K
kqtmom
Hello all,
My daughter is six and recently joined her gym's competitive team (as a level 3). Up to this point, we have been happy with the gym. Mostly because the gym is extremely close to our house and the coaches she has had (at least up to this point) were pretty nice. But now that my daughter is on team, things are quite different. Being new to the sport, I don't know if the issues are par for the course or something to be concerned about. Hope someone can help!
Our primary problem with the team comes from lack of coaching. The team has one coach for 20-30 girls. There's no assistant - all we have is one woman telling the group of girls (ranging in age from 6-11) what to do. They rarely practice bars because they don't have enough and 2-3 girls must share each balance beam. So it just seems rather unsafe - to have so many kids doing things without proper instruction or oversight... I just don't know if it's normal. Is it? As far as I know, the gym is associated with USA Gymnastics, but I have no idea if they have any code of conducts for supervision. Beyond the safety issues, it really bothers me that we are spending so much money and getting very little one to one instruction. My daughter is struggling with some movements and is leaving the gym feeling frustrated.
Another issue I have is with the gym management. I asked the manager a simple question about a previous coach (because I thought the previous coach was going to help with the team) and the manager just yelled at me. He used some very strong language that I thought was completely unacceptable given the question that I asked. Literally, I just asked her if so and so was coming back. What I got in return was a completely unprofessional response.
So do you think my concerns are valid? Should we be looking for another gym (closest one is half hour away)?
Is this level of supervision to be expected?
What kinds of questions should I ask the next gym (if we do start looking around)?
Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!
My daughter is six and recently joined her gym's competitive team (as a level 3). Up to this point, we have been happy with the gym. Mostly because the gym is extremely close to our house and the coaches she has had (at least up to this point) were pretty nice. But now that my daughter is on team, things are quite different. Being new to the sport, I don't know if the issues are par for the course or something to be concerned about. Hope someone can help!
Our primary problem with the team comes from lack of coaching. The team has one coach for 20-30 girls. There's no assistant - all we have is one woman telling the group of girls (ranging in age from 6-11) what to do. They rarely practice bars because they don't have enough and 2-3 girls must share each balance beam. So it just seems rather unsafe - to have so many kids doing things without proper instruction or oversight... I just don't know if it's normal. Is it? As far as I know, the gym is associated with USA Gymnastics, but I have no idea if they have any code of conducts for supervision. Beyond the safety issues, it really bothers me that we are spending so much money and getting very little one to one instruction. My daughter is struggling with some movements and is leaving the gym feeling frustrated.
Another issue I have is with the gym management. I asked the manager a simple question about a previous coach (because I thought the previous coach was going to help with the team) and the manager just yelled at me. He used some very strong language that I thought was completely unacceptable given the question that I asked. Literally, I just asked her if so and so was coming back. What I got in return was a completely unprofessional response.
So do you think my concerns are valid? Should we be looking for another gym (closest one is half hour away)?
Is this level of supervision to be expected?
What kinds of questions should I ask the next gym (if we do start looking around)?
Your thoughts are greatly appreciated!