Off Topic My Dream Gym

[raenndrops]

No floor or vault into pit most normal gyms have that also no pbars rings or high bar into pit. Ok seems judgemental but if it really is a dream gym I feel like you would need those things.

This is MY dream gym.
Right now, we have no pit at all. We also don't have a boys team. Honestly, I don't worry about the boys equipment... just wanted to make sure we had all the equipment with FULL FIG matting. There would also be room to put a mushroom for lower levels. Only 1 team in our district has a boys team... they have to travel a lot farther for meets. Low level boys don't really need their equipment into a pit.

I addressed the floor and vault issues in another reply... There is a vault trainer that can be attached at the end of the tumble track dismounting into the pit. They can also train their floor skills on the tumble track until they are ready to take them to the floor. Since the goal of our gym is NOT L10 or Elite, this gym would be more than adequate for what we want and need. High School Gymnastics basically competes with L8 rules. Our District only goes up to L9 (we had 3 L9 gymnasts in our entire district last season and all of them were high school Seniors). We also had 11 L8s in the district (and 3 of them are on teams don't even have a Spring Floor... and only 2 go to a gym with a pit).

 

[Sperkowsky]

Wait I'm kinda confused here is this something real or fake because I really don't get it.

This seems like a multi million dollar facility and you don't plan to ever have kids progress higher than level 8? If your going to build a beautiful gym like this you might as well make it so you have the option if desired in the future to use it for a higher level gym.

This gym is a great setup if all your doing is level 3s but what happens when those level 3s want to become level 10s.

If this is real I would suggest at least pits for all the girls events if not the boys events if possible.

The thing is its all well and good that someone has full fig matting but it doesn't matter how much mat space there is for kids if there's no good way to progress.

There are a lot of cool things in this gym design but if this is something that you actually want to make a reality I don't get why you wouldn't build a large pit system with tumbl traks trampolines rod floors high bars single rails ring sets pbars ect.

You said there are 11 level 8s in your district that is pretty big so why not design the space around them more and have more events into pit.

If this is real it doesn't make sense imo

If this is fake whatever just forget everything I said.

 

[raenndrops]

Wait I'm kinda confused here is this something real or fake because I really don't get it.

This seems like a multi million dollar facility and you don't plan to ever have kids progress higher than level 8? If your going to build a beautiful gym like this you might as well make it so you have the option if desired in the future to use it for a higher level gym.

This gym is a great setup if all your doing is level 3s but what happens when those level 3s want to become level 10s.

If this is real I would suggest at least pits for all the girls events if not the boys events if possible.

The thing is its all well and good that someone has full fig matting but it doesn't matter how much mat space there is for kids if there's no good way to progress.

There are a lot of cool things in this gym design but if this is something that you actually want to make a reality I don't get why you wouldn't build a large pit system with tumbl traks trampolines rod floors high bars single rails ring sets pbars ect.

You said there are 11 level 8s in your district that is pretty big so why not design the space around them more and have more events into pit.

If this is real it doesn't make sense imo

If this is fake whatever just forget everything I said.

This is my dream gym... we are a YMCA gym. There are NO L10 in our district... we DON'T go to L10. If somebody wants to do L10, they go to Integrity or Buckeye (or Cincinnati if they are in the southern part of the district). 11 L8 is NOT a lot considering our district size... NOT School District... Gymnastics District (Southwest Ohio Zone). Last year, our team had 18 L3, 15 L4, 4 L6, 2 L7, 7 Xcel Gold and 1 Xcel Platinum.

Our DISTRICT had a total of 99 L3, 108 L4, 32 L5, 23 L6, 23 L7, actually 14 L8 (but 3 scratched from Championships), 3 L9, 2 Xcel Silver, 20 Xcel Gold, and 8 Xcel Platinum... so L8 and L9 made up 17/332 gymnasts in the entire district... or 5%. Even adding in the L7, it only goes up to 12% of the district.

