Old gyms, new gyms...

Date: Fri Jul 18 2:57 PM, 2008

Old gyms, new gyms...

Date: Fri Jul 18 3:06 PM, 2008

As well as putting great routines out on the competition floor I know at ca bullets this year every child from each gym was given a stack of tryout cards to pass out. They also have "open house" which was two weeks in june and two weeks coming up in august where athletes bring in frineds to practice for free. After tryouts athletes were given cards to pass out for a free tumble class. They have also been uploading team industries videos fairly often and i think that helps too.

Date: Fri Jul 18 3:55 PM, 2008

I think to stay successful you cant let kids or teams become stagnent, you have to keep pushing them. As long as they feel like they are growing, chances are they will stick around.

Date: Sat Jul 19 9:25 AM, 2008

Agreed, there is too much money spent on the sport for soialization, there needs to be continued growth and progression.

Date: Sat Jul 19 9:26 AM, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed, there is too much money spent on the sport for soialization, there needs to be continued growth and progression.

oops, I really can spell! socialization. Is there a spell checker on this thing?

Date: Sat Jul 19 9:47 AM, 2008

You can have loads of talent in the building in terms of coaches and athletes, but if you do not know how to run a business and manage with respect at all levels, you will never grow your business.

Date: Sat Jul 19 10:39 AM, 2008

Excellent point!

Date: Sat Jul 19 11:13 AM, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

Excellent point!

AGREED! Kids need to be pushed to their fullest potential. Our coaches push the kids because they KNOW these kids can do it. By the end of the season the kids are far more progressed than where they started. Perfect example; in our gym we had a girl on our youth team 2 years ago, she couldn't even do a cart wheel when she walked in our gym. She was on a lev 1 team. The next season she tried out again, and made the sr. lev 3 team... she was throwing round-off-bhs-tucks... beautifully, no spots, and they were high. She was also doing 2 jumps to a tuck (w/ a light spot). This year she is on one of our lev 4 teams, and throwing beautiful standing tucks, and tumbles like she's been tumbling for years. Now THAT is hard work, and determination on her part, and great coaches that pushed her. (no, she's not my daughter, but she's a great kid, and we love her to pieces)
Again, when we as parents are seeing our kids progression, we are happy with where they are at, and see no need to go some where else. I can see the difference if you're spending a lot of money on private lessons, extra classes etc. and you child isn't growing... and sometimes even worse, REgressing. But, again the children have to "want it" bad enough as well.
As far as Im concerned, (and please, this is my opinion) my family is staying put where we are , our kids love where they are at, love their coaches, and their teams. THATS what matters the most.
Our staff tell the kids over and over, that if they don't work hard, and try hard, how do they expect to move forward... if you want that skill bad enough, you will do your best, and make that effort to get it. Practice makes perfect, and quality, not quantity.
This is a motto that they all live by, and it works.. so more power to them

Date: Sat Jul 19 3:42 PM, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

You can have loads of talent in the building in terms of coaches and athletes, but if you do not know how to run a business and manage with respect at all levels, you will never grow your business.

This is so true. You must run your business efficiently and your business needs to have the respect of others to be successful. That's why some gyms are able to remain open year after year who don't have world caliber teams. It's because they know how to run a business, maintain a good reputation, and keep their members happy. On the flip side if you have a gym with loads of talent but the business-side is not being run properly and/or members are unhappy with the way things are managed, your very talented members will eventually find a new gym.

Date: Sat Jul 19 5:30 PM, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You can have loads of talent in the building in terms of coaches and athletes, but if you do not know how to run a business and manage with respect at all levels, you will never grow your business.

This is so true. You must run your business efficiently and your business needs to have the respect of others to be successful. That's why some gyms are able to remain open year after year who don't have world caliber teams. It's because they know how to run a business, maintain a good reputation, and keep their members happy. On the flip side if you have a gym with loads of talent but the business-side is not being run properly and/or members are unhappy with the way things are managed, your very talented members will eventually find a new gym.

There is definately a very successful gym in Nor Cal that has lost many athletes to another gym-gyms for the simple reason that this owner no longer knows how to run a business

Date: Sat Jul 19 7:09 PM, 2008

I'm a parent whose life is scheduled sometimes as far as a year in advance due to husband's job, life demands etc. I reallly appreciate a well run business because aside from keeping the doors open, it makes it much easier to participate in cheer. Love out current gym. Top notch accounting, good flow of information, advance planning and that's in addition to great coaching and staff.

