Coaches IGC Summer Camp

[coach.e]

I know many people have asked questions on what to bring, what to expect, etc about their child going to a camp this summer..I am asking the same except from the other side of the spectrum. I am going as a coach this summer to IGC and I was wondering if anybody who has been a coach at this camp, or one similar, could offer anything. Maybe point out a few things you wish you had known beforehand, wish you would've thought to bring, anything to expect that I probably haven't been told about. Even anything about summer climate in Pennsylvania..I've lived in a desert my entire life..
Thank you!

 

[raenndrops]

WEATHER: Expect Heat... and Cool.... and Rain... all possibly within a 2 hour timeframe. When it is hot, it will most likely be HUMID too - which makes it seem even hotter that a dry heat would.

 

[Nicole19]

I coached at a IGC a few summers ago. You can learn a ton at IGC but expect to be busy all day and night with coaching (bring a notebook for all the things you'll learn!) and counseling.
Electronics aren't allowed in front of the campers so I would bring a book or journal or something to have with you if you have some time to yourself. It is hot most days but the gyms are comfortably air conditioned (You can be barefoot or wear shoes in the gym.). It used to be a big deal to pass out stickers to the campers at the end of the week so perhaps invest in a sticker stash. I'm not sure if that's still tradition. Bring lots of energy and whatever you need to rejuvenate and be at your best every day.
Have a great summer!

 

[coach.e]

Thank y'all!

 

[bogwoppit]

Everyone says IGC food it awesome.

 

[Lilly]

Don't go! They make a HUGE deal about the coaches appearing a certain way around the campers and being good role models etc. but they practically encourage people to sleep around behind the scenes. One of the trashiest places. It looks nice in pictures and even in person, but it's a facade! You may meet some very nice people there if you decide to ignore this advice and go anyway. Brings some cold and flue meds as almost ALL coaches sooner or later will get sick!

They entice coaches to spend a lot of money to fly from Australia and other places and advertise it as "getting the American experience" but they pay them $100 dollars per week because they can. That's $100 per week for being on the go about 12 hours per day or more. I am from the US so I was paid well (actually perhaps just sufficiently considering the hours we worked) but was NOT impressed with how they took advantage of the foreign coaches. If you counsel you may be up all night dealing with any issues from campers so it's pretty much a 24 hour per day job. If you want to work out because you are still competing in college you will need to find energy on top of that to fit in your workout in the tiny 2.5 hour window that's left. You get 24 hours off, from noon Saturday to noon Sunday. That means you work 7 days per week.

They don't care about the campers, they care about money. They don't allow the campers to have cameras at camp because they try to sell pictures to the parents at ridiculous prices when they come to pick them up. You will be asked (if you are assigned the job) to push the pictures as much as you can and get in trouble if you do not sell enough.

If you have little spotting experience, that's the only positive I can think of really, besides meeting some other people, but you will meet cool new people at any new thing you try.

There was one foreign camp worker who was forced to work in the blazing hot sun for 8 hours straight without a break even after multiple complaints about not feeling well and got heat exhaustion. He was QUITE ill for a few days if I recall correctly. The foreign gymnastics coaches were not respected very much, but the foreign employees to cleaned and did other yard work were treated with no respect at all!

There was another girl who was told she had to spot these girls on back handsprings who were twice her size and clearly not ready to do them. She was kicked in the face and showed CLEAR symptoms of a concussion. She was told by the owners to suck it up and just go to sleep and that she would be fine. They refused to allow her to go the the doctor. She did not have a car and so couldn't run away. After complaining for days she was finally allowed to go see a doctor. She had a moderate concussion and the doctor was confused why she did not come in much sooner. She was hurt ON THE JOB and the contract states that it includes medical care for JUST such an incident. IGC refused to acknowledge that anything happened and told her to quit her complaining. I'm not sure how they got away with that. 4 MONTHS LATER she was still having issues from this concussion. These issues could have been avoided easily and IGC refuses to take any responsibility at all for it. There was never any report filed.


