WAG Another gym in town

[shadow]

I coach at a gym in a very small town. About 5 years ago, we had a coach who got a job at a wellness center teaching tumble classes. The owner didn't take that to well to he asked her to leave. So now... she has opened a gym last year and all year long, she has been telling people about us that are not so nice and basically trying to steer people away. We hosted a meet last season and she was there trying to recruit some of our kids... at our own meet! Yesterday, we lost our 10th team kid to her and if it is possible, we would like to keep the kids we have. Has anyone else dealt with this? If so, how did you handle it?

 

[iwannacoach]

Gymnastics clubs are just like any other business that wants to survive in the sense that they have to offer a better product than the shop across the street. You say she's been saying things that "aren't so nice," and that she's trying to steer people clear of the gym you work at. So, is she telling lies...... or simply putting more emphasis on your gym's failing than you feel are appropriate? Really, there's nothing wrong with putting one side of the "argument" out where the potential customer can see it and consider it for it's merits.

Speaking of "not so nice"....... I don't have a dog in the fight, and have no "favorites" to treat with kid gloves, so I'll just put this question out there. Didn't your boss ask this employee to "leave" five years ago?..... for what?..... taking a job at a wellness center teaching a fraction of what's presented at a gym club? I don't know if either of us have all the details, but it seems like the boss fired her...... and there was no asking involved.

So why would this new club owner feel obliged to "play nice" when she was likely doing a great job for your boss, but "shown the door" just for taking a part time job teaching tumbling at a wellness center. If you ask me, it looks like it's "game on."

 

[coachmolly]

I think all you can do is attempt to provide a better product than the other gym- coaching, customer service, overall gym atmosphere, getting what you pay for, etc. If people are happy with your product, they'll stay. If they are the type to search for greener pastures and the new gym isn't all it's cracked up to be, they'll return and word will spread around the local gym community. If people are leaving your gym and staying put at the other place, maybe it's time to look at what you're doing and see what the other club might be doing better, or at least what parents seem to be responding to better.
I don't know what kind of experiences this other coach had while working at your gym, but if they were indeed that terrible, maybe she feels she is doing the community a "service" by exposing these things? That would be the best case scenario, though. I know I have had experiences with gyms (not as a coach) that were so incredibly negative that I would advise someone considering that club to steer clear so they wouldn't endure the same experiences I did, and because I know there are better options around.
I think trying to recruit your kids at meets, or anywhere really, isn't really ethical and would raise a red flag. If they are doing that great of a business the kids should be coming to them anyway. I would be upset if a coach did that to my kids, but it's a tough economy and hard to get a new gym up off the ground and thriving, so I guess that's just what she feels she has to do. Just consider it a good time for your gym to think through what it's doing and take the opportunity to make changes. Maybe invite parents to provide feedback, either at a parent meeting or through evaluation forms. Look at the other gym and see what programs they are providing, their prices, hours, equipment, coach qualifications, and "extras"- open gyms, birthday parties, camps, clinics- to see if there is something you are missing.
I think the big thing is communication, talk to team parents, show them you are interested in them and providing them with a product they are happy with. I think some of the biggest complaints of parents leaving a gym relate to inadequate communication.

 

[JBS]

Has anyone else dealt with this? If so, how did you handle it?

Yes...become the best...most professional program in every way. Create a program that is so good that people would be foolish to leave.

As far as team...be your own program. Have a philosophy and stick to it. If team families are looking for something that is different than your philosophy...let them go. Build a team of families that truly believe in your team philosophy.

We used to have team gymnasts that would leave our program for other local gyms...but hardly any would ever come to us from another gym. That is now changed...we have very few that leave us for other gyms...one in the past 24 months...over 10 in the past 24 months have come to us. We do no "official" recruiting...but the parents are very happy with our program...they tell their friends that have team kids at other gyms.

It's fun having another gym to compete against. Play fair and be a good sport...and be sure to send them a dozen black roses when they go out of business.

 

[Gymdad2]

From a parent's perspective, I think you should pay close attention to what has been posted here. If you have lost 10 team members to the other gym, you might want to pay more attention to your product and worry less about what the competition is doing. Good luck.

 

[wallflower]

How does she recruit at meets? Just curious how that works.

