Parents Here is our gymnastics story - New to the forum (long post)

[Juniper311]

Holy what the heck. May things go muuuch smoother from now on.

 

[Gigi]

i'm curious if there is another sport where it can get this ugly when moving teams/ gyms? i agree, this is why parents usually don't switch on a whim.

that's crazy that they didn't call you immediately about that injury. did you get her checked out for a concussion?

i will say one thing - i find it weird that she was working out at both gyms at the same time. i've never heard of that being "allowed". usually you go for a week long evaluation and, from my experience, gyms require you to let your home gym know that you are trying out there. if they don't ask you to tell them, then they will (as a courtesy) call your home gym and let them know. then you choose one. the whole foot in both doors is tricky and i'm guessing what set off the old gym. and if you choose a new gym, the old gym isn't usually very nice about it.

but it sounds like a gym switch was what your family needed and the most important thing is your dd is happy and the new coach is communicating with you. best of luck!

So true! We have seen so much of drama from kids switching gyms, both coming and going! The community is small and the drama never goes away. It comes up at every meet when you run into each other.

 

[my4buffaloes]

I am glad that the new gym still allowed you to join up. And am glad that once they got to know you and your dd that things are going very smoothly. I have known situations where a gymnast was not allowed at another gym because of what the first gym said.

 

[jenjean70]

Yes. My son left a travel baseball team after a considerable amount of drama with coaches and coach's wives, and when I gave notice to the coach was told that my son was "no loss to the team" and have been talked crap about since. We actually pulled our son from little league (he was playing little league and travel ball) in order not to have to come in contact with that coach anymore.

Baseball can be very ugly- we have dealt with that for years with our middle son...Unfortunately I hear high school isn't much better...

 

[mariposa]

The new gym should never have taken her on 2 days a week as a team gymnast. That would cause most any gym to get upset. I can guarantee it wouldn't go over well at most gyms. You don't train competitively at 2 different gyms. Just not accepted. And at many gyms once you leave, you aren't welcome back. I'm not surprised this caused drama. Glad it turned out well though!

The only time I have seen training elsewhere for summer be accepted is if the child goes out of state or the area for summer due to travel or being with other parent.

 

[sppd]

The new gym should never have taken her on 2 days a week as a team gymnast. That would cause most any gym to get upset. I can guarantee it wouldn't go over well at most gyms. You don't train competitively at 2 different gyms. Just not accepted. And at many gyms once you leave, you aren't welcome back. I'm not surprised this caused drama. Glad it turned out well though!

The only time I have seen training elsewhere for summer be accepted is if the child goes out of state or the area for summer due to travel or being with other parent.

She was working out 2 days per week for two and a half weeks as her evaluation/tryout in March. This all went down in late April after trying unsuccessfully to make the hours work. It was a total of five 4.5 hour workouts with the level 9 team (Gym head coach), and with the 6s, 7s, and 8s (other coaching staff). 2 of the days were Saturdays which at the new gym at the time were make-ups so not even the full teams.

This tryout/evaluation arrangement was the suggestion of the new gym which has been around for well over 60 years in our area. Again, us being relatively hands off and ignorant to the traditions or what is customary had to assume that this was how it was done. We were even told by them that they had done this for a few other girls in the past.

Again, if we had to do it over again it would have happened differently. We were very open and honest with the old gym, maybe too much so thinking it was the right thing to do. I gave them several notices that the summer hours would not work for us. I gave them a little over 6 weeks notice that we would be pulling her, and even told them what gym we were going to put her in (for the summer camp). The reason we mentioned bringing her back in the fall, was that we truly intended to bring her back once they went back to the regular hours. We even mentioned that we understood that she would have to earn her team spot back upon our return. I guess being fully transparent about the move was a mistake on our part. There were no motives behind this move other than we literally had no way to get her there in the morning and still make it to work on time, and she would have to sit in the lobby for hours each day waiting to be picked up which is not acceptable to us.

The new gym runs the summer as a camp that anyone can attend but is mandatory for their team gymnasts, so I don't believe that her possibly going back was that big of a deal to the new gym, and that's the way we were looking at it as just a summer camp for her because the hours worked much better.

At the end of the day, the old gym going crazy over this forced us to commit to the new gym and now that we have something to compare, it is clear that the new gym is better than the old one in every way for us, and we could not be happier now that the drama of the change is over.

I also forgot to mention previously that the new gym is only a half mile from the house vs the 20-30 minute drive depending on traffic to the old gym [emoji106] [emoji2]

 

[Sasha]

I gave them several notices that the summer hours would not work for us.... ... we literally had no way to get her there in the morning and still make it to work on time, and she would have to sit in the lobby for hours each day waiting to be picked up which is not acceptable to us.

Like others, I am very happy things worked out for you, and I am also not surprised by Gym 1 being offended by the arrangement. Of course, you did what you thought was reasonable not knowing the standard cultural trends of gymnastics, so good for you for doing the best you can to address your daughter's needs.

I do want to point out about the hours, though, that it is very possible as your daughter advances that your current gym may at some point have hours that 'don't work for you'. You will not be able to dictate hours and schedules as a team gymnast family. You will really have to find a way to make it work if having your daughter in gym is important. We have never had easy hours for our family either. So families must sacrifice to hire drivers, work very hard to arrange sometimes not-s0-convenient carpool situations, or sacrifice work hours. Single parents, in particular, are often hard-pressed to make arrangements, but many find a way. And yes, I have seen quite a few gymnasts in summer bringing books, work or other hobbies to the gym for several hours while waiting for a parent to arrive. Not ideal of course, but many, many families have to work very, very hard to make non-ideal situations work anyway. Just a caution.

 

[sppd]

I do want to point out about the hours, though, that it is very possible as your daughter advances that your current gym may at some point have hours that 'don't work for you'. You will not be able to dictate hours and schedules as a team gymnast family. You will really have to find a way to make it work if having your daughter in gym is important. We have never had easy hours for our family either. So families must sacrifice to hire drivers, work very hard to arrange sometimes not-s0-convenient carpool situations, or sacrifice work hours. Single parents, in particular, are often hard-pressed to make arrangements, but many find a way. And yes, I have seen quite a few gymnasts in summer bringing books, work or other hobbies to the gym for several hours while waiting for a parent to arrive. Not ideal of course, but many, many families have to work very, very hard to make non-ideal situations work anyway. Just a caution.

I understand this completely!

 

[LoveGymnastics10]

Sorry to hear about the drama! I totally understand why the first gym would be offended by the whole situation. But I am happy to hear things are working out for you now. Since you only live a half mile away from your current gym, maybe if the hours don't work out for you to drive her back and forth, if she is old enough could she just walk home?

 

[sppd]

Sorry to hear about the drama! I totally understand why the first gym would be offended by the whole situation. But I am happy to hear things are working out for you now. Since you only live a half mile away from your current gym, maybe if the hours don't work out for you to drive her back and forth, if she is old enough could she just walk home?

Yes. The route to her new gym is complete with sidewalks the entire way, and in a fairly safe area. For now we will continue to shuttle her to and from. The gym is probably less than an 1/8th of a mile from the house as the crow flies, but our town is cut in half by a very busy freight rail line which makes the only safe and legal route about a half mile. Her older brother is getting pretty close to driving age as well, so it is not too long before he will be able to help shuttle her as well.