WAG Does your gym do Big Sis/Little Sis?

[CoachMeg]

Does your gym do Big Sis/Little Sis, or something similar? Our gym does this during meet season where we randomly assign a lower level kid to an upper level kid and they form a Big Sis/Little Sis bond. We change it up every season so that everyone bonds with someone different.

With their big/little sis, they can ask for or offer advice, maybe give little meet gifts (good luck or good job), little notes, be invested in their achievements or new skills, decorate their cubbies, etc.

If your gym does something similar, do they break it up by age or by level? Or do they call it something totally different and anybody can get anyone regardless of age or level?

We usually do it by level; however, this year we’re running in to the problem of having way more lower level kids than upper level kids. It has always been this way, but we’ve usually just given some optionals multiple “little sisters”. But looking to see if maybe there is a better way?

Also, we have some young optionals this year and a few older level 3/4s. Would it be weird for a 12 year old L3 to have a “Big Sister” that’s a 9 year old L7?

Any thoughts are appreciated! We have our first meet coming up soon and the kids are all asking about it.

 

[M2Abi]

Our gym does this. Upper levels are big sisters to lower levels. My dd's big sis is a higher level but younger and I do think it's a little weird.

Maybe if you have younger optionals with older compulsories, you could call it buddies or something else, instead of big sis/little sis.

 

[MILgymFAM]

One of DDs previous gyms had this program and her "big sis" was younger than her. It was a little weird. Also, they were required to buy birthday and Christmas gifts for each other, even though it was awkward for a number of reasons. I understand the idea of the program but I didn't care for it.

 

[CoachMeg]

My dd's big sis is a higher level but younger and I do think it's a little weird.

One of DDs previous gyms had this program and her "big sis" was younger than her. It was a little weird.

Yeah, I definitely see how it would be a little weird. And that is what we are trying to avoid this year. I still like the concept of this program, though, as I do think that it promotes a lot of team bonding and builds stronger relationships amongst the girls, especially with those who would otherwise not really bond (lower levels and upper levels). Plus, we've always done it and the girls are asking about it since we're approaching our first meet. I'm just trying to either find a new name for it so that we can avoid the whole awkward younger-"big sis" thing or a new system completely.

Also, they were required to buy birthday and Christmas gifts for each other, even though it was awkward for a number of reasons. I understand the idea of the program but I didn't care for it.

Yeah, this is bizarre to me. We don't require them to buy anything, at all. Most kids get their big/little sis a small gift for State (candy bar, teddy bear, hand written letter, etc) but it's completely voluntary.

 

[txgymfan]

I would not like a "big sis" that was younger and a higher level. It seems a little rude/weird. I love team building activities but let the relationships develop naturally.

 

[ladybird]

We just call it gym sisters, no big or little. Gifts are discouraged, but uplifting notes before meets are highly encouraged

 

[agtc0424]

Our JO program does gym sisters. Same idea, but it's based on age. Gifts are also discouraged, but notes are encouraged not sure why XCEL doesn't do it though

 

[CoachMeg]

Love the 'gym sisters' name idea!!! Thanks @ladybird and @agtc0424 for the great idea!

 

[suebee]

DD's gym does not have such a program, but I would also think it would be very awkward to be an older compulsory gymnast and be assigned a younger optional gymnast as my sister, whether you call it just gym sisters or big sis/little sis.

If I were running it, I would probably assign the older compulsory gymnasts their sibs first and assign them the oldest optionals as their sibs.

Age and ability is such a touchy subject. I run another activity which is also done by ability and not age. I recently witnessed a high school aged but lower ability kid get extremely upset when a younger, but higher ability kid, tried to give some friendly advice (and it was truly friendly advice). He was extremely upset that this younger kid had the gall to date to try to give him advice.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

We also have a gym sisters program. It's not called big/little sister, but it is a compulsory gymnast with an optional. I don't think we've ever had one where the optional is younger than the compulsory,but we also don't have older compulsories or super young optionals. There have been cases where the optional gymnast was physically smaller than the compulsory one though and it did cause some chuckling when they were selected.

