Parents Vent.. UGH

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littlekateskate

UGH. Ever since the olympics the gym has been crazy. And the classes are HUGE. Its horrible.

Last night dd who is 5 years old had 10 kids in her class. When that many show up they take one of the junior coaches and kind of split up the class. But then dd gets stuck with a junior coach who has no idea whats going on.

But most of the time they stayed together and they just sat around waiting for their turn on whatever it was they were doing.

I am told its like this all over the place after the olympics with huge increase in kids. How long does it last? Will they go away? lol. If it stays like this its just not worth it the kids arent getting anything accomplished. :cool:
 
Our gym is packed too, but I hate to say it but I hope it stays that way. Any gym owner will tell you that rec is where the money is, not team. So as long as the rec kids are there, hopefully that mean that #1, the gym stays open in this cruddy economy and #2, hopefully my tuition won't go up too much.

I always look forward to Saturday's when we go in 12-4 and it is only the team there. It is SO nice!:D
 
10 kids is not huge for a rec class with age age group. In fact 10 kids is a great manageble size. The way the coaches manage the class is what counts. The kids should not be sitting down and waiting for a turn for long. If the coaches are spotting there should be a number of other stations set up so kids arent just standing around and waiting. The class structure is the problem, not the number of kids.
 
I have to agree 10 seems normal to me, we would have one coach with a group that size and they would be fine. We would also have stations and waitng would happen, but not for long. If they are splitting in two groups the kids should be moving almost constantly.
 
Sometimes dd has 8 in her class.They have several bars,beams etc,so it is set up most of the time that everybody is doing something.They have stations and rotate.
 
I agree with everyone else - 10 in a rec class sounds normal - especially if they pull over another coach and split them. Strong rec programs definitely benefit the team.
 
I feel your pain LittleKate...in July our owners posted a bulliten letting the parents know that the gym would get crazy in August. We had 5 or 6 kids in a rec class, now we have 10-12 kids in a class. Luckily there is enough equipment so that the kids dont stand around to long. The coaches also make them stretch or do situps/pushups while waiting their turn.
The only real pain in the butt part is that the parent viewing area is always packed! I have to get there 15 minutes before DD's practice starts just so I can have a place to sit. On Monday DH had to leave the gym and couldnt even watch because there was so many people in front of the window. When he got back he found out that DD had accidently casted to a handstand on the bars...and we missed it!
This will sound really bad..I am a horrible person but I get so annoyed when there is some parent with their face pressed against the window as their child does a forward roll...its a forward roll, I'm sure you have seen her do it a hundred times at home! (Okay that was my vent..sorry:()
 
In a mixed up world where too many parents are self absorbed in their own lives to take an interest in their kids and too many kids sit in front of the T.V, play video games, surf the net, have terrible eating habits and are generally out if shape, overweight and unable to entertain themselves without outside stimulus....this can't be a bad thing.

Next time, look around the room and think about how half of these kids/parents won't be there next year as they will find it to much of an inconvenience.

It's good for your gym, and its good for your country.

...climbing down off of soap box;)
 
I had to laugh because I am moving 5yo dd to an earlier class next week..... simply because her usual class is far too wild!! And it's not even that it's too full or anything (there were 7 in there) - just that four of them are completely out of control.

We have had an increase but up until the wildness this week, it hadn't been a problem as far as I was concerned!! It's been nice to see the new faces.
 
Certainly agree with others that 10 kids in a class is about normal. The problem seems to be the coaches not having concrete plans to keep them busy throughout the class. Will all of these little ones who saw Shawn and Nastia on TV stay with the sport?? No. Some will decide they don't like it, its harder than it looks, too expensive, want to try something else and on and on.

In these economically stressed time, I'm sure no gym is going to turn kids away. How they handle the increase in numbers is the challenge. Is there another time you could change to that might not be as busy? If not and you still notice the girls spending alot of time sitting(and not doing much) then ask to chat with the instructor or director of the rec program.
 
The enrollment in our gym's rec classes has probably tripled or more this year, not only b/c of the Olympics (which is normal) but b/c we got a wonderful new program director who is drumming up business left and right. That said, they have added many classes to keep each class to max of 8 kids. Kids just can't "show up" - there are strict rules about makeups. It really doesn't affect team kids/parents other than the hassle of not being to get a parking spot!
 
Our gym seems more busier than usual I think it is a combination of the olympics and the start of the school year. My daughter when she was in preteam had 8 now she is on team and trains with the compulsaries with 11 kids they usaually do stations and have 2 coaches so 10 with 2 coaches does not seem to bad for recreational classes. Our head coach does set a limit on the classes maybe 6-8. I think as the school year goes on many of the kids will quit and it will be less crowded. I also kind of agree with the others when it is crowded it does make me feel more secure that the gym will stay in business in these hard economic times. Now I wish the olympics had more an effect on swimming, my older daughter who swims, her team desparately needs boys ages 9-14. Where are all the Micheal Phelps want-a- bees.
 
I had to laugh when I read this thread, thinking way back to when I was a child. When I was young, about 100 years ago, I wanted to take gymnastics classes sooo badly, but there were so few gyms back then and families didn't spend money on sports the way they do today. My Dad wouldn't cave until one Saturday afternoon (Gymnastics in the Olympics were shown on TV in the DAYTIME back then) we were all fascinated as we watched Olga Korbut compete and win her gold medal. At that moment, Dad let me call the local gym and sign up over the phone. I couldn't 'dial' that phone fast enough! The rest is history. No, I never made it to the Olympics but I competed for a few years, and coached a few years after that. Now, 100 years later, I am STILL involved as a parent and and we've even met several Olympians. So, I have to say, I owe it all to the Saturday afternoon way back 100 years ago during the Olympics. So move over girls, this could change someone's life! You might even make a few more friends!
 
I took my son to his hot shots class this morning and had no trouble at all getting a parking space. You have to love holiday weekends. It's been an adventure up till now and I've had to leave the house an extra twenty minutes early on Saturdays.

The gym has a limit of four kids in the hot shots, but they have six this year. The coach is doing a great job of keeping everything moving and the gym is extroardinarily organized about moving all the different classes going on from station to station. There's a schedule on the wall and every coach refers to it to see where they are supposed to be.

I know that our gym puts ALOT of effeort into running these pre-school and rec classes as this is where they make the most money. They are extremely organized about it and it shows.
 

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