Preschoolers are great!

[gymbabisMom]

I coach preschool at my daughters gym and I love it! The kids are so cute and they often try harder than the older kids. And they are so energetic and bouncy! There are a couple of them who are noticably able, but because I only teach rec I try to get them out to a more developemental class if they seem to be a lot more advanced. I wouldn't want them to be bored. I love watching them in the developemental classes because they try so hard. I wish I had put my dd in at a young age, they seem to have so much fun.

[JBS]

Preschoolers are great. I like the 3 year olds the best. You can get a brand new class that has know idea how to do anything and a month later they'll be the greatest little class in the world....walking in lines....doing ta-da's....laughing.....and then telling there parents everything after class is over.

[gymbabisMom]

Oh yeah, I love my three year olds but I like my 4 and 5 year old classes best. By that age they are able to learn some progressive skills. I have a couple that are sooooo close to doing pullovers by themselves (with a block under the bar to make it more proportionate). Most of them are getting pretty good at puddle jump cartwheels, They are all able to perform a string of skills on the trampoline without being reminded continually. And these little ones are so flexible! My 3 year old class has been so big lately that mostly I've been trying to keep them moving. We just opened another class though, so I'm down to 6, which is more manageble. I'm looking forward to actually trying to teach them something...lol

[JBS]

It is fun when they get to the age that you can actually teach them real gymnastics skills...cartwheels, handstands, ect. It is almost impossible to teach a decent class of 3 year olds with a large ratio. Our 3 year olds are at a ratio of 6 to 1 and we don't offer free trial classes. This keeps our ratio intact. We advertise our ratios so we cannot break them.

3 year olds = 6:1
4-6 year olds = 7:1
rec. classes = 8:1
tumbling classes = 8:1

[gymnast_#1]

Quote:
Originally Posted by |||JBS||| It is fun when they get to the age that you can actually teach them real gymnastics skills...cartwheels, handstands, ect. It is almost impossible to teach a decent class of 3 year olds with a large ratio. Our 3 year olds are at a ratio of 6 to 1 and we don't offer free trial classes. This keeps our ratio intact. We advertise our ratios so we cannot break them. 3 year olds = 6:1 4-6 year olds = 7:1 rec. classes = 8:1 tumbling classes = 8:1

I know this is kind of off topic but what the average ratio in compitive gymnastics??

[JBS]

We are currently an all recreational gym. Our Demonstration Team runs on a 10:1 ratio. Competitive is very different that rec. One coach can run many gymnasts. Normally the higher the level the lower the ratio (begining team may run 10:1, elite gymnasts my run 1:1). I would never recommend anything over a 10:1 ratio.

[gymbabisMom]

Our gym pretty much sticks to the 8 to 1 ratio, and in my 3year olds class I am always right about there. It's kind of nice in my 4 and 5 yrs cause I just moved 2 girls and 1 boy up. I only have 4 to 5 right now. You can have lots of fun and actually feel like you're making progress with that many. In fact, my two 4 and 5 yr old classes have been doing so well that I have 2 or 3 I could move right now, but I don't want my classes to get too empty. It's like bang, bang, bang, everyone's getting thier pullovers, cartwheels, handstands etc..all at once. And my "littles" are all still too little to transition to the older preschool class. Actually, that's because I already shifted all my older littles up.

[gym_princess]

At my gym i'm not quite sure on the ratios, if a coach is working on their own i think its probably about 5:1 but a lot of the time we have former gymnasts who are now coaching working with qualified coaches. So it's usually around 8:1:1 that is gymnasts:coach:former gymnasts. I'm a former gymnast who coaches by the way if you were curious.
And on the whole preschool gymnastics thing; all our promising "Gymbugs" are moved into the development squad which is the little ones who will hopefully be in the squad when they are old enough. I don't coach them so i just get the average ones, they are really cute but i don't get any superstars. Mind you aren't all gymnasts superstars.

[gymbabisMom]

Yep they are