All-Star Closed Practices

[Born2Tumble]

How many gyms close all of their all star practices to parents? Today the owner of our gym emailed all the parents and announced that for this season all star practices will be closed. However in our gym they offer gymnastics team and recreational tumbling class, she said that those parents would still be able to watch their children just not all star cheer parents. She gave no reason at all. Again, just wondering do other gyms do this and has this happened to any other parents recently or in the past and how you felt/dealt with it?

 

[NJ Coach]

All of our practices are closed.

 

[retiredl5cheer]

Sounds like Suzy's mom has taken up residence in your gym.

 

[Mamarazzi]

I know this happens with a lot of gyms, and ours closes for the month prior to comp season starting.
Makes sense, if you think about it. Maybe there were some overbearing parents that just made things difficult for everyone, most of all, their own child. If I were you, I would take up a hobby - maybe going for a long walk during practices or grocery shopping or reading or Sudoku or sleeping in the car.

 

[dawgshow]

Ours are technically closed but parents can see some of the floors. No one is allowed in the gym so the kids can't hear any parent. Teams have been banned from watching before thanks to Suzy's Mom, though.

 

[bellalexi]

After choreography camp, all of our practices are closed. They're ok with us watching the last 10-15 minutes of practice if we're there to pick them up.

 

[Born2Tumble]

We have many "crazy obsessed cheer moms" at our gym and we are all being punished for Suzie's mom! LOL

 

[cheergirlbrey]

Our old program was similar to yours with many rec classes happening during team practices( gym n cheer). It was preferred we only stayed on Sundays when it was just cheer there. I have seen many cheer and gymnastic parents cause stress for their kids through looks and comments or get frustrated with coaches. When my daughter danced they used closed door with a sneak peek every few weeks and told parents the reason was to get full attention of the kids....it works! In cheer even more so I believe and that's how our new program works. Plus it's a great time for us to get things done or socialize.

 

[12stepCheermom]

You saw ours. It's open all the time. Now I know our coaches would love to build a place like some of the more established gyms where there would be a room with glass for the parent viewing area, I know they would like that. But given our current location that's not an option. So practices are open to parents although they do lay down the law about "crossing the white wall" and consistently encourage parents not to coach from the sidelines, with very few exceptions our folks do a good job sticking to that.

I love watching practice. I would hate for them to close it I think they realize it's not good PR to tell people paying that kind of money they're not allowed to watch what they're paying for...or their child.

As a former coach though (volleyball not cheer) I do get why a coach would want to close practice. It's just never been the culture of our program. I don't think that will change until we move buildings (whenever that will be but the size of the program will probably force that before long).

 

[Born2Tumble]

You saw ours. It's open all the time. Now I know our coaches would love to build a place like some of the more established gyms where there would be a room with glass for the parent viewing area, I know they would like that. But given our current location that's not an option. So practices are open to parents although they do lay down the law about "crossing the white wall" and consistently encourage parents not to coach from the sidelines, with very few exceptions our folks do a good job sticking to that.

I love watching practice. I would hate for them to close it I think they realize it's not good PR to tell people paying that kind of money they're not allowed to watch what they're paying for...or their child.

As a former coach though (volleyball not cheer) I do get why a coach would want to close practice. It's just never been the culture of our program. I don't think that will change until we move buildings (whenever that will be but the size of the program will probably force that before long).

RIGHT! I can completely understand the reason behind it, but I am one of those parents who all the other parents rely on for information about whats going on with cheer, i welcome in new parents, and that's where we plan a lot of the fundraisers or other events going on for the kids. Our gym has always been very family oriented I just think its a shame to take that away. I suppose time will tell how things improve from this change!

 

[Hodiestoe]

We have a massive balcony the runs the width of one end of the sports hall. It is open to anyone as there is usually gym, trampoline and cheer going on at the same time. Luckily the floor is far enough away that you couldn't hear anything even if they tried. We also have no heating (yet - just got awarded a grant to put some in, yay) so that helped greatly, the parents didn't want to sit and freeze their a$$es off during the winter and now they have got into a habit of only coming just before the end. When we were going through all our problems, the 'problem' parents used to bring hot water bottles and blankets for the sole reason of trying to spook me out - didn't bother me, and all it got them for their trouble was an icy a$$

 

[12stepCheermom]

RIGHT! I can completely understand the reason behind it, but I am one of those parents who all the other parents rely on for information about whats going on with cheer, i welcome in new parents, and that's where we plan a lot of the fundraisers or other events going on for the kids. Our gym has always been very family oriented I just think its a shame to take that away. I suppose time will tell how things improve from this change!

I hear you. I'm the same sortof mom at my place. But think of it this way...maybe Suzy's mom just made you better, I would expect a closed practice should yeild higher results because they should be a lot more focused and efficient in practice. I think the only thing coaches need to be worried about is that now its Suzy's word against what the parent actually saw that they'll have to fight and unfortunately in my job, the vast majority of parents believe Suzy long before they believe the adult. That's the part that may backfire for the coaches.

"she made us run suicides for 10 minutes for no reason mommy!" might now warrant a mad mom who thinks her kid has been treated bad whereas it could've been...

"yeah, we'll your team dropped a flyer, wasn't paying attention and you were playing with your hair. She ran you for exactly 3 minutes but it SHOULD have been ten!"

That would be my response, but I'm told I'm not your typical cheer mom

 

[CoachMandiCF]

We are closing practices this season but we are adding a parent viewing area that looks out over on to the floor. There were a few reasons we chose to do this:
1) The kids tend to pay attention to who is walking in the door or what their parent is doing instead of on practice, especially the younger kids
2) We want to add in a second stunt floor that would fit perfectly where our parents now sit

 

[ErinS]

We have closed practices.

 

[wcdad]

the reason why is it a known fact that cheer parents are crazy..