ErinEclectic
Proud Parent
Okay, so we're moving towns (about 2 hours away) and are in the process of choosing a gym for my DD (6 yrs old). At our old gym she was just invited to Pre-team at the beginning of the summer and they planned to have her compete Xcel Bronze. She did a bunch of in house meets the past two years and loves competing. So far it's just been for ribbons though, no scores.
Everywhere we've lived before, there's only been one choice for a gym so now that we're moving to a bigger city and have, oh, 6 decent gyms to choose from, it's tough. I narrowed the choice down to the two closest ones, at lest to start out. If they didn't pan out we would widen the net. So far, these two are looking good, but each for their own reasons.
At each gym, DD has been evaluated by the HC and has been placed on pre-team, and starting next week, she's doing a trial session at each of them. I know there's a ton of questions I should ask when she's there for a trial, as well as talk with her about afterwards, and I'm planning on staying and watching at each trial. However, it would be really nice if some more experienced people could help me wade through the pros and cons so far, and give me some pointers on questions.
Gym A: Pre-team trains level 2 with the option of coming once or twice a week for 2 hours each day (DD would do both days), in the fall she can decide if she wants to compete or not at L2, doing a couple local meets, the only out of town one being at our old gym. If she competes, she would have 2 days a week mandatory with an optional 3rd day. HC also said there also the possibility of moving to L3 mid season.
Gym B: Pre-team trains level 3, twice a week for 3 hours each week. In Nov is an in house meet for the entire gym, but that would be her only meet experience unless she is pulled up onto team. Team practice starts at 12 hours a week. MyMeetScores shows that this gym has a whole lot more upper level girls and this gym recently won a bunch of state USAG gym awards.
Complicating matters is that Gym A is much "shinier" than Gym B. Gym A has a lot of extra stuff they do as well, like they have rock climbing, and a huge indoor playground and are building a pool for indoor swim lessons. No matter what, we will be involved with Gym A, they have a toddler gym program for my other DD and Gym B doesn't. I'm trying to help my older DD separate the gym from the bonuses by pointing out that she can still go the indoor playground, etc without having to do gym there, but I think she's getting dazzled.
Questions to ask:
- How many meets do their gymnasts usually go to, lower and upper levels? How many are out of town and how far?
- are meet fees included in the money fees or are they separate?
- what kind of parent participation, fund raisers, etc do they have?
Any advice? Questions I should ask? Things I should look for in the trials?
Thanks!
Everywhere we've lived before, there's only been one choice for a gym so now that we're moving to a bigger city and have, oh, 6 decent gyms to choose from, it's tough. I narrowed the choice down to the two closest ones, at lest to start out. If they didn't pan out we would widen the net. So far, these two are looking good, but each for their own reasons.
At each gym, DD has been evaluated by the HC and has been placed on pre-team, and starting next week, she's doing a trial session at each of them. I know there's a ton of questions I should ask when she's there for a trial, as well as talk with her about afterwards, and I'm planning on staying and watching at each trial. However, it would be really nice if some more experienced people could help me wade through the pros and cons so far, and give me some pointers on questions.
Gym A: Pre-team trains level 2 with the option of coming once or twice a week for 2 hours each day (DD would do both days), in the fall she can decide if she wants to compete or not at L2, doing a couple local meets, the only out of town one being at our old gym. If she competes, she would have 2 days a week mandatory with an optional 3rd day. HC also said there also the possibility of moving to L3 mid season.
Gym B: Pre-team trains level 3, twice a week for 3 hours each week. In Nov is an in house meet for the entire gym, but that would be her only meet experience unless she is pulled up onto team. Team practice starts at 12 hours a week. MyMeetScores shows that this gym has a whole lot more upper level girls and this gym recently won a bunch of state USAG gym awards.
Complicating matters is that Gym A is much "shinier" than Gym B. Gym A has a lot of extra stuff they do as well, like they have rock climbing, and a huge indoor playground and are building a pool for indoor swim lessons. No matter what, we will be involved with Gym A, they have a toddler gym program for my other DD and Gym B doesn't. I'm trying to help my older DD separate the gym from the bonuses by pointing out that she can still go the indoor playground, etc without having to do gym there, but I think she's getting dazzled.
Questions to ask:
- How many meets do their gymnasts usually go to, lower and upper levels? How many are out of town and how far?
- are meet fees included in the money fees or are they separate?
- what kind of parent participation, fund raisers, etc do they have?
Any advice? Questions I should ask? Things I should look for in the trials?
Thanks!
If not, you'll just have to resort to the "Because I said so, that's why!" excuse. Sure, we all swore we'd never use that one, but as a last resort...
