Parents Gym & Video Question

[newgymom]

I'm on the Kansas side of kansas city and not pleased with dd current gym. Talking with coaches (at least with me) is actively discouraged. I've had a higher up actually see me and walk out a different door. It was just evaluation day and her current coach gave a short non-answer and walked away. I rely on her student asst to tell me how she's doing. I promise I'm not annoying them constantly, I just get 0 feedback. I got more feedback when she was 4 and I didn't need it! My dd is not quite 5.5, has advanced into their pre-team. Any recommendations on gyms?

Finally, I'd like a couple critiques on form but I'm taking videos with an android camera and it says it won't accept .mp4 extensions. Can anyone help?

Thank you!! First time poster btw

 

[JBS]

You have to upload videos to Instagram or YouTube first.

 

[CoachPow]

I'm on the Kansas side of kansas city and not pleased with dd current gym. Talking with coaches (at least with me) is actively discouraged. I've had a higher up actually see me and walk out a different door. It was just evaluation day and her current coach gave a short non-answer and walked away. I rely on her student asst to tell me how she's doing. I promise I'm not annoying them constantly, I just get 0 feedback. I got more feedback when she was 4 and I didn't need it! My dd is not quite 5.5, has advanced into their pre-team. Any recommendations on gyms?

Finally, I'd like a couple critiques on form but I'm taking videos with an android camera and it says it won't accept .mp4 extensions. Can anyone help?

Thank you!! First time poster btw

I hate to be the bearer of bad news... I know you may not feel like you're pestering them constantly, but it sounds like they may feel that way. It can be challenging to give constant feedback to parents, especially with very young gymnasts and/or very young coaches. As a parent, I know how hard it is sometimes to sit back and let the coaches do their thing. From the other side of the fence, I know enough to just sit tight and watch my kid. If your child is having fun and is learning new skills (and seems to be advancing?) I wouldn't worry too much about shopping for gyms just yet.

 

[newgymom]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news... I know you may not feel like you're pestering them constantly, but it sounds like they may feel that way. It can be challenging to give constant feedback to parents, especially with very young gymnasts and/or very young coaches. As a parent, I know how hard it is sometimes to sit back and let the coaches do their thing. From the other side of the fence, I know enough to just sit tight and watch my kid. If your child is having fun and is learning new skills (and seems to be advancing?) I wouldn't worry too much about shopping for gyms just yet.

Thank you for your point of view. It's hard when I see other gyms working on form etc when they aren't, but no gym is/would be perfect. The only time it really bugs me is when they won't discuss evaluations. They give her points for things I know she doesn't know how to do, and don't for things I've seen her do. At least if I knew she was going in the right direction, I'd feel better. You're right though, it's probably time to take a deep breath and relax (which is hard for me!)

 

[GymDadWA]

Is she having fun, is she in love with gymnastics, she get along well with her teammates and coaches?

For children that young it's most important just to love the sport, if you start nit-picking at the form right now it's so easy to kill that passion and they just end up quitting. If your coaches are doing their job your child is learning and getting better, trust the process.

The reason to look for a new gym is that the environment isn't safe physically or emotionally, not because you don't get weekly updates from the coaches.

 

[newgymom]

Is she having fun, is she in love with gymnastics, she get along well with her teammates and coaches?

For children that young it's most important just to love the sport, if you start nit-picking at the form right now it's so easy to kill that passion and they just end up quitting. If your coaches are doing their job your child is learning and getting better, trust the process.

The reason to look for a new gym is that the environment isn't safe physically or emotionally, not because you don't get weekly updates from the coaches.

Her coach isn't doing her job, and disorganization of the entire gym can lead to safety problems. I never said I expected weekly updates from her coach. After an evaluation, it isn't unreasonable to ask to discuss it.

 

[WV Gym Mom]

At 5 years old, I wouldn't expect personal coach feedback after every evaluation in pre-team. Its just part of the process. Not sure what you would even do with feedback at this stage? Let her coaches coach. I also would not be worried about critiquing form at this stage in the game - Pre-team is about learning to love gymnastics, learning to listen to coaches and take feedback. More form work will come when the coach feels they are ready. If you are not happy with the gym of course you can leave, but I think that just stepping back for a bit and letting your daughter enjoy her gym time would for a bit might be a good move. I don't think I ever got personal feedback from my daughters coaches when she was pre-team, its really not the norm.

 

[CuriousCate]

Her coach isn't doing her job, and disorganization of the entire gym can lead to safety problems.

If this is really your feeling about the gym, then you are making a good choice to look elsewhere, regardless of their communication or lack thereof.

 

[mommyof1]

If this is really your feeling about the gym, then you are making a good choice to look elsewhere, regardless of their communication or lack thereof.

I agree with this. But I will also say that to me, lots of parent-coach interaction or "feedback" is a red flag. The least toxic, most positive coaches my daughter had were the ones who never talked to the parents except to communicate logistics. The most toxic were the ones who were constantly telling the parents how great their kids were.

 

[Aussie_coach]

As a gym owner, my coaches do not give feedback to parents on children’s progress. In fact I have not known if any gym doing that.

