Coaches Tuition for your own child

[WavyNavy8]

Does anyone have a child on team where you are also a team coach? I don’t coach my own child anymore since she’s moved out of my group but I’m wondering if anyone who is a coach gets a break on tuition? I’m still paying full price for everything. Occasionally I’ll get a leotard from the pro shop for free but that’s about it. Just curious if this is normal or if I’d be out of line to ask for a discount.

 

[JBS]

Never hurts to ask. I know of coaches getting anywhere from no discount... to no tuition (still have to pay meet fees and such though).

 

[JessSyd]

My daughter's gym offers a five percent discount for kids of coaching staff, and I think that's really weak (I am not staff so have no skin in the game here).

We're a community gym (registered nonprofit) and to coach team requires fairly family unfriendly hours. Generally by the time coaches have kids they have achieved a significant level of experience and skill and are in the job for love rather than money (because the award wage is not really a living wage in our city). I feel that because we are a community gym, and not a private business, then we should have a wraparound definition of community that includes our staff as more than just a necessary expense. They are our number one asset and should be treated as such. A decent staff discount on tuition would cost us very little (I think there are something like eight staff kids) - if we couldn't afford a 20% discount for eight kids, we'd be in big financial trouble! And it would foster a sense of connection and continuity - the gym being a generational thing rather than something that people just pass through.

Can you tell I feel strongly about this!

 

[Coach Kate]

I stopped coaching once we had our daughter, but I know from others that they didn't pay for their kids to be in class. I don't know that anyone had a child on team while coaching, but I would assume they would pay the team fees but not monthly tuition.

 

[Carly]

DDs gym is 25% off tuition for classes. No discount on team leos, meet fees, etc.

 

[pt coach]

I did not pay tuition for my DD but did pay meet fees etc. However, I was paid a very low hourly rate for my coaching (think a couple of dollars above minimum wage) while my DD was in the program. Coaching is not my fulltime job - it is what I do for fun. So getting free tuition and a little extra money for coaching felt like a windfall to me!

 

[Aussie_coach]

I don’t require my coaches kids to pay tuition.

I do understand why many gyms don’t offer a discount to coaches kids, or only a small one.

It can cause some dissension. It’s a perk that only some coaches are entitled to. So it’s like paying some coaches more than others because they have children and it will vary depending on how many children they have, what level they are in etc.