WAG Some news on Geddert himself - suspended

[Canadian_gym_mom]

Not to beat a dead horse, but is CB looking into ridding itself of the nauseating Doc Ali ad I have to see every time I click on here? Her behavior was reprehensible and any support for her , especially on a gymnastics site where some members knew/are victims, should be gone...

I see it too and I think they are working on it. It's not even relevant. it's for a seminar from last summer.

 

[tomtnt]

Playing devil's advocate so please don't blast this as my opinion!

Gymnastics, with the ever increasing difficulty level is a relative strength sports. I.e., the strength to weight ratio is of significant importance in being able to do the ever increasing difficult skills. You either need to develop more strength or decrease the weight you are moving through space. There has been real advances in strength and conditioning which I think contributes to the success of collegiate gymnasts and gymnasts who don't necessarily fit the tiny gymnast body-type. However, increasing strength can only go so far and many of the injuries in NCAA gym (Achilles rupture) may be due to the increased strength requirements to allow these gymnasts to continue to perform the same skills they were performing as tiny 13-year olds.

Other relative strength sports (women's wrestling, MMA, Olympic weightlifting) have weight classes and the need to maintain a lower weight via dieting/cutting weight to improve strength-to-weight ratio. These athletes routinely get weighed and pushed to fit certain weight classes without the stigma that is often associated with the discussion of weight issues in gymnastics.

 

[EGPtriumph]

Simone is a testament to that....It can be done. And everybody keeps saying well, yes, shes an anomaly- But is she? How many 'anomalies' have you seen that left the sport at 10 yo, broken?

High level sports is tough and I dont think Simone is any exception but it seems as a whole that she got to have a bigger say in her training. She was able to voice herself and own it a bit more.

When my kid leaves the sport, she should leave happy and with good memories (and life lessons)...NOT nightmares.[/QUOTE

Yes, yes we could! But we don’t, and maybe that’s part of the problem too.

I'm a noob and I say name them

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Other relative strength sports (women's wrestling, MMA, Olympic weightlifting) have weight classes and the need to maintain a lower weight via dieting/cutting weight to improve strength-to-weight ratio. These athletes routinely get weighed and pushed to fit certain weight classes without the stigma that is often associated with the discussion of weight issues in gymnastics.

There are always issues associated with having to hit a specific weight number.

Even boys can develope eating disorders when pressured about weight. Wrestling come quickly to mind. I remember back in HS boys trying to drop 5-10 pounds the week before matches.

And you can bet that under most circumstances they epwant them at the highest weight in the lower class.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

There are always issues associated with having to hit a specific weight number.

Even boys can develope eating disorders when pressured about weight. Wrestling come quickly to mind.

I Got weighed , which was laughable back then. But I suspect a parent complained that only the girls got weighed so they weighed us as well. And yes some of those girls absolutely had lasting effects of being weighed . I remember watching them run for hours with plastic running suits trying to drop weight .... yep

 

[bogwoppit]

Not to beat a dead horse, but is CB looking into ridding itself of the nauseating Doc Ali ad I have to see every time I click on here? Her behavior was reprehensible and any support for her , especially on a gymnastics site where some members knew/are victims, should be gone...

I have asked JBS to remove her. More than that I cannot do. I agree the ads need to go.

 

[vagymmomma]

We have processed it a lot. I think for now it makes sense. While he left good coach relationships the overall gym situation was not all positive and he needs to just be away from there.

I think the question of returning really depends on the reason the family leaves a gym. We have gone back to our original gym a couple times for open gyms and spoken with the owners at state meets several times. We left for better equipment and coaching. In contrast, we have had girls come to our current gym because they were called fat or stupid. Can you imagine having a head coach tell a 6th grader that they need to limit their career choices because they aren’t smart enough to do anything demanding? Why would a child or parent want to go back to that? Or have your name mocked and downgraded in social media video posts where the coaches participate in the mocking? I don’t ask why they don’t go back, I have to ask why the other families stay.

 

[Mish]

I think some gyms need to take an honest look in the mirror.

Have you perpetuated an environment of disdain by coaches toward parents? Do you care about each and every kid and each and every customer, or only your “superstars”?

I’m going to challenge the premise of the most recent posts in one way—why the heck would you want to wait until you lose customers to get their feedback? Every job I’ve worked in the last 15 years, we survey our customers for anonymous feedback annually. Is it a little uncomfortable, sure. Do you get some screwball answers sometimes? Yes. However you always learn something.

Where else do customers pay $400 plus a month, trust you for many hours with their kids, and generally get ignored if not shown disdain as parents? That environment is dangerous.

How about detailed surveys soliciting specific constructive feedback? Know what?? Most parents care less about Susie being level X than they do about you caring about the well being of their kid and respecting them as parents and paying customers.

I’ve been around long enough to know that how a message is delivered is much more important than what the message is in terms of the reaction you get. And many gymnastics coaches and owners stink at communicating with parents and delivering messages in a positive way. Ask your customers and listen to what they say, if you do care. If you don’t care, well you might be part of the problem.

