Equipment use rotation

[gymch34]

The gym I coach at is also always packed, and we have a schedule we are SLAVES to. We also have lesson plans for every event, esp. for teams! My tops kids also have a lesson plan, and the experienced TOPs kids are also working on improving their physical abilities at this point and focusing on skills.

It does not seem like your gym is well organized. That is a problem if you are talking about success in either the JO program or TOPs. If she is coming in 4x week (I think thats what one post says she trains) to train the physical abilities only, WHAT IF she does qualify for testing? The 9 yo skills are L7 skills. She would be spending all this time (and your $) missing out on a JO experience, and for what. She would not be able to participate in the national testing.

Good luck and I hope it all works out for you.

 

[gymdog]

I really wish we did. If I thought anyone would follow it, I would seriously make it myself.

But it mostly works out. I just feel like it would eliminate some friction.

To address the other topics, I wouldn't even bother showing the coaches videos, etc about how other gyms do TOPs. They MUST know that what they're doing isn't really working and that they're not an elite program. I really cannot figure out exactly what the rationale is behind the set up, but I suppose there must be one. Either way I don't think it's likely to be successful or keep your daughter in gymnastics. I would ask to have her moved to USAG L4 or 5 training group. See how she does in the competitive environment. Just ask to try a day. Even if she is resistant she will probably find she likes moving on. In two years or whenever down the road, if she is still competing in gymnastics, then you can look at making the commute to a gym with a higher level program. Or look now. You may find someone who goes there from your area looking to carpool. I commuted for years. Going to that gym was the best choice I ever made. I realize it's hard to make that commitment this early on so I say wait, let her do the early levels if they have a solid early level program. Once you see she is committed to doing the higher levels, a quality program is worth it as long as the family can manage it. Unfortunately you give something up to have to wait like that to gauge commitment - I did it too, it's kind of too bad, it held me back. But there has to be some give and take and I think that's the best compromise you can do.

 

[cathiann]

I'm not a coach, but I hope you don't mind me chiming in--our gym has a schedule each day--varies by day and week (they have A weeks and B weeks). Lower level rec classes do two events one week and two events the next (plus tramp or tumble track). Team girls are scheduled in for time on each event.

 

[cathiann]

Thank you all! I knew most people had to have some sort of rotation schedule or plan.

At our gym (on the days that I'm there w/ my dd anyway), you could very well observe the team girls using the entire floor, all 5 high beams AND both sets of bars (and if I had to estimate, I'd say there are only about 20 team girls all together). Rec classes would then be taking up any additional space there is. The poor tops girls are left to just take whatever is left.

It is becoming increasingly frustrating for us, as parents to watch this happen. Our girls are lvl 4's in the tops program and because (at our gym) they're not allowed to compete on the team they aren't given priority on any piece of equipment (we had to beg for 5 min on the floor to practice floor routines last week). We have an in-house competition in 12 days and our poor tops girls have not even been taught their beam or bar routines because the coach said the team girls hog the equipment. My poor dd is stressing out completely because she doesn't know the routine yet and only has a few days to learn it & practice (after all, beam & bars aren't exactly something you can come home & practice for).

Thanks again for all of your responses, I'd still be interested to hear from others as I plan to chat w/ the gym's GM soon about this.

Oh I'd be furious if that happened! You're paying for her to have gymnastics and she isn't allowed to use the equipment she needs--that's just ridiculous. I admit I don't understand the point behind just doing TOPs and not being on team, but even with the program she's in, she should have the equipment she needs. Talk to the owners or move to another gym--that's my advice

 

[pinklemonadeliz]

I just want to thank everyone for their comments. Dh, dd and I had a long talk about how she's feeling about her current program and what she thinks she would enjoy. We came to the decision to move her from the tops program into the jo team. I talked to one of the team coaches yesterday and she told me she would meet with the other two coaches and then dd would be evaluated to determine where they wanted to place her.

Although the workout schedule is longer (going to 9hrs per week from 7.5, but only 3 days instead of 4) and the tuition is about 45% higher, I think she will be happier in the long run. I have never seen her so excited in these last few weeks getting ready for this in-house meet next weekend - I think she'll really enjoy competing. As an added bonus, we parents will not have to deal with her coach's drama that she so frequently likes to whip up - I'm not willing to lose another night of sleep because of her.