We do exchange gifts for the first meet of the season, the state meet and birthday's. It's supposed to be a small token gift and encouraging note, but it tends to be more than that. The kids really love it, but as the parent having to shop, I'd rather we didn't do gifts. I do really like that my dd has someone older in the gym that she can connect to. She loves seeing her during practice and will often go up and give her a hug, etc. The older gymnasts really prefer the cute level 2's though. lol

I do see your concern though with the age thing. I know at dd's gym it is random (names drawn from a jar), but it does seem like you'd want to consider making it less random to avoid a possible case of 12 year old level 3 with 9 year old level 7.

 

[mandkmom]

We have a gym buddies- and it's generally optional with compulsory but we've also had an upper compulsory (4) with new compulsory (2) just due to numbers of girls.

It's nice. But when compulsory girls leave after their season (usually lose a few each season) it leaves their optional buddy with out that support. Sometimes somebody will pick them up.

We now just do notes and maybe a small gift for state meet. But used to do gifts. I guess some people were complaining about the cost- but now others complain it's not as fun. Sigh. Can't please everyone.

Overall I like it, the girls like it.

 

[3gymgirlsmom]

We have dome it a few years , my girls had amazing "gym sisters" and each had one they really bonded with ( 3 years later and they still have the bond) but these 2 were really the only ones that worked out in the gym that I had seen. They do not do it anymore tho because it didn't really work for our gym

 

[Gymmommy71]

We do it according to age only - and yeah, it's definitely possible for a lower level older girl to have a younger higher level girl as her little sister. I think they should do some algorithm of level and age combined, but maybe that was too hard for some reason.

Gifts are strongly encouraged by the gym - they will even send emails before events like the Christmas party that say "don't forget your little/big sisters (recommended gift limit of $10)". Some parents and kids get really into it (giving personalized trinket gifts w/ good luck messages before every meet!), some just give at the events that the gym emails about, and some don't even do that.

 

[emilykatherine]

We do families, each family has one kid from each train group and that is their family for the season. As a group they come up with a family name and then throughout the season they compete against other family's for points. At the end of the season which ever family has the most points gets their names add to a plaque that hangs by the team rooms.

 

[GymCMLA]

What about "secret spirit" instead. Like secret santa but for "touchpoints" in the season.
touchpoint could be first meet week, state, regional, holiday, etc and they could be on the team calendar. So you highlight a week as spirit week and they do something for their secret spirit (encouraging note, key chain stuffy thing for on the gym bag, send off poster for nationals, etc)
Our high school team did this (we did goodie bags, posters and homemade scrunchies etc )
This takes some of the age issues out of it and allow you to potentially incorporate a spirit week with fun things like crazy sock day, PJ day, crazy hair day

 

[Texasmomof3]

Dd's first gym did it. I liked the theory. But in reality, it was a bust for her. As a level 3, she had a level 9 "big sis" who never spoke to her once all season. Dd gave her a candy gift when they were announced, and big sis rejected it, saying candy would make her fat. They literally didn't speak again the entire year. It really hurt dd to be ignored all season.

The next year, level 4, she got a new "big sis" who quit gym right after they were paired.

Current gym doesn't do it. And that is fine with me, even though now as an optional, dd always makes a point to be kind and encouraging to the younger girls.

 

[coachmolly]

I think it would be better to pair an older compulsory with a younger, lower level/newer compulsory kid than an older compulsory with a younger optional. It's the same idea and takes care of the extra compulsory kids. Like someone else suggested, I would place the older compulsories in pairs first. You could even do an "older" compulsory with an older compulsory at a lower level- so maybe a 13 year old level 5 with an 11 year old level 4. When I competed I was typically on the slightly older side and would have loved to have a "buddy" who was on a similar path.
We don't do anything like this at my gym, though I wish we did. We have a huge disconnect between upper and lower levels.

 

[amgymnast618]

We do big/little sisters but it's pretty low key. We give holiday gifts, some good luck cards for states, and pictures at the banquet. I don't know how they make the pairs but there has never been a situation where the big sister was younger. I'm 16 and xcel diamond, and I have 2 little sisters, 8 year old level 3 and 12 year old xcel gold. The 12 year old is taller than me though

 

[Aero]

Current gym doesn't do it. And that is fine with me, even though now as an optional, dd always makes a point to be kind and encouraging to the younger girls.

I liked your post because of this part.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I wish my gym did this!