 

[Natasha]

We had a head coach leave our gym to start his own gym nearby 3 1/2 years ago. About a dozen girls left to go to that gym. It was rough year and for the first 2 years there was a lot of "I heard so and so said this...." However, I saw improvements in our gym program the following year- it was a "good" program, but the competition that the other gym provided made our gym a "great" program. Now our team and rec classes are very full- in fact we just had about 100 gymnasts try out for team. Oh, and there have been some girls that went to the other gym that since have asked to come back.
So, give it some time and realize that healthy competition will make your program even stronger. Although the whole process was hard at the time, it was probably one of the best things that happened to our gym.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Honestly you have just been lucky up until now. I have 11 gyms within 15 miles of mine. ELEVEN, one has an olympic athlete! YOU NEED TO FOCUS on the kids you have, ramp up your effort in the gym. Produce and follow a schedule and make sure your coaches are not sitting around or chatting. Send your coaches to a clinic, visit established gyms, (show you are serious) And finally,,, you need to beat her next year, no excuses.

 

[Gymmommy71]

Do you notice a trend about parents complaining, either directly to you or via just "lobby noise", about the same types of things? I personally can list the "top complaints" about many of my local area gyms...and these places never seem to fix them to the point that it causes perputual gym hopping for I'd say at least 10%-20% of our gymnast population (i.e. every year 1-2 out of every 10 gymnasts will switch gyms from one to another, etc.), and "tryout season" is in full swing right now (lots of girls missing class who normally don't, and lots of new girls as guests in our classes) - it happens every year.

How are your gymnasts performing at meets? My theory is that if a reasonably talented kid isn't getting 36's, they are always at a risk for leaving...and the ones getting 34's and 35's are your biggest risk because their parents see them as competent, but their parental tendency to side w/ their child leads them to blame the gym's training for them not being spectacular, whether it's valid or not, and this makes the other things that people complain about, even if they are not training-related issues, significantly less tolerable.

I personally would put up w/ a lobby that smells like manure and having to dress up in an obnoxious costume and hand out flyers on the street if a gym would get my DD 37 AA's. W/o those types of results though, a gym that markets the possibility of a better product will always get my attention, at least a little .

 

[shadow]

Wow everyone! Thanks for your replies!

Basically, the kids that left are the kids who don't work their hardest, in other sports and gymnastics is becoming just a hassle and or they left because their friends left. It's also mostly because the parents are wanting the kids to leave. Our parents are nothing like i have ever encountered before! They want to complain to the staff about certain issues but never to the head coach/owner. When we confront them about it, they get upset and most of the them leave... rather than talking through it. It is vary rare for the parents to talk to the owner about some issues they are concerned about.

As for the kids, they do fairly well at meets. We're not first at every single meet but not last either. Those who work well in practice do well at meets and those who don't... it shows during competition... and parents just don't seem to care. Sometimes i feel like a babysitter service...

As for the other gym, Their individual scores are the same when they competed at our gym. Their team scores are usually at the low end of the list... going by the results. All of the other gyms girls came from us and by comparing scores, its seems they haven't improved over a year.

To give a little back story on the other coach... she competed at our gym when she was younger and then left for a while. Then she was hired as a coach and coached for a few years. Then she got the job as a tumble coach for a wellness center. her and the owner talked it over and agreed that since it was a tumble class it would be ok for her to switch back and forth between the two places. The after about 2 months or so she began telling girls that she was getting her own gym and they should go and compete for her. Also, she started stealing money and taking girls to other gyms for privates so she wouldn't have to pay the owner his part of the fee. So the owner kicked her out. Thats what got all of this started..... and now she's talking to people, spreading lies about us to try to get them to move gyms. At the meets, she was telling our parents that we don't know who to coach the girls and that we're setting them up for failure. Things to make the parents questions our gym.

I honestly don't mind that there is another gym in town. She just went about it and still is going about it the wrong way.

 

[wallflower]

Based on your story about her I'd just be really glad she isn't part of your program anymore. If she is really as dishonest as you say, other people will eventually figure it out.

 

[iwannacoach]

That's "a whole lot more" information than you shared the first time around. Slime is, as slime does. If she was stealing money and trying to use gym kids for private lessons $ while cheating the boss out of his cut, she deserved to be fired..

Be thankful this is all taking pace in a smaller community, as while he can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, she'll eventually run out of both time and people. Meanwhile, just do the best you can to make sure the kids in your program are well served.

