Anon Coach making me feel belittled and worthless.

[Anonymous Post]

Hello everyone! a little background about me is that I am a current high school senior, 17 and I do xcel platnium!

Ever since I came to this new gym there is this one coach (we will call her Coach A) who has made me feel that I should quit the sport. First day I got there my coach (Coach B) asked what skills I had. Mind you I have just moved due to military reasons and was out of gymnastics for about 2 months (which is pretty detrimental for a gymnast) and I explained what I competed, etc. The coach A found out I did not have a flight series or a switch leap on beam (that wasn’t a requirement at my old gym, we just replaced it with other skills. such as cartwheel cartwheel and a jump series) she gave this look of “how does she not have that” with attitude. And EVERYDAY it has been like that. I have been at the gym for almost a month now and everyday she gives me attitude or makes me feel like I should quit. I have an EXTREME fear of flyaways that I am trying my best to get over. I was doing some timers and she tells me with very condescending tone. (ALL ON VIDEO) “do you know how to let go of the bar?” “do you know how to do a backwards roll?” “so why can’t you do it? all these little girls can but you can’t?” I felt very insecure after that and just doing a timer for me IS A BIG ACCOMPLISHMENT. Another thing i’ve noticed and been told by one of the girls is that EVERY TIME I am talking with one of the girls in her (Coach A btw) group (sometimes we combine) the girl gets yelled at and she says “You know what I told you about listening” and I can just be asking a question about the drill or something and she’ll immediately get mad. One practice a girl had a mental block of doing roundoff backhandspring backtuck and the girl cried went to the lockers to calm down. one of her teammates followed to comfort her and the teammate gets yelled at saying “(name) YOU ARE NOT HER BABYSITTER I ALREADY CHECKED UP ON HER” (the girl that checked up on her is 10 and no the coach didn’t check on her as I watched everything unfold) The two times I have cried at practice are because of her and I always hear her talking about other girls in the group to other gymnast in my group (my group are high schoolers) I don’t know if it’s just because i’m insecure or have bad social anxiety but I feel very targeted every practice. everyday she gives me this condescending tone and attitude as if I shouldn’t even be in xcel platnium and that I should just quit and give up. Does anyone have any advice? I plan on talking with the owner today as i have cried at home over the coach.

 

[Anonymous (40cf)]

'I plan on talking with the owner today'
Always a good idea and hopefully have your parents there with you. I can hardly believe stories like these, but sadly I've seen and heard them all too often. If I ever heard something like that one time from a coach of mine they would be gone mid rotation for good. I hope there may be another gym close by that can appreciate and work with you. Good luck.

 

[Anonymous (c592)]

Team is supposed to be fun and rewarding, if you aren't having fun it's OK to do something else or nothing at all and just enjoy your last year of high school. Does your school have a team, maybe you can join the school team instead of doing club.

 

[Anonymous (1212)]

You are soon to be a legal adult, you are a senior in high school. I would assume this is your last year of doing gymnastics competitively. Maybe club in college? So perhaps schedule a time with the offending coach. Explain your position, your fears, and the fact that this is your last season after doing X number of years. You want to finish with all the joy and memories that kept you in the sport this long. So perhaps we can just agree to give me the space to do that. A reasonable coach should be able to differentiate and understand your position and ease off. But people are strange. Good luck, I hope you can finish with all the happiness and joy you deserve.

 

[Anonymous (b062)]

It’s not you - that coach is toxic. Do you have another gym you can go you can go to, or if not, another group in that same gym that you can move to? I would not let my child be coached by someone like that, but I also wouldn’t want them to be pushed out of gymnastics by that coach.