Then...
3 coaches were in a room with probably 40-50 campers stretching...stretching! That's it. This one girl suddenly started bawling and clutching her back. Camp policy is such that she was rushed away in an ambulance. The girl returned a hour or two later and had been diagnosed with a "contusion" which is the medical term for a bruise, on her back. By the way, there was no bruise visible even if you squinted at it. The girl just wanted some attention and was tired of stretching so she made a scene because she knew she would get the attention she wanted. She jumped right back into everything the moment she got back and acted like nothing happened.

Then...
The 3 of us were called into a private meeting and interrogated about what happened, why didn't we stop it, how did we not see what happened when there were 3 of us in the room etc. A full police report was filed and everything! Nothing happened of course and the Klaus's knew that but we were interrogated anyway. Even if something did happen, it's not hard to understand that we could miss it with 50 kids!
Oh by the way, the girl with the concussion...she was one of the three coaches interrogated. This was BEFORE she finally got to go to the hospital and days after her injury. She was SEVERELY injured and was in a lot of pain and this girl gets an ambulance ride to the hospital for a fake injury!

Brent Klaus is somewhat of a pawn but still very mean, callous and heartless. Bruno Klaus is immensely mean and spiteful. There is unpleasant and people that may just not be your favorite, and then there is mean! Stay far away from all of them!



If IGC doesn't like something you do, they try to make you run "hills" or swim in the lake. Physical punishment is illegal. I'm not sure how they haven't gotten in HUGE trouble for this. The "lake" looks nice in the pictures, but do you realize it is covered in a THICK slime of algae and who knows what else until they get rid of it about 2 days before the first campers come? I was 19 minutes late one time after having been quite ill for weeks. I was not sleeping because I was just sick all night. It really is uncanny the number of employees who get very ill there. I was told I had to run 19 hills (19 times up and down this long steep hill). It would be a great workout if I weren't barely able to breath because I was sick! I barely stumbled down the hill in the first place to get to the gym. I believe in being punctual and showing up on time and incredibly considering how ill I was I was only late once. I could not have been any earlier that day had I been paid 1 million dollars but they didn't care at all!

They didn't like where my car was once, and Bruno actually demanded that I GIVE him my keys! To my car! That is illegal! I refused and his eyes squinted one of the most evil looks of anger I have ever seen. The next day my windshield wiper was broken and a huge crack spanned the entire windshield. I was confused how it happened until the mechanic we visited later said he wondered "who" did this because somebody had clearly swung something heavy to break the thick metal piece that it broke. Then it dawned on me even though it should have been my first thought.

Please understand I went there with the best attitude and expecting the best and looking forward to learning a lot and being around other athletes to train with etc.

They would pay people the wrong amounts on purpose and hope they wouldn't notice.


Then the year after my stint at IGC I get a letter in the mail from them. I felt like I really should not open it so I just threw it away. I had a friend who says she also felt a twinge of "I shouldn't open this" but did. Now keep in mind she spent the better part of six weeks in tears at IGC and says the Klaus's are "some of the meanest people she had ever met in her life". She opens this letter and get this sudden rush of "hey, you know what, I should go back to IGC. Maybe it was not so bad! Yeah that's it! I should go back!" out of no where even after she vowed she would NEVER go back! She realized her thinking was bizzare and sudden pushed that thought out of her mind and came back into her right mind and realized she definitely did NOT want to go back.



IGC is one of the most vile, hypocritical places I have every been to. That town in Pennsylvania and IGC itself has a dark, ominous, horrible feeling presence hanging over it. Please do not fall for their speeches they use to entice people to go coach there. Stay away!

 

[Aero]

@Lilly | Why do I feel like your entire post is complete, utter BS?

