Parents Rec Evaluations

[kenziesmommy85]

I was just curious how evaluations and progressing through rec works at other gyms? As I’m a little perturbed at our current gym. So, they used to a star system where stars were given or even taken away at two week evals every two months. You could move up if you got every last star. I was never a total fan of this method per say because depending on the coach depended on the star given or removed because you did not perform the skill correctly for them. Well, now they have gotten rid of evaluations all together (citing too much pressure on kids) but they still have the same star system. Only now you better hope the coach of the class catches you doing a skill AND remembers to plug it into the star chart. Else you aren’t gaining any more stars than you went to class with. In fact, my daughter has not received any more stars since the end of September. I ended up giving her a private lesson today and coach was surprised she had not because her skills he tested were great. I just really wondered how other gyms worked rec? And as you have to be on the advanced level to even try out for level 2 this brings my hopes down.. I mean, i didn’t like taking stars away at evals but I like evals in that you were in fact tested to see if you could move up. Now what? I almost feel like obligated now to pay for a private lesson every week just so she can actually be evaluated.

 

[kendo348]

That sounds like an ineffective system! I’d feel frustrated too. While our gym has a long list of required skills per level to move up, the coach usually looks out for the one or two most difficult skills to be achieved. Once a child gets those skills the coach will pay more attention to if they have all the little ones too, and then schedule an individual evaluation. It helps to schedule the eval with the same coach because then if the kid misses a skill that day but the coach knows they have done it before, they can still move up (whereas an unfamiliar coach might not pass it off.)

I am surprised your gym wants girls to be in the advanced rec level before they are allowed to try out for team. What types of skills are required for that level at your gym? Most gyms don’t want team girls learning the big skills in rec because it’s difficult to go back and fix sloppy form.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

That's frustrating. At my daughter's first gym, evaluations happened three or four times a year, I can't remember now. There was a comprehensive list of skills they were working on in the class and you were rated from 1-4 on each skill, with notes. If you were 3-4 on every skill, you moved up to the next level and it would be indicated on the bottom of the eval. And yes, you could absolutely go down in scores if you lost a skill. The rec coaches were fairly well trained though and I think results were fairly uniform from coach to coach. It was a good system. Once you promoted out of rec you would end up on the in-house team, but girls for the JO team were pulled from the preschool classes. (I believe they've relaxed on that in the last few years.)

In your situation, I would try to get ahold of the skills list, if you don't have one already, and once my kid had all the skills I'd pay for a private. I wouldn't do it weekly though. $$$$

Gyms are not always the most organized or efficient places, but if you're otherwise happy, there's usually a workaround.

 

[kenziesmommy85]

That sounds like an ineffective system! I’d feel frustrated too. While our gym has a long list of required skills per level to move up, the coach usually looks out for the one or two most difficult skills to be achieved. Once a child gets those skills the coach will pay more attention to if they have all the little ones too, and then schedule an individual evaluation. It helps to schedule the eval with the same coach because then if the kid misses a skill that day but the coach knows they have done it before, they can still move up (whereas an unfamiliar coach might not pass it off.)

I am surprised your gym wants girls to be in the advanced rec level before they are allowed to try out for team. What types of skills are required for that level at your gym? Most gyms don’t want team girls learning the big skills in rec because it’s difficult to go back and fix sloppy form.

To be honest, I’m not sure what skills are required as my daughter is only in beginner which scares me more, that this is the system she will deal with until she can tryout for the team eventually. If she ever makes to you advance with their system, lol. And yes, it’s crazy.. she has all the the big skills on all the events. Actually she has a perfect score star wise in vault and Bars.. floor she’s missing one star from a few skills, same with beam. But with evals gone now as I said, we have to hope the coach that day notices she deserves that 3rd star so she can move up

 

[kenziesmommy85]

That's frustrating. At my daughter's first gym, evaluations happened three or four times a year, I can't remember now. There was a comprehensive list of skills they were working on in the class and you were rated from 1-4 on each skill, with notes. If you were 3-4 on every skill, you moved up to the next level and it would be indicated on the bottom of the eval. And yes, you could absolutely go down in scores if you lost a skill. The rec coaches were fairly well trained though and I think results were fairly uniform from coach to coach. It was a good system. Once you promoted out of rec you would end up on the in-house team, but girls for the JO team were pulled from the preschool classes. (I believe they've relaxed on that in the last few years.)

In your situation, I would try to get ahold of the skills list, if you don't have one already, and once my kid had all the skills I'd pay for a private. I wouldn't do it weekly though. $$$$

Gyms are not always the most organized or efficient places, but if you're otherwise happy, there's usually a workaround.

yes, they used to do that, they had evals every 8 weeks but I was told they did away with them because they thought it was too much pressure on the kids to preform exceptionally well that day.

