Parents Coaches not around for awards??

[Deleted member 18037]

LOL. I've NEVER seen kids get up to the podium in a timely fashion, with or without coaches. Not even the bigger kids. And they ALWAYS end up at the wrong numbers. I think that's more the job of the meet volunteers who are announcing names and handing out awards, not the coaches.

Honestly, it only sends a bad message if you think it does. We choose to look at it differently.

You took the typing right out of my hands...................
The folks running the meet should have that job...............
And again, its always a bit of debacle.

 

[Gymmommy71]

Nah. The kids get it. They know coaches are often coming from or going to another session. The kids also know that the coaches often miss meals during meets. I think you are projecting your desire for your kid to be congratulated by the coach in the moment of the award. The coach would have already congratulated the kid on a great routine immediately after the routine.

In the vast majority of sports, coaches are there at the ceremonial award moment... If a football team wins a championship, the coach doesn't congratulate the kid who scored the winning touchdown in the 4 quarter and then high-tail it out of there as soon as the clock runs out leaving the kids and parents to raise the trophy on the field. I think we as gymnastics parents who think it's perfectly fine that coaches don't attend awards cause they work so hard for all the other kids besides our kid's team, are giving the gyms an easy pass on this one...staffing or meet schedules should be such that a coach can be there for awards for all teams more often than not (understand sometimes exceptions occur). Would an elite coach not attend the medal ceremony at the Olympics cause they've been there all day and want to get something to eat? So we're saying just cause these kids are "only level 3's and 4's" it's okay for their coach to not be there?

For the most part, my daughter's teams have had coaches attend her awards on a very consistent basis, so it's really not been an issue for her...even at state meets when there is just one or two girls in a session, coaches make an effort to stay. Maybe it's a regional thing cause I think most gyms around here do this.

 

[Flyaway]

Personally, I just really feel for our coaches. At our gym, dd's coach is the gym owner. And I know that most of the time she feels like she can't do anything right. Parents complain about cost. Parents complain about practice time. Coach taking a vacation. Not communicating enough. Communicating too much. Parents complain, complain, complain. In the context of this thread, a coach attending or not attending an awards ceremony (which in the grand scheme of things means nothing) does not directly affect my child's performance that day. It's said and done. So I choose to not die on this hill. Give them a break, let them off easy on this thing. Complain about the stuff that DOES affect my child's performance. I work hard to find that balance - dd's coach knows that when I come to her with a complaint or concern, it MEANS something because I let go of the little things. And yes, a level 3 awards ceremony is a little thing.

PS. Obviously I must feel strongly about this because I've never responded this much in one single thread before. LOL. I guess I just feel like our world needs a little more grace these days.

 

[z2akids]

I am fine with the coaches leaving if they are working multiple sessions, but this is almost never the case at our gym. If the girls and families are required to stay to demonstrate sportsmanship and support for all competitors, it does not send a good message if the coaches are hightailing it out of there. With the itty bitties you also need the coaches there to corral them and make sure they get to the podium in a timely fashion when their names are called. I am glad my daughter's coaches stay with the team during awards whenever possible.

At DD's gym, most of the level head coaches only coach one or two levels, so most do not have additional sessions to attend. However, most are part time employees at our fairly small gym. They have families, other jobs and responsibilities. Noone questions whether they love these girls. However, we also recognize that awards are for the parents and the girls. The coaches just watched their routines. They know which girls had the meet of their lives, which ones struggled and what they need to work on. Who cares how they compared to the random assirtment of girls in their age grouping? Coaches are paid to coach the girls during the meet, not to sit and watch awards. I prefer to keep coaching fees a little lower by knocking that extra hour off of their time at meets. I don't expect them to volunteer their time to watch a painfully long process that I wish I didn't have to stay for. I have never seen coaches sit with their gymnasts during awards, so they aren't corralling them. Let the volunteers do it. Once awards are finished, most families are simply trying to get out of Dodge and get food, not stick around for hugs from coaches. They got those after each routine. Sometimes groups will go out for food and once in a while the coaches will go as well. The kids love that, but I understand why they don't. I have seen coaches grilled after meets about why little Sally didn't place higher. How would the coach know? Hopefully she was busy paying attention to Sally during the meet and not watching Sally's competition.

