Need Ideas to improve competitive program

[Ingymmom]

kbt, That is actually a fantastic idea for a gym to offer a program like that - especially in the summer when enrollment is low. Not sure if I would call HS gymnastics "big" in our area, but our local hs does use our gym to train for their brand new program & I think one of our rec coaches is their team coach as well - not sure about the last part.

Now for us, I don't think that offering new classes is the exact solution as our gym as a whole seems to be doing ok. It is just are one competitive gymnastics area that never seems to occupy more then 15 girls at a time....

[JBS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ingymmom Now for us, I don't think that offering new classes is the exact solution as our gym as a whole seems to be doing ok. It is just are one competitive gymnastics area that never seems to occupy more then 15 girls at a time....

How many preschool + rec. kids does the gym have? We currently have about 70 team kids and 500 preschool + rec.

[Ingymmom]

Quote:
Originally Posted by JBS How many preschool + rec. kids does the gym have? We currently have about 70 team kids and 500 preschool + rec.

I don't know exact numbers, but I know that our gym has a lot of activity in the evening. We have our small gymnastics team, a T&T team of about 30 and then our rec side including gymnastics, cheer and tumbling of probably 400 children. This is current, I am certain the numbers will decrease in the summertime. Our gym is almost 2 years old now. We also have an ice skating side, but I have no clue what goes on over there.

[JBS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ingymmom Our gym is almost 2 years old now.

Not even 2 years old with 15 on team....sounds like great numbers to me. Just keep growing, team grows slowly. Just build up that preschool program and you'll see huge team result in only 2-3 years.

T&T is getting very popular...it's much easier. T&T is probably pulling some kids from you. Which is great, it's all the same gym.

Overall, there is basically nothing you can do to improve optional numbers in a short period of time. You can't build a pyramid from the top down. Start at the bottom and that is preschool.

[Ingymmom]

Quote:
Originally Posted by JBS Not even 2 years old with 15 on team....sounds like great numbers to me. Just keep growing, team grows slowly. Just build up that preschool program and you'll see huge team result in only 3-4 years.

I wish I could get the O to see it this way. Out of our very small team we have the youngest L6 in the state, ranked 9th out of every age group - her 1st season competing ever. A first year L5 ranked 14th out of every age group & a first year L7/8 - competed both this season & ranked 5th in the state out of every age group (although she recently left gymnastics to pursue other sports) & 2 girls training for L10 this upcoming season. Every one of our L5's had not competed prior to this last season and they all qualified for state in their 1st meet. Every one of our gymnasts at every level qualified for state with a 34 or better at their first meet. I really agree it seems they are headed in a great direction... but our O is really vocal in how disappointed she is... it is disheartening.

Quote:
T&T is getting very popular. T&T is probably pulling some kids from you. Which is great, it's all the same gym.

Fantastic coaching on the T&T side as well. Great program, problem - our O compares the two and blames our coaches for not building our team more quickly like T&T has. But they are both so different... I just don't know how to explain it well without discounting either program.

[jasmine196]

We are currently in our 3rd year as a team. We have slowly been building up our program from nothing 3 years ago to about 60 kids now. We only have 1 full time coach and 3 part time coaches for team. The full time coach also does all the pre-team and TOPs classes. We pull from our recreation program. Last year we had about 30 girls levels 3-6 on the team. They did ok, but nothing impressive. We decided last year that we would take the time to build up our program. We added more hours and worked really hard. This year, our level 4's won the senior age division at the state meet. We can't believe how well they did. This year we had girls levels 3-7. Our 7's didn't do so hot, but they will all be repeating Level 7 next year and hopefully they will do awesome. So this last season we had 20 Level 4's, 7 Level 5's, and 5 Level 7's. Next year we are projecting having about 20 Level 4's, 15-16 Level 5's, 6-7 Level 7's and 1 Level 8. We really don't do level 6 except to pass our girls out of the that level. So some of our new level 7's may or may not compete depending if they are ready.

The problem that we are facing now, is lack of coaches. The head coach moved up way to many kids last year, and with more coming in this year we are short coaches. We also had a couple girls move up to Level 4 that were not ready, and did not want the comittment, so they were moved into another rec class. I would assume by the end of next season we could be close to 70 girls Level's 4-8. The one thing that I worry about is I'd rather have quality gymnasts and parents who want to be there and who put in a 110% daily, then quanity. But only time will tell.

[Ingymmom]

jasmine - your team has really done well. It seems that our team would be larger if we had a Level 3 or level 4 program. There are many more girls in those levels.

We had the same occurence with move-ups. Our O insisted that the pre-team move up to team to make space for other classes. The coaches expressed their concern, but had no choice but to do as the O wanted. These girls were not ready for the team intensity and 3 quit is less then 2 weeks. It seems it just would be wiser to let time and consistency help our program grow, but for whatever reason the O has been very impatient. I love the coaches but am beginning to feel we are fighting a losing battle here.

[jasmine196]

Ingymmom-

Actually those numbers do not really include our level 3's. They only include our USA girls that are in level's 4-8. We have a rec league that does level 3 and level 4, and those combined would add another 25 girls to the team. We usually have the little ones do level 3 first then if they are ready they would go to level 4 USAG. If they are not ready then they would go Level 4 in the rec league. Hope thta makes sense.