Thank you again for your input, it was invaluable in helping us come to this decision.

 

[bogwoppit]

Congratualtions on making an informed and balanced decision for your little girl. I am sure she will love competing and that she will now love gymnastics even more.

Please stick around and share with us how the transition goes. It's been nice having you here.

 

[Ingwe]

Good luck to your DD. I am sure she will love competing. I look forward to hearing about her meets!

 

[Megley]

Having read this thread and some of your other posts, I'm so glad to see that you are moving your dd to competitive team. Count me as another who cannot understand the rationale of doing TOPs but not competing at JO. I've never seen that before and it doesn't make sense because eventually (i.e., at age 9) they have to have the TOPs skills - which I think at age 9 equate to about Level 7 skills. If you haven't trained skills, it will be impossible to do well at TOPs. I think you are making the right decision and I'm sure your dd will enjoy competing at JO. Best of luck to both of you!

Meg

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

To answer the original post, my gym has about 40 apparatus stations, at peak times most will be in use. Coaches are polite about swapping/sharing/time up. There is a detailed plan and courtesy backs it up.

Regarding the situation, I really feel that something odd is going on at the gym with the staff. I think there is some friction going on with the current coach and the other coaches. It seems like she is a young coach who might think she knows best, and has possibly rubbed some others the wrong way. Perhaps they don't get apparatus time because there is no respect for the coach.

It's as if she has been given this group to keep her out of the way. I can see how some young coaches may feel that by having 'tops' kids, they are a better coach. Perhaps they were meant to be pre team but she has decided they are 'tops'. This may explain why they are not permitted to compete, and the low hours for tops (well according to those who know the program)


Sounds like you have made a wise decision in moving her over to the regular team.

 

[Shelovesthebars]

Pinklemonadeliz- Let us know how it goes and what level they think she should be training for. I am really curious. It's great that she gets to compete and do gymnastics and I think she is just going to really love it. My 4 year old dd can't wait to compete because she loves hotels. It is a different world than just staying in the gym. Keep us posted.

 

[gymdog]

It's as if she has been given this group to keep her out of the way. I can see how some young coaches may feel that by having 'tops' kids, they are a better coach. Perhaps they were meant to be pre team but she has decided they are 'tops'. This may explain why they are not permitted to compete, and the low hours for tops (well according to those who know the program)


Sounds like you have made a wise decision in moving her over to the regular team.

This may be a plausible explanation. Maybe TOPs was more of this particular coach's idea rather than the gym really backing it up. Either way I agree it sounds like the move to the JO program was wise.

 

[pinklemonadeliz]

The head team coach knows my dd's skills pretty well as the team trains at the same time dd's tops group trains. Head coach's feeling is that even though dd has all of her level 4 skills, she should be placed in a level 2 class because the tops coach did not teach the skills correctly (technically). The coach seems to think she would be able to move up to 3 fairly quickly, but would have to finish 2010 as a 3 because they don't move girls up to 4's until the end of competition season in December.

Dd is somewhat disappointed that she would have to, in essence, be demoted to get promoted - but I think she's just as anxious to get out of her current program as I am for her to be.

This would mean she would be 9 (I guess she'd count as 10 since she will turn 10 in 2011) before she would be able to compete. I don't know if that would put her at a disadvantage or not.

 

[bogwoppit]

If she has the skills and they just need tidying up she should progress quickly. Too bad that they are allowing their TOPS team to be taught badly!!!

Your gymmie is so much better out of that even if she has to do L2 or L3, as this is the only way she can really progress and compete. I assume that she will begin to uptrain skills from the higher levels once she masters all the skills she needs with good form.

Girls have been known to move through the levels one year at a time, or faster, which gives her tons of time to get as far as she wishes.

Hopefully this is a sign to the head coach that the TOPS team is a joke and all the girls would be taken out and placed in pre team or team. What a total waste of time and money! Makes me very mad to see that they threw away your kids time and money.

 

[pinklemonadeliz]

Yes, I agree, she should progress pretty quickly and yes, I am kind of upset that we wasted her time and our $$. I suspect that she won't be the only one leaving our tops program very soon.

