Texasmomof3
Proud Parent
Dd's gym has two optional tracks -- a morning program for homeschool girls and an afternoon programs for kids still in regular school. Dd is an afternoon track optional. Until this past year, both programs shared coaches, facilities, etc. Last year, the head optional coach said she needed more stability at home, so she took over the day program and they hired a new coach for the afternoon program.
The afternoon coach was a nightmare and got fired after just a couple of months -- half way through last competition season. For the past year, the afternoon girls have had no consistent coaching, with a series of substitute coaches, self coaching and being everyone's afterthought. (Morning coach refused to help out with afternoons, so only afternoon optionals suffered.). Although we finally now two weeks before the first meet have a new afternoon team optional head coach, the afternoon optionals are a mess still after a year of no coach.
We are expecting a couple of nightmare meets as the new coach takes over and begins to make a difference. But with the new coach, the skills and gymnastics levels will improve and hopefully by state they will look up to par.
The bigger problem is gym morale. The morning girls, coaches and parents have begun to treat the afternoon girls as second tier. We are at a pretty competitive gym, and the owners don't want to be affiliated with any weak gymnasts. The morning girls have become gym "mean girls" -- talking down to the afternoon girls, mocking them, bossing them around. And the adults don't help. They only post gym social media about the morning girls. They only include the morning girls in activities that represent the gym. And they describe the morning optionals as the "Gym Team," leaving the afternoon girls out.
The longer this goes on, the worse it gets. I have spoken to the owner, and she was rather appalled to realize how the afternoon girls and parents saw it. But I don't see any changes. In fact, since she and I spoke, they have posted another IG post with pics of only morning optionals describing them as "the team."
Dd and her afternoon teammates are fed up. They resent the morning girls they used to think of as teammates. I don't blame them and I'm a bit worried about how this will play out at meets when they are all supposed to compete as one team.
Ugh
The afternoon coach was a nightmare and got fired after just a couple of months -- half way through last competition season. For the past year, the afternoon girls have had no consistent coaching, with a series of substitute coaches, self coaching and being everyone's afterthought. (Morning coach refused to help out with afternoons, so only afternoon optionals suffered.). Although we finally now two weeks before the first meet have a new afternoon team optional head coach, the afternoon optionals are a mess still after a year of no coach.
We are expecting a couple of nightmare meets as the new coach takes over and begins to make a difference. But with the new coach, the skills and gymnastics levels will improve and hopefully by state they will look up to par.
The bigger problem is gym morale. The morning girls, coaches and parents have begun to treat the afternoon girls as second tier. We are at a pretty competitive gym, and the owners don't want to be affiliated with any weak gymnasts. The morning girls have become gym "mean girls" -- talking down to the afternoon girls, mocking them, bossing them around. And the adults don't help. They only post gym social media about the morning girls. They only include the morning girls in activities that represent the gym. And they describe the morning optionals as the "Gym Team," leaving the afternoon girls out.
The longer this goes on, the worse it gets. I have spoken to the owner, and she was rather appalled to realize how the afternoon girls and parents saw it. But I don't see any changes. In fact, since she and I spoke, they have posted another IG post with pics of only morning optionals describing them as "the team."
Dd and her afternoon teammates are fed up. They resent the morning girls they used to think of as teammates. I don't blame them and I'm a bit worried about how this will play out at meets when they are all supposed to compete as one team.
Ugh