Date: Wed Jul 23 2:58 PM, 2008

As a former gym owner that had to close doors there are many reasons some gyms dont make it.Certain things happen in our personal life that make it hard to own a gym. Owning a cheer gym takes 110% effort on the owner and in some of the cases owners for example have gotten divorced, child sick, etc. Sometimes the business has to take a back seat to make sure your family can live day to day. Its not always a financial issue. How come everyone thinks that a gym shuts its doors because it cant pay its bills. Not always the case. Just like every other business, things happen.

Date: Wed Jul 23 7:42 PM, 2008

If a gym is financially successful but the owner can no longer manage it for personal reasons, I think it would be easy to find someone to take over. Not the case if a gym has financial issues. I think that is why people assume when a gym closes its doors it is because of poor membership, and 90% of the time they would be right.

Date: Wed Jul 23 10:14 PM, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

If a gym is financially successful but the owner can no longer manage it for personal reasons, I think it would be easy to find someone to take over. Not the case if a gym has financial issues. I think that is why people assume when a gym closes its doors it is because of poor membership, and 90% of the time they would be right.

Your kidding me right? You don't have any idea what your talking about! You assume too much. Nothing is further from the truth. We, gym owners make it look to easy sometimes. Especially when I read comments like these.

Date: Wed Jul 23 11:36 PM, 2008

I think it's a safe assumption, please take a look at the gyms that have closed in the last two years, most of the closures were due to low membership. Are you telling us if these gyms suddenly had masses of athletes join they would have still closed down? I find that hard to believe.

Date: Tue Jul 29 2:05 PM, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

I think it's a safe assumption, please take a look at the gyms that have closed in the last two years, most of the closures were due to low membership. Are you telling us if these gyms suddenly had masses of athletes join they would have still closed down? I find that hard to believe.

Good point. If you look at RC Club Cheer All Stars, they were big there for a while, and even for a few years, they were the team to beat too. I can remember them having a team in practically every division for a few years, and also a strong dance program. Slowly though they seemed to have lost many athletes. I know they had changed ownership a few years ago. It seemed they still were loosing kids even after that as well. Sadly they closed their doors. You cannot truly believe that after having had a large program, and it slowly started trickling down by loosing kids, people quitting, moving, (what ever the case may have been) that they decided to close their doors "just because". Gyms have a decent sized over head, and with only 1 team, you cannot make enough money to pay your gym's rent, payroll, insurance, and everything else that goes along with it.
I commend them for trying to make it work, and sticking together for the remainder of the season. Honestly though, can you really blame coaches for wanting to walk away? Or do you think they could have done something to maybe have fixed the situation? Maybe merging with another gym?
Again, really as the other poster had said:
"Are you telling us if these gyms suddenly had masses of athletes join they would have still closed down?"
I have to agree with this person.
It's not easy to start a gym, much less get it off the ground, and remain successful. Especially in this economy right now, BUT, on the other hand if your teams have great routines, they sell themselves At competitions, other kids see these routines, and that is what makes people want to join different gyms... thats what it all comes down to. Sad but true.

Date: Tue Jul 29 2:58 PM, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If a gym is financially successful but the owner can no longer manage it for personal reasons, I think it would be easy to find someone to take over. Not the case if a gym has financial issues. I think that is why people assume when a gym closes its doors it is because of poor membership, and 90% of the time they would be right.

Your kidding me right? You don't have any idea what your talking about! You assume too much. Nothing is further from the truth. We, gym owners make it look to easy sometimes. Especially when I read comments like these.

RC is a good example of a gym where someone else buys the gym and it doesn't make it. For sure.

Date: Tue Jul 29 3:46 PM, 2008

I blamed the owners, if they knew they were going under, why didn't they make a effort to maybe merge with another gym in the local area. Maybe if they had done this, the kids in the community could still have a competitive place in the area to cheer for. Most of the kids are at Ca, Cf and a small number at fierce and west coast allstars, others are just doing high school cheer period.

Date: Tue Jul 29 4:55 PM, 2008

Anonymous wrote:

I blamed the owners, if they knew they were going under, why didn't they make a effort to maybe merge with another gym in the local area. Maybe if they had done this, the kids in the community could still have a competitive place in the area to cheer for. Most of the kids are at Ca, Cf and a small number at fierce and west coast allstars, others are just doing high school cheer period.

This is true. I have a feeling the previous owners knew they were falling apart, and sold the gym to someone else while they still had something to get out of it.
The sad part is that the families had no clue..

Date: Tue Jul 29 10:39 PM, 2008

Whoops, in rc's behalf they had some real underhanded crap going on. Maybe the nice coaches from fierce so feeble can tell you all about that. As gyms go, when you have so called people working out of your gym for a few years developing relationships with your customers and then tell everyone, well i am starting my own allstars and causing straight division in the rc gym. what is that? So as far as blaming the owners, go talk to yourself, you don't know the half of it. Where do you think fierce so feeble came from? ask them!