WAG How many coaches go to meets?

[munchkin3]

We have no coaches fees, which is why they skimp on this. Several parent have asked for a fee in order to have proper staffing, but no. Weird huh? Asking to pay a bit more?
We know we pay less than most, but the toll it takes on the staff is really not fair.
I would rather pay an extra 50 or 100 a year and have enough people to properly staff the team.......

 

[proud-gym-mom]

The coaches that coach in practice go. If level 7 is going, then the 3 coaches that coach level 7 go. If all levels are going, then all team coaches go. When a kid is up on an event, the coach that coaches them on that event in practice will be the one warming them up and coaching them at the meet, unless there are multiple sessions and the coaches are stuck splitting up, which does happen as several coaches coach more than one level.

This is how we do it (above) and like another poster said we try to also always have two coaches for each group so that someone is with the girls at all times (if one needs to use the bathroom, coach's meeting etc.). If there are only 1 or 2 girls going then we would just send one coach.

 

[Anna's_Mom]

We have three coaches (team is all compulsory at this point, 25 girls ages 8-13) and at least two coaches attend all sessions we have competitors in. That leaves one back at the gym to cover the other's classes since two of those coaches also teach rec classes. For big meets like states all three go, or if we have lots of girls (that's more than 8 or so for us) competing at one time then all three will try to go for that session.

I'd be really worried if only one coach was there -- if there is an emergency or injury then the single coach would have to deal with that, leaving no one to supervise the other girls. Most of our meets do awards for one group while the next group is warming up and request a coach in each place, so at least two are pretty much mandatory.

 

[hearts_and_stars]

My experience with DD's gym has been that it depends on the number of girls and their level/ages. We have A LOT of 1s and 2s so both team coaches go to those sessions. 3-5 has an average of 8 girls to a level and the compulsory coach usually goes to those. It does sometimes make for a long day, but since the coach gets paid per session, she usually doesn't complain.

 

[iluvgym]

We send whomever coaches the team. In compulsories we send four coaches as we have event coaches. For optionals we send the bb/fx coach and the v/ub coach. This is for every meet, even state which sometimes means one kid in a session because they do the sessions by age.

 

[MILgymFAM]

At DDs old gym it was 2-3 coaches per meet. At her new gym, there is only one Xcel coach this year, so there will be one coach per meet. Haven't had a meet here yet, so can't talk to the functionality of it, but it seems there could be issues that arise.

 

[GymMomXcel]

The coaches that coach in practice go. If level 7 is going, then the 3 coaches that coach level 7 go. If all levels are going, then all team coaches go. When a kid is up on an event, the coach that coaches them on that event in practice will be the one warming them up and coaching them at the meet, unless there are multiple sessions and the coaches are stuck splitting up, which does happen as several coaches coach more than one level.

This is how our gym does it, too.

 

[wgymmom]

The level coach/es and the HC go. So, depending on the level groupings, there could be 2-3 coaches there.

At her first states, DD was the only one, so she had only one coach. But last year, there were 2 girls in the last session, and the level coach and HC were there.

 

[Amusibus]

Our coach teaches levels 1-3, and she goes to meets by herself. I think she assists with level 4 but not at meets for them. Level 1-3 is only maybe 10-12 kids in all.

 

[gymnast-mac]

We usually have 2 or 3 coaches at a meet, depending on which levels are competing and how they're split up. The head coach always goes and then either 1 or 2 of the assistant coaches. We have a fairly small team, so they coach all of the levels. There are other coaches who only coach the lower levels on certain days, but they do not go to meets. There have only been three times when we only had one coach. Once, there were only a few girls competing, and same with the second time (seven of the level sevens last year at a Friday-night meet). Another time, I was the only one in the session, so there was only one coach, HC, there.

 

[munchkin3]

It seems that MOST, like over 95% send more than one coach.
This bothers me on so many levels.
Not only because there are times when my little gymmie must be left alone during coaches meeting, but because I think it is wrong to have the same coach on the floor for 12+ hours alone, with no relief. Our coach isn't a young whipper snapper either. And trust me when I say there is no 'special' pay for doing this.
This is done because the rest of the team left at home needs the other coach for practice, IOW that coach is left with 25 + girls to train.....also a problem....staffing issues, and they are not going to hire anyone meaningful.
Makes me question the whole program.

 

[raenndrops]

Are there any official USAG Guidelines?
I really find it terrible that they make ONE coach attend all meets. The one coach does not coach ALL events but that's besides the point. But I still find it almost a safety issue when a coach starts at 8am and finishes at 8 pm with NO break....
My DD had to warm up for 5 minutes alone during the coaches meeting.....she could handle it, but its just plain wrong.

The girls are supposed to be able to do open stretch alone. That is always when our meets have the coaches meetings.
Frequently, groups with more than 8 girls will get split up at some point during the meet (we do a lot of modified capitol cup format with continuous rotation and bump 1/2 the girls to the next event at a time).
For this reason, we need AT LEAST 2 coaches there at a time. This most recent meet, we had 3-5 coaches (3 for 1st session and 5 for 2nd - 3rd sessions and the original 3 for the 4th session). They were able to get small breaks throughout the day.
Now, our previous meet, the weather was bad... our HC had gone down the night before. The other coaches came down in the morning and got stuck in a "parking lot" of an interstate highway. It took them 5.5 hours to make it (and it should have been a 1.75 - 2 hour drive). Our HC was a little frantic, but I was there to help out with warm up for the next event when it was floor... and one of the HC from another team (they had 5 coaches there and it was only L3, so they didn't NEED their HC) was able to help for Beam.

 

[z2akids]

Each of our compulsory levels has two coaches full time (and our L3s) have a third coach who helps on bars and beam. The 2 main coaches attend each meet and, friending in where the meet is, often HC goes our one of the other level coaches goes early to help out. Our options also have 2 coaches and they both go for all of the levels, except in the rare case where we only have 1 girl competing.

 

[NH~GymMom]

We have two coaches for 12 girls in my DD's level. And both coaches have to go to the coaches meeting, so the girls are left to do open stretch alone.

The probably could do 1 coach, except for the meets where we do e modified capital cup format. Then two are really necessary due to the size of the team.

 

[Gymnast@<3]

my team has about thirty girls, with fifteen of them competing, usually all coaches on our team prefer to go, unless they don't want to but its usually 4