High School Convincing Parents To Get Their Kids Enrolled In Tumbling Classes

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May 10, 2012
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I'm head coaching JV and Varsity at a new school, and this will be the first year that the girls will be strongly encouraged to enroll in a private tumbling class for our squads at a gym about 25 mins away from the school on weekends. The class is $20 for 2 hours and the girls seem excited, but I want to hear from others how you convinced your parents to push these classes and pay the money. We have two sessions a month. We have a pretty mixed income squad...some girls have and others do not.

Suggestions would be great! Hoping to hand out consent forms, carpool signups, and cost details by next Monday at practice.
 
There's not much you can do to encourage the parents, but to get the best cost you can.....will get back to working out cost in a few.
You have to impress upon the girls how imperative tumbling is to cheerleading and them advancing and becoming more competitive....They will in-turn convince their parents.
My recommendation to regarding cost is to get a group rate.......ie. $300/hr per group. So if you have $20 girls that will work out to about $15/class each. I will have the girls that are financially strapped pay $10 and the ones that are not pay the $20.....so you still end up with $30 for 2 people.....Some may consider this unfair and look at it as though they are paying for someone else.....not so. You as the coach negotiated the savings on behalf of the team and you distribute these savings across the team as necessary. so you are not actually charging them more, you are just applying the discount to the ones that need it.....
I hope this info is helpful.
Shayne
 
Also impress upon them how tumbling requirements overall with our sport are NOT going away!! Whether the goal is local/state championships or college cheer in the future, they all need tumbling to be competitive. You may not get buy-in from parents immediately, but your prospective athletes in a couple of years won't remember a time when you didn't encourage/require tumbling.


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Do some of the girls already have a back handspring? Because if you have at least 5 w/one, then I would say that a back handspring will be a requirement to make Varsity next year. Also, you should make them do at least 10 back handsprings with a spot every practice.

Make the girls get excited about taking a tumbling class and the parents will be on board. If cost is a major problem, then talk to the school about fundraising.
 
I agree with cheermom4life if they want to cheer at a collegiate level they need the tumbling skills to get the scholarships for the higher ranked teams it really is a must if they want to continue outside of high school.


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OMG this is just what I needed. I'm in high school on varsity as only a sophomore and I want to do tumbling which is only 10 dollars an hours but my mom says no. If there is any other ways you can think of how to get her to say yes that would be amazing
 
That is extremely cheap for tumbling! We spend $50 a month and drive 45 minutes. Send your parents our pricing and requirements and they'll love you! :D

In all seriousness though around here you cannot actually force them to go. I can say it's required all day long, but if they flat out refuse I cannot do anything about it (that the school will back me up on anyways!) Luckily they just don't know they can refuse! Teams are good at getting around it though. We have alternates. Girls without back handsprings are alternates until they get it. Works out because you can't get your backhandspring without tumbling classes! Nothing has made our team better than alternates and that constant reminder that this girl standing here is working to take your spot. Another local school just tells the parents that at the gym they will be working on competition & game routines. You do not have to attend, but you will not have a spot in the routine unless you do. Of course they all attend after hearing that. It was a struggle when I started it 6 years ago, but now its expected and the parents don't know any different.
 
I coach at a low income school, however, in order to even be a contender in our area, we need tumbling. Since I was basically laughed at when I suggested the girls go to the local gym for private tumbling (which is maybe 3'minitea from our school) I used my resources to find a solution.

I sent a mass text to all the tumbling instructors I knew and asked who could help us out. We know have an instructor come to our practice and work with the girls for $5 each.

Hopefully you are able to find someone who loves the sport enough that they are willing to work with the girls for a little extra cash. Explain it as money they wouldn't have otherwise.

I hope that helps. It did take a few weeks to find someone, but now that we did, our tumbling has really improved! Also, it's great that the girls are learning skills on the cheer floor! This takes away the issue of them throwing it on a floor and then being too scared to throw it on cheer floor!

Good luck!
 
At CP's high school they were told before they tried out and forms were given out that parents had to sign and return that if they made the team they were required to take tumbling/stunting classes at the local All Star gym. The cost was layed out so there were no excuses. It was $225 for the summer program which ran for 6 weeks and the girls went twice a week for 3 hours which included choreography. Now that school is back in session, they go to the local gym once a week for 2 hours and the cost is $40 per month. We knew upfront what it would cost and there are many fundraisers that you could participate in that would reduce or eliminate the cost. Cheer is an expensive sport and you need tumbling to be competitive, so if you can't afford it or are not committed to fund raising to defray the cost, then don't get involved.
 
At CP's high school they were told before they tried out and forms were given out that parents had to sign and return that if they made the team they were required to take tumbling/stunting classes at the local All Star gym. The cost was layed out so there were no excuses. It was $225 for the summer program which ran for 6 weeks and the girls went twice a week for 3 hours which included choreography. Now that school is back in session, they go to the local gym once a week for 2 hours and the cost is $40 per month. We knew upfront what it would cost and there are many fundraisers that you could participate in that would reduce or eliminate the cost. Cheer is an expensive sport and you need tumbling to be competitive, so if you can't afford it or are not committed to fund raising to defray the cost, then don't get involved.
While I don't disagree with you, this is not all-star cheer but school, and there are many schools where parents just don't have those resources. It's very hard to fundraise when everyone in your community is in the same boat. I really like how @cheer coach k (see above post) handled the situation and was able to find a coach to come to them at a much more affordable cost for her cheerleaders.


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Ashley Pearl, why does she say no? Do your teammates tumble?
Well she said no cause I used to do gymnastics competitively and she thought I'd want to do competition again. So I couldn't but then I kept pushing her and she gave in. So now I went to my first tumbling lesson. I got back my RO BHS Back tuck and I am still sore. But yeah
 
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