All-Star Would You Send Your Child To A Gym Where The Head Coach Had No Personal Cheer Experience?

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Would you send your kid to a gym where the owner had no personal cheer experience?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 7 12.1%
  • No!

    Votes: 33 56.9%
  • Maybe, if...

    Votes: 22 37.9%

  • Total voters
    58
  • Poll closed .
Dec 19, 2015
6
1
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Would you send your child to, or would you currently attend a gym that was run and coached by a person with no competitive cheerleading experience? Ever since last year, I've dreamed of opening a gym when I get older/have the means to do so. Cool theme, great music, gorgeous uniforms, and shaping youth into great athletes who learn life skills through the amazing sport of cheerleading. Here's the issue- I've never cheered before, or at least, not seriously. I love all star cheerleading with a passion. Its almost like an instance when you're a cheer parent; you know everything about cheer and more, and although you've never done it, you've been immersed long enough that you've adopted it as a part of yourself. (Minus those parents who live through their child- I'm not here for that). Obviously there would be other coaches working in tumbling, etc and to assist but I would be the director/head coach of the program. I've read the USASF rulebook, I've choreographed, I've been to NCA and Summit to watch friends and study tendencies of coaches and choreo, I love seeing people improve, and I just love cheer. I do know that I would have to be certified by USASF, which is just fine with me! I know that I would probably need extra help on tumbling technique, and the like, but I know that I could pass those exams with the effort put in.

So the question here is- With business aspects aside, would you send your child to a gym with an owner that had no cheer experience? I would love honest feedback! Nothing too harsh though, please.
 
No, I would not where the head coach had no coaching experience.

I would want you to have past experience working with kids in a coaching or teaching capacity.

Too often assistant coaches are afraid to speak up when a head coach/owner is on the wrong and inexperienced coaches can get overwhelmed and not know how to contend with it.


**Maybe I should try a new hobby**
 
If the owner had no experience and hired out all coaching positions including head coach then yes. However no if the head coach no experience then no. My daughter has been injured with an experienced head coach and coaches, everything was done right and her injury was a freak accident but at a gym where the head coach had no experience that would be my biggest concern, my daughter being injured and it not being a fluke like the last one.
 
Honestly some gyms are most successful by having an owner trained in business and hiring well trained, experienced coaches to take care of the cheerleading.

The way you've described your feelings regarding cheerleading, it sounds like you'd also like to be the coach, to which I say - get certified now. Shadow great coaches now. Learn the ropes. Get a coaching job and learn from the bottom up if you want to be involved in more than just running the financials and scheduling.
 
As a business manager, I wouldn't have a problem. As a head coach, no way. A head coach needs years of actual hand on experience.


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Nope.

If the owner of the gym had no cheer experience, I wouldn't mind because the owner runs the business. But to actually head coach the kids? No way. If experienced staffers were hired in to fill those roles and after several years of shadowing and assistant coaching happened, then I would likely be okay with the owner then moving into a more permanent coaching spot. Until they spent that time training hands-on, it would be a no go.

My biggest concern would be safety specifically for tumbling and stunting.
 
Might I rephrase your question to: "would you let your child cheer at a gym where the coach has never competed before?" I think that's the question you're asking here. I wonder if you are confusing "having experience competing" with "having experience with cheer" because you can certainly have the latter without the former.

To answer that question: yes of course I'd let my hypethetical CP cheer at a gym where a coach hasn't competed as a cheerleader. My biggest concerns when looking at coaches wouldnt be what was the highest level theyve competed at, its are are they knowledgeable, are they certified, have they gotten the proper training, can they safely teach the skills? You can learn all of those things while having never stepped foot on a competition mat.

Many of my coaches didnt grow up doing all star cheer as a child because it wasnt a thing back then. One of my most prominent coaches had a football background. Both of my parents coached at rec amd all star level - my dad had no prior cheer experience, my mom only did high school cheer in the 60s. But they all went to coaching clinics, judging clinics, etc to learn how to teach things and to understand the sport better. They learned a lot through clinics and training sessions. My dad, specifically, immersed himself in it, got his judging certification and built many training tools and drill stations himself for the gym's athletes to train with. He didn't know anything about cheer until I was enrolled in the rec league, thats a heck of a later start than you will have. All of my coaches were great at coaching and preparing teams for competition despite some of them never competing themselves. (There were other things, like the business side, that certain gym owners couldn't handle...)

OP, if you are committed and you take the proper steps to be trained properly and certified, you can be a successful coach without ever competing yourself.
 
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Honestly some gyms are most successful by having an owner trained in business and hiring well trained, experienced coaches to take care of the cheerleading.

The way you've described your feelings regarding cheerleading, it sounds like you'd also like to be the coach, to which I say - get certified now. Shadow great coaches now. Learn the ropes. Get a coaching job and learn from the bottom up if you want to be involved in more than just running the financials and scheduling.

I'm asking just because I'm curious. Is certification really that important? Is it a deal breaker? I've coached 2 years, spotted levels 1-4 tumbling (20 hours a week) as a part time job for 2.5 years, and I cheered 2 years in college, 3 in all star, and have been an NCA instructor. Never have I been certified in anything except CPR and first aid.
 
@Michael White You should look into getting your certifications. Sounds like you would do great.

US All Star Federation: HOW TO GET CREDENTIALED
Do you know how much it is to get credentialed/certified? I will not pay hundreds of dollars for someone to tell me I know what I'm doing. I have several hundred hours of experience (conservatively) of coaching mostly levels 1-3, and several thousand hours spotting 1-4 tumbling. I guess I just don't see the reasoning behind paying that much money.
 
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Do you know how much it is to get credentialed/certified? I will not pay hundreds of dollars for someone to tell me I know what I'm doing. I have several hundred hours of experience (conservatively) of coaching mostly levels 1-3, and several thousand hours spotting 1-4 tumbling. I guess I just don't see the reasoning behind paying that much money.
FYI, there's been a push in the last year or so for all coaches to be certified in order to be rostered.
 
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