Private Lessons

[JBS]

At one point, private lessons accounted for a sizable chunk of our (wife and I) income. How many of you rely on private lessons as a source of income and how do they work at your gym?

P.S. I will edit this post in a while and let you know how they work with us, but I have a private right now.

[hammy]

Over the summer last summer private lessons provided a decent amount of my income but that's because we were paid by the gymnast directly and it was tax free--which is really nice! Nowadays i'm not doing too many private lessons at my new gym, but that's because i'm focusing on college for right now.

[davjam]

I think if there is purpose for the lessons it is a great thing. I also think that there are many coaches out there using the privates as extra cash without a real reason for it. I am very careful about starting them and always ask "why". If they have no goals /purpose or need, why do them? I will not take their money for no valid purpose. take into account time on their part and yours and coat to them as an extra expense. Something else I have seen are coaches who do not know how to use the time specifically and effectively with the individual. This is mostly with inexperienced coaches.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Quote:
Originally Posted by davjam I think if there is purpose for the lessons it is a great thing. I also think that there are many coaches out there using the privates as extra cash without a real reason for it. I am very careful about starting them and always ask "why". If they have no goals /purpose or need, why do them? I will not take their money for no valid purpose. take into account time on their part and yours and coat to them as an extra expense. Something else I have seen are coaches who do not know how to use the time specifically and effectively with the individual. This is mostly with inexperienced coaches.

This is all very true. I do the same thing: I don't give kids private lessons unless there's something specific for which I think they need the one-on-one time. In such cases, I sometimes just offer the kid a private lesson free of charge. My policy is never to charge for a solicited private lesson. If they come to me asking for a private, I'll charge them for it, but if there's a specific skill they need work on and I go to them or their parents and suggest private lessons, I always offer them for free.

[gymbabisMom]

That's pretty fair. Our coach does that too. If I just wanted a general private, I would have to pay for it. The compulsory coaches have regular privates with many of their students, at the parents request, it appears mainly to get those kids ahead. It seems sad cause it means whoever can pay for the most privates wins the most medals.
At our old gym, privates were so hard to get that once when Gymbabi had a few because due to school scheduling she was unable to make practice for a week, I thought some of the other mothers would have liked to strangle us. That gym felt the kids should all be on equal footing with regards to coaching. I'd actually really like to take Gymbabi over there now for a few bar privates with their head coach, just to get her over the hump she seems stuck behind, but that would be stepping on everyones toes.

[Mac]

There are probably as many experiences with private lessons as there are gyms. Too often I've seen them used to compensate for inadequate regular coaching. To the extent that they are regularly needed, it suggests a flaw in the class structure...a child might be at the wrong level, a coach might not be spending time on the right stuff, the parents might be causing the child to miss too many practices, someone might have unrealistic expectations, or any number of other things.

When our current coaches wanted my daughter to work on something, they asked her to join in for a few practices with another team level class that was working on that. No privates, no different money. Current gym really only does privates for choreography and for cheerleaders trying to acquire skills before HS tryouts. If a team girl feels the need for extra, the staff tries to figure out why the scheduled 18+ hrs a week isn't cutting it. Since the girls are working on individual skill sets anyway (it's the Optional team), there's plenty of opportunity for each to work on whatever needs work, with the coaches spreading around to everyone.