Placements are a nice tangible reward, but are so random. Last season my DD and a girl on her tean had the exact same B'day. Due to size of groupings, they were in 2 different age groups (DD youngest in hers, teammate oldest in hers). DD had an AA score more than a whole point higher than teammate and placed lower. If they had swapped groups, DD would have been 2nd rather than 4th or 5th (I don't even remember what she actually placed. just remember 2nd, because she was frustrated on that ride home - and then got over it) and her teammate would have had much lower placements. Coach already knew that DD finally landed her cartwheel in competition. That was what mattered, not the crazy differences in placements.

 

[mommyof1]

So the bigger question is, why do we as parents put up with these horrible awards ceremonies that we do not even expect the coaches to attend? If I were in charge, the age groups would make sense even if they were radically different in size (e.g, 8 years old, 9 years old, etc.) and there would only be three or four medals per event. The awards under the current regime are largely meaningless. At states this year my daughter would have had three more medals if she'd been in the next group up or down. She has already figured out that placements are entirely a function of arbitrary age group divisions. So why do we bother with this nonsense at all?

 

[Gymmommy71]

So the bigger question is, why do we as parents put up with these horrible awards ceremonies that we do not even expect the coaches to attend? If I were in charge, the age groups would make sense even if they were radically different in size (e.g, 8 years old, 9 years old, etc.) and there would only be three or four medals per event. The awards under the current regime are largely meaningless. At states this year my daughter would have had three more medals if she'd been in the next group up or down. She has already figured out that placements are entirely a function of arbitrary age group divisions. So why do we bother with this nonsense at all?

I agree that there is a dire need for award reform in gymnastics. All the numerous awards create a lot of work for the parent volunteers working the meet as well - it's a lot easier to prep for a top 3 in 3 age groups, than it is for a top 50% in 6 age groups . Less money too. One issue I could see w/ going down to much fewer medals is that many, many kids would just leave afterwards cause they knew they weren't getting anything. But that may not be a bad thing?

 

[wandrewsjr]

Five different medals to 50 different gymnasts versus a single championship trophy...damn, should have been a football coach.

 

[mommyof1]

Five different medals to 50 different gymnasts versus a single championship trophy...damn, should have been a football coach.

Or track. I don't ever remember an awards ceremony at a high school track invitational. When there were medals, they sent them home with the coaches to be handed out at the next practice.

 

[skschlag]

In the vast majority of sports, coaches are there at the ceremonial award moment... If a football team wins a championship, the coach doesn't congratulate the kid who scored the winning touchdown in the 4 quarter and then high-tail it out of there as soon as the clock runs out leaving the kids and parents to raise the trophy on the field. I think we as gymnastics parents who think it's perfectly fine that coaches don't attend awards cause they work so hard for all the other kids besides our kid's team, are giving the gyms an easy pass on this one...staffing or meet schedules should be such that a coach can be there for awards for all teams more often than not (understand sometimes exceptions occur). Would an elite coach not attend the medal ceremony at the Olympics cause they've been there all day and want to get something to eat? So we're saying just cause these kids are "only level 3's and 4's" it's okay for their coach to not be there?

For the most part, my daughter's teams have had coaches attend her awards on a very consistent basis, so it's really not been an issue for her...even at state meets when there is just one or two girls in a session, coaches make an effort to stay. Maybe it's a regional thing cause I think most gyms around here do this.

A football coach coaches 1 game....2-3 hours, maybe, and then he gets to go home. Our coaches are coachign from 7:30am-10pm some days....with little breaks. They are in charge of our kiddos for hours, without a break, and sometimes without help. A football coach often has 2-3 assistant coaches.

Every game does not give out awards. Every meet does. If they were awarding a championship trophy every game, that might be different. So maybe we do need to look into the fact that we give out Way.Too. Many. Awards.

