It all depends on the needs and desires of the kids and the parents. Some choose to do the bare minimum while others are there every day the gym is open and you can hardly get them out the door at closing time.
Basically all teams practice one day a week during the summer. We are on break right now for two weeks. When traditional school starts back up the basic schedule is all level 2's spend 2 days a week in Team Practice. This includes a Team Tumble Hour with my staff. Level 3 - 5's practice 1 day a week and have no tumble hour with me. However my staff are assigned as coaches on each of their teams so the instruction and spotting capabilities are present at every practice. The only level 5 team which practices 2 days a week is the Junior Level 5.
Our market dictated those changes in our structure. Between competing gyms in the area having to deal with the same issues, new gyms coming in the market, rec programs making the switch to offer All Star programming and the pressure to cheer High School, we had to either adapt our structure or lose too many Senior kids. We chose to change. So far it has worked out for us, but I know the owners and all of the coaches wish they could have every kid in the gym for team practice two days a week no matter what their level is.
I already addressed the tumbling approach in the Open Gym thread. During the school year we have a Open Gym for the Younger Level 2 and 3's., another for the older 2 and 3's, and another one for the 4's and 5's.
I am glad you brought this up about teams practicing. So most of your teams practice once a week with tumbling on their own completely. I know Cheer Extreme which is in the same area only practices once a week for most of their teams so I think other gyms in that area do the same thing. I know some gyms in Texas are the same way and VERY successful.
i used to be in the gym anywhere from 6-12 hours a week. this season i cant find much motivation to go to even tumbling classes. I honestly love cheering but the coaches changed so much after we got a new head coach/gym runner. i was talking to a lot of the girls from last season actually yesterday and we were all talking about how much we hate this season compared to last season. nobody really has the fire within them anymore.
Level 1 teams are in the gym twice a week for a total of 5 hours a week. Level 2 & 3 teams are in the gym three times a week for a total of 6 hours a week. Level 4 teams are in the gym three times a week for a total of 7 hours a week. Level 5 teams are in the gym roughly three times a week for a total of 9 hours a week.
Level 2 & 3 have two 2.5 hour practices along with a 1 hour tumbling practice. Level 4 has two 3 hour practices with a 1 hour tumbling practice. Level 5 has three 3 hour practices with one practice dedicated solely to tumbling and strength and conditioning.
Obviously we also have our "gym rats" who are in the gym everyday from open to close we have about 15 of them and I love their drive.
Last year our daughter worked out four days a week, she did two teams and tumbling on the weekend, this year we have reduced her to two days a week period, she is also doing her tumbling on a practice day instead of the weekend. We have done this to help her transition to middle school. Her sister attends on opposite days and I have chosen to leave her at home on those days. We want to give her a break so she does not get burned out on cheer, since this is her fourth year and still has time for school and school friends.
I am glad you brought this up about teams practicing. So most of your teams practice once a week with tumbling on their own completely. I know Cheer Extreme which is in the same area only practices once a week for most of their teams so I think other gyms in that area do the same thing. I know some gyms in Texas are the same way and VERY successful.
Just one point of clarification. Tumbling is never on their own. It is a separate hour one day a week ahead of their desginated team practice for all level 2's. That time is structured like a class for that level. Stations are assigned, numbers and assignments are given, and they go to work.(Flexability, conditioning, running tumbling, standing tumbling, drills and jumps) Coaches spot and instruct each station. Closer to comp time we run the tumbling sets of the routines over and over again. Open gym during the season while not mandatory is highly encouraged and very well attended.
The gymrats find a way to stay in the gym and workout even when their team practice is done. Since we do not charge for crossovers many of them will do more than one team just to be in the gym more. When practice is done as long as they do not disturb team practices still going on, classes or privates I allow them to work out on their own with limited instruction. That is about the only open tumbling time (as most people think of open gym) that there is.
Quite honestly CEA has forced many gyms to either change what they do, merge or close out here. Our program was very different before they moved to town. The one day a week practice was more a concession to those who wanted to cheer both All Star and High School/Middle School than it was anything else. Before that most kids had to pick and choose because there were too many scheduling conflicts with practices and games. Once they came and offered something no other gym in the area was doing (the one day a week practices) we had to either adjust or lose kids we had been training before they could even do a cartwheel. Out of all the gyms in the area we have lost the fewest to them over the past 2-3 year period. A few gyms have closed following their arrival and others are struggling to stay open.
If you structure your practices, have lesson plans and goals for each practice, it is possible to cut down to one day a week practices. But it is very difficult to manage and I can almost imagine a parent coming to me asking why do they even have to practice at all....just show up when it is time to compete...lol. I am being sarcastic there, but you know the old saying if you give them an inch, they take a mile.
On a personal note, my 16 year old practices 3 days a week with 3 teams (2 cheer level 2 and 3 and one dance) My five year old will practice 2 days a week with 1 team.
i love this topic! just because it always makes me giggle a little bit inside....
this has almost NOTHING to do with cheer, but when i was in gymnastics i was in the gym 25-30 hours a week during the school year, and 35-40 hours a week in the summer! then i went to all star cheer and only had practice 4 hours a week! it was such a shock to my "system" that i pretty much became a "gym rat" just because i didn't have ANY idea what else to do with my self! but hey.. i stayed out of trouble! lol....
I think most people who came from gymnastics backgrounds simply shake their heads when they hear the complaints about practice 2 days a wee for 2 hours. In the 70's and 80's I trained every bit of 20 hours a week and was begging for more. In High School I would spend most of my free time in the gym working out. Same in College. The thing is I was not the best or most accomplished gymnast...I just loved what I was doing.
As a coach I put in similar hours, if not more to prepare my kids. Even when I am not at the gym I am still thinking about how to make things better for them, get a child over a mental block, new tumbling passes, injury management, meetings with kids and/or parents I have to make as well as those ones that will just "pop up."
Now that is my passion, so I don't complain about it. I also realize the parents are the ones paying for it and they at times have much more on their plates than I ever could. So I pledge to them that if you get to the gym on time (by that i mean early enough so we can start on time as a team) and let me run my classes/practices as I need to without interference, I will have your child ready at the right time to go, if not 5-10 minutes early and they won't be cheated for repetitions/skill sets/or routines. To the kids if you give me your focused attention and best efforts, time will fly by so fast, you will not want to leave at quitting time.
We should be asking how many days/hours do us coaches spend in the gym....I'd say 8 days a week and 27 hours a day....hahaha....J/K but do I think about my gym/kids that much. But I love it!!!!
