WAG Watching practice

[Gymettemom]

I'm just wondering how many gym moms watch practice. I love to watch, but lately it's been rough. Seems the harder the skills get, the harder it is to watch. Although DD Likes me to be there, she seems to better when I am not in the lobby.

 

[htimcj]

I used to watch a lot but now that skills are harder, take longer to get and she's almost 12, I don't watch nearly as much. I usually will see about 30 minutes a week out of 20 hours.

 

[my4buffaloes]

This summer I feel like I am there all the time. But I see my younger dd about 15 minutes a week and my older dd about 1.5 hours a week. This is only because of the carpool arrangements. I am there more often for one reason or another, but they are not always visible for me to watch.

 

[FL gym mom]

I normally watch almost all (about 6 out of 9 hours) but during the summer the practices have been during the day and I work so I haven't seen anything. I miss watching the girls and talking to my mom friends.

 

[EllibugGymmie]

I watch, but I have
Noticed she's more focused when she doesn't see me watching. Almost all the moms watch, a few drop and leave. I love to watch!

 

[lovemygymnast]

I used to stay because she was so young and I was just scared she would get hurt and I wouldn't be there. I also really enjoyed watching and still do but have other children in several activities. I do try to go one day every couple of weeks to see how she's doing. She prefers me being there but it's just not fair to her siblings.

 

[LinnieC]

Over the summer, I can typically stick around for a bit and watch. Typically, only about 30 minutes at the most (unless I get caught up chatting with a mom ). However, my younger daughter does not enjoy spending her time in the gym lobby when her sister is at practice so we don't last long. During the school year, I do not get to watch much between getting sister to her activities, grading papers, planning, etc, etc. :/

 

[windydays]

I don't watch too much. As some of you have said, the harder the skills, the harder it is to watch. When I have there, the HC usually has to whistle for me to watch something my daughter does because I am too busy chatting with other moms.

 

[Faolmor]

I watch because DD is 5, and we live over an hour away from her gym. Parents are encouraged to stay and watch. When she's older, I will probably find something else to do. But right now, I LOVE watching her.

 

[jessmomto2]

I watch right now but she is only at the gym two hours a week. They aren't doing anything terribly interesting right now though and I bring my computer to work on things I need to get done mostly and glance up every once in awhile. I do enjoy watching her but it's all repetition repetition at the moment so I can only take so much. I did enjoy watching the high level girls but they practice in the mornings with it being summer so it's just my daughters class and rec classes in the evenings right now. I wish I could get errands done during that time but the gym is about twenty minutes out of town in a teeny tiny town that has the gym, a gas station, and a bar, so I am kind of stuck there with her practices being only an hour long.

 

[raenndrops]

I watch... but I not only watch my own gymmies... I watch everyone. It would be awfully difficult to help them fix problems if I didn't see what they were doing wrong. I also tell them what they are doing right. It's a tough job, but somebody's gotta do it!

 

[floppycat]

We are not allowed/able to watch, there is no viewing area in our gym and at others they close off the viewing area when the squads are training. This is quite common in the UK, well in my bit of the country of the 5 elite gyms none let you watch your elite girls train. It doesn't help when your DD is unhappy at gym and you can't work out why.

 

[Ex member]

I never thought that I would say this but I used to like watching practice, but as time goes on (dd has been in her group 8 months) I don't watch as much as I used to as they seem to do the same things at the moment and it gets a bit boring watching, I usually chat to other mums or fiddle with my phone.

At the moment dd is doing summer training and has a few daytime training sessions (usually 5 hours per practice) and I do not stay for those and found that I prefer to drop and go and return for the last hour of practice. On Monday for oldest dd had her disability session that lasted 2 hours and my youngest did a fun gym camp to give her something to do while her sister was in the gym as she wanted to be in the gym, we ended up spending 6 hours in the gym split other various classes - not something I want to do again as I was the only parent there most of the time and I felt uncomfortable.

One quick question for those who drop and go, do you give the coach your mobile number? I haven't yet and haven't been asked to but a couple of mums in dd's group have given their mobile numbers to the coach and they get sent videos's of their dd's when they get new skills or text updates, I must admit I feel a little left out I would prefer to give the coach my number so she can contact me if there was a problem with dd and I needed to pick her up.

 

[Faith]

TD- Health and safety wise the club should have your mobile and home numbers in their records so they can contact you in an emergency- even if it's just no-one turns up to collect from practice S0 the office should have it in your DD's paperwork at least.

The coach having it will be a personal thing, some coaches won't give out their number due to the risk of late night calls to discuss little Suzie's progress . It will be a trust thing on both parts.

 

[GYM0M]

I watch occasionally. But yes, the harder the skills, the harder it is to watch!!!

 

[Ex member]

I already have my oldest dd's coaches mobile number and never phone/text unless it is to say dd won't be in and that is rarely.

The other mums on youngest dd's team have the coaches number and the coach sends them vids of practice and competition info etc I guess I was just feeling left out being the only one that hasn't got the coaches number lol. I have never given mine number to the coach but will do when I drop dd off tomorrow.

I respect the coaches privacy and time and never speak to them unless necessary.

 

[Mom2Chickadee]

My DD trains for 3 hours at a time and we only live 5 minutes away so I never stay to watch anymore. I often come back for the last 30 to 45 minutes but that's always conditioning and splits so it gets a bit boring after awhile.

 

[Pea'sMom]

During the year I usually see about half an hour on carpool days (1-2 days a week), but this summer I haven't seen one practice. I can't wait to catch a peak and see all the progress!!!

 

[cbifoja]

I've gone from being at her gym every hour of every practice to about being there a quarter of the time. Our summer goal as a mother/daughter unit was to help her have the confidence in herself to not need me at the gym.

The skill progress isn't as dramatic in the past now that she is getting into optionals but it is there if I really look for it. I actually see it more in her conditioning effort and flexibility. She is taking both more seriously and not taking her physical fitness for granted.

I've also noticed that her time from "getting the skill" to having it look pretty good is decreasing.

 

[Becauseisaid]

I enjoy watching - some of the time. I do the Social Media for the gym so find myself out on the floor video taping and taking pictures of the other classes and miss a lot. I also clean one of our gyms once during the week so that keeps me out of line-of-sight too. Yesterday, DD tracked me down in the men's bathroom to make me come watch her cast-to-handstand. LOL!

When I'm not running around the gym, I usually find myself chatting with the other Moms. I'll take what social life I can get!