Here's a question to debate or answer...what makes a person gym hop?
And please, let's not make this personal and let's not try to tear anyone down...I mean really, it's not like Verizon insults me on a public message board because I switched to T Mobile...
When they haven't found the right fit yet. when you find the right fit to your personality and cheer likes, you will stay somewhere. Or it could be that you move alot. hahahaha
I think its how you treat your coaches/gym owners and how they treat you.
for example:
#1 Do the rules apply to everyone or just some?
At our gym they apply to everyone. (from the strongest cheerleader to the weakest one.)
#2 Are you one of those parents that complain all the time about your kid not getting enough "front row time" or any at all.
My daughter has NO front row time and we are very happy to be a part of her team. (in fact I never watch just my daughter at comps I enjoy watching the team as a whole.
#3 Are your coaches completley professional or do they talk about other kids /parents in their program when their not around.
Ours do not
#4 Do they talk crap about their rivals.
Ours don't
#5 This is one of the most important ones to me. Are they consistent with the rules they set and do they follow through with the consequences if they are not followed.
OURS DEFINETLEY DO !
These are just some of the reasons that my daughter and I chose to leave her last gym. We our in our 3rd season at our "new gym" and are very pleased with our decision.
This is my daughters second year cheering with an All Star program. Prior to this she cheered with a youth team. I admit that when we first joined I didn't really know what to expect. Before joining the gym she is with now we did check out another gym in the area first. The reason we didn't join the first gym is the atmosphere that we felt during our visit. We did not feel comfortable and mostly it was due to the attidude of the parents. While we sat watching the girls practice we had to listen to alot of back stabbing and comments about other cheerleaders and this was the parents. I remember walking out of there thinking no way. The gym we are at now is nothing like that. It's friendly and for the most part the parents get along great. Most importantly the girls really like each other and get along. They are a real team. My daughter loves it. She can't wait for practices and the extra classes she is taking to improve her skills. I credit that with to the coaches. If it were any other way I pull her out. I think it comes down to where your son/daughter feels comfortable and the type of enviroment you want your child exposed to. Some gyms are good, some not so good. You just have to keep looking for whats best for you.
The coaching staff at my daughter's old gym really needed to move on. It was very clear they didn't want to be cheerleading coaches except at competitions. A few of the coaches didn't show up for practice and the kids socialized for an hour before another coach finally came in and went over their routine with them...and this happened a few times, before competitions, and before Nationals......
Needless to say I was more than happy to move my daughter to Cheergyms. :)
Two other factors could be the level of competitiveness of the gym. Some are more serious/competitive/hardcore, and some are more fun/recreational. Some people want to be on a "hardcore" team and be worked/treated like athletes and for other people its just not the right fit and are looking more for a good time with friends. A second reason could be the time commitment, how often a team practices could be a big factor to the cheerleader if they're busy with school and its often an even bigger factor to their parents.
someone wrote: Two other factors could be the level of competitiveness of the gym. Some are more serious/competitive/hardcore, and some are more fun/recreational. Some people want to be on a "hardcore" team and be worked/treated like athletes and for other people its just not the right fit and are looking more for a good time with friends. A second reason could be the time commitment, how often a team practices could be a big factor to the cheerleader if they're busy with school and its often an even bigger factor to their parents.
These reasons are very true and I totally agree. I also think that if you never give a gym a chance that you may miss out on something later. How many programs are getting better now than they were last year or the year before. As Im watching these competitions in nor cal, it is apparent that the "leaders" are getting chases very closesly and it will truely become competitive here in northern california. I think people mainly leave because of friends or "appearance" of success at another gym. It helps if you express your opinion to the coach/owners so its possible to fix the problems so gym hopping isn't a huge issue. I only see it as a necessary choice when you really cannot afford it , a serious coaching issue, or you move out of the area. Other reasons are pretty much manufactured and can be fixed over time. I think in today's society we teach people to just pick up and move on if your not happy. You need to learn commitment and how to stick something out because you learn dedication. There will be rough times in everything, but usually it gets better and you are thankful you did because its 10 times better in the end.
Okay, I'm guilty as charged. Heres my perspective on this issue having 'been around the block'.
Not every program is for every person. The athlete may have skills more advanced than the intermediate team they are on (the intermediate team being the best team in the gym.)
Some coaches have connections with colleges to cheer at. A perfect example of this is Jeff McQueen and California All Stars- many of those athletes go on to Louisville Large Coed.
Parents may not be happy with the way the program is run. Bad book keeping, bad management, bad coaching... no matter what, the parent must also be happy with the program in order for this parent-athlete relationship to work. It may take a while to find this 'chemistry', but I've finally found it and trust me, it works!
I really wish I could put this a better way, but some teams are just darn better than others. This could be because of the great coaching, or becuase of the amazing choreography, or maybe just because the kids at that better gytm have a raw talent for cheerleading. Who knows, maybe its the water they drink at their gyms!
I dont want to sound as if im trashing any of the teams I've been on, in fact that has nothing to do with my opinion on why people change gyms.
I'm not proud of what I've done... To be honest, I wish I could've picked just one prgram and stayed with it until the very end, but sometimes things just have to happen the way they happen. Everything does happen for a reason you know...
Hoping no one gets mad at me for my post, Bryan Motions Coed
I agree with you, Cheer Fan. I stuck with my gym for years through the thick and the thin, even when most of our team was leaving and through a turnover of coaches but i wouldn't trade it for the world! Its hard to REALLY know a program/gym without staying around for more than a few years. I could go on and on about the perspective i've gained from sticking around and how its been totally and completely worth it and that its made all the love, pride, and dedication i have for my gym and south bay family grow and grow...but thats not really the point of this post.
Theres just one thing i don't really agree with, if someone has any doubts about staying at their own gym and is thinking about going elsewhere, than they should just leave. I wouldn't want anyone on my team who didn't want to be a part of our team or our program 100%. Different programs match different people and some people won't do well with a certain coaching style or atmosphere, while others will love it. So if someone leaves a program it could be that that program wasn't right for them, but also the opposite is true...that they weren't right for the program.
But you should also never go to another gym expecting whatever they had the year before. Every year is a fresh start with new members and a new team chemistry. Also, no one ever said that there can only be one good gym, with one good coach, with the best team ever. I don't know if that makes any sense, but what i'm trying to say is that you might have an incredible experience at one gym and 10 mi away someone else could be having just as great an experience and who knows maybe if you'd ended up there it would have been the same way. Its just where you end up, and what it all comes down to is where you decide to put your dedication and heart into.
p.s. much love and luck to all the cheerleaders and gyms out there!
Talia, YES I completely agree 100%. Dedication and commitment is the key word. I lay some of the blame on parents who let their kids do whatever makes them feel "happy". Happy and satisfied are both subjective feelings and are manufactured by situations and the way events occur. Many gyms change based on customer feedback and just changing for the better, others keep their attitude and never change. Now the 2nd style is what loses kids. If you have a gym that is truely trying to adapt to the various situations that comes their way , then take a risk and stay committed to that gym. On that note, I agree with Talia, if your not behind your gym 100%, then you should look elsewhere. Just remember those who are consistent in their choices are usually consistent in everything.
I agree with you Talia about if someone is unhappy they should just leave. We definitely have a family atmosphere in our gym/organization -- we all truly care about each other. It works for the majority of us, but sometimes we'll get someone new who is constantly complaining and comparing us with other gyms ("so and so does it this way", etc...). If they feel that way I don't know why they don't just leave. The rest of us are thrilled to be here and have been for years. That's the beauty of having options and other cheer places to choose from. But you'll know when you've found the right gym for you -- you'll never want to leave!
