Question Re: Potential new gym

[Mariainlv]

Last night I took J to see try a new gym close to our new home. It felt odd. First there are only 5 girls on the team. They mentioned some recent gym drama caused 90% of the team and coaches to leave. My question is this: what would this signal to you?

Another thing that I was not ok with was kids on high beams with no one watching. The coach was in another room talking to me.

I am worried that I am unnecessarily discounting a gym because I am giving too muchweight to things that aren't relevant.

 

[gymdog]

Try another one. It would be one thing if it were just 5 girls because it was a super small program but if it used to be 50 girls and now it's 5? Try somewhere else. If 90% of the parents were recently unhappy with this program then there is a high chance that you will be unhappy with it too. Perhaps they have made radical changes since then, but I wouldn't even bother to be honest. Unless all the coaches own the gym (unlikely), then I would also expect any one of them to be making a move at any moment as well.

The beam thing, I guess it depends on what they were doing, I mean if they were doing dance throughs or something that isn't that dangerous, but I can't really see doing that for a non-emergency and if there were no other coaches in the gym. And if there were an emergency presumably the kids would just have to stop for awhile or go to the floor to do handstands.

 

[gymgramma]

I would not take my DD to that gym. We have experienced a gym where the coaches weren't always with the gymnasts and the paramedics were at that gym a lot!!Also, a mass exodis of 90% certainly throws up red flags!!

 

[gymgramma]

hmmm wont save my per cent sign.....that should be 90 per cent

 

[GymGirl's Mom]

I would keep looking. Was this gym recommended by someone you know/trust or just found through a local search for gyms? I am only asking b/c unless I had heard from someone whose opinion I REALLY value and trust that this gym is great I wouldn't even give not going there a 2nd thought.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Last night I took J to see try a new gym close to our new home. It felt odd. First there are only 5 girls on the team. They mentioned some recent gym drama caused 90% of the team and coaches to leave. My question is this: what would this signal to you?

Another thing that I was not ok with was kids on high beams with no one watching. The coach was in another room talking to me.

I am worried that I am unnecessarily discounting a gym because I am giving too muchweight to things that aren't relevant.

pm me................

 

[gymjoy]

That would definitely set off some warning bells to me. Go look at a few more gyms before you decide on one of them.

 

[UnoMas]

We considered a gym who also had large numbers of the team girls leave. While I understand that a few girls will leave, and sometimes girls and families will follow each other, it seems to me that something must be wrong for so many to leave. I just couldn't get past that fact with that gym. I would keep looking, as many others have said! Good luck!

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

I would run, run, run!!! Usually, parents (and girls/boys) really take the time to think through a decision to finally switch gyms. Just think of all the posts of parents on the fence here on CB. It is a HUGE decision to have to make. But when a group leaves about the same time, that is definitely making a H U G E statement!!! Something is either wrong w/the owner/management or coaching... or all of the above!

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

Last night I took J to see try a new gym close to our new home. It felt odd. First there are only 5 girls on the team. They mentioned some recent gym drama caused 90% of the team and coaches to leave. My question is this: what would this signal to you?

Wait.... I can't edit my previous post.... You had recently mentioned J trying out at SCEGA. This isn't the gym you're talking about in this post, is it?

 

[Mariainlv]

No this was a gym closer to home.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

it had better not be scega...

 

[cher062]

I would find out what the drama was the caused the majority to leave. I've experienced twice in the years my children have been doing this a similar thing. Both were because the coach was mad at the owner for stupid reasons and the coach got very mad, made it know to the parents they were moving and where they were moving to and encouraged the parents to follow them so they would have the same coach for the season. Then the parents followed the coach. We didn't because where they moved to I didn't like. So the team was very small for about 4 or 5 months. Then those same parents came trickling back to the gym and several others from the other gym where the coach moved to also came to that gym I use to be at.

You really have to investigate as to what caused the move. If they won't go into details I would be very up front and say that mass exit really sends up red flags and you reall need to know what happened. If the program seems good and the coaches you encountered seem good I wouldn't write them off yet.