 

[gymdog]

The head team coach knows my dd's skills pretty well as the team trains at the same time dd's tops group trains. Head coach's feeling is that even though dd has all of her level 4 skills, she should be placed in a level 2 class because the tops coach did not teach the skills correctly (technically). The coach seems to think she would be able to move up to 3 fairly quickly, but would have to finish 2010 as a 3 because they don't move girls up to 4's until the end of competition season in December.

Dd is somewhat disappointed that she would have to, in essence, be demoted to get promoted - but I think she's just as anxious to get out of her current program as I am for her to be.

This would mean she would be 9 (I guess she'd count as 10 since she will turn 10 in 2011) before she would be able to compete. I don't know if that would put her at a disadvantage or not.

It really bothers me that they told you they know the skills were not taught technically correctly but have not intervened! Not really acceptable, but oh well, I guess there is not much that can change that except to correct it ASAP. Hopefully she should move fast as it sounds like she has done the skills before but will be in a better environment for progression.

I started competing when I was 11. Not ideal but not impossible. I still went very far in gymnastics. Ultimately again it's not ideal but it doesn't necessarily mean you can't make a lot of progress by the end of high school.

 

[Shelovesthebars]

Ok I really wanted to post earlier but Gymdog pretty much said it. My concern is your daughter's best interest. Why would the head coach stand by and watch your daughter be taught incorectly? They do coach at the same gym, right? It sounds like a bunch of immature politics are going around at your gym and it is more important in the coaches' minds than actually producing quality gymnasts. I would be looking for a different gym altogether. But I don't know your circumstances and how close another gym may be.

 

[pinklemonadeliz]

I agree - it is a lot of politics. I think another poster said earlier that it seemed as though tops coach couldn't be a team coach and so she made up her own team just so she could have the prestige of being a team coach and the more i think about it, the more I believe it's entirely the case.

I think the head team coach is so busy that she does't really involve herself in that kind of stuff, probably mainly because she knows she's not allowed to have those girls anyway.

As much as I want her out of the tops program there all together, I am stopping by to chat w/ the gm today to see if we can work out a hybrid program for the next year while dd is putting in her time in 2 & 3. Mainly because she'll be going from 7.5 hrs per week down to 3, which is a big drop and I'd hate to see her lose all of that hard work she's done with strength & conditioning. So I'm going to ask that she do 1x per week w/ her tops class to keep up her conditioning since the leveled classes workout on different days. The only difference with this being that we would be there totally for conditioning with no expectations of anything else from the tops coach. Once she's moved in Jan to L4, she would then go back to the 3x per week that she's used to and can leave the tops all together.

I hope that I can work it out w/ the gm - the coach will be resistant, because it'a an ego thing for her, but if the higher-ups say yes, she'll have no choice.

I would go to another gym but the only two options that are even remotely close would involve a fair commute so we're kind of stuck for now.

 

[pinklemonadeliz]

Just thougth you would all be interested in a most interesting development that I just found out about this afternoon...

My dh went to finalize our dd's new schedule with the gym's gm this afternoon and the gm showed him a letter that was hot off the presses to be distributed to the tops team this evening. Apparently, in March, the gym will be merging the tops team with the jo leveled classes. They will offer 1 additional workout per week to train for tops skills.

I think my ranting and raving may have actually made a difference! Out of five girls on the tops team - three more were within weeks of making the same decision that we did so I guess they figured they'd better do something.

So in the end, we all win. The girls get to actually be in leveled classes so they can compete and they'll get to train tops too.... the way it was intended.

Thank you all, again, for all of your support - I can finally get a good night's sleep tonight

 

[bogwoppit]

You did it all by yourself. Your did the work and all the research and you made it work for your gymmie. Congrats for acheiving what so few parents have ever acheived and that is CHANGE!!!

You got the best possble result for your child and for all the other girls in the gym. Pat yourselves on the back, great parenting and advocating. Now sleep tight!

 

[Scarface]

The head team coach knows my dd's skills pretty well as the team trains at the same time dd's tops group trains. Head coach's feeling is that even though dd has all of her level 4 skills, she should be placed in a level 2 class because the tops coach did not teach the skills correctly (technically). .

I will never understand why a head coach employs a coach that teaches things incorrectly. Or - if the coach has a lot of a good qualities why the head coach doesn't set the guidelines on how it should be taught! AGH!