I love your whole post!

 

[GymFan96]

Gymnastics, with the ever increasing difficulty level is a relative strength sports. I.e., the strength to weight ratio is of significant importance in being able to do the ever increasing difficult skills.

Other relative strength sports (women's wrestling, MMA, Olympic weightlifting) have weight classes and the need to maintain a lower weight via dieting/cutting weight to improve strength-to-weight ratio. These athletes routinely get weighed and pushed to fit certain weight classes without the stigma that is often associated with the discussion of weight issues in gymnastics.

There’s nothing wrong with expecting athletes to be at an optimal weight for their best performance. The problem is the way they’re going about it. Shaming, name calling, overheating, and food deprivation are totally wrong. Instead, why can’t they hire a nutritionist to design a diet plan where the girls can maintain the desired weight without being hungry and deprived.

 

[ayyyrial]

I also think there is a difference between a sport that demands that an adult reach or maintain a certain weight, and a sport that demands that of children and teenagers. Adults are vastly more likely to be able to notice and think critically about the trade-offs of restricting food, and more likely to be able to take harsh or exaggerated advice from coaches with a grain of salt. Also, I suspect the psychological and physical effects of restriction may be less damaging for adults than children who are going through puberty. Children and teens are supposed to be growing, supposed to be gaining weight. But gymnasts are often encouraged to do the opposite, by coaches and parents but also just by what they observe helping or hurting their own performance.

Edited to add, I think asking male children and teens to lose weight for sports can be equally bad. I was always disturbed by seeing the wrestlers walking around like zombies in high school, and disturbed that grown-ups seemed to see no problem with that. The only good thing I can think about is that wrestling has a pretty short season, and many HS wrestlers got to live normal lives the rest of the time (unlike gymnasts of both sexes).

 

[Aussie_coach]

Sure weight does play a big role in gymnastics as the kids need a high strength to body weight ration in order to successfully and safely perform many of the skills.

But I think it is absolutely unessesary to weigh a kid. This is not like wrestling where they need to know their weight in order to know which category to enter. Weighing a kid and giving them a certain number to achieve, especially when the kid is already Type A, is just giving them something else to obsess about.

As a coach you can see by looking at a child what range they are in, no need to make it a public affair.

And when we test our gymnasts strength we can see what their strength to body weight ratio is. If we set clear strength markers, then we will know if a child is ready to safety and successfully attempt a skill, without putting them all on the scales in front of each other.

The actual weight of a gymnast is not anywhere near as relevant as their strength results. The kid with a low BMI can’t necessarily lift their body weight.

 

[mommyof1]

and then there are the opposite stories. where kids leave and the coaches bad mouth the kids and families.... or, where they bad mouth the kids STILL in the gym.... plotting to move them over to xcel in an effort to get them out of the gym. honestly it can be like really bad middle school behavior at times...

Absolutely. When we moved our daughter, I got a phone call from one of the coaches at the old gym telling me how ungrateful we were for all they’d done for our child, and then that coach would pointedly ignore us whenever our paths crossed around town. For my kid this still stings several years later.

 

[sewgood]

So No thanks .... report to usag or owner and obviously go to the authorities for physical abuse , but an open rating system... no way

Yes, because that’s worked so well in the past? Parents are desperate for information and it’s not available. Then when a kid gets abused in a gym everyone blames the parents for not being able to wave a magic wand and mindread. How many times have we heard “They should have known”? HOW???

In my experience, most kids just feel awkward around old teammates and coaches. They are the most nervous about meets with them, or running into them at a host hotel. They are almost always excited though to see a girl/boy who has left their program though. No animosity there and they love watching them compete. My sense is it has to do with not being part of a group any more, and feeling out of place? Just a guess.

I agree. We have to remember that these are teens and tweens. This is literally the hardest emotional time of a person’s life and they are so easily embarrassed and have random moments of shyness and awkwardness. It’s just who they are right now and that’s ok. It’s a weird and uncomfortable social situation that they want to avoid.

I'm a noob and I say name them

One of you guys could create an anonymous account and post the names. Just saying. I think a lot of parents would really appreciate it.

 

[TumbleTimes4]

Yes, because that’s worked so well in the past? Parents are desperate for information and it’s not available. Then when a kid gets abused in a gym everyone blames the parents for not being able to wave a magic wand and mindread. How many times have we heard “They should have known”? HOW???

This! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Gyms are a business. They offer a public service to paying customers and they can and should be rated like every other business is. You don’t hire contractors for your home or eat at a new restaurant without searching for reviews and getting recommendations first so why the hell should I be expected to hand over the most precious thing to me to complete strangers that have the ability to influence her positively or negatively without having any information on who is doing the influencing? It’s like Amazon, you take all reviews with a grain of salt. It’s impossible to please everybody and of course you will get some unfair reviews but if you are doing your jobs properly, the majority of those reviews will be positive. I don’t care if coaches like it or not. It should come with the territory of having a business. You still have the right to sue if false claims are made. And parents should damn well know and have a way to find out if gyms are hiring coaches that were fired from previous jobs for emotional and mental abuse and there are google articles written about it! These are our children, and the organizations that we were told to trust has failed miserably at protecting them. Perhaps if those organizations and gyms hadn’t created this culture of secrecy where abuse could and has thrived, you wouldn’t have to have an army of angry parents demanding transparency.

