Parents Gym Concerns

[Fierystar]

Hello! I am need of advice/guidance from all of you more experienced gym parents!

My dd (9) is currently level 3 going on 4. Her current gym is brand new (old gym closed due to Covid). I'm concerned she's not getting what she needs from practices. She seems to always complain to me about something after practice. It's mostly about not being challenged enough and how she wants to upgrade skills but she never seems to get enough time doing that. She understands the importance of practicing shapes, basic skills, etc., but she's also getting bored!

Her practice group is a combination of level 3 and the pre team. The others are younger than her and she says are often disruptive and they stop practice to talk to them about it. She says because of this she loses time on stations or misses out altogether on a station she wants to do because they took too long.

She complains that they don't do enough conditioning and that it is too easy (Careful what you wish for though little one!). They did more of it at her previous gym.

These are just a few of the most recent things she has told me. We have talked to them before about her feeling things weren't challenging enough, and they said they could work on it, but not much has changed. They can't move her to the older group due to the numbers. Being new, they don't have a huge coaching staff.

Help, please! I plan to talk with them again, but don't know what to really say or what to ask for. I don't want to seem pushy or overbearing. I'm not demanding she get moved or get special treatment. I just want her to get what she needs to progress. I'm fearful this is holding her back.

I'm considering a few other gyms, one is the same travel time and the others are about 20 min farther. I hate to take her away from friends (and me from the parents I know), but it's too much time and money to settle on the gymnastics portion for a social experience! I have other kids too who hope to follow her. The other gyms are more successful with gymnasts going to regionals, but it's not really fair to compare the current gym to them since it is brand new.

I'm anxious about taking to them and also irritated and a little angry about the situation. Am I way off base with this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking the time to read my long vent!

 

[gymgal]

It's a new gym. There are going to be growing pains as they figure out groupings, hire more coaches, train their coaches to be able to handle multiple age/levels in the same group. If you are attached to the gym/coaches/members and feel they can pull it together, then it may be worth it to stick it out a while longer and give them time to figure it out. If you feel it is going to frustrate you/your dd too much then it is better to make the switch now, especially since you have some good, near-by options. good luck with whichever decision you make. there is no right/wrong decision - just what's right for your family

 

[Fierystar]

It's a new gym. There are going to be growing pains as they figure out groupings, hire more coaches, train their coaches to be able to handle multiple age/levels in the same group. If you are attached to the gym/coaches/members and feel they can pull it together, then it may be worth it to stick it out a while longer and give them time to figure it out. If you feel it is going to frustrate you/your dd too much then it is better to make the switch now, especially since you have some good, near-by options. good luck with whichever decision you make. there is no right/wrong decision - just what's right for your family

Thank you for this. I think we may at least take a look at the other gyms and see if they would be a good fit or not. We may not like any of them! While we like them gym, the coaches, and the girls, I'm not sure we could support them on their journey to grow if it could possibly impact dd's own journey.

 

[LYoungblood]

I would definitely look into the other gyms. It's not going to hurt to look. Worst case you stay where you are. Best case you really fall in love with another gym and your daughter excels there. I'm not experienced with any of this but as a parent trying to support my own daughter's dreams that's what I would do

 

[cogymmom2dd]

No snark intended with this, but this is to be expected A. During a pandemic when there are more rules and regulations that the gym has to follow regarding group sizes and B. At a brand new gym who is trying to get their feet on the ground. Gymnastics in general is weird right now. There are some teams who only had in-house meets this year. Others only traveled within their own states. Other gyms didn’t compete at all.
Do they have plans to allow her to uptrain during the summer months? What path do you want to see her on?
On the flip side, I know of a few gyms locally to me that are not allowing the transfer of girls from one gym to theirs solely because they need to be mindful of their own numbers and they might already be at capacity at some levels- those lower compulsory levels are always jam packed full of girls and then they kind of thin out once they get to optionals. They might not be willing to bring in a transfer L4 girl when they have their own L3’s that need to move up or existing L4’s that are going to repeat. There’s one gym locally that moved some of their L3’s from last year over to XS for this season because they needed to trim down their L3 team and there were L2’s that were more skilled than them. Now, those XS girls will be transitioning to L4.
Personally, I would give it more time. Again, no snark intended but part of gymnastics IS a social experience. If you like all other aspects, give it another year. Let the dust settle with this new gym, with the world in general and then re-evaluate. If you are otherwise happy, don’t uproot your DD after probably not even a full year at her new gym.