Parents Coaches at meets

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Gymmomlvl3

Proud Parent
I was wondering if your head coach attends all meets? Our head coach is also the head coach for the all star cheer team in our gym. It is a small gym. We have 20 girls on our team with levels 2-7. The coach will skip gymnastics meets to attend cheer competitions and another coach will attend the gymnastics meet. Also, how many coaches attend your meets? Last year we generally had 2. We have only had a few meets so far this year but only 1 coach has attended.
 
Usually, the HC attends the local meets and state for the compulsories and all the optional meets. This year with 5 coaches on staff, 3 have been going to the compulsory out of town meets and 2 (HC usually with one of the male coaches) have stayed behind for the optional Saturday practices. Not sure what the arrangement will be for optionals.
 
At our gym, HC goes to all the meets unless there is a conflict (she missed a meet last time she gave birth). We also have AT LEAST one other coach there. The plus about our gym is that one of the other gym moms is an assistant coach and 2 of the other moms are rec coaches with team coaching experience. These 3 moms have girls in 4, 6, and XLG, so most sessions would be covered in an emergency. I have gymmies in 3 and XLG and could also step in at he meet if necessary during the Level 3 session (I got my USAG Professional Membership and have taken all the basic courses). We have no L5s and our 2 L7s will always compete with the L6 OR XLG & XLP, so all of our sessions are easily covered. We do have 3 assistant coaches that do not have gymnasts on team and it is possible that all of them may go to some of the meets (they will def be at home meet and District Championships, since it is at home). With our large L3 and L4 teams, it is possible we would get split into 2 flights in a meet, so we need extra coaches.
It also seems that this year, we will probably be doing more Modified Capitol Cup format meets (which I personally HATE for the compulsories), so we will be split part of the time, even if we are all in the same group.
 
At our gym each girls personal coach attends the meet with them. Sometimes that means there will be three coaches for five girls or something. They feel it is important that that personal relationship in intact in the stressful environment of a meet. Our HC attends all the sessions that has girls that he coaches and attends many of the other sessions as well, but not all the sessions all the time. He likes to keep tabs on and be there to support all the girls whenever he can.
 
The coaches that coach each level go to that level's meets. We have three coaches that always attend ours, and then the director of the team program sometimes comes as well. I would say he has been to about half of them.
 
We have never had just 1 coach at a meet before, but our team has always been big enough to warrant more. The bare minimum is 2 coaches and that is rare. Sometimes there will be 4 or 5 hanging around depending on how many sessions our girls are competing in and how they overlap. 3 is the norm.
 
I have never seen HC/owner or even the girls HC at a compulsory meet. Just the compulsory team coaches. It would probably make the girls very nervous to have either of the HC's there, since they never train with them.
 
i'm sure your gym does all that they can do. the coaching shortage is at an all time low...
 
Speaking of coaching shortages, we have one now and so we have had to shuffle meets so that the HC can come to the optional level meets. Usually there is just one coach there but if it is a large team or the optionals and compulsories are there on the same day then both coaches are there. We really try to have the coaches that work with the girls the most be there for the meet.
 

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