All-Star Training Athletes From Other Gyms

[sizzles]

Recently, a friend of mine joined allstar cheerleading and completely fell in love with it. She's always working out, stretching, conditioning, and basically doing everything she can to become a better cheerleading. Naturally, this involves tumbling.

There's three gyms about twenty minutes from our town, and though she competes for Gym A, she also takes tumbling lessons at Gym B with a bunch of cheerleaders from our school. One of the newer coaches (not her tumbling coach) at Gym B came up to her as she was warming up for her lesson and basically told her to get out, because it made no sense for Gym B to train an athlete from Gym A.

He has a point, though. It doesn't make much sense to basically help a rival gym, even if she is paying $20 a lesson to be there. At the same time, however, the owner of Gym B came up to her later and told her it was absolutely fine for her to continue taking lessons there, so in this particular situation I don't believe he did the right thing at all.

But what about you guys? Do your gyms have a policy on this?

 

[Mingo_VCE]

At my gym they dont have any policies that say you cant be part of another gym and get help from us! At my gym we actually have quite a few cheerleaders from other allstar gyms that come train at my gym with their school, and we give them the same respect we give our own members. we all have the same love for the sport so we shouldnt disrespect others just because they are part of other gyms.

 

[pctmom]

We have 3 gyms within 15 minutes of us and we train lots of their athletes in tumbling and stretching. There is no way we would turn down a paying customer in this day and age just because they do all-star elsewhere. That would be silly.

 

[cheerkd]

If there is no policy in the gym then she should be able to do it. I think it would be stupid not to take a paying customer in this economy, but to each their own i guess.

 

[socratesofcheer]

Training kids from other gyms is perfect marketing. Maybe they will switch over in the future if they like what they are getting.

 

[cheerKT]

I think it's bad business to turn down a paying customer.

 

[kristenthegreat]

Also, what do you do if you have say 3 allstar gyms in close range of each other (happens a bit in some states). Literally a 1/3 of the squad is at each gym for allstars. How would the coach from your Gym B example want that handled? From his/her perspective, you couldn't train at ANY gym as a team because of where the other 2/3 of the girls cheer. Stupid move on his part, A-Losing paying customers or B-If those girls feel like they're getting better instruction, they might have switched, like @socratesofcheer was saying above.

Plus, these girls had no choice for what gym they trained at. I'll bet the coach picked..not their fault!

 

[eam1892]

back when my gym was 2 hours away, my coaches told me that i should tumble at a local gym to save money/time/gas.. they had no problem with it! and neither did the local gym! they were happy to help!

 

[MyDaughterCheers]

My CP had a bad experience at another gym this past winter. This gym is located 5 minutes from our house, so we decided to take an extra tumbling class there. In the beginning, they were great and treated her well. After about 4 classes, they asked her if she really cheered for her gym. She, of course, said yes. From that point on, they criticized everything she did and would not let her work on anything but a tuck. For the first 4 classes, they were working on fulls with her. I asked them why and they basically told me that she was from another gym and they felt it was wrong to train her if she wasn't going to join there.

 

[ACEDAD]

This is one of the silliest things I've ever heard.

 

[sizzles]

Also, what do you do if you have say 3 allstar gyms in close range of each other (happens a bit in some states). Literally a 1/3 of the squad is at each gym for allstars. How would the coach from your Gym B example want that handled? From his/her perspective, you couldn't train at ANY gym as a team because of where the other 2/3 of the girls cheer. Stupid move on his part, A-Losing paying customers or B-If those girls feel like they're getting better instruction, they might have switched, like @socratesofcheer was saying above.

Plus, these girls had no choice for what gym they trained at. I'll bet the coach picked..not their fault!

Sorry, I guess I phrased this wrong. She was in no way required to take the class there. It was about ten or so girls from the school team that wanted to work on their tumbling, and no one but her was affiliated with any of the gyms. Our coach didn't require a thing; they simply wanted outside instruction during the off season for high school cheer.

Either way, though, business is business, and to me, turning down a paying customer is ridiculous.

 

[CGAcheer]

kicking kids out of tumbling classes is a sure way to make sure that they and their friends won't be cheering there any time in the near future

 

[kristenthegreat]

Sorry, I guess I phrased this wrong. She was in no way required to take the class there. It was about ten or so girls from the school team that wanted to work on their tumbling, and no one but her was affiliated with any of the gyms. Our coach didn't require a thing; they simply wanted outside instruction during the off season for high school cheer.

Either way, though, business is business, and to me, turning down a paying customer is ridiculous.

Even still, though, when I did HS cheer, we had a session at a gym. If your situation was brought in, what would they have said? 'Sorry, we're not going to help your girls 'cause it will make them better for their allstar team, even though they're not using it for that reason right now?'

 

[proudcheermomma]

Our gym has open tumbling classes several times a week, I've never seen any coach treat any child differently because they may cheer somewhere else. I certainly cannot imagine anyone turning them away.

 

[gymncheercoach]

When I had my gym I always had quite a few students in tumbling classes from other all star gyms. They didn't care for the tumbling coaches at the other gym and word spread quickly that I was one of the strongest tumbling coaches in the area and so I had a lot that came 'just to get their tuck' or 'just to get their layout' etc. so they could move up a level at their all star gym. It was frustrating to me personally because I had all star teams as well, but I never let that show ever. They were paying customers and I enjoyed having them as students and helping them in reaching their goals.