All-Star Small Gym To Large Gym

Nikki Moore said:

We're thinking of letting CP go to a larger gym near us for next season. The larger gym has a lot more teams and usually enough girls to field a pretty good size team (for all levels).

I'm just kind of scared about what it will be like going from such a small gym to a larger one.

Our current gym - we've been working with them for almost 5 years and we know the coaches pretty well. They typically have 3-4 full teams each season and everyone knows each other. Lots of crossovers so it feels more like a family.

Just curious about what to expect from a bigger gym.
Do the coaches still know everyone's name or is it just your team's coach?
Do the athletes still all get along pretty well?
Anyone's experiences moving from small to large would be great - pros/cons?

Thanks!

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This is exactly what we went through! CP was a little intimidated by the gym at first but she quickly made friends. The coaches and owner know EVERY athlete's name. Even when CP wasn't a member and just taking privates at the gym, the owner knew who she was and helped her with her tumbling. I don't know if this is the norm though.

As far as the athletes getting along well, anytime you have a large number of females there will be some cattiness. From what I've seen they're all at least respectful and keep it off the mat.

Pros and cons all depend on how big the large gym is. Ours is about 200 so I have no cons. We're very happy where we are.

Bigger gyms certainly can still feel like family.

I can tell you that placement philosophies may differ from small program to a larger one.

At Small Gym, there may be fewer kids to field teams with. So they may be more flexible with skills at a level. So if Suzy has a full and level 4 stunting skills, she could be placed on a Worlds team because she almost has the tumbling, and the staff sees some potential.

At Mega Gym, there is likely a larger talent pool to field teams with, so if you have Level 4 skills, you're going to be placed on a Level 3 or 4 team.

We went from small gym to large gym a few seasons ago. Two things that made the transition easier- we went with a few team mates from old gym and my child was mini age (so no pre-teen dramatics). The transition was pretty smooth for us. I would say the coaches know pretty much all the kids- there might be pockets of exceptions but I haven't experienced it. I prefer the big gym- they are able to fill level appropriate teams, attract and retain great coaches, have access to great choreographers, etc. A lot of which was missing from our smaller gym.

We have gone from large gym to small gym and back to large gym. Our small gym only had 27 kids. Current gym has about 350 athletes. I believe that we have 15 coaches there, and yes they all know her name.
She prefers the larger gym. The competitions that we attend are much more competitive than the ones that she would attend at smaller gym. She likes that because it pushes them to higher difficulty.
She has many friends. She can go to the gym on any given day and see a friendly face...whether it be an athlete or a parent.
From our experience, the larger gym was much more organized. We know our competition schedule in May for the following season. I also like that our gym is large enough to not have a need for many crossovers. We have never had issues with our uniforms no coming in on time ( had this problem at the smaller gym).
Plus at our gym, the head coaches are all full-time employees of the gym. This is their career. This is their true focus. I love that!

BlockHead said:

We have gone from large gym to small gym and back to large gym. Our small gym only had 27 kids. Current gym has about 350 athletes. I believe that we have 15 coaches there, and yes they all know her name.
She prefers the larger gym. The competitions that we attend are much more competitive than the ones that she would attend at smaller gym. She likes that because it pushes them to higher difficulty.
She has many friends. She can go to the gym on any given day and see a friendly face...whether it be an athlete or a parent.
From our experience, the larger gym was much more organized. We know our competition schedule in May for the following season. I also like that our gym is large enough to not have a need for many crossovers. We have never had issues with our uniforms no coming in on time ( had this problem at the smaller gym).
Plus at our gym, the head coaches are all full-time employees of the gym. This is their career. This is their true focus. I love that!

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I'm glad your experience with the large gym has been great. However, everything you listed about your big gym can be found in my small gym of 35.

So we made the switch small to large. Our scenario was a little different as it was a large gym opening a new location so everyone was new. I have found the ability for teams to feel like family and form bonds across teams comes directly from how the adults make it a priority. In our gym being there for other teams is a priority and the families on our teams for the most part really want to support the teams. It really took till competition season to build that feel because face it whatever size gym you are at that is when you all hurry up and wait and sit around and talk. BUT I will say our team moms worked hard from the start to build those experiences and our gym also wanted that to happen. I would say there are definite social groups on both teams (they are large teams) both parent and kid wise but my experience has been that they all respect each other and get along well and it doesn't effect the feel.

One of the main differences I have found is that a large gym in our case has a more structured chain of command. Whereas a small gym at least in our experience it was easy to shoot the breeze with the owner and bring up things. That doesn't mean it is bad for the large gym... I have found it not to be harder to go through the chain of command. BUT I think it depends on the gym and the people in that chain. I feel in our experience the individuals have really worked to make it a point to know the kids and develop the relationships. They get that strong bonds create strong teams.

I think the demands on my family time and energy wise are more at the large gym but we went there because my kids wanted a different experience and the push. At times they complain and at times I'm tired by it too but for us I think it was the right choice.

