AIBU - Or Is This Kids Gymnastics Club Slack ??

[rockinhippy]

I've taken DD for her first session apart from the fact its more expensive & more money upfront than we were lead to believe on the phone & a separate annual insurance on top never mentioned there were a few things we were unsure about so wondering if anyone can enlighten me as to what we should expect from a Kids Gymnastics club

I'm no helicopter Mum & love DD to go off & try stuff new, climb trees or whatever, but it was VERY busy & very fast moving, felt more like circuit training than a gymnastics club.

No questions were asked about which kids had any experience out of a small handfuls of newbies & they were put in age groups not level groups & then pretty much left to get on with it, - queue up & it's your turn to do X,Y,Z now - without instruction- IYSWIM -

I only once saw an instructor demonstrate what he wanted the DCs to do, other than that the kids were just following each others lead - vaults, forward roll onto vaults, bars, cartwheels etc etc - several things seemed more than a bit dangerous & on asking DD, she says she didn't feel she knew what she was doing at all & she just followed the other kids lead - who a lot of, also didn't know what they were doing - I twice saw DD run & do stuff she'd not done before that were potentially dangerous & the instructor, who was meant to be supervising her, was looking elsewhere & didn't even notice she'd taken her turn - in short, IMHO it seemed pretty slack

AIBU to think this, or does this sound quite normal for this sort of club - DD is 9

TIA :)

YANBU My DD attended a good club and the lady who ran it had three young women aged about 19 that were very good gymnasts who helped her....they took the kids in small grops round each thing and helped and corrected them as they took turns.

They would lift DD up by putting a leg out so she could get up to the bars etc...then they would talk to her hrrough each activity.

I did gymnastics back in the day, and I wouldn't let any kids of mine go to the club you describe - it sounds dangerous!

Sounds nothing like the club my kids go to - they're in small groups, and very closely supervised by instructors. Do they work towards the BAGA badges at your club? I'd find a club that does them if not.

Doesn't sound great to me. Copying other kids without feeling confident of new moves sounds dangerous to me. My DD is 8 and used to go to one that was more like circuit training. She was never very keen and dropped out after a few months.

She's recently started a new one and absolutely loves it, and can do all sorts of things she couldn't do before. I've seen a little of the sessions and the leader is certainly quite aware of who can do what, so wouldn't I would think ask any of them to do things they weren't ready for. So I'd recommend looking around to see if there are other clubs around that may be better.

The first club made her pay insurance, and the new one doesn't. Not sure what the story is there - would have thought that it is the club leaders that would need to be insured, not the kids individually, so maybe they're just passing on the costs.

Thanks everyone :)

That was our worry, to an inexperienced eye, it looked bloody dangerous to us too - & the INSISTENCE that we paid up front for a Gymnastics Asc insurance the minute we got through the door - incase the DCs broke a leg - wasn't exactly reassuring - thankfully we didn't - they only took cash/cheque & no-one has warned us, so we had nothing to pay with

In fairness there was instructors for several of the activities, though not all - & the kids were in smallish groups - 8/9 DCs (is that small ?) - for the rest of the activities, the kids were just pointed in the direction of & told to get on with it - though some of those activities were things like press ups & sit ups - lots of queueing for a turn on everything & as I say, even with the instructor lead groups, the only time I saw one demonstrate the correct way, was with the trampoline - after one of the DCs had basically given the all the others the wrong info - & most of the time the instructors didn't even seem to be paying attention to the DC whose turn it was

Without meaning to sound judgey, looking at some of the instructors, I would suspect they weren't actually fit enough to demonstrate anything, one at least was at least my age, other not far off (I'm ancient & I would say pretty overweight, only 2 out of 5 looked fit enough - asking DD this morning if she felt she had learned anything, she said NO - & she is usually pretty quick to pick stuff up, so IMHO thats a good indication that no-one was actually teaching anything

From looking at posters on the walls, looks like they DO, do the badges, but I got the impression from reading, that was extra tuition

It's a real shame, DD has been REALLY keen to Gymnastics for years, but seems we have very little in our area - I can only find one other & thats even harder to get to - this club used to be recommended & was hard to get a place at, we've tried in the past & got no-where, massive waiting list, that was closed, but I'm wondering if theres been changes in running/staffing as I rang up again hoping to get a place on the waiting list, to be told they had opened the list & DD could start tomorrow.