At big meets, from waht I have seen, coaches do try to stay. BUt the fact is, there are few gymnastics coaches, and they work obnoxiously long hours for low pay. Our coaches try to stay for state, and definitely stay for regionals and nationals. THOSE are championships. Those are comparable to a medal cerymony at the olympics. To compare local city invitational to a championship is apples to oranges.

 

[wallinbl]

So the bigger question is, why do we as parents put up with these horrible awards ceremonies that we do not even expect the coaches to attend? If I were in charge, the age groups would make sense even if they were radically different in size (e.g, 8 years old, 9 years old, etc.) and there would only be three or four medals per event. The awards under the current regime are largely meaningless. At states this year my daughter would have had three more medals if she'd been in the next group up or down. She has already figured out that placements are entirely a function of arbitrary age group divisions. So why do we bother with this nonsense at all?

The girls like it?

The coaches have other work to do, so they're not there. Even if that was their last or only session, they know how the girl did, they encouraged the girl throughout the meet at each routine, and they'll do so in the gym on Monday. Not sure why they need to stand there at awards. They're already giving up enough of their weekend, and they're not highly paid.

 

[twinmomma]

In the vast majority of sports, coaches are there at the ceremonial award moment... If a football team wins a championship, the coach doesn't congratulate the kid who scored the winning touchdown in the 4 quarter and then high-tail it out of there as soon as the clock runs out leaving the kids and parents to raise the trophy on the field. I think we as gymnastics parents who think it's perfectly fine that coaches don't attend awards cause they work so hard for all the other kids besides our kid's team, are giving the gyms an easy pass on this one...staffing or meet schedules should be such that a coach can be there for awards for all teams more often than not (understand sometimes exceptions occur). Would an elite coach not attend the medal ceremony at the Olympics cause they've been there all day and want to get something to eat? So we're saying just cause these kids are "only level 3's and 4's" it's okay for their coach to not be there?

For the most part, my daughter's teams have had coaches attend her awards on a very consistent basis, so it's really not been an issue for her...even at state meets when there is just one or two girls in a session, coaches make an effort to stay. Maybe it's a regional thing cause I think most gyms around here do this.

If you schedule a meet so that coaches can be there for awards it would be a four day event rather than a 2 day one. You can't equate winning a baseball game with 50 kid in 6 different sessions getting medals. And it isn't the Olympics. It's L3 with 500 girls running throughout the day. Gymnastics coaches at a competitive level are difficult to retain. If you staff so each level has their own coach, you either sacrifice numbers on the team so more families are upset little Susie didn't make team, or you have more coaches than you can afford to pay. In T&T large meets, they don't have a centralized awards ceremony. They do flight awards, so after each flight there's a stand up in the corner of awards for the flight of 10-15 kids. This goes on all day long while other flights are going on (and there are 6 flights of kids going at any given time - 2 on each of 3 events). It's physically impossible and honestly completely unnecessary for the coaches to be there.

 

[z2akids]

In the vast majority of sports, coaches are there at the ceremonial award moment... If a football team wins a championship, the coach doesn't congratulate the kid who scored the winning touchdown in the 4 quarter and then high-tail it out of there as soon as the clock runs out leaving the kids and parents to raise the trophy on the field. I think we as gymnastics parents who think it's perfectly fine that coaches don't attend awards cause they work so hard for all the other kids besides our kid's team, are giving the gyms an easy pass on this one...staffing or meet schedules should be such that a coach can be there for awards for all teams more often than not (understand sometimes exceptions occur). Would an elite coach not attend the medal ceremony at the Olympics cause they've been there all day and want to get something to eat? So we're saying just cause these kids are "only level 3's and 4's" it's okay for their coach to not be there?

The meets my child attends usually have multiple gyms running over 2-3 days. Multiple sessions of levels filled to the brim. Sessions scheduled to begin as soon as the previous one ends. Having been involved in the planning at DD's gym for their annual meet, it would be impossible to stretch out the schedule to allow an hour between sessions to prevent coaches from having sessions back-to-back. For 2 days in 2 gyms, we would lose 4 sessions, nearly 300 less gymnasts, higher costs per session because our fixed costs wouldn't change. So meet fees eould have to go up or we might have to cancel entirele because the boosters need to actually make money on the meet.