 

[LindyHopper]

One of you guys could create an anonymous account and post the names. Just saying. I think a lot of parents would really appreciate it.

My concern would be that we could lose chalbucket to a libel suit.

On the other hand,if an anonymous account just happened to create a thread to post links to articles or other info about coaches who cause concern...

 

[BachFlyer]

This! Yes! Yes! Yes!

Gyms are a business. They offer a public service to paying customers and they can and should be rated like every other business is. You don’t hire contractors for your home or eat at a new restaurant without searching for reviews and getting recommendations first so why the hell should I be expected to hand over the most precious thing to me to complete strangers that have the ability to influence her positively or negatively without having any information on who is doing the influencing? It’s like Amazon, you take all reviews with a grain of salt. It’s impossible to please everybody and of course you will get some unfair reviews but if you are doing your jobs properly, the majority of those reviews will be positive. I don’t care if coaches like it or not. It should come with the territory of having a business. You still have the right to sue if false claims are made. And parents should damn well know and have a way to find out if gyms are hiring coaches that were fired from previous jobs for emotional and mental abuse and there are google articles written about it! These are our children, and the organizations that we were told to trust has failed miserably at protecting them. Perhaps if those organizations and gyms hadn’t created this culture of secrecy where abuse could and has thrived, you wouldn’t have to have an army of angry parents demanding transparency.

Amen. Anyone every seen Glassdoor.com, which is basically a review site for employers? Very sensitive information there, including reviews of salaries and CEOS. Somehow it works, and these are people's livelihoods they are risking by sharing information. It's all anonymous. Yes, you take it with a grain of salt. But looking at the reviews of my company and previous employers, they are harsh, and they are absolutely dead-on.

The reason this doesn't exist for gymnastics (yet) is because we parents are too damned scared to say anything! We fear our children will be treated differently or kicked off of the team, and all of their hard work and passion and friendships and solace will be stolen from them. I've seen this in action - parent complains, and child of parent gets yelled at or humiliated in practice the next day for "whining to their parents". I've heard a coach say "what, are you going to cry to your parents now?" We as parents are trained as much as the kids, from day one of team, to stay out of it. And the kids see this and KNOW this.

I have said many times, it simply doesn't make sense that as a paying customer that I shouldn't be allowed a reasonable dialogue. I have one at school, I had one at daycare, I have one at all the other sports/activities that my kids are involved in. WHY are we all living in fear of repercussions from people we PAY for a service? For lack of a more polished phrase, it's complete bull crap.

 

[Midwestmommy]

A long time ago there was a coach at a gym my daughter was at. My daughter’s friend was trying to move from Xcel to JO (very young). One of her Xcel coaches was just plain mean. She had a couple of favorites she advocated to move to JO and sabotaged some others. She was involved in the tryout process, and got caught and parents complained that she made up low scores for a couple girls who she didn’t like. She never tested them on a couple items and just made up low scores.

I give the gym credit that they circled back to her and she admitted it and made up some excuse. She did leave that gym some months later. I have a beautiful picture of my daughter on beam from so long ago, said Coach is photobombing on the edge of the photo, arms crossed, scowl on her face.

I was recently checking out a video online from a high school meet featuring one of my daughter’s friends (left JO optional and now competes for her high school, having a wonderful time). I just about spit out my coffee, there in the video was said coach for another team, arms crossed, huge scowl on her face. They just move around and keep coaching.

 

[e'smum]

Absolutely. When we moved our daughter, I got a phone call from one of the coaches at the old gym telling me how ungrateful we were for all they’d done for our child, and then that coach would pointedly ignore us whenever our paths crossed around town. For my kid this still stings several years later.

holy crapoli (or insert another word or two of your choice)....

 

[LindyHopper]

http://wlns.com/2018/01/27/a-few-da...ked-to-send-letters-of-support-for-owner/amp/

It's like Kathy Klages with the MSU gymnasts for Nassar

 

[bookworm]

http://wlns.com/2018/01/27/a-few-da...ked-to-send-letters-of-support-for-owner/amp/

It's like Kathy Klages with the MSU gymnasts for Nassar

Well he went after Lemke when she testified, and went after Moceanu years back ..so it's the same old Geddert getting his minions to do his bullying from afar. I don't care what my kid"s talent or gym aspirations were, I'd be so done with that gym at this point...for some who had hope "it would be different if someone else took over and John wasn't there, so we stay", here's proof that the bullying tactics will continue...so parent with head in the sand, go ahead and write that letter about how great John Geddert was...but call me unsympathetic, but we don't want to hear from the same parent claiming they weren't warned. He's been suspended, multiple gymnasts and parents have testified to his abuse, he's under investigation...CONSIDER THIS YOUR WARNING!