Coaches Family Class-ideas help!

[kholla]

I recently started coaching at a new gym. One of the classes I am co-coaching is a family class. It ranges from preschool through 10 years old, and the parents are out on the floor with the gymnasts. It's fine with the little ones, but with the older gymnasts the parents aren't really necessary anymore and I don't know what to do with them sometimes. I try to give them jobs sometimes like help some of the shorter girls up to the high bar, check for pointed toes, and we've done some partner stretching, but there's not always a job for them to do and they just end up talking on the side.
Does anyone else have this kind of class at your gym? Any ideas would be very helpful!

 

[LucyTRA]

If the parents are attending a family class with their 10 year old who clearly doesn't need help, why not let them do what their kid is doing? They are clearly turning up expecting to get hands on, so I would let them!

It might help the kids to see their parents leading by example too

 

[gymdog]

Yeah, that class needs to be cut down to under 5s. How many kids of each age are currently enrolled and how many instructors?

Also, not sure if you mean the parents or the kids are chatting.

 

[Somekiwichic]

We have a similar set up for our family class that I've coached a few times. Honestly, I really don't like coaching that class because of the parents. The parents of the older kids are too full on and try to coach, which is a problem when they are having them do things wrong.

We really just try to get them to do little jobs, not sure what else to do without telling parents they aren't allowed on the floor anymore.

Also, ours is split in age groups for the rotations so it's not like the 3 year olds are going around the stations with the 9 year olds.

Will be interested to see what others ideas are.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Might be fun to include lots of parent/child acro.

 

[Somekiwichic]

Oooh, we do that at the end of the class, the kids love it.

 

[gymdog]

Why are parents even allowed on the floor with kids over 4/5 at all? Like what is the marketing point of this class? There's no way that setup is helping learn gymnastics whatsoever. Its developmentally inappropriate. Even a child with delays at that age would be better served without mom on the floor.

 

[Gymkateer]

Neat. What is the stated purpose of the class? Are the parents supposed to be helping the kids like Buddy and Me for toddlers or are they supposed to also do gymnastics along with the kids? I've been wanting to start an all ages parent/child gymnastics training class forever but haven't had the opportunity so far.

 

[txgymfan]

For the older kids it could be a fun fitness class. I agree with the others, get the parents doing the same activities as the 5 - 9 year olds. Have side stations of Pilates or yoga type conditioning. Keep everyone in a circuit and keep it moving. Get the adults walking across the high beam, jumping into the pit and trying to do a pullover. I love the idea of beginning acro stuff. Sounds like it could be a really fun class.

The hard part is that it seems to be two separate classes the 4 and under and the 5 and up. Three years old to ten years seems like a huge age gap to manage.

 

[kholla]

I'm not exactly sure what the marketing perspective of this class is since I started working there part way through the term. I think it's supposed to be something that the parent and kid can do together, maybe less about becoming really good at gymnastics. The different ages are separated after warm up, the preschoolers, 5-6 year olds, and 7+ year olds. I reallly like the yoga/pilates side stations! To clarify-I meant that the parents end up chatting on the side sometimes.

 

[txgymfan]

Another thought for the big kids. Have the kids challenge the parents (each person writes their own totals) most sit ups in minute, longest handstand, most pull ups. Either as an individual challenge Parent V Child, as a team Child totals VS Parent totals or Parent and Child together vs all other parent child parents . Friendly competition can be a great motivator.

Enjoy your class. It sounds a little crazy at first but after some thought I love the idea.

 

[twinklytoes9468]

I don't blame you for dreading -it sounds like a nightmare! I am not sure whether having untrained unfit adults doing dodgy handstands around youngsters would be very safe? Also they could be giving incorrect and potentially unsafe advice to the children, attempt to spot them and drop them the list of potential hazards fills me with horror!!

 

[Tumbellina82]

I am not sure whether having untrained unfit adults doing dodgy handstands around youngsters would be very safe? Also they could be giving incorrect and potentially unsafe advice to the children, attempt to spot them and drop them the list of potential hazards fills me with horror!!

I think you are right about that. You could get them doing handstands against a wall though or get the kids off the floor while the adults do handstands and then swap.

I do think it is workable though. It needs some planning and you might need to be quite strict with the parents to avoid the later dangers. If you talk about the importance of them setting a good example to the kids by respecting coaches and not distracting people that'll probably make it go down easier. I think it would help a lot to set clear expectations. If this is a class where it is the same parents a kids every week having them sign a gym agreement might help. Otherwise perhaps a big notice with gym rules prominently displayed on a wall where you can draw attention to it at the start of a session.

It can't be skills development focused because then avoiding the parents getting in the way, sticking their oar in or getting bored and distracting people would be unavoidable. It has to be more of a fitness, balance and movement class. If any of the kids (or adults for that matter) show an interest in learning harder skills or doing more focused gymnastics activity then you could suggest a more appropriate class they could join.