gyms when he visits. Our HC has maybe 4 years experience coaching L9 and L10. And our new beam coach has only last year under her belt coaching L9 and L10. We switched gyms only a over a year ago. I like our HC and would never do anything behind her back. I know coaches can be territorial and ours is no exception. She is also somewhat proud. She will likely not allow it. But I wanted to give it a shot. We have a very experienced coach in our backyard. My daughter is going to L10 this season, with the experiences (or lack thereof) combined of the coaches in our current gym, I think she would greatly benefit.

In addition, I asked our HC if my daughter would benefit from doing some privates. She clearly indicated she would but he has very limited availabilty. In fact, there is nothing during the week and she said she may try to do Sundays but will have to get back to me. Now, I now if I ask about going to our regional manager, she will make every effort to be available. But I still truly want to try this coach. Any suggestions?

 

[gymdog]

That seems a little different, but I guess it really depend on specifics to your gym and how those coaches work together. It's tricky to say but I don't think asking would be out of line or anything. You could try.

As far as the original scenario, there are circumstances where I would definitely be okay with it. They might not be likely to happen. For example, taking vault privates with Howie Liang or bars with Valeri Liukin.

 

[bookworm]

If it's all part of the same gym corporation, maybe there won't be too much of an issue...could you speak to the owner or the regional manager about doing them because if they won't do them, no point in asking if they're allowed....

 

[wallinbl]

Sounds like it might be possible, but I know that DD can do privates with other coaches in the gym, but those generally get coordinated with her event coaches. We've never done it, as we have only done privates for purposes of getting DD a little more bonded with and communicating better with two coaches she seemed afraid of. They actually worked out well in that regard - improved her perspective on those coaches.

 

[happychaos]

I think that if you explained your reasoning for wanting the privates (lack of experienced coaches) your HC would allow it. I would hope that the coach would work with you to see that your concerns are addressed, instead of taking a territorial, defensive attitude. If privates help your DD to be a better gymnasts, than HC wins too, right?

 

[Gymsanity]

I help kids and coaches from other gyms from time to time. Some parents whisper the old 'why is he helping the competition' thing, but I like to help raise the standard for everyone. Plus, I tell my kids and parents, 'if you don't like it, work harder!'
Having said that, if one of my kids (which I couldn't imagine) did that, I would wish them all the luck at their new gym!