We went from smallish gym with 123 athletes to a large one with 700+is). At our old gym, CP was not a star and treated as such. She was pretty much ignored by the higher level staff and owners, despite being there 5-6 days a week and showing dedication and desire. We decided to make the drive to the bigger named gym figuring it could not get any worse. To my surprise, the family feeling there is amazing. ALL the coaches are involved with the lower levels (even the Worlds coaches). CP works with them every week.

I think that the athletes get along better at the larger gym too. It might be because the gym has the luxury of placing athletes exactly where they belong and it cuts out a lot of the favoritism that you find at a smaller gym where they struggle to fully form teams. Sure, some might not be pleased with the team where they were placed, but it always goes back to skills.

CP is a workhorse with a good attitude. She is valued at the new gym. We made the switch with over twenty athletes last year and I would say that almost all of them are very happy with the move. It was wonderful to have some familiar faces at the new gym, even though none were on the same team.

After being at the bigger gym for almost two seasons, I would say that the biggest issues in transitioning that I have seen for some kids has been learning that they are no longer the big fish in a small pond. The talent level runs high at big gyms and the focus is more on the entire team rather than one or two standouts.

The other challenge for some is realizing that if you aren't willing to put in the work, that there are twenty kids lined up behind you that want to fly, or do last pass, or be center for jumps. At a smaller gym, a coach might have dedicated time to reminding them to stretch and condition, but at the larger gym, it is expected that it is down on your own or someone else gets the spot.

The last thing that I have noticed is harder on some of the parents than the kids. The level of competition will probably go way up. When you are surrounded by that caliber of teams, scoring will probably be very close. In theory, every team should be maxing out their scoresheets. Losses can be within tenths of points. If you are used to coming from comps that were chosen to be in your favor, losing might be new. I think learning to treasure "hitting zero" over "winning" is hard for some.

After being at the bigger gym for almost two seasons, I would say that the biggest issues in transitioning that I have seen for some kids has been learning that they are no longer the big fish in a small pond. The talent level runs high at big gyms and the focus is more on the entire team rather than one or two standouts.

The other challenge for some is realizing that if you aren't willing to put in the work, that there are twenty kids lined up behind you that want to fly, or do last pass, or be center for jumps. At a smaller gym, a coach might have dedicated time to reminding them to stretch and condition, but at the larger gym, it is expected that it is down on your own or someone else gets the spot.

The last thing that I have noticed is harder on some of the parents than the kids. The level of competition will probably go way up. When you are surrounded by that caliber of teams, scoring will probably be very close. In theory, every team should be maxing out their scoresheets. Losses can be within tenths of points. If you are used to coming from comps that were chosen to be in your favor, losing might be new. I think learning to treasure "hitting zero" over "winning" is hard for some.[/QUOTE]


I think you hit the nail on the head with all of these. My oldest I see a lot of these issues and I push her but only so far and have said to her this has to be you and if not someone will happily take your spot. Club zero has never meant as much as it does now.

@mamabear ....your experience mimics our switch almost exactly! Ditto to everything you said. As a parent, I did find it hard to get used to not having the gym owner's ear whenever...but I rapidly realized that was a GOOD thing! Gyms run better with structure.

Cheerfun2 said:

@mamabear ....your experience mimics our switch almost exactly! Ditto to everything you said. As a parent, I did find it hard to get used to not having the gym owner's ear whenever...but I rapidly realized that was a GOOD thing! Gyms run better with structure.

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Access to the owners, might be the one part where we differ in the experience. At our old gym, communication with owners and coaches was not welcomed. Imagine my surprise when I received a phone call from the owner at the new gym from her personal cell within 30 minutes of my leaving a message.

Having been at both size gyms I think that the environment really depends more on the ownership and staff than anything else. The biggest advantage in fielding teams is only a benefit with the proper fit of coaches, athletes and parents. We have friends at mega gyms that learned very quickly they are small fish now even with tremendous skill. The level of organization and expectations of ownership play a tremendous role. Our friends that left to go to mega gyms have learned quickly that winning isn't guaranteed. It seems as though the expectation of winning was part of the attraction for some and many are disappointed if that doesn't pan out.

I want to add one more thing to my previous post.

Looking back, I think "my" biggest challenge in switching gyms was finding a balance in expectations/fantasy vs. reality. CP was placed on a level one team (which is exactly where she belonged). The problem was that she was cheer smart since she had been doing cheer since kindergarten and so was I About half of her team switched from other gyms, but the rest were true newbies to the sport. It didn't take the kids long to catch up with the basic skills, but it can take a while families to adapt to the demands of all star. To us, the gym was as a destination, but others signed up there just because it was literally down the street and they wanted to give cheer a try. I know I would get impatient especially seeing what some of the other teams were doing, but I eventually learned to trust the coach's lead and not stress/compare CP's team to others.

I know at our gym we allow people to come, tour the gym, and try a tumbling class to see if they enjoy the atmosphere of the gym and if it's a good fit for them! I'd call to see if you can do something like that. It's intimidating to go to a new gym, especially a larger one. It was totally worth it for me to switch from small to large.