Parents Who is your coach?

[guest301]

We have just very few coaches that were competitive gymnasts. Our gym is taking big turn to somewhere. It might be a good change, or bad. Hard to tell yet. Several amazing coaches left for different reasons. Now the gym is in hiring mode. The owner was passing me by and to make a small talk he was like "we got lots of good coaches! They are competitive cheerleaders!" I was like, "oohKeeey...!". Would you be ok to bring your child to the gym full of cheerleaders coaching?

 

[Seeker]

Um...."no" would be my first thought. I guess if they were gymnasts before they were cheerleaders-- maybe, but I can't see it. They are such very, very different things. I can't see how that would work long term for serious team kids. Especially if the seasoned, well trained & well respected coaches are not there to guide them.

 

[guest301]

Ok how about not for the team? How about training young kids? Can a cheerleader train young non competitive gymnasts?

 

[2G1B]

at our old gym I think that quite a few of the coaches had more of a cheer background. when we started there all of my kids were just doing once per week, rec classes. They enjoyed it, it worked. Then my son moved up to team. He had an OK first year competing. His twin sister moved up to pre-team. Then the gym dropped the boys' team in order to focus on the cheerleading team that they had started and their girls' competitive gymnastics teams. I was really sad at first; but now know it was a good thing for my kids. I think that at the new gym most, if not all, of the coaches have a pretty good amount of gymnastics experience. I love that the coaches are able to actually show the kids what they are looking for. We are definitely at a point of "if we knew then what we know now"... we would have been at the gym we are at now the entire time.

 

[wgagym]

I believe that rec coached do not need gymnastics experience upon hiring, they need to be passionate about working with kids. Now I believe that they need to be properly trained but I know many great coaches that never did gymnastics themselves. Especially at the preschool/ beginner rec stage. You can train the skill but you cannot train the personality.

Team coaches are obviously a different situation, but even there I know many coaches that did not do gymnastics themselves but learned throughout many years of working in the industry became very knowledgeable and skilled team coaches. Obviously, You just don't hire someone off the street to coach team, but as in any job people are trained and educated and have the possibility to be a great gym coach.

 

[MaryA]

We have amazing coaches, and all of the team coaches (and at least most of the rec coaches) have a gymnastics background. In fact, all of the team coaches have an elite and/or college gym background. One has worked with Olympians. There is no cheer program at our gym, though I know there are cheerleaders who take the rec tumbling classes. I actually have no idea where the HC found so many talented coaches, since we live in a pretty small town, and I think only one relocated to work there. It seems like there was some sort of Field of Dreams "If you build it, they will come" magic going on.

I would not like it if former cheerleaders were coaching team at all, though I would think it would be fine at the preschool level where it's mostly all about moving your body and having fun. And even other "rec" classes as long as they had someone mentoring them on stuff like emphasizing proper form, etc. It sounds like, from what I've read here, cheer tumbling is a different animal, so maybe any tumbling above and beyond cartwheels and rolls might be better left to the gymnasts. You definitely don't want them building any bad habits that the kids will have to break if they stick with the sport and move up to team.

 

[cbifoja]

I'm with seeker. No!

We have a tumbling coach that does cheer privates and tumbling classes. Last year I asked our HC about Bella taking an additional tumbling class because she loves tumbling so much. She would have had to go with the tumbling coach. HC basically said no way in you know where should I allow my gymnast to take a cheer tumble class. LOL

 

[guest301]

Right! My dd is past beginner level and doing advanced beginner (low intermediate). At this point I sm leaning towards gymnastics background coaches do her training. Even though she is not on a team yet.

 

[MaryA]

When we were at the Y gym, DD took an acro class at a local dance studio. HC was very anti-acro because she was afraid that she would leard "bad habits." The irony was that, when she switched gyms, she spent a long time unlearning the bad habits she had learned at the Y gym.

 

[JessLW]

I agree, for preschool it matters much more that the coaches are fun, good with kids, and safe. My DD is in a 3-4 year old class and they have 2 coaches. One is a former Chinese national team member (there are 2 former Chinese elites on the staff actually, and this at a rec gym! Gymnasts here do not have the coaching opportunities they do back home ), and the other has a dance background. My DD actually prefers the dance background teacher because she is very gentle and patient, and she is kind of afraid of the former elite (even though she's a lovely girl really). They're not doing anything so difficult at that age that I'm really worried about her leaning bad habits (handstands are about as hard as it gets) and I'm much more concerned with her having fun than I am with her coach's credentials.

