Parents Practice and religious observance

[klerovich]

My dd (level 4, age 11) currently practices 4 weekdays a week. Looking at the schedule for the higher levels, though, I see that the upper-level girls are practicing on weekends too, including, for the next level up, Sunday mornings. Some weekend stuff is fine, but Sunday mornings are not possible for us: her dad is clergy and we can rarely miss Sunday morning services (occasionally for a meet we can make an exception, but really only once or twice a year). DD is on board with this and doesn't want to miss church. I'm wondering if parents have any advice on how/ when to bring this up to coaches and gym administrators. Should we mention it before they're making the schedule? Tell them we will have to find another gym if practices are on Sundays? Just hope for the best and miss a practice every week if they are scheduled for Sundays? Schedules are usually made in spring, but I'm already thinking about it because dd is die-hard devoted to gymnastics and I don't want to mess stuff up for her unnecessarily.

 

[GymDadWA]

When you get to that level let them know Sunday practices don't work for your family. They'll just have you skip practice that day of the week. They are not going to change a group schedule for one gymnast.

Just warning you going forward meets can compete on Sundays too and getting a gymnast into a non-Sunday session might not be something the gym is going to want to deal with.

 

[bookworm]

I'm surprised there'd be practices on Sundays...we were at a few different gyms, one with Olympians, and we never had Sunday practices. Occasionally a meet on Sunday and you could plan on that by opting out. Is it every Sunday? and could your daughter maybe go on a different day to do the hours? I'm guessing if they do have regular practices on Sundays, that must work for the majority of their paying customers...or they would do something different so I don't see them changing it for one kid.

Only thing I can think of is do they have a significant population that can't practice on Friday or Saturday, and Sunday was the next best option?

 

[Carly]

You may be able to work out something for practices with the gym but probably not for meets. There is always a chance that a meet can be on Sunday since they are all on the weekends.

 

[klerovich]

Yes, as I said, we are able to make exceptions for the occasional meet (there have only ever been 1-2 Sunday meets a year), but practices are what concerns me.

 

[Coach Kate]

When you get to that level let them know Sunday practices don't work for your family. They'll just have you skip practice that day of the week. They are not going to change a group schedule for one gymnast.

Just warning you going forward meets can compete on Sundays too and getting a gymnast into a non-Sunday session might not be something the gym is going to want to deal with.

We had an athlete who didn't compete on Sundays. She just didn't compete in those meets.

 

[gymjunkie]

I'm surprised there'd be practices on Sundays...we were at a few different gyms, one with Olympians, and we never had Sunday practices. Occasionally a meet on Sunday and you could plan on that by opting out. Is it every Sunday? and could your daughter maybe go on a different day to do the hours? I'm guessing if they do have regular practices on Sundays, that must work for the majority of their paying customers...or they would do something different so I don't see them changing it for one kid.

Only thing I can think of is do they have a significant population that can't practice on Friday or Saturday, and Sunday was the next best option?

I worked at a gym that was open on Sundays from 8-4pm. One team level had practice in the afternoon. Other than that it was rec & ninja classes and a ton of privates going on. I'm actually surprised it's not more popular after seeing how packed the gym was on Sunday.

For the team I worked for, the group that came in on Sundays was a younger level. I think they were okay with it, knowing their child would only have to do it for a few years and then age out of Sunday practice.

Sunday mornings obviously won't work for your family, so hopefully your DD is at a younger level where she too will age out of the requirement. I'm sure she is not the only one who has needed to skip Sunday practice. Maybe they can have her make up for it by attending a different day with a different group. Occassionally that is done at gyms.

 

[Tmacs]

They should definitely be flexible. I won't let my kids do regular practices or privates on Sunday either. And I opted to have my daughter miss one practice a week last year during L6. She wasn't affected at all and was actually better rested because of it.

 

[CuriousCate]

Not quite the same given that her dad is the pastor at your church while we have no personal relation to our priest, but when we travel for meets that might end up being on a Sunday or have Sunday as the day to travel back home, we try to find a church locally where we can attend services. We are Catholic and there is a website called MassTimes.org to find the various service times for parishes around the country. Perhaps there is something similar for your faith. I would caution that with optional levels, we are gone 3-4 Sundays per season.

For practices, it is unlikely that the gym will change, but perhaps will let her practice a different day with another training group.