 

[bogwoppit]

Disclaimer - Just to add here that Lilly's post is all her own and is no way the opinion of the Chalkbucket. Everyone has their opinions, Lilly's are very strong, I can only hope that she has them backed up with proof.

On a personal non mod note - I have never worked at IGC, but our HC went with her girls and said she thought it was a great camp coaching wise, but felt it was much more restrictive than Woodward, but she learned a lot more there.

 

[Jenny]

Oh deary me.

 

[coach.e]

Well since I started this thread I guess I'll clear up some things..

I have now been coaching at IGC for the past 5 weeks and would like to kindly disagree with the majority of things stated a few posts above me.

The Klaus family are some of the kindest people I have ever met. Bruno and Cheryl are so sweet. When there is work to be done Brent, the director of the entire camp, is out there helping with the rest of us. They have taken the time to know each of the staff members names and are always helpful with problems and concerns we have.

Practically encourage people to sleep around behind the scenes? What? Boys and girls are not allowed to be in each other's housing. The staff is great. They are here because they love the kids. And yes, we are trying our hardest to be good role models for them.

Yes everyone gets paid a different amount. If anybody is coming here to make money, you're doing it for the wrong reasons. The reason to come here is to gain a ridiculous amount of knowledge and to help children. Not to make a ton of money. Actually if you want to make a ton of money..don't be a gymnastics coach. If you don't love it, the hours will never be worth it. Ask anyone on this forum. Gymnastics coaches aren't banking it for the most part. But they love it. I am actually enjoying myself so much here that if made no money doing this I would be content.

Getting a 24 hour time frame would mean you're working 6 days a week..not 7. Each day we get from 3:30 to 6:45 off. Not much time. But enough to breathe and relax. Again, if you don't want long hours, don't be a gymnastics coach. It comes with the job, especially at a camp.

Don't even say anything about them not caring about the campers. Each day we have a morning meeting and talk about kids that are homesick, struggling in the gym, not getting along with the other kids or anything else us as coaches would need to know to better help the kids. The kids come first here, always.

About having people spot kids who are way bigger than them..last night I was at my station for open gym and there were two girls that I knew I would not be able to spot. So I asked someone a little bigger and more experienced than I am to help them. Similar thing happened yesterday during our rotations, I had some kids whose level of gymnastics was above my spotting ability and one of the gym supervisors came right over and offered to help for the entire rotation.

As far as getting kicked in the head..yes it's happened here plenty of times. And in every gym. Or at any camp. There is a concussion policy with the trainers that you must be symptom free for 5 days before coaching or spotting again. Before that point you are monitored 24/7 and even sleep in the nurses office so they can be right there just in case anything goes wrong. The owners do not deal with this. The trainers do. There is no way the owners could say "suck it up"..they don't deal with concussions, the trainers do.

There is no camp policy for taking someone to the hospital for back pain..even if they're crying. Obviously they were really worried about the girl and wanted her checked by a doctor or have CT scan. I don't know the situation so there's not really anything I can say about this.

Brent is not mean, callous or heartless. In any way. Ever. And Bruno is a sweet old man.

For the record, we do run hills for being late to a meeting. But being 19 minutes late would be missing the meeting entirely because they are 15 minutes long. I have never seen anyone be more than 2 minutes late.

No one is allowed to swim in the lake. Ever. Ever. No one.

I have never seen Bruno glare. And cannot even being to believe that they would vandalize your car.

To summarize this, I love it here! I love coaching for 7 hours a day and being exhausted at the end of each day! I love the food, people, environment, everything. I love getting to be a counselor and having 10 year olds to comfort at night because they miss their moms and need someone to make them feel better. I loved vault today when I had a group of beginners that made it over the vault for the first time today--their beaming faces we're worth more than any amount of money. I am leaning so much every day. It is hard, it is exhausting, but it is so worth it.

If anyone has any questions about the camp, whether about coaching or sending your kids here, please feel free to message me and I will do my best to answer them.

Hope this cleared some stuff up!