As for the boys, it would be up to the YMCA to get a Boys team going... and they are unlikely to ever bother with that. A Boys team would HAVE to compete USAG = More Expensive (USAG fees on top of Y Membership fees and gym fees, etc) = Less interest since there are established gyms with boys programs within a 30-40 minute drive.

My dream gym would require an ANONYMOUS BENEFACTOR who would donate the building (after building it) for the sake of doing it - likes the YMCA Philosophy... has the money to throw away, etc.
We already have the 2nd best practice gym set up in our district (without ANY pits and minimal boys equipment for the 2 boys rec classes we offer). We actually have the best MEET set up right now... but one of the other gyms (the one with the BEST practice set up) is getting an addition so they can do their meets in one room instead of having to walk down a long hall for Beam and vault.

 

[Jenny]

What you have done is design the most fabulous set up that you gym could use at this moment in time. Addresses all the issues you currently have. Makes perfect sense to me.


However just to warn you that if you had this set up your huge level 3 team would be a huge level 5 team in 2 years after benefitting from your ideas! dang! You will have to design them a gym next door with very different needs

 

[raenndrops]

@Jenny, "However just to warn you that if you had this set up your huge level 3 team would be a huge level 5 team in 2 years after benefitting from your ideas! dang! You will have to design them a gym next door with very different needs

"


But we would not have a huge L5 team. A lot of our gymnasts in all levels are “older” (last season, our L3 girls ranged from 8-12 years old, with 10 of the girls ending the season at 11 or 12 years old. We tend to lose girls to middle school and high school activities when they get older. I have planned the gym for longevity of the PROGRAM. It can accommodate up to 3 L8 gymnasts and even a L9 gymnast. That is the most we would ever have.

Only 8/18 L3 from last season are moving up to L4, 2 are repeating L3, 1 has quit, and 7 are doing Xcel Gold and/or Middle school team.

Of our 15 L4 last season, 5 are moving to L5 (3 of whom spent 2 years at their level), 2 are repeating L4, 2 have quit, and 5 are doing Xcel Gold or Platinum and / or Middle School team.

Of the 6 girls in L6 and L7 last year, 4 are repeating their respective levels, one L6 is moving to Xcel Platinum, and one is only competing for the high school team.

From the 7 girls on the Xcel Gold team, 2 are moving up to Platinum, 1-2 have quit (one is undecided currently and the other is doing middle school sports), and the other 3 are repeating.

Last season, we had 1 Xcel Platinum. She is going to focus on High School Gymnastics team instead.

 

[Jenny]

If you had such a fantastic gym set up I can guarantee you would have more staying on into the higher levels. You are enabling the quality of what you do in level 3 to improve and therefore more kids will get further and be inspired to get further. And also don't forget you would also attract kids to come in from elsewhere. You would have less repeaters and more reason to stay on. Kids and families would become very attached to such a lovely gym. No one would want to leave.

So you would either have to build a level 6 plus gym next door or send them elsewhere. You would be a victim of your own success!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

well if you were local to us I know my daughter would be camping out there - you would never get rid of her !

 

[Faith]

Jenny, it might work the other way- gym I know has absolutely fab facilities, but seems to top out about level 6 for WAG, and focuses on F+V/rec.

Most kids leave about 11/12 as they realise they're putting in heavy hours and not getting anywhere.

They can, and have, coached up to junior elite, but seem to choose not to. They have been asked allow elites to train there with their own coaches, they refuse.

If coaches aren't going to coach L6+, or enter for meets, it isn't going to happen.

There is a chance you'll get a coach with shiny eyes and ambition, but even then they can't do much with no pits...

I just think it's a shame to spend all that cash and not at least factor in the possibility of coaching up to elite. You may not have any intention to, or ever do so, but lower levels will benefit from pits etc, and while you have all this hypothetical cash you might as well. Could be a money spinner renting your facility to elite teams in the day, or for competitions...

My hypothetical gym would be along the lines of Lilleshall (or as it used to be)- one competition gym, one training gym fully pitted/matted. Lilleshall I think was one big T-shape pit running the length of the building, with bars/beam/rings etc over it, then a tumble track down one side into the "T", vault down the other.

