Coaches What's Normal to be reimbursed for...

[chalkbowl]

I know some coaches are salaried, but a great many others are hourly. I'm interested in those hourly competitive team coaches. I know it has been discussed a few times that many hourly coaches are not paid for their time off to attend competitions, but I was wondering what was the norm. on a few other issues. Do the hourly coaches at your gym get paid for...

Days missed due to weather?
Attending exhibitions and/or demos with the team?
Meetings with parents/athletes/other coaches?

 

[Aussie_coach]

We do pay our coaches to attend competitions or specialty training events.

We don't pay them to attend coaching workshops and first aid courses, but we do pay for the workshops and courses.

We don't pay a coach if they don't attend their class, but there are never days missed due to weather because it does not snow here.

We don't pay them to attend coaches meetings, but we do always provide a meal for them.

 

[marie83]

We get paid for coaching and that is it.
We pay our own expenses for getting to a competition - which we don't get paid for - and for our lunch.
We pay for our own workshops and courses.

Gotta love it to be in this job! Haha

 

[aerialriver]

Days missed due to weather? NOPE, we even have several years off a year that are totally unpaid which hurts a lot money wise.

Attending exhibitions and/or demos with the team? Probably not, we get paid a flat rate usually for meets

Meetings with parents/athletes/other coaches? Yes I suppose if you do it when you are clocked in. We do get paid for scheduled staff meetings.

 

[Gymsanity]

Good thread, apparently I'm paying my coaches WAY too much! Didn't know they would work for free! I pay for everything and slip them a little extra cash for a nice dinner or some gas sometimes besides. Working on new memo to staff right now!

 

[PalmTree]

Honestly, I think that anytime you are WORKING, AKA doing something you wouldn't normally do if you didn't have a job, you need to be PAID!!! Of course, as coaches, we probably would still be going to meets and coaching every practice even if it wasn't our job, because we love this sport so much. But we need to respect our coaches. I pay my coaches as much as I possibly can. If they want to make money, they will work fast food (yes, even THAT makes more money when you're in college, because it gives more hours!). As a head coach, I expect to be paid for meets, clinics, private lessons, etc…if I am working, I should be PAID for it, just like any other normal person! At what point in time did it become okay for gymnastics coaches not to be paid the same as any other worker???

 

[fuzi]

I get paid for my hours spent coaching, as well as 15 minutes before and after for set-up and clean-up. I am also paid my normal hourly rate for my time at coaches meetings and coaching at meets or exhibitions. Now that I have some planning responsibilities, I can include my planning time (including time worked from home) on my time sheets. I love coaching, but it is a job and I wouldn't work another job for free. I expect employers to respect that and all my bosses thus far (at a couple of different gyms) have.

 

[Art]

I thought I would post here seeing as this thread may give gym owners a good insight as how tough it is for some people to make coaching a career.

So at our club we get paid an hourly rate for our coaching.
If you are the Head Coach of a code (I'm head of MAG at our club), then they also pay 1 hour of admin work per week.
If you are the Coaching Director of the club, (one of the 4 head coach at our club will hold this position) it means you have to manage the head coaches and get final say in some decisions, as well as many other tasks, but you get no extra pay for this. Our club is a nonprofit organization and this is counted as one of the voluntary roles on the committee.

Also, we get paid mainly according to our qualifications from the national governing body, rather than a sports degree, or our position in the club. (very frustrating)

Weather could possibly influence us being at the gym but thats very rare, if it does happen we do not get paid. Also on this note, if we turn up, and none of our gymnasts have shown up, we also do not get paid...

We don't get paid for displays or exhibitions. We do not get paid for meeting athletes parents.
When we attend a competition, the cost of our food and travel gets split amongst the parents of those who have sons competing. That said, we also must attempt to catch a ride with a gymnasts family so that there is as little extra cost as possible.

We do not get paid for attending first aid courses or coaching/judging courses, however the club does pay the course fee for us. That said there is also an understanding that if they pay the fee for it that you will then be coaching for at least a couple of school terms.
We get paid a tiny amount for attending a competition. It is a small bit above our hourly rate, and we get paid this amount no matter how many hours we had to be there for. One coach can be there for an hour and receive say $20, the other could have been there the whole day, opened and locked up the gym, and still only get the same amount.

So yes, these things make it hard when you are trying to make gymnastics your career and know that by working some other dead end job you can get more hours.
:-s Sorry guys, didn't mean to make such a long post.

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

Getting paid hourly, I get paid from the time class starts to the time class ends. If no kids show up I can choose to stay and do whatever needs to be done and get paid or can choose to go home and not get paid.
For meets I get paid from warm up time to the end of awards ceremony, rounded up to the nearest half hour. For out of town meets, I get paid mileage and paid meals for meals not provided at by the meet.
Clinics and workshops, I don't get paid for being there but they are paid for by the gym.
Coacges meeting are unpaid, but if they are long we get fed. Meetings with parents, if they only last 5-10 minutes they are unpaid. If they are longer than that, they need to be scheduled and are paid.
At the end of the day, I probably end up doing too much unpaid but I guess that is what you do when you love the sport.

 

[MissLisa]

I've found it pretty appalling what I have been paid over the last 6 years of coaching and there is no way I would ever try and make gymnastics coaching a career as a result. Hourly rate with no minimum (1 hr class = 1 hr pay), not paid for admin hours but spend lots of my own time preparing for classes, writing lesson/ term plans etc. Having to pay for all accreditation's etc (which at one point was more than I got paid for a whole term of coaching). Not being paid to attend additional things like training days (food provided) or shows that happen 1-2 times a term. At one place, I was lucky if my pay came in once a month and was incredibly unpredictable when it would come (thankfully I didn't rely on the money to live like others). I wouldn't be fussed too much if the hourly rate was reasonable but I'm paid more at every other job I have up to 2.5 times more an hour, I'm guaranteed a certain amount of hours per day and they require no keeping up with accreditation/ insurance.

The only reason why I have maintained gymnastics coaching is because I love it and I get access to equipment. It actually costs me more to coach than what I earn which is sad.

I feel that if coaches were valued more there would be so many more benefits for the club and the business. The turnover of staff at both the places I have coached is really high, parents complain that the coaching is really inconsistent due to this. Kids lose interest as a result and quit or just no longer try. The quality reduces all around becoming bad for marketing and therefore losing customers. It's hard to progress kids if there is no follow through of coaching either. I'm one of the coaches that have been there the longest (at 2.5 years) but I'm never offered more classes even though all my classes are really successful, the kids request that I coach them, I have regular requests for privates etc etc.

Now this is my experience and maybe its different elsewhere. I plan on sticking with it as long as I can maintain it because I love it but it's becoming harder and harder unfortunately. I wish it was different.