- Oct 17, 2010
- 290
- 309
We started out at a small gym and moved to a larger gym. I prefer the larger gym, but suppose this also depends on the gym, management, if the small gym is competitive, etc. There are a lot more factors involved than just large or small gym.
But just be relevant to your question, the smaller gym my observation was they had their "gym princessess" who were coaches/owner favorites (and all the parents knew who the favorites were too) and they were the main focus at practices, etc., while other girls were not the focus of progressing them to the next level. The larger gym we are current at has focused on progression of ALL girls. You don't see favorites and all girls are treated as important members of the team. There was once a picture posted of my daughter flying, but the comment from the coaches were way to be an awesome base "susie", etc. So I just feel that even though it is a larger gym they appreciate all the girls the same. The larger gym also has a much larger management staff and I feel the management is better. Again, it is hard to compare gyms on just large or small. You can have a large gym with poor management because they dont' have enough staff to manage it well.
You just need to know your child attitude and motivation factors. Will she regress or come to stand still at a smaller gym? My daughter (who is 8) tends to work harder when she is around girls her age with higher skill level because her and her friends will be competitive (on friendly terms) to see who can get a skill first, etc. When she is in a group of girls where she had the highest level skills (she double teamed on a lower level team last year), I don't think she feels the need to work as hard.
I have also found less drama at the larger gyms. At the smaller gym, every one did know everyone which included all their business. You knew what was going on on all teams of all levels, etc. This caused drama between teams because one team coach/owner would give out better christmas gifts to her team, or gifts for getting skills (bow or socks), while other coaches did nothing. So a team felt they were being left out or treated differently. Because it was a small gym, everything was just out in the open and it was constantly some new drama every week.
At the larger gym we are at, yes, we don't know everyone. We know the parents of the girls on our daugther's team, and a few of the other parents from the teams that practice on the same night. We don't know what is going on on any team but our own, and... that is all we really care to know. If one team has a team building pizza party on the weekend, we don't care because it's not our team, and we don't feel left out.
It's funny, the larger gym, we (my daughter, my husband, and myself) find it to be less stressful for us due to better management and less drama. We focus on our daughter, her team, and gym events throughout the year. At competitions we support all teams at the gym and are in the crowd to cheer for all of them.
But just be relevant to your question, the smaller gym my observation was they had their "gym princessess" who were coaches/owner favorites (and all the parents knew who the favorites were too) and they were the main focus at practices, etc., while other girls were not the focus of progressing them to the next level. The larger gym we are current at has focused on progression of ALL girls. You don't see favorites and all girls are treated as important members of the team. There was once a picture posted of my daughter flying, but the comment from the coaches were way to be an awesome base "susie", etc. So I just feel that even though it is a larger gym they appreciate all the girls the same. The larger gym also has a much larger management staff and I feel the management is better. Again, it is hard to compare gyms on just large or small. You can have a large gym with poor management because they dont' have enough staff to manage it well.
You just need to know your child attitude and motivation factors. Will she regress or come to stand still at a smaller gym? My daughter (who is 8) tends to work harder when she is around girls her age with higher skill level because her and her friends will be competitive (on friendly terms) to see who can get a skill first, etc. When she is in a group of girls where she had the highest level skills (she double teamed on a lower level team last year), I don't think she feels the need to work as hard.
I have also found less drama at the larger gyms. At the smaller gym, every one did know everyone which included all their business. You knew what was going on on all teams of all levels, etc. This caused drama between teams because one team coach/owner would give out better christmas gifts to her team, or gifts for getting skills (bow or socks), while other coaches did nothing. So a team felt they were being left out or treated differently. Because it was a small gym, everything was just out in the open and it was constantly some new drama every week.
At the larger gym we are at, yes, we don't know everyone. We know the parents of the girls on our daugther's team, and a few of the other parents from the teams that practice on the same night. We don't know what is going on on any team but our own, and... that is all we really care to know. If one team has a team building pizza party on the weekend, we don't care because it's not our team, and we don't feel left out.
It's funny, the larger gym, we (my daughter, my husband, and myself) find it to be less stressful for us due to better management and less drama. We focus on our daughter, her team, and gym events throughout the year. At competitions we support all teams at the gym and are in the crowd to cheer for all of them.