I do have a skills list, on our gyms app it has the full list of skills and stars received. That’s how I know nobody has even done anything with stars since the last evals. It’s like they don’t even think about it anymore since it’s not a specific time period. and her weekday classes are huge 10:1, so it’s even harder for the coach to watch to eval.

she has another private lesson tomorrow for 45 minutes, todays was a “free trial”. I was thinking maybe twice a month or something IDK. Frustrating. My daughter is getting actually bored of the beginner level and tries to now mimick the older girls. She does roundoffs, bridge kick overs etc.. (tried, and albeit it’s off a mat). But she is so bored but is stagnant in beginner and they literally aren’t allowed to move up until their stars are star for star exactly. Grrr

 

[Deleted member 18037]

At our gym any kid who wants to can go to team. They just have to want to work. There are 2 rev levels. Then they move to L2. How they move after that is up to the, and how safely they acquire skills

 

[Cmumgym]

In regards to rec to development we have a system where coaches of our rec Programs note down gymnasts names that have the suitable height, work ethic, flexibility and other pre-requisites at a certain age which we then notify those parents for an assessment but we also allow families interested in competitive gymnastics to let us know they would like an assessment on their gymnasts for that pathway. Then every six months we evaluate all red gymnastics within a certain age for any potential. This doesn’t minimise the number of older gymnasts we have but we prefer to develope them from a younger age rather than an older say over 8 gymnasts coming in and having to re teach them techniques we have at our gym in certain skills. If you want to pursue the competitive pathway I would just let a coach know. As we have gymnasts come from other gyms where they label their rec programs as levels and have in house competitions then come to other gyms thinking our level 5 is the same as a rec level 5 and being disappointed when they find out we don’t level our rec program and don’t compete in our rec programs

 

[kenziesmommy85]

In regards to rec to development we have a system where coaches of our rec Programs note down gymnasts names that have the suitable height, work ethic, flexibility and other pre-requisites at a certain age which we then notify those parents for an assessment but we also allow families interested in competitive gymnastics to let us know they would like an assessment on their gymnasts for that pathway. Then every six months we evaluate all red gymnastics within a certain age for any potential. This doesn’t minimise the number of older gymnasts we have but we prefer to develope them from a younger age rather than an older say over 8 gymnasts coming in and having to re teach them techniques we have at our gym in certain skills. If you want to pursue the competitive pathway I would just let a coach know. As we have gymnasts come from other gyms where they label their rec programs as levels and have in house competitions then come to other gyms thinking our level 5 is the same as a rec level 5 and being disappointed when they find out we don’t level our rec program and don’t compete in our rec programs

Our gym actually doesn’t have any other pathway besides going to Xcel or Team or just forever staying on advanced. It doesn’t have a rec team or anything like that. It goes to rec advanced and that’s it.. and they don’t do anything. The rec classes are just that, classes. I know other gyms are like that, though, they have rec meets etc. but ours doesn’t. The rec classes are required to get to xcel or team. It’s hard because even after her private yesterday when the coach said oh ya she can get more stars for sure... She never got those stars added because he couldn’t find an iPad to plug them in. So, she’s no farther ahead after the private.

 

[A's Mom]

It might be time for a heart to heart with the coach. I don't know how old your daughter is or how badly she wants to move up/join team, but I think it's reasonable to clearly say "she loves gymnastics and wants to eventually join a team, but she can't move up until you give her the gd stars. I don't want to have to pay for privates just to make sure the gd stars get plugged in. Can we either make sure this happens or talk about another evaluation?" If I had a gym-loving kid nagging me, knowing she was in the wrong class, I'd be frustrated too!

 

[thefellowsmom]

How old is your daughter? Do you have other gym options?

If she really wants to be on team this system is throwing up some red flags for me. For team she is going to need an incredible amount of strength, flexibility and a solid foundation of shapes and basics. No rec class that I have ever seen has any focus on that at all.

It is possible to pass through rec and into team, I know girls that have done this, but your story about the disorganization and wish washiness doesn’t sound like this is a gym that takes any of this very seriously. You should absolutely not have to pay for a private to find out what’s going on. Time to have a heart to heart with whoever is in charge of moving up and moving to team.

At the gyms we have been at kids are pulled from rec classes between the ages of 3 and maybe up to 8 and put in developmental pre-team classes where the focus is entirely different than rec. This process can be equally frustrating for many families in many types of programs even the best ones so none of it is easy.

for rec the two situations I am familiar with. One has evaluations either by coach or parent request and like two or three times per year as a whole and kids are told at the end of their evaluation if they can move up or not. The other just gave the kids a sheet at the end of the class session with a recommendation of what class to sign up for next time and would make themselves available to discuss this with parents before and after class or by appointment. They would also approach parents personally and directly at this time about moving to team focused development classes.

Good luck!

 

[RTT2]

Does this gym have a good JO program? If so, I'd pursue a conversation with the head coach letting him/her know how interested your daughter is in competing eventually and learning more about the process to get there. If they don't have much of a JO program I'd go elsewhere. It sounds like a disorganized process in the lower levels, which isn't a great sign, but they could also be very busy with a super active rec program and in the middle of changing around how they do things.

 

[Flyaway]

No way I would pay for privates for her to be evaluated. Call the office and request they evaluate your daughter for her class placement. If they say that it will be done at the next class, then make sure it happens. If it doesn't, follow up with another phone call and again request an evaluation. DO NOT pay to be evaluated! Gymnastics is expensive enough without paying for something that should happen anyway.