WAG Up and downs cycles at the gym.

[Ekat]

Hi, I’ve reading the boards for a while and now have to ask a question (hopefully not too controversial). We have great coaches that coach fantastically (they also own the gym).…. That is WHEN they coach. It seems to go in cycles, start out great, girls do a lot of progress, then coaches seem to do more and more of ... “go over there do a 100 of…. (you insert the skill). I don’t know about your kids, but most of the girls that I watch don’t do it with proper form or all the repetitions, especially if it’s a new skill, a lot end up sitting, hanging from the bars, talking. It’s almost like the only way to get attention is to pay for a private. So you see this stagnation, parents get frustrated, complain and eventually we lose gymnasts (mostly upper levels), that perks up the coaches, they do more hands on coaching, you see huge progress and leaps, girls go up the levels and then it starts again… We have gone through a couple of these cycles already in the last few years. Now we have no gymnasts left above level 7 and most of our girls are level 4 and below. My DD loves the gym and the coaches; however watching these cycles is beyond frustrating. When parents complain it always causes the up cycle in coaching and then in a month or so it drops off again. SO my questions are:
How much supervision do girls get with conditioning, with practicing a new skill?
Is it normal to see these down times/cycles? Do they happen at every gym and I am just crazy (OK don’t answer the “am I crazy” part ) ?
How do you say in nice terms: can’t you guys see the cycle: people complain and then leave? Don’t you care when you had a gymnast since they were a little kid and you lose them at the upper levels?!
Ugh…. Frustrated. (sorry long post)

 

[iwannacoach]

It sounds like a repeating cycle of burn out.

 

[kandkfunk]

I can totally relate! This sounds a lot like our old coaches. My favorite was when one of the coaches sent the girls to do 100 cast handstands. These were girls that didn't even have a cast handstand to begin with. It was defeating for the girls. We saw a lot of things like that.

In the months before these coaches left, they stopped supervising conditioning and warm up. You could see the bad form and the backward sliding of skills.

I too think it was a case of burn out. The coaches were tired of their situation and really didn't care any more. Unless you are in a rural area, there are probably other options out there for you. It's better to move on than waste your daughter's short gymnastics career. This coaching behavior is not normal.

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

DD is never sent to do 100 of anything. There is reduced coaching usually for conditioning, but it is always supervised, they walk through the girls giving corrections, stopping chatter, etc. same with warmup.

During events the coaches are always there. There are often stations, so they are not with every child at every section, but most have eyes in the back of their head and can just tell when something is happening.... Corrections are yelled across the gym, etc.

This is all I've known,so your situation doesn't seem right to me. or..... we've been very fortunate.

 

[Deleted member 15064]

What exactly is coach/gym burnout? Coaches don't really have their heart in the sport anymore?

Could this be a difference in coaching styles?

 

[Seeker]

We have never had anything like that happen during our time in gymnastics. Our coaches truly love the sport and are very dedicated to the girls and their development. I'm not sure that I would continue at a gym that exhibited these behaviors repeatedly.

 

[AmandaLynn]

Either burn out, as iwc mentioned, or the coaches don't really know how to coach upper level kids effectively.

You mentioned that they lose mostly the optional kids. Do they still work hard with the compulsory kids while falling off the wagon with the optionals? If so, I would lean toward the idea that they are just not cut out to be optional coaches. However, if practice becomes dull and "lazy" with all of the groups, including compulsories, then it would seem more like a coach burn out issue. Either way, if it is a reoccurring issue that they are not seeing/working toward fixing, then unfortunately, it may be time to move on.

 

[Muddlethru]

It sounds like a repeating cycle of burn out.

We had this same situation at my daughter's old gym. About 10 years ago, we had a couple elite gymnasts, many L9 and L10 gymnasts making nationals. At one point, 5 girls were making TOPS National Testing. Half the team, mostlty if not all L8s and up left the gym three years ago. Dunno too indicated burn out. If it is indeed burn out, I don't think any amount of talking will help. It will just start the cycle. They are tired. Their current gymnasts are always in the lower third of every meet. We were fortunate, my daughter was the one the HC focused her attention on. But even with that special attention, it was sporadic. Planning was a problem. The HC threw my daughter in situations she was not adequately prepared. While a month training my daughter for the physical abilities TOPS test got her to national testing, three weeks to train the skills for national testing is clearly not enough (they close the gym first week of September). It still upsets me the stress she put my daughter in. She was just asked to chuck skills because there was no time for the normal progression or even a speed up version,

I saw this cycle when my daughter was in L5. We were looking for gyms at the end of her L8 season and switched at the beginning of L9. She had to forfeit L9 at the new gym because of the many bad habits she acquired, one just chucking skills. I'd start looking.

 

[JBS]

What exactly is coach/gym burnout? Coaches don't really have their heart in the sport anymore?

http://blog.drstankovich.com/coach-burnout-tips/

http://www.amazon.com/Chris-Stankovich-Staying-Combating-Burnout/dp/B005PY2ZOK

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/avoiding-burnout.htm

Could this be a difference in coaching styles?

If coaches in the same gym are not on the same page...it causes stress...and burnout. They are effectively battling each other instead of coaching.

 

[Deleted member 15064]

thank you for the resources, JBS - reading them @ work - shhh

 

[iwannacoach]

Certainly I can't define burnout in a way that applies to everyone, but here's some of what I've seen and personally experienced.

There is a starting point for every coach from which they can grow.... or simply remain because thy want nothing more than the starting point. Those who want to grow and gradually work their way into coaching team levels enjoy seeing their coaching skill set and knowledge of the sport validated by the growth of their athletes. When some of these coaches hit their personal limit of growth, which varies greatly, they understandably have a difficult time continuing to grow.

I can remember the first group of compulsory kids I trained through to optionals. It was so exciting to see them through their firsts of every milestone skill on each event. It seemed then that there were highlight moments every day as one child or another would experience their first bhs on beam, twist on floor, or clearhip on bars, or having a "gets it" moment on vault. Imagine reliving each of your children taking their first step...... it was a lot like that for a very long time because they just kept getting better.

Past that initial three year burst there was a letdown because everything took longer the farther they progressed and the closer they got to the sports glass ceiling (they weren't that close, but they were heading in that direction.) It was still exciting while I had this group of kids, and had to take on the job of maintaining and refining while preparing them for their next generation of skills.

I guess you could say that the excitement dwindles a bit with each generation of kids that pass through your program. Sure it's still fun, but not quite the same. Maybe for some coaches it's not enough. Possibly they remember ever one of their outstanding athletes and compare every child's progress against that standard...... and that just doesn't do anything good for anyone.

So let me say this to those who are feeling burned out.....

Consider you good fortune to be where you are and doing what you do, and think of the alternatives like working in some other occupation where so few people will smile, or have the time to listen to whatever you have to say.... gym business or otherwise. Sure you sometimes feel you're doing it all for the umpteenth time, but tell me all the occupations where that isn't the norm.

Plain and simple, if you can earn a living as a coach you're among the lucky ones, and for that you should forward by doing what you can for the kid standing in front of you, whoever that may be.

 

[Ekat]

Thanks, burnout actually fits perfectly with what is going on. I think opening their own gym and seeing it struggle financially added fire to everything. They have tons of experience and have coached countless level 9s and 10s. Even with this struggling year our lower levels (4s and 5s) had multiple state champions. I think the bigger levels left because they couldn't afford the "downturns". I am just hoping that it turns around. There are several gyms in the area but I dont think any of them will fit my DD and our family schedule right now.