 

[Jenny]

Lilleshall is pretty much still like that. Love that fast track.

 

[Faith]

It looks like a brick building from photos now? When I was there it was a tent!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

was that on the steam train Faith, did they have cars back in your day ?

 

[Iwannabemargo]

For others who don't know Lilleshall is our national centre of sporting excellence

http://www.lilleshallnsc.co.uk/

 

[Faith]

I think we used to pile about 8 kids in the back seat though to get there. Most fun was the dad who had one of those volvo wagon type things, with the enormous space behind the rear seats. Fight to sit in there!

It was when the tumble track was a "ski run" though- made out of actual skis, I believe. Sprung floors were very unusual then (God, I really am getting old!) so the bounce was amazing!

 

[Jenny]

I remember the ski runs too! It is a proper building now

 

[raenndrops]

@Jenny... we are a YMCA gymnastics team, and we also have a good rec program. We top out at 7.5 hours a week of practice. If gymnasts want to get to the higher levels, they go to a private club. There are several clubs within 20-40 minutes drive... including Buckeye Gymnastics (Nia Dennis and Gabby Douglas train there) and Integrity Gymnastics... "The Home of Blaine Wilson."
No matter how great our facility is, people would still look down on it because we are "just" a YMCA program and not a CLUB program... I see it even on the ChalkBucket all the time.

Our HC has a club background... she doesn't want the high hours / high pressure that clubs have. We only compete against other YMCA teams... and Y Nationals is the only time we compete against teams who aren't in our district (with the exception of the rare occasion that HC decides to compete at the Invitational one of the district teams host... we have competed it 2x in the last 6 years... there are a few Y teams from outside our district that come to it,,, but when we went, HC was not impressed with what we got for our money - double the meet fee but cheap awards, lack of seating in the awards area, expensive concessions, slow from session finish to awards starting, etc.)

My dream gym is designed to get our girls as far at they can go on 7.5 hours a week... There is a big jump between L7 and L8 and a big jump between L8 and L9. Our girls don't usually start competing until they are at least 7... but often they are 8-12 at their first L3 meet.
Parents choose our program because it allows girls to pursue other activities at the same time... we have lacrosse players, soccer players, middle school cheerleaders, cross country runners, and golfers, show choir members, girl scouts, basketball players, volleyball players, softball players, and dancers.
Since our season goes Oct-Mar, it overlaps all 3 school sport seasons. If a parent wants his or her child to participate in a sport each season (we had this happen before), then the girl has to drop gymnastics so she can do volleyball, cheer, and track... even though she still loves gymnastics.

 

[gymdog]

Woohoo look at that Lilleshall pit. Also if I made a dream gym it would have one of those covered bouncy European pits, I don't care if the foam cracks or whatever, those look amazing and I'm desperate to use one in my life.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Woohoo look at that Lilleshall pit. Also if I made a dream gym it would have one of those covered bouncy European pits, I don't care if the foam cracks or whatever, those look amazing and I'm desperate to use one in my life.

didn't realise what it was and tried to walk across one once - looked like a flailing seal beached on a light green iceberg

 

[Dr Maleficent]

The problem with the bouncy European pits is trying to do a good landing on them in competition - there was one under high bar and one after the vault at one competition we went to - the poor kids landed then bounced off in random directions - looked like they were landing on a waterbed!

 

[gymdog]

The problem with the bouncy European pits is trying to do a good landing on them in competition - there was one under high bar and one after the vault at one competition we went to - the poor kids landed then bounced off in random directions - looked like they were landing on a waterbed!

Which is amazing

 

[All Chalked Up]

Woohoo look at that Lilleshall pit. Also if I made a dream gym it would have one of those covered bouncy European pits, I don't care if the foam cracks or whatever, those look amazing and I'm desperate to use one in my life.

These sound awesome. Can someone post a picture? I've never heard of them!