As for comparing a coach who had 1 or 2 elite level gymnasts to a level 3 for 4 coach for awards and such, there is no comparison. There are only a couple of dozen potential competitors at an elite meet. When a girl places, she is truly placing compared to all (at least most) of her peers. Level 3 placements are so random and mean very little in relation to how a girl actually did. First, with mumtiple sessions of say level 3, your DD's overall scores and competition are very dependent on which gyms choose to attend the meet. Then which group of gyms are in your DD's session and, if there are multiple gyms, which judges are in the gym your DD is in. Then, her placements are very dependent on her age and the ages of the girls in her session, how many girls the host gym puts in award groups and whether they give awarfs to 100%. A change in any of of those factors will not change how well your DD competed, but it can make a significant difference in where she places. Focus on her. Focus on what milestones she makes and how she progresses over the season. The awards only say how good the other girls were. She and her coach already know how good she was.

 

[mommyof1]

Honestly, it only sends a bad message if you think it does. We choose to look at it differently.

The message it sends to me is "we own your life and are going to make you sit through something totally meaningless at 10:00 pm when you have a two-hour drive ahead of you and a kid whose entire school week is going to be wrecked by staying up so late." I understand why we are required to stay, but sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

What was that phrase that went around here for awhile? Practice is for the gymnasts; meets are for the parents.

Not in my world! Meets are 100% for my kid. I only go because she wants me to.

 

[twinmomma]

The message it sends to me is "we own your life and are going to make you sit through something totally meaningless at 10:00 pm when you have a two-hour drive ahead of you and a kid whose entire school week is going to be wrecked by staying up so late." I understand why we are required to stay, but sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.



Not in my world! Meets are 100% for my kid. I only go because she wants me to.

The message it sends is this is their JOB. They're not in this for the glory. At the end of the day it's their JOB and their job ends when their last kid competes. They aren't paid to stay through awards.

 

[Gymmommy71]

A football coach coaches 1 game....2-3 hours, maybe, and then he gets to go home. Our coaches are coachign from 7:30am-10pm some days....with little breaks. They are in charge of our kiddos for hours, without a break, and sometimes without help. A football coach often has 2-3 assistant coaches.

Every game does not give out awards. Every meet does. If they were awarding a championship trophy every game, that might be different. So maybe we do need to look into the fact that we give out Way.Too. Many. Awards.

At big meets, from waht I have seen, coaches do try to stay. BUt the fact is, there are few gymnastics coaches, and they work obnoxiously long hours for low pay. Our coaches try to stay for state, and definitely stay for regionals and nationals. THOSE are championships. Those are comparable to a medal cerymony at the olympics. To compare local city invitational to a championship is apples to oranges.

The bolded is what I'm saying is the issue. Why are coaches at the meet from 7Am to 10PM?...it's because someone other than the parents/kids of the team that is there for just one session is stretching them way too thin. Either the gym shouldn't have one coach coaching 3-4 different levels, or the meet should be spacing the sessions out better. We are essentially accepting less for our children because the businesses we are paying for this service are overworking their employees.

That's like going to a restaurant and accepting that your waitress can only serve 2/3rds of your meal because she's been working a triple shift and is tired so you feel bad for her and understand (which many people would, but it doesn't make it right and it's giving the restaurant owner a free pass)...

 

[munchkin3]

How about, meets are schedules during the week? And add a clause that says, the coach must be present, (and smiling) for awards ceremony, perhaps the coaches can bring their families as well?
AND we can all go out afterwards for a great team dinner, where we can chat and small talk, (that really means, quiz the coach incessantly about gymnastics and how it relates to their child specifically)

The coach should have no feelings of responsibility to go to awards.....they are there for one thing.....one of my friends who is a coach, finds the whole 'award ceremony' quite funny and simply for the parents.....where he came from, you didn't compete for like the first 10 years, and then went straight to nationals.....

Enjoy the awards, hug your kids! Chat with the parents! Go out to dinner! Leave the coaches ALONE! Haven't they done enough??
And if you doubt that the coach has done enough, or should do more- try going to a meet from Saturday 7 am to Sunday 10 pm and then we can talk.

