I don't know if you want to hear my life story or not, but I'm here for advice, so I figure the more background information you have the better. I (33/m) got into gymnastics as an adult in my early 20s. I went to a friend's house who had rings hanging, I played around with them a bit, it was a whole lot of fun, and the next day muscles I didn't even know I had were sore. I knew I had to learn more. I bought Overcoming Gravity by Steven Low, and eventually got to a place where I needed a coach. I started going to open gyms at a local club that still at that time allowed adults. After a few months of being a regular they said, you're good at working with the kids that you're here sharing space with, can we teach you some more stuff and give you a job coaching? I actually turned it down right away because I had never worked with kids and I was super nervous about it, but eventually I needed money and decided it could be a fun part time job.
I started just a couple days a week as an assistant coach for the Boys Team which was a ton of fun. I got to try things with the boys and I learned a lot from the head coach. Eventually they had me on my own coaching beginners. After almost a year, I moved to the absolute middle of nowhere in another state to try to develop the abandoned family farm. I wasn't expecting to find a gymnastics job, but they actually had a small gym in the town where I shop, getting kids ready to join the middle/high school team. I ended up coaching there for 3 years and I learned a great deal from my boss there. After a year I was coaching 15-20 beginner's classes a week by myself, 3-4 year olds with their parents, 5-7 year olds, and 8-12 year olds. For 3-5 classes a week, my boss would coach the more skilled kids and I would assist. It was a lot of fun, and I made a lot of great relationships with parents and kids. Eventually I got sick of the commute and found another job closer to home, which I have regretted ever since.
Over the last couple of years, parents were unsatisfied with the local high school program we were training kids to get ready for. A group of parents of kids I coached took it upon themselves to solve the problem. About a half dozen core families put in $5k-$30k+ each (I don't know the upper bounds) of their own money as well as did a bunch of fundraising to form a nonprofit and build their own proper gymnastics facility. They borrowed a bit of money from a local community development fund as well and are still paying it off. Classes started last summer. They have 12,000 square feet but a lot of it is still empty. They have a full size floor, a nice T shaped pit with a tumble trak going into one side, a high bar going into the second side, and a 60 foot vault runway with a vault table going into the third side. They have one full size set of uneven bars, one single low bar, and a little bar for wall kickover drills and front supports for beginners. They have 2 high beams and 1 low beam. In April I was asked to coach and I started in May. I'm really excited for the opportunity to be coaching again, and be able to have access to the equipment to further my own skills as well.
They have two great adult coaches who were both competetive gymnasts themselves, and 5 or 6 great junior coaches who are a nice bunch of kids. The two adult coaches have other full time jobs and are only interested in coaching so many hours a week. The one especially is a lawyer who works 50 hours already. I'd love to be able to coach full time or close to it like I did at my last job. I really enjoyed working with beginners and I was good at it. Our mutual goal is to grow the program to the point that I can be doing that, getting kids ready to do more advanced skills with our other adult coaches, and also to educate myself more so that I can maybe start coaching higher level classes on my own. Right now there aren't that many kids enrolled, we need to get the word out and get more kids signed up. We are unfortunately in competition with my old boss. It's not personal, and I think there's room in town for both of us, but we need to coach as many kids of as many ages and skill levels as we can just to be able to maximize the utilization of this facility and fund further equipment purchases.
Anyway I don't have any specific questions yet in this thread, I'm going to read and catch up on all the existing material for now, but if you have any advice after reading all that I'm happy to hear it. Now you know who I am so when I pop up in another thread you don't have to wonder where I came from. Look forward to meeting and learning from you all!
-flatlander
I started just a couple days a week as an assistant coach for the Boys Team which was a ton of fun. I got to try things with the boys and I learned a lot from the head coach. Eventually they had me on my own coaching beginners. After almost a year, I moved to the absolute middle of nowhere in another state to try to develop the abandoned family farm. I wasn't expecting to find a gymnastics job, but they actually had a small gym in the town where I shop, getting kids ready to join the middle/high school team. I ended up coaching there for 3 years and I learned a great deal from my boss there. After a year I was coaching 15-20 beginner's classes a week by myself, 3-4 year olds with their parents, 5-7 year olds, and 8-12 year olds. For 3-5 classes a week, my boss would coach the more skilled kids and I would assist. It was a lot of fun, and I made a lot of great relationships with parents and kids. Eventually I got sick of the commute and found another job closer to home, which I have regretted ever since.
Over the last couple of years, parents were unsatisfied with the local high school program we were training kids to get ready for. A group of parents of kids I coached took it upon themselves to solve the problem. About a half dozen core families put in $5k-$30k+ each (I don't know the upper bounds) of their own money as well as did a bunch of fundraising to form a nonprofit and build their own proper gymnastics facility. They borrowed a bit of money from a local community development fund as well and are still paying it off. Classes started last summer. They have 12,000 square feet but a lot of it is still empty. They have a full size floor, a nice T shaped pit with a tumble trak going into one side, a high bar going into the second side, and a 60 foot vault runway with a vault table going into the third side. They have one full size set of uneven bars, one single low bar, and a little bar for wall kickover drills and front supports for beginners. They have 2 high beams and 1 low beam. In April I was asked to coach and I started in May. I'm really excited for the opportunity to be coaching again, and be able to have access to the equipment to further my own skills as well.
They have two great adult coaches who were both competetive gymnasts themselves, and 5 or 6 great junior coaches who are a nice bunch of kids. The two adult coaches have other full time jobs and are only interested in coaching so many hours a week. The one especially is a lawyer who works 50 hours already. I'd love to be able to coach full time or close to it like I did at my last job. I really enjoyed working with beginners and I was good at it. Our mutual goal is to grow the program to the point that I can be doing that, getting kids ready to do more advanced skills with our other adult coaches, and also to educate myself more so that I can maybe start coaching higher level classes on my own. Right now there aren't that many kids enrolled, we need to get the word out and get more kids signed up. We are unfortunately in competition with my old boss. It's not personal, and I think there's room in town for both of us, but we need to coach as many kids of as many ages and skill levels as we can just to be able to maximize the utilization of this facility and fund further equipment purchases.
Anyway I don't have any specific questions yet in this thread, I'm going to read and catch up on all the existing material for now, but if you have any advice after reading all that I'm happy to hear it. Now you know who I am so when I pop up in another thread you don't have to wonder where I came from. Look forward to meeting and learning from you all!
-flatlander
