WAG Petition to stop events at the NTTC - "The Ranch"

[Deleted member 14190]

Wow, that happened faster than I thought. Anyone close to the matter know how close they are to finding a replacement? World Champions looks like a great place to host it.

That is a potential temporary solution

 

[bogwoppit]

Yes speculation is world champion center for now.

That makes the most sense to me. Laurent is there, he has a good working relationship with Valeri. Still in Texas.

 

[wandrewsjr]

Just have to figure out where 25-30 girls are going to sleep. Figuring out how to do that absolutely safely within a month is the more complicated issue than the physical location of the gym.

 

[bogwoppit]

Just have to figure out where 25-30 girls are going to sleep. Figuring out how to do that absolutely safely within a month is the more complicated issue than the physical location of the gym.

I am guessing a hotel with 4 girls to a room. These are at least older girls. But for dev camp etc they will need a real plan.

 

[coachmolly]

A summer gym camp would be nice in the sense that they already have lodging, a cafeteria, and gym facilities. They could hire chaperones who have gone through a thorough employment screening or invite parents of participating athletes (also after thorough screening) to fill that role. Unfortunately all the big gym camps are not at all convenient to major airports which I think is a pretty big deterrent.

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Any thoughts on holding the camps at the USOTC?

 

[coachmolly]

Any thoughts on holding the camps at the USOTC?

I've read recently that the USOTC is currently either at or possibly even over capacity. Even the Men who train there full time have difficulty utilizing their fair share of facilities. There is also the fact that the USOTC is primarily a home to adult athletes, not children. I think bringing a camp of Senior elites or would likely be fine, but a group of developmental athletes would be a different story. No matter how hard they try to keep them separated, I imagine there would be some exchange among groups. And while that could be motivating and exciting on one level to be around so many successful high level athletes, it's also a little tricky. I'm not sure how many parents would love the idea of sending their 10 year old developmental camp kid to live amongst 20-something athletes for a week nor could I imagine the athletes calling the USOTC being thrilled to welcome a herd of middle school kids while they are training.

 

[bogwoppit]

I've read recently that the USOTC is currently either at or possibly even over capacity. Even the Men who train there full time have difficulty utilizing their fair share of facilities. There is also the fact that the USOTC is primarily a home to adult athletes, not children. I think bringing a camp of Senior elites or would likely be fine, but a group of developmental athletes would be a different story. No matter how hard they try to keep them separated, I imagine there would be some exchange among groups. And while that could be motivating and exciting on one level to be around so many successful high level athletes, it's also a little tricky. I'm not sure how many parents would love the idea of sending their 10 year old developmental camp kid to live amongst 20-something athletes for a week nor could I imagine the athletes calling the USOTC being thrilled to welcome a herd of middle school kids while they are training.

Agreed, it needs to be a child safe, and friendly, environment. TOPs camps include 8 year olds.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

I just can't see WCC or any other regular gym being able to handle this. WCC is like every other major gym and is full, running classes virtually all the time. How do you fit a NTC into that? It would be a nightmare. They don't have the facilities for feeding that many people either. And shuttling people and coaches back and forth...

I obviously don't know anything about anything, but I'll be curious to see how they could make that work. Obviously anything they choose is good because it's movement away from the ranch.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Any thoughts on holding the camps at the USOTC?

That facility is not big enough.

 

[wandrewsjr]

The USA T&T and Acro National and developmental teams also hold camps at the ranch. Their calendars also have TBD location listed. Space will need to be found for them too.

 

[ProvB]

The Canadian National (Junior and Novice) team was also scheduled to attend camp at the ranch Feb 18-22

 

[bogwoppit]

The Canadian National (Junior and Novice) team was also scheduled to attend camp at the ranch Feb 18-22

Yes they are, I am assuming they will be selected at elite Canada. The girls will be competing against girls selected from the current dev camp. SO likely younger juniors or older novice girls?

My guess is they will hold it at the Biles gym in Texas.

 

[skschlag]

You have to be 12 to stay on campus at the OTC. Which would be ok for the senior national team, but not really the developmental camps.

 

[munchkin3]

Just out of curiosity- are there kids still training at the ranch? I swear I saw some posts about kids still there.... is this still elite stuff?

 

[sce]

Just out of curiosity- are there kids still training at the ranch? I swear I saw some posts about kids still there.... is this still elite stuff?

When they announced breaking the contract there were kids there that week, as in they got there before the announcement was made and finished the camp they went there for. Since then, I believe the ranch has been fully shut down.

 

[strawberries]

How much is it to build the facility from scratch? Is there a sponsor who might be willing to come back around and represent the new, safe, open face of USAG or USGF or whatever it turns out to be? A fresh start for the biggest scandal in sports history?

Huge 2nd floor balcony and one way mirrors, open to parents, open to coaches, open to anyone. Hand-pick the location near a giant airport, accessible in every way....

Would that appeal to anyone?

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Could be hearsay , but I heard T&T had a camp ? Anyone ?

 

[gymmomtotwo]

Personally I think we should get rid of the camp system, decentralize, let the individuals coaches coach, and everyone come together for public, fairly judged trials. Let the kids stay home, train, go to school, and the parents be parents. The parents can take the kids to medical appointments, and make the crucial decisions about their child. Even if it doesn't produce gold medals, it is the healthy and right thing to do. Just my opinion. To continue the current system at a different location means we have learned nothing.

 

[sce]

Personally I think we should get rid of the camp system, decentralize, let the individuals coaches coach, and everyone come together for public, fairly judged trials. Let the kids stay home, train, go to school, and the parents be parents. The parents can take the kids to medical appointments, and make the crucial decisions about their child. Even if it doesn't produce gold medals, it is the healthy and right thing to do. Just my opinion. To continue the current system at a different location means we have learned nothing.

I don't think we necessarily need the current system, but completely scrapping camps has a few problems of it's own. 1) teams are not built on just all arounders anymore, with the allowable number of athletes at a competition this just does not happen anymore, so how do you decide just a trials. 2) there are a positives of the camps, teaching coaches, building a sense of team in a fairly geographically large country. Otherwise the girls would only be together at competitions. The system from TOPS on up has actually made more kids able to reach higher levels as it trained coaches how to teach those levels.