Communication at your gym

[sleeping judy]

I just want to see if this is normal. My dd is just coming off her first level four season so she has been on team for about a year. I feel like the communication really stinks. The schedules (summer and school year) rarely come out until just a couple of weeks before they begin. In fact, we are still waiting to find out what our summer schedule is and it should be starting in mid-June. It is beyond frustrating as I work full-time and I am trying to arrange a summer babysitter. Plus, my other two kids are in activities and I would like to have this schedule.

Last year we got an email the last week of July that the gym was going to be closed the first week of August and that it was a good time to plan a family vacation. Uh, yeah right plan a vacation a week out. The schedules make it very difficult to plan vacations and other family events.

Also, we rarely get information regarding our dd's progress. I have no idea if my dd will be training at the level 5 hours or staying a level 4. I am guessing that it will be level 5 and that they will make the determination in the early fall, but I have no idea. We get very little feedback as to how the girls are doing on a daily basis unless we are able to corner a coach. We did have conferences last year, but the head coach ended up doing them with us. Said head coach never worked with my dd and I don't even know if she could pick her out of a crowd so they were pretty much worthless.

Is this the norm?

 

[Muddlethru]

Sounds like our gym. When my DD was an L4, I had the same complaint but I just went with the flow. After a a year, I just got used to it. I figured if the schedule worked for us, then fine. If not, then we just didn't worry about it. Just for the record, sounds like your gym is even better than ours since we've NEVER had an official conference at our gym. There have been many instances when another parent knew the plans for my DD before I did.

I don't know why the gym owners have to wait until the last minute to give out summer schedules, etc. Maybe someone in chalkbucket can enlighten us. As far as letting the gymnasts know what they'll be training at the next season, our gym usually waits until the end of the summer. I think if our coaches are not quite sure the gymnast can do the skills necessary for the next level, they look to the uptraining in the summer to better assess the gymnast.

 

[sportyspice]

Yes, in my experience this is fairly normal, the gym business seems to attract people who are action oriented but not necessarily great communicators!

Thats not to say that it is therefore acceptable, and you are a customer paying for a service, so I believe it is your right to ask for better communication. I doubt you would find a coach willing to give you daily feedback, but 2 or 3 conferences a year should be offered.

I would suggest finding other parents from your gym who agree with you and approach the gym management with some solutions to solve the scheduling situation. You may find that if you try (like I did) to front up by yourself and demand to know what is happening in a months time, you may be labelled as "difficult".

 

[jdf]

At the gym my daughter left, when I asked about my daughter's progress, the head coach would tell me, by name and in detail, about teamates with her talent who went on and did well at higher levels, and teamates who crashed and quit. Never could talk about my daughter, though.
At my current gym they aren't saying what level for next year yet, but we do get contracts in august with the level on them. We have had the summer schedule for a month now.
It's not easy to talk to the coaches, partly because the parents will suck up all the coaches' time talking about our favorite subject, but I know they have a plan for my daughter, so it is fine.

 

[mayestra12]

Wow.

My dd has only been at her gym (and on team) since December but communication is great!

We had the summer schedule in FEBRUARY! Gym is closed for one week in August so vacations can be planned.

The coaches are easy to reach via e-mail which is great because I'm not comfortable confronting them in person (haven't had a need to do that anyway).

Not exactly sure how they handle move ups but two girls were already moved from L3 to L4. My dd will train in an advanced L3 group this summer and will be told by 8/15 if she gets to go to L4. I think she is on pace to move up but she has to get her ro bhs.

 

[GymnastJoy]

Wow! My dd has only been at the same gym but communication is fabulous. We can approach the coaches at any time (unless they're obviously with the girls) to ask any question or give pertinent info about our child (allergies acting up, fear of a new skill, etc.). And we have input into their level determination if it could go either way. If they have the skills for the next level or could stay at the current level for a second year to work the routines, parent input on what it best for the gymnast is solicited. Which to me is appreciated.

 

[GymGirl's Mom]

YEP- I don't know if it's the norm, but just wanted to let you know you are not alone. Sounds like DD's gym.

 

[2gymmies]

I thought you were describing our gym until you mentioned the conference! We don't even get those! I have decided to live with it, but I still don't like it. I feel your pain but I guess we trade good coaching for good communicating. Those lucky few that have both can just be envied. I have to say that our is slightly better than it used to be, but this type of communication would be completely unacceptable in any other business capacity.

Good Luck and if you figure out a solution, clue us all in!

 

[sleeping judy]

Ok, so I am not alone Oh let me tell you the conference was a waste of time. The HC told me that my dd didn't have her front hip circle yet. Well, duh, I could have watched a practice and garnered that information. She had never met me dd.

 

[shelovestoflip]

Our gym has great communication. The coaches are accessible for questions as needed and email is also used by the head coach, which is helpful. If I bring my daughter and need to let the coach know something (ie: complaining her knee hurts or whatever) I can just 'wave' to the coach who is generally warming up girls on the floor at drop off and she/he will run to the door to touch base quickly.

The summer schedule at our gym never really changes....they run a rec camp/team camp that is combined so all the kids go for the same hours (9-3)...they aren't doing gymnastics the whole time....they have a lunch/water slide/hang out time each day as well as a 'craft option' for the Level 4/5 girls. They do a weekly field trip and a weekly 'parent show' for the whole camp.

As for the school year schedule, that never really changes either....essentially within 15 minutes of the last year's time....so it works out fine.

It is important to be comfortable with the coaches and feel like you can approach them when you need to!!