The 2nd time it happened the 2 coaches of the team went on vacation and never came back leaving the gym in a bind. While on vacation they contacted parents directly to let them know so they could follow them and not to say anything to the gym and those parents did follow and not say anything.

 

[mariposa]

I would probably have J try out a few other gyms, but I wouldn't completely count the closer gym out just because they lost coaches/team members. I would try to talk to the parents that did stay and find out why they stayed, why others left, etc. Ask the owners/coaches why, too. Like Cher said, if they are honest about it, maybe they are actually fixing the problem. If they won't talk about it, I guess that would be a red flag. If the gymnasts followed the coach, that could explain it, maybe all the kids really had a bond with that coach and felt they had to follow him/her. And I would not want my kid left on beam alone all the time, but depending on what they were doing they might have been okay alone for a short time.

Good luck. There are lots of gyms in Cali. I am sure you will find a good fit for J!

 

[tumblerK]

Find out the reason for everyone leaving first. I went to a YMCA, and the Y, in it's high quality management, has a cap on how much a coach can be paid. Not just gym coaches, but the swim team coaches and such too. Unluckily for us, that wage is somewhere between 8 and 9 dollars an hour. In consequence, my gym has a horrible time keeping a good team coach.

Three times in my 8 years at the Y the head coach has left, not to go coach at another gym but just to other jobs. The first time the team dropped from 20 members to 10. The second time we dropped from 15 to 11. And just this summer to now our team has gone from 13 to 8. This didn't have anything to do with the quality of the program, but just that the coach left and the girls either switched gyms or quit rather than sticking around and getting used to a new coach.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

i would find out what the drama was the caused the majority to leave. I've experienced twice in the years my children have been doing this a similar thing. Both were because the coach was mad at the owner for stupid reasons and the coach got very mad, made it know to the parents they were moving and where they were moving to and encouraged the parents to follow them so they would have the same coach for the season. Then the parents followed the coach. We didn't because where they moved to i didn't like. So the team was very small for about 4 or 5 months. Then those same parents came trickling back to the gym and several others from the other gym where the coach moved to also came to that gym i use to be at.

You really have to investigate as to what caused the move. If they won't go into details i would be very up front and say that mass exit really sends up red flags and you reall need to know what happened. If the program seems good and the coaches you encountered seem good i wouldn't write them off yet.

the 2nd time it happened the 2 coaches of the team went on vacation and never came back leaving the gym in a bind. While on vacation they contacted parents directly to let them know so they could follow them and not to say anything to the gym and those parents did follow and not say anything.

scoundrels.......

 

[cher062]

[/u][/b]

scoundrels.......

Yes I though that was in very bad taste too. One of those coaches also was our friend outside of the gym so I though. Her DD did a sleep over the night before they went on vacation and her son was best friends with my son. We weren't one of the parents called!! I found out because her DD left some of her things at our house during that sleep over and when they came back from vacation I called them to let them Know that I would bring the stuff to the gym to make it easier that was how I found out she moved and didn't want to take my DD with her to her new gym. Let's say our friendship wasn't exactly the same after that.

 

[bogwoppit]

Yes I though that was in very bad taste too. One of those coaches also was our friend outside of the gym so I though. Her DD did a sleep over the night before they went on vacation and her son was best friends with my son. We weren't one of the parents called!! I found out because her DD left some of her things at our house during that sleep over and when they came back from vacation I called them to let them Know that I would bring the stuff to the gym to make it easier that was how I found out she moved and didn't want to take my DD with her to her new gym. Let's say our friendship wasn't exactly the same after that.

WHere is that jaw dropping emoticon when I need it. THat is disgusting and beyond disrespectful.

MarianinLV (ooh that name may have to change now!!!) I would certainly check out a few more gyms before your settle on one. I would be very nervous about a gym which has just gone through a huge upheaval. Ask all the big questions and watch a lot. J is still very young and you need to be very aware of what's happening in any gym you choose. Good luck, nice that you have some choices.