WAG How long until a gym has optionals?

[cbifoja]

This is coming off of a post I read in the gym philosophies thread and I didn't want to hijack. It is also applicable to my DD's gym situation so I'm kind of curious to hear what others, especially coaches, think.

Someone mentioned that if a gym was new, and in my thoughts, rebuilding a program would fall under this concept too......that it might take a few year for them to build up their program to the point where they have optional gymnasts. In the other thread, a mom was comparing two gyms and mentioned one of them, the newer one, didn't have many optionals.

So I guess my question is how long does it take before you can really judge the quality of a program by its optional program?

I know my DD's gym was bought by its current owner about 4/5 years ago. At the time, we had about 5-7 optionals. After the exchange of ownership, there were some growing pains although no optional left because of coaching issues. Rather it was injury, losing interest, parental influence, etc.

So our gym has been in a rebuilding state. Now we have 15 optionals from L6 to L8 but no upper level optionals. To me, this isn't concerning because I feel like the new owner should be given time to develop her upper level optional programs and the time hasn't been there yet.

Would you concur?

 

[Guenhwyvar132]

I agree with you especially if like the gym my daughter is at they have coaches that have coached these levels before.

 

[vagymmomma]

Agree that you need to give it a little more time because it can take many years (and I know from our last gym that a great optionals program can diminish very quickly as well). Ultimately, success breeds more success. If your current optionals are competitive at states and larger meets, I guarantee you that optional gymnasts in the area will notice.

 

[JoyAvenueMom]

After MUCH research I chose a "new" gym for my dd this spring. The gym was just ending its second competitive season and had only 4 optional gymnasts, and a total team size of about 20. The reasons I picked this gym had more to do with the goals and demonstrated commitment by the owners to create a top quality program. For example, they had hired a coach who had competed as elite and had experience training higher level optionals. They had sought out mentorship from a successful gym in a nearby city and were putting the suggestions into place. The owner encouraged me to visit with the coach who would have my daughter and confirm she would be a good fit. (and Dunno agreed it was a great choice) Flash forward a few months.... The total team size is near 70, with 9 optionals (7 and above) plus 8 in L6. Word has spread rapidly of the quality of coaching at the optional level, and several girls have transferred. The enthusiasm is wonderful, and the girls all feel they are a part of something special. If I had JUST looked at the current number of optional gymnasts, I would have never considered this gym.

 

[gymdog]

I would think having level 8s after 4 years would be on track. Most kids take at least 7 years or more to get to level 10 under average JO training (~15 hours), so even if you started with some really talented level 4/5s, you wouldn't expect them to be at level 10 yet, unless they trained 30 hours a week.

 

[GymMom67]

I think 15 optionals in level 6-8 sounds pretty good after just a few years. We go to a gym with a strong optional program. I don't know the exact number of optional girls, but I do know that two years ago, we had no level 9's and only two level 10's. They both graduated that year (and both got D1 scholarships), and last year we had several level 9's and no level 10's (since we didn't have 9's the year before). This year, we still have several 9's and no 10's. So what I'm saying is that apparently it's not easy to move up in the levels once you get up to those levels. We have quite a few 6-8's. My DD isn't there yet, so I am just going on what I am observing.

 

[gymjunkie]

There are some gyms that open up and immediately pull optionals from other teams. IME, it's sometimes because of a state -of-the-art facility, rather than great coaching that draws the kids in large numbers like that. These teams appear to do well right from the beginning, but you can't really tell why since other coaches developed the talent and the new gym is just riding wave. I've seen gyms like this fold in less than 5 years, because their coaches can't sustain the success with their own kids. I've also seen new gyms, who don't start off by "stealing" other kids, take forever to build a great program, because as soon as they get a kid to optionals, the parent jumps ship. They get concerned that now that their kid is an optional, she might not do as well as she could at a gym with lots of optionals to look up to and motivate her. The coaches might be exceptional, but the parents aren't willing to take a chance. Once one of their successful new optionals jumps ship, then the others get nervous and start having the same fears and some of them follow like sheep. It's going to take a team much longer to build an optional program if this keeps happening, and it does happen quite a bit. So you can't really judge a program just by numbers. There is too much psychology at play. IMO you have to do your research and learn what makes a good gymnastics coach (for your child) and not pay so much attention to other distracting factors.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Right on track!

 

[iwannacoach]

There are some gyms that open up and immediately pull optionals from other teams...........

If by growing pains you're referring to planning the future with the entire team group in mind only to find that the kids slowly peter out. If you also mean some of the better compulsory kids leave because of doubts they have about the new ownership.....

Sure, it can take a year to let the dust settle, and another year to rebuild the compulsory program. Figure a 3rd year up training a few kids who could go optional but didn't because there were too few of them to put them into a cohesive training group. So while it can be done faster, but more likely slower, putting together an optional group by the start of the 4th year seems pretty good.

....... I've also seen new gyms, who don't start off by "stealing" other kids, take forever to build a great program, because as soon as they get a kid to optionals, the parent jumps ship. They get concerned that now that their kid is an optional, she might not do as well as she could at a gym with lots of optionals to look up to and motivate her. The coaches might be exceptional, but the parents aren't willing to take a chance. Once one of their successful new optionals jumps ship, then the others get nervous and start having the same fears and some of them follow like sheep. It's going to take a team much longer to build an optional program if this keeps happening, and it does happen quite a bit./quote]
I think the better indicator is the momentum you see in your own childs training group. If they're learning new skills and look prepared to compete this season, you're probably right.

Right on track!

Indeed!

 

[cbifoja]

Thank you for all of the feedback. We aren't looking for a new gym at all despite going up to optionals this year. I was just curious to know if it seemed like our gym was doing as well as it feels like we are doing.