 

[NGL780309]

It sounds pretty normal to me in the experiences we've had with 2 gyms. We did get our summer schedule very early this year, which I was told is not the norm. If there are schedule changes for holidays we usually get them the week before. The old gym was a little worse about it than the new gym.

As far as moving levels go, that's where the communication seems to break down the most, but I don't think it's the coaches fault. I just think they wait until the last minute so that they don't tell someone they are moving and then have them disappointed when they don't move. When DD moved to Level 5 I found out 2 days before the change. For me it wasn't a big issue because her schedule stayed the same. For others it was a move in days. I think the coaches should try to give more indication. There were girls who had done 2 years of level 4 and scored 38's and the coaches would not confirm to them that they were moving up until they were ready to decide on everyone. The parents assumed they would be moving, but they didn't have the final say until 2 days before and for them it was a change in days. It makes life hard to plan.

I hate ever asking questions of DD's coach. I'm not sure why. I guess I just don't want to bug them. I have found sending an email or a text to be an easy way to ask without bothering or putting them on the spot. I haven't had a lot of questions, but sometimes I want to tell them something that I feel is important. Like my DD had been sick and I wanted them to know in case she couldn't make it through practice. Just little things like that.

 

[MaryA]

The communication at our gym has improved since we got a new secretary for the parents committee. She's very organized and is not afraid hunt down the HC and say, "We need to let the parents know about X" and the coach will answer her question and we'll get an email from the secretary. I think her approach is born out of years of frustration about the lack of communication and parents reluctance to go to the HC directly to ask their questions. Now she feel like, in her "official capacity", she has the right to ask questions and pass the information on.

 

[aerialriver]

Sadly yes, most gyms have communication issues. I wanted to add for the moving up thing a lot of coaches are not involved. At our gym only HC can decide so when a parent asks us it is awkward as we are the ones coaching your child but cannot give you an answer. The decision of the HC is based on more than just how well your child is doing, sometimes there are a lot of opening in a level sometimes none that plays in, sometimes the spot is offered to another child who's parent declines before the spot if offered to you. That is why you may not know until last minuet. Not saying it is right, just saying that is how is works.

Same goes for schedules, anytime you make a change you are going to have unhappy customers so you have to keep revising until you have the least amount of unhappy customers. I know this year all of our team levels were asked to do morning and almost no one could, so they had to change it back. We also elimated Saturdays and that made a lot of people unhappy, but with the additons of new classes and plenty of people to fill the slots they decided to go with the plan of getting rid of Saturday. It is generally a big disorganized mess, I do think having great office staff is key.

 

[NGL780309]

From what our coaches explained to us, they don't have a certain number of spots for each level. They put the kids in the levels they need to be in and then shuffle the schedule and coaches to make it work. Last year there were 3 groups of Level 4's working out on different schedules and this year there's more level 5's so they all work out in different groups and different days, but the 4's are all together.

 

[Mustanggal99]

I'll reply to this from the HC's standpoint. I am in a different situation than many gyms (we are govenment run- parks and recreation) so I do not have the luxury of a secretary/front desk person just for gymnastics that can do much of the paperwork. That all falls on me as the director of the program.
For me, schedules are put together as soon as possible, but if other gyms are in my situation, they have staff members that are in school. I have to wait for my coaches to give me their next semesters schedule so I can plan classes when I have workers available. That is the biggest hinderence in making my schedules. We also offer (in the summer) team in the AM and PM so parents can have their choice... but I know not every gym has that ability.
As far as level progressions, I plan on waiting until the first of August to tell parents/kids if their child is moving up UNLESS their child has all the necessary skills for the next level. That is not the case with most of my gymnasts- we're all still wating on either that elusive glide kip/front hip circle/roundoff bhs. I plan on having a meeting with every parent at the beginning of August and explaining why or why not.
As the HC/director I do get bogged down with many other responsibilities and sometimes things don't get done because I forget or have other things that are more important pop up... but I do my best to help the parents out by doing things as soon as possible.

 

[IJustWriteChecks]

Our gym is exactly as you described. I'm relieved to know my frustrations are shared by many!

 

[sleeping judy]

The only reason I care about move ups is because the level five hours are different than the level four hours. It is just so frustrating, but if other gyms are like this at least the grass isn't greener

 

[Granny Smith]

Yes, OP, the communication you described (or lack there of) I believe is quite normal. My dd has been at the same gym for 10+ yrs now and communication is lacking, at best! In those 10+ yrs, we only had 1 conference, which was last yr. Here we are the middle of May and we still don't have the Summer schedule yet. Rumor has it that the girls are all moving up, but nothing formal has ever been said. I've come to not expect it and just go with the flow.

I will let you in on a little secret that can help you determine what level your child is. If the level your child could potentially be moving up to has more hours, more than likely the cost is going up too. Continue to pay the lower level's tuition! If she is truly the higher level I guarantee you that the coaches will speak up and tell you that you should be paying more. At which time your response is well I was never told she was moving up so I assumed that I was to continue to pay for "blank" level.

Communication is always lacking until money is involved - that is the one thing I learned over these last 10+ years!!! Ha-ha-ha....

 

[Deleted member D3987]

understaffed...overworked...too many weeks on the road due to competitions.

 

[cher062]

Sounds like every gym I know. We still don't have our summer schedule yet. If they aren't collecting bill money you are lucky if the schedules come out a week before they begin. some of the meets were just days before the meet before we knew if it was on sat or sunday and what time. just wish I had the info alot earlier too.