WAG Former Coach/Owner recruiting gymnasts

[kandkfunk]

We recently (in March) had a shake up at our gym where the head coach/co-owner left. She took about half the team gymnasts with her and most of the team coaches. After a couple months of renting time at other gyms for her team to practice in, she recently opened her own facility about 15 minutes away. During the immediate aftermath of the breakup, she had some of the team coaches call and email team members that stayed at the original gym and invite them to join her. I guess that is to be expected as she did invest time in coaching those girls. None of the girls who received these calls/emails switched and are quite happy with new coaching and new team philosphy that we have.

However, it's now been over four months since the change and this coach is still pursuing many of the gymnasts at our gym. And, not just the team girls, but some of the rec and preteam kids whom she never had a relationship with. She has mailed postcards about her new gym to many of these families and now she has other coaches and even team parents calling families to offer them a free month of gymnastics if they switch. Team parents are basically cold calling people from our gym to try and get them to switch.

I've always thought that recruiting was frowned upon in gymnastics and I've never heard of anything like this before. Or, maybe I'm just being niave and this is something that happens regularly. Have any other coaches/owners/parents faced this type of situation before? If so, did you do anything about it? Right now, it sounds like most of the parents who have been contacted are a little put off by the efforts, so maybe it will all take care of itself in the end.

 

[HoldThePhone]

If she's specifically targeting just students and team members from your gym, it's tacky, and the people on the receiving end probably feel that way anyhow, so there wouldn't, in my opinion, be a whole lot to worry about. The behavior and programs will speak for themselves. That said, any new business will often advertise in the form of cold calls and postcards. If her new gym is within the same vicinity as your gym, whatever lists she has, will probably include people in your area, so it could be totally innocent.

 

[kandkfunk]

I thought it was straight forward advertising at first too. When people started bringing in the postcards, my first thought was that they bought some mailing lists or were targeting certain areas, but the delivery has been so sporadic. One person in our current owner's neighborhood (who is also a current client of our gym) received the postcard, but none of the other neighbors with kids received it. Also, some members who live quite a ways away (30+ minute drive) also received it. It could still very well be a combination of targeted and list mailing.

However, the phone call I heard about last night was very weird. The person calling gave her first name and said that the owner, X (she gave the owner's first name) asked her to call. It's like she expected the parent to recognize the owner's name which seems weird if it was truly just a cold call. To top it off, the person making the call on behalf of the business refused to provide her last name to the parent she was talking to. She was offerring a free month of tuition to this family, but refused to provide her full name so the family could verify the offer with the actual gym. It's just all really weird to me.

 

[wallinbl]

If they actually took customer records and used them, then you can seek damages and/or an injunction. Be careful what remedy you seek, as the families that went there chose to do so (even if they were in some way coerced).

 

[kandkfunk]

I definitely don't think the owner is thinking about any legal type of remedy. I think there is suspicion they may be using customer records, but they would be at least seven months out of date and there really is no way to prove it at this point.

 

[BlairBob]

That is generally considered bad form. IMO at least.

 

[iwannacoach]

I don't mind one business competing for market share, and I gotta believe that everyone at the gym when the breakup occurred knows where the coach/owner has ended up. What puzzles and bothers me is the active recruiting because it's almost like arm twisting to get somebody to switch when they're perfectly happy where they are. I wonder what tactics will be employed when she's not satisfied with the results of these recruitment efforts...... bad mouthing the gym she used to be part owner.

If you ask me, I'd say this recruitment drive says something all on it's own......... "Come to my *new* gym where I promise I'll do a better job of coaching your kid...... just like I promised at the old gym."

It's nice to hear at least some people are loyal to her, enough to do the dirty work of making calls to kids and their parents. Geez, they probably baysit her kids while she's coaching *and* make phone calls for her. The sad part is that, given the way she's working to pull kids from her old program, she likely has no loyalty whatsoever to anybody..... even the people who are helping her do this.

I've seen this happen and it doesn't always end up pretty for the loyal followers, but it almost always ends up working out for the greedy, self centered bums ( sorry Canada, Australia, and UK, I don't mean to lump you in with this greedy woman). Hey, I'll even go so far as to guess she drives some premium vehicle like a Hummer or an Escalade....... probably red to attract attention to her self centered self.

 

[kandkfunk]

Iwannacoach, you have her pegged to the last detail. Not sure if you are psychic, have a degree in psychology or maybe know exactly who I am talking about (Yikes!).

We live in a pretty populated section of a large metropolitan area and there are plenty of people to support the new gym and the current gyms. Our owners were actually excited about the publicity this new gym could bring because it just increases the talk about gymnastics in general. All gyms would definitely benefit from the increased publicity. However, the "arm twisting" of our rec families is making people quite angry and creeped out - she had no relationship with these families before she left and most people didn't even know who she was or that she was even an owner because she couldn't be bothered to introduce herself or form any relationships with them. I don't think this is going to play out as she envisioned. The vast majority of families at our gym have been very supportive and loyal to our program.

 

[iwannacoach]

Well I do live near a large (not that large) metropolitan area........... Waddaya think? Do you live in or near a large (not that large) metropolitan area. Geez do you suppose........

Maybe we are talking about the same person. Does she have a goldfish with an ankle weight wrapped around it's tail?

 

[kandkfunk]

Bwahaha! I'm sitting here in my office in a large (not that large) metropolitan area cracking up. But really, deep down inside, I am very worried about the goldfish with an ankle weight wrapped around it's tail. I really hope the fishy isn't expected to vault or do a complete bar routine with that weight on

 

[iwannacoach]

No bar routines or vaults that I'm aware of......... but I found a soggy postcard in the mailbox yesterday trying to convince me to send my youngest to her new gym. Then just last night I answered the phone and all I could hear was someone, or something, blowing bubbles and splasing around. All I can say is it's not a good sign when the pet goldfish is forced into labor to promote the gym.

Hey..... check out the new trending youtube video titled "goldfish washes big red car while owner coaches"......