For pre-team or team though, or even a development track rec class, I'd prefer coaches with a stronger gymnastics background. Everything else would still stand -- they'd need to be fun and patient and safe, but I'd also want to make sure she was learning good basics and not picking up bad habits at that point. Cheer is quite different from gymnastics, even the tumbling. I'd at the very least want to make sure the cheer background coaches had been given a decent amount of training. If my gym were hiring ALL former cheerleaders though, I would wonder about the future of the gymnastics program and whether the gym was switching gears.

 

[Gymmommy71]

If the cheer coach is looking to become a gymnastics coach, he/she needs to start somewhere...yeah, I'd hope they wouldn't start them out as a team coach (unless it was as an assistant only on one of the lower level teams), but I could see someone w/ experience w/ cheer having an advantage over someone w/ no coaching experience at all? They'd know how to deal w/ kids, run an orderly class, spot, etc...

 

[JBS]

The question is not gymnast or non-gymnast...it is experience.

A non-gymnast can be a very good high level coach...but not without experience.

A former gymnast can be a great high level coach also...much of their experience comes from what they have learned from their time in the gym with their coach(es). What if their coaches really weren't that experienced? Will they build on what their coach(es) knew...or will they just use their coach(es) bad habits?

Some programs use the older high level athletes to help the younger ones on things like strength...flex...handstands...body lines...etc. A program that uses the athletes to help train the athletes...creates more coaches. Having problems with body lines on your upper level kids? Have them help straighten out the L3/4/5 gymnasts. They will apply what they have learned.

Anyways...I'm off track...just ask the HC how much experience the coach(es) have in competitive gymnastics. If not much...make sure the HC tells you how he will be guiding (lesson planning/training/monitoring) the inexperienced coaches.

 

[nameless]

cheerleaders will LOVE your little one's back handspring, ha.. looks better than half the cheer team and is probably about as safe as theirs! i love my cheerleaders and their coach for cheer, but i would NOT be happy if they were training my lil one in gymnastics, that's for sure.

 

[gymdog]

One of the best developmental coaches I've ever met was never a gymnast. He happened into the sport by association and went from there. A fantastic coach at all levels (low and high). Since he had no preconceived notions of what the kids "should" be able to do, and had to learn everything, he is extremely analytical and I've never heard such great, effective verbal and physical cues. It actually really was a wake up call for me about some things. I grew up in gymnastics and overall gymnastics is very easy for me because of my physical strength and muscle type. You end up with certain expectations. But I teach many, many rec classes and that helps a lot even with team because you have to work much harder to figure out what is dysfunctional with each child's movement patterns.

Having been involved in cheer for a long time would be different because of preconceived notions of how and when to teach things that clash with gymnastics. That said if they had the passion for the "gymnastics way" and were willing to learn, I don't see why not. For preschool, it's probably great for the average rec preschool class because competitive cheer tends to self select for an outgoing and energetic personality, which is a great trait for a preschool teacher.

 

[GymGirl's Mom]

I agree with JBS on this. I would ask the coach what kind of gymnastics training and experience the new coaches have.

 

[srsjbs]

The coach for our competitive team was a former gymnast who competed at the college level. She is wonderful and the girls love her. The conditioning coach is a girl who is in college and has a cheer background. She is so fun and young and the girls love to "work' for her. The young girl also teaches the preschool rec classes and fills in for the beginner rec classes when needed.

I'll be honest, I would be a little uncomfortable having a coach for the competitive team if they had limited experience. But I don't believe that have to have actually been a gymnast. As long as they are fun, supportive, firm when needed and motivate the girls then that is the most important.

 

[flipper's fan]

My dd is a long time gymnast turned cheerleader. There are big differences in the way they do skills. She had to unlearn starting positions and landing positions. I can easily tell which cheerleaders were former gymnsats when I watch a routine. Gymnasts' legs and arms are straighter, their feet are together in flight, they start their twists later in flight, their tumbling is higher off the floor. These things may factor in to what you are looking for in a coach, even at the rec and entry level.