Parents Change of scenery

[jpgymmom]

Hi! I found this site looking for help on how to manage a tough situation with my daughter who is level 6. Our gym has experienced much coaching attrition over a few years and I have seen some stagnant progress as well as some coaching limitations due to this. There are a few other things I feel that the gym doesn’t put enough focus on for shaping, etc. There are several other gyms in our area and I would like to move to another gym. However, my daughter is very upset about leaving her friends and has said she just wants to quit if we have to move. She tried the gyms and didn’t dislike them in any way, admits coaches were nice, but the discomfort of the change is getting to her emotionally in a pretty heavy way. I really feel it is time for a change but I don’t want to push her out of the sport. I think she needs a few weeks to make new friends and get familiar but do I take a stand here or stay where I don’t think she is getting adequate coaching and call it just for fun at this point? She is 12 which I think plays a role in the friend aspect. I was hoping to push her to give it a try at a new place for at least a month and see what happens, but maybe I am wrong on this? I could use some advice! I just dont feel we are getting what we need from current gym/coaching.

 

[gym_dad32608]

I guess I would ask, what do you think you should be getting from the current gym/coaching (and I don't mean that to sound sassy)? 12 is often a crossroads point in many gymnastics journies. Definitely see a lot of girls in this age range that leave the sport. Are you, or more specifically your daughter looking to make it to college as a gymnast? Or is this just an after-school physical activity? How you answer that should tell you how to push. If its just an afterschool physical activity then as long as the environment is safe and she is having fun then why push a change she doesn't want? Of course there are other external factors like family time and family money that may come into play here. If she has more serious aspirations (although 12 yo L6 is pretty limiting) then that's definitely a conversation about moving.

 

[NutterButter]

I agree with post above! One word of caution, assume that if you let your DD try out another gym for a month that you will not be welcome to return to your old gym should things not work out.

 

[jpgymmom]

I guess I would ask, what do you think you should be getting from the current gym/coaching (and I don't mean that to sound sassy)? 12 is often a crossroads point in many gymnastics journies. Definitely see a lot of girls in this age range that leave the sport. Are you, or more specifically your daughter looking to make it to college as a gymnast? Or is this just an after-school physical activity? How you answer that should tell you how to push. If its just an afterschool physical activity then as long as the environment is safe and she is having fun then why push a change she doesn't want? Of course there are other external factors like family time and family money that may come into play here. If she has more serious aspirations (although 12 yo L6 is pretty limiting) then that's definitely a conversation about moving.

I guess I would ask, what do you think you should be getting from the current gym/coaching (and I don't mean that to sound sassy)? 12 is often a crossroads point in many gymnastics journies. Definitely see a lot of girls in this age range that leave the sport. Are you, or more specifically your daughter looking to make it to college as a gymnast? Or is this just an after-school physical activity? How you answer that should tell you how to push. If its just an afterschool physical activity then as long as the environment is safe and she is having fun then why push a change she doesn't want? Of course there are other external factors like family time and family money that may come into play here. If she has more serious aspirations (although 12 yo L6 is pretty limiting) then that's definitely a conversation about moving.

I appreciate what you are saying. She loves gymnastics and would like to keep moving forward but I can’t say for sure she is thinking about college (she wants to continue but that’s all she can say so it isn’t off the table if we could get there, but does want to pursue advancing as much as possible.. However, coaching I am referring to is more a lack of certain things. Essentially two coaches overseeing multiple levels of both xcel, optional, pre-team etc so spread very thin and often just doing self directed drills. Some of that I understand but I have directly asked about shapes, form where essentially I would say our entire gym lacks in comparison to almost every other gym I have seen in the many years we have been on team. The response is along the lines of we don’t have time for that or we don’t have enough coaches for that extra stuff where I think some of the form/shapes are a big part of gymnastics and it is substantially lacking(I have seen them compete and it is not just a matter of a few fabulously skilled girls, our entire team looks pretty sloppy at most all levels comparatively to entire other teams and they don’t really seem to care about that). I also find that there is some ignoring of skill my daughter is struggling with and they say we will wait until fall to work on that. Seems like a waste of several months to never do it. Those are my primary concerns. For time and commitment I think would like to see her get that little higher level of coaching.