 

[Gymmommy71]

At the meets, she was telling our parents that we don't know who to coach the girls and that we're setting them up for failure. Things to make the parents questions our gym.

Uggh...as a parent I would never respond to this type of thing - its one thing for a GO to tell me how great their program is and how it could do good things for my DDs gymnastics, but to talk negatively of my DDs current gym, basically doing negative campaigning and trying to manipulate me into thinking things that I may not already believe, just seems unprofessional and desperate. And even if I *did* agree with the negative things said, I still wouldn't like it.

I also personally feel it's a little underhanded for a gym owner to actively recruit specific atheletes away - run adds and hold open houses, or even offer a recruitment coupon for a free private lesson for referrals by current members, but that's it. Gym changes should be parent-initiated IMO - the parent should always be the one to make the first move (phone call, e-mail, etc.).

 

[shadow]

Gymmommy71 I totally agree with you. The parents should make the call about moving gyms. If they have issues about our gym and or are not happy, then thats fine. They could at least give us a phone call or something!! We usually find out through rumors or people talking. And they won't tell us why they left. Thats the frustrating part!

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Wow everyone! Thanks for your replies!

Basically, the kids that left are the kids who don't work their hardest, in other sports and gymnastics is becoming just a hassle and or they left because their friends left. It's also mostly because the parents are wanting the kids to leave. Our parents are nothing like i have ever encountered before! They want to complain to the staff about certain issues but never to the head coach/owner. When we confront them about it, they get upset and most of the them leave... rather than talking through it. It is vary rare for the parents to talk to the owner about some issues they are concerned about.

As for the kids, they do fairly well at meets. We're not first at every single meet but not last either. Those who work well in practice do well at meets and those who don't... it shows during competition... and parents just don't seem to care. Sometimes i feel like a babysitter service...

As for the other gym, Their individual scores are the same when they competed at our gym. Their team scores are usually at the low end of the list... going by the results. All of the other gyms girls came from us and by comparing scores, its seems they haven't improved over a year.

To give a little back story on the other coach... she competed at our gym when she was younger and then left for a while. Then she was hired as a coach and coached for a few years. Then she got the job as a tumble coach for a wellness center. her and the owner talked it over and agreed that since it was a tumble class it would be ok for her to switch back and forth between the two places. The after about 2 months or so she began telling girls that she was getting her own gym and they should go and compete for her. Also, she started stealing money and taking girls to other gyms for privates so she wouldn't have to pay the owner his part of the fee. So the owner kicked her out. Thats what got all of this started..... and now she's talking to people, spreading lies about us to try to get them to move gyms. At the meets, she was telling our parents that we don't know who to coach the girls and that we're setting them up for failure. Things to make the parents questions our gym.

I honestly don't mind that there is another gym in town. She just went about it and still is going about it the wrong way.

==
Well, you are going to go through this every few years so.... Be the bigger person and work super hard to beat the crap out of her... I would, Have and do....

 

[iwannacoach]

Your marching to the same drummer as I am. Revenge, who me? Naw, I just serve up justice with as much relish as possible, and I do relish those few moments in my life.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

entendre! touche!!

 

[shadow]

Your marching to the same drummer as I am. Revenge, who me? Naw, I just serve up justice with as much relish as possible, and I do relish those few moments in my life.

Oh we plan too We are currently making changes due to this and some other things and people still aren't happy. I guess we can't make everyone happy.

 

[bogwoppit]

The grass is always greener is a syndrome that is difficult to deal with. Just be the best you can be and listen to comments, suggestions and complaints and address them. Beyond that there is little you can do. Well except wait for karma to come around and bite her in the ***.

 

[bookworm]

I honestly don't mind that there is another gym in town. She just went about it and still is going about it the wrong way.

Well that's according to you....I get the sense that there is more to this story than just "a new gym in town" . As some prior posters have said, it shouldn't matter if there's another gym in town... if people are happy with the product YOU put out, they won't be switching there. Seriously, in all my years of driving between 40-75 miles each way to gyms, I have passed many a closer gym that I have not gone to because I was happy with the gym we were at.

Our original gym had a no compete clause for coaches who left to go elsewhere and I always thought that that was ridiculous because my feeling was "worry about your own program and keep it competitive so people won't want to go elsewhere".