Thanks again - looks like its back to the drawing board :( - got to say, I'm amazed we don't have more locally, we live in a City & we have Dance & Drama clubs coming out of our ears - but not Gymnsatics, unless its todlers

My DDs all do gymnastics and have since todderhood - they're now 15, 13, 11 and 9. And without sounding smug they're all quite good now. However, we've put hours of time in down in the gym.

I would say this sounds pretty dangerous. Particularly if they are using equipment like bars/vault without being taught.

For a start, if they're in groups of 8/9 how many DCs were in the gym? And how many per coach? At my DDs gym, usually there's a maximum of about 20 kids, otherwise I'd imagine it would be manic and too noisy to hear safety instructions? That would be maybe 4 groups, with a max of about 6 kids per group.

Also, dividing by age seems daft, our club has always been by 'level' - or ability. A 9 year old beginner is totally different to a 9 year old who's been there a year, who is different again to a 9 year old who has been there 6 years.

Are there any older kids that seem to be good? If there's no 'top end' gymnasts, I would worry that my DDs would either get bored and quit, or learn nothing.

I wouldn't worry if all of the coaches aren't demonstrators - at my DDs gym, there are some younger, more agile coaches that do a lot of demonstrating, and other older, dinosaur like coaches that are very good at explaining and 'spotting' (i.e. lifting the children round and supporting their backs/heads whilst they learn new skills). Both styles of coach work well, although if there were no coaches to demonstrate, that could be a limiting factor.

www.british-gymnastics.org/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1434&Itemid=413

The British Gymnastics site has a locator to find good, accredited gyms. Maybe search for your town? I hope you find something, it's such a wonderful sport.

YANbu - sounds v dangerous. We have been to 2 gym clubs and neither did this. I'd find another one for your dd.

Thanks everyone :)

GGI that links a great help - thank you - I've found a 3rd local one thats much easier to get to & looks good, via it :) - though ironically this particular Gym is also on the list & I posted on our local board to try & get feed back from others who have used it - takes a bit longer to get a response, hence why I posted here too, as obviously we need to make a decision -

Some other parents who have used it, do seem to rate it, but seemed to take it that its better for DCs who are willing to just go for it & not need much instruction - but from our point of view, with a DD who very much does just go for it (AKA the Kamikaze Kid it just seemed not right & everything here confirms that.

I spoke with DH last night, & he thinks the same as me, that there was at least 40 DCs doing the circuit, probably 45 though he says 7/8 per group - so 8s a safe bet & that was per instructor - on some activities that would be fine, but others had us both cringing, as you say its just - not safe, especially as the instructors weren't even paying full attention - twice we saw DD take a run & throw herself full on into a potentially dangerous move - without the instructor actually paying attention - maybe after a year of accident, & her spending most of last year on crutches we are a bit more accident aware, which did worry me a bit that we were just being over cautious - but seems not as you all seem to think the same :)

Also having spoke with, & got DDs name on the other 2 waiting lists - both the others only expect you too actually pay term fees & insurance AFTER a taster session - I was hit for cash or cheque as soon as I got through the door - for the day, fine, but I was a bit gobsmacked to have someone suddenly demanding a large amount of cash, the minute we got through the door - so I've decided its not for us & we will wait for a place elsewhere

Thanks again :)

I should have added, as it might be of use to anyone searching this sort of thing in future?

I had quite a long chat with the owner of one of the other clubs & turns out there are strict rules of 7 DCs per instructor, thats even with the experienced DCs - newbies would be expected to be much less - so on the day were there, they were breaking those rules - though most local parent who use it are happy enough & it may just be down to staff illness etc, it didn't reassure us.

If you have any concerns about a gymnastics club you should read
British Gymmastics "Health, Safety and Welfare Policy" (2012) - available on their website. I would only ever look at a GymMark recognised club; gymnastics can be a dangerous sport. Every year 86,000 gymnastics-related injuries are treated in hospitals, doctors' surgeries, clinics and hospital emergency rooms in the USA alone; from the minor to catastrophic.