 

[z2akids]

In the vast majority of sports, coaches are there at the ceremonial award moment... If a football team wins a championship, the coach doesn't congratulate the kid who scored the winning touchdown in the 4 quarter and then high-tail it out of there as soon as the clock runs out leaving the kids and parents to raise the trophy on the field. I think we as gymnastics parents who think it's perfectly fine that coaches don't attend awards cause they work so hard for all the other kids besides our kid's team, are giving the gyms an easy pass on this one...staffing or meet schedules should be such that a coach can be there for awards for all teams more often than not (understand sometimes exceptions occur). Would an elite coach not attend the medal ceremony at the Olympics cause they've been there all day and want to get something to eat? So we're saying just cause these kids are "only level 3's and 4's" it's okay for their coach to not be there?

For the most part, my daughter's teams have had coaches attend her awards on a very consistent basis, so it's really not been an issue for her...even at state meets when there is just one or two girls in a session, coaches make an effort to stay. Maybe it's a regional thing cause I think most gyms around here do this.

Also, there isn't an award ceremony after every football game. 1 ceremony for 1 team at the end of the entire season. Not 480 awards with names called and picture moments for parents after every level 3 session times 6 or 8 meets a year. Just a bit different than 1 championship moment for 1 team.

 

[Gymmommy71]

The message it sends is this is their JOB. They're not in this for the glory. At the end of the day it's their JOB and their job ends when their last kid competes. They aren't paid to stay through awards.

If they are non-exempt employees, they definitely should be paid if the gym tells them to sit at awards. This goes back to the "should coaches be paid to attend the Christmas party" thread a while ago. Maybe that is why coaches are leaving at some of these gyms - the gym doesn't want to pay them.

 

[skschlag]

The bolded is what I'm saying is the issue. Why are coaches at the meet from 7Am to 10PM?...it's because someone other than the parents/kids of the team that is there for just one session is stretching them way too thin. Either the gym shouldn't have one coach coaching 3-4 different levels, or the meet should be spacing the sessions out better. We are essentially accepting less for our children because the businesses we are paying for this service are overworking their employees.

That's like going to a restaurant and accepting that your waitress can only serve 2/3rds of your meal because she's been working a triple shift and is tired so you feel bad for her and understand (which many people would, but it doesn't make it right and it's giving the restaurant owner a free pass)...

Yeah..can you imagine how much tuition would go up? To add coaches would double tuition, double coaches' meet fees, etc. They are not doing it to be mean, they are doing it to help save money for the families. I know our owner does everything they can to keep costs low for the parents. That, and there is always a coaching shortage, especially in MAG. We are lucky to have the 3 coaches we have for the 60 boys we have, and they do try to coach different levels. But the L5 coach could have 15 little boys, and need a 2nd coach there. They could be in different rotations, different sessions, different events.

I do not think award should be a make it or break it. Seriously think we are really over thinking this. NOt every sport does awards at the end. This is unique to this sport. And we have to be able to allow our coaches, who honestly, do not always make a liveable wage to do this, do whatever they need to do. And if they choose to be there, fantastic. If they need to use the restroom, eat, or take a moment to call their family, wonderful.

 

[skschlag]

How about, meets are schedules during the week? And add a clause that says, the coach must be present, (and smiling) for awards ceremony, perhaps the coaches can bring their families as well?
AND we can all go out afterwards for a great team dinner, where we can chat and small talk, (that really means, quiz the coach incessantly about gymnastics and how it relates to their child specifically)

The coach should have no feelings of responsibility to go to awards.....they are there for one thing.....one of my friends who is a coach, finds the whole 'award ceremony' quite funny and simply for the parents.....where he came from, you didn't compete for like the first 10 years, and then went straight to nationals.....

Enjoy the awards, hug your kids! Chat with the parents! Go out to dinner! Leave the coaches ALONE! Haven't they done enough??
And if you doubt that the coach has done enough, or should do more- try going to a meet from Saturday 7 am to Sunday 10 pm and then we can talk.

\

Can you imagine the uproar of parents who cannot get off work? Or the kids missing school?? LOL