For the majority of parents the feedback would be quite pointless anyway because they wouldn’t really understand what we are taking about. Gymnastics is a very technical sport and unless they have done it themselves to a higher level, our feedback will make little sense.

Also there is not a lot of point to it most of the time as it’s not something they should be working on at home. Any areas where they struggle should be kept to the the gym (with some exceptions), as practice at home without the watchful eye of a coach who is aware of the subtle issues can just consolidate bad habits.

 

[mazz642]

We don't get feedback either. I speak to my daughters' coaches for logistics reasons, medical reasons and general chit-chat at pick-up and drop-off because we are a small gym and they are friendly. Sometimes when she learns a cool new skill they will show me the video but 'feedback' is essentially the comps. Definitely nothing when she was in the development squad, and this was during covid (she was 4/5) where no one was even allowed in the gym so didn't even catch the few minutes snippets of arriving a little early for pick-up after being in the preschool class where we HAD to stay. Was a big change. I think the quicker you get used to this the more enjoyable the journey will be for everyone. It's hard, it's not like you get to watch a game every week like in a team sport, but that's the nature of the beast.

 

[mazz642]

Sorry! Just realised this was an old thread.

 

[newgymom]

Sorry! Just realised this was an old thread.

No worries! I understand what everyone has said, but what's the point of them scheduling an evaluation every 8 weeks that is advertised and posted to her account if I can't ask questions about it? I don't expect my kid to be simone biles. I do expect that, if evaluations are what determines whether she'll move up another level in pre-team (there are 3 in pre-team and each requires mastery of multiple skills on all the apparatus), that I can ask questions about what we can work on at home or what certain elements are. Not to argue - to understand. She's five, but at home she (and us) have no idea what she should be doing when she wants to "practice gymnastics" at home. I feel there were a lot of assumptions made on this thread for no reason. (I'm not talking about you!). I love my daughter and don't care what she's doing if she's having fun.

 

[mazz642]

No worries! I understand what everyone has said, but what's the point of them scheduling an evaluation every 8 weeks that is advertised and posted to her account if I can't ask questions about it? I don't expect my kid to be simone biles. I do expect that, if evaluations are what determines whether she'll move up another level in pre-team (there are 3 in pre-team and each requires mastery of multiple skills on all the apparatus), that I can ask questions about what we can work on at home or what certain elements are. Not to argue - to understand. She's five, but at home she (and us) have no idea what she should be doing when she wants to "practice gymnastics" at home. I feel there were a lot of assumptions made on this thread for no reason. (I'm not talking about you!). I love my daughter and don't care what she's doing if she's having fun.

Totally understand. Can you try send an email? Explain how she’s loving it and wants to do stuff at home and you would love to hear how she’s coping. They may be more receptive. (Or maybe you’ve done this but I missed it)

 

[newgymom]

Totally understand. Can you try send an email? Explain how she’s loving it and wants to do stuff at home and you would love to hear how she’s coping. They may be more receptive. (Or maybe you’ve done this but I missed it)

I haven't but there's one email for the entire gym so everyone sees it as it's passed to the right person! Her coach is unavailable so I think I'm just going to make an appt with the rec director. She's known DD since she was 3 so I think she'll be sympathetic to me trying to learn! I would understand if there were no evaluations but they're made to be such a big deal with the coaches with clipboards walking around and announcements on the kid's acct. Just a confused parent!

 

[WV Gym Mom]

I think the reason that most coaches don't go over pre-team evals with parents is that they really don't want kids to work on gymnastics skills at home. I know its hard when you see all these posts on social media posting with basically full home gyms for five year olds, but it is 100% not recommended. I don't think anyone on this thread was trying to sound rude, its simply that many of us have been in gyms for many, many years. We forget what it was like to be a new gym parent.... but it truly is best to sit back and enjoy the ride. Every girl is on their own development path. Now, if you see safety issues or any form of mistreatment, that's a different story! If your girl wants to "practice" at home...i would focus on fun conditioning exercises to increase flexibility and endurance, or even better, focus on other sports and activities outside the gym if you can.

 

[newgymom]

Thanks. We don't have equipment, though a mat would be nice for injury purposes! You're right though, soooo many of her peers have home gyms and one has a private coach come to her house twice a week! Her daughter is younger than mine. She was mad bc her daughter wouldn't practice while they were on vacation for 3 weeks. When we go on vacation this fall I'm going to fully expect my daughter to just have fun! I just don't want her to be at such a disadvantage later if she pursues it.

See my dd doesn't want to even try any other sports. My husband can do pretty much any sport and he's exposed her to a lot but she's entirely uninterested. So - next is maybe a second language, or music lessons. She just always needs to be active. I thought of dance too, but she only wants to do hip-hop, which I've noticed doesn't start until 6 or 7 most places. She's just starting kindergarten in a few weeks so we're not doing anything until she gets adjusted from days home with mom or dad to full day kindergarten (here.)

 

[Pfiga]

You could suggest taking a rhythmic gymnastics class, where she could work on practicing her flexibility, dance skills, and her form on some skills that could complement the training in her usual gym as well. It's also a lot easier to practice it at home!

 

[newgymom]

That's not a bad idea at all. I haven't seen many gyms around here that offer it, but I have seen a couple. Thanks!