All-Star Closed Practices

[NJ Coach]

We are closing practices this season but we are adding a parent viewing area that looks out over on to the floor. There were a few reasons we chose to do this:
1) The kids tend to pay attention to who is walking in the door or what their parent is doing instead of on practice, especially the younger kids
2) We want to add in a second stunt floor that would fit perfectly where our parents now sit

My advice...if your parent viewing area is closed in, with a window to look out onto the floor, get that 2 way mirror stuff. That way the parents can see in, but the kids can't see their parents. I can't begin to tell you the conversations people have through the window. Once, parents even held up signs in the window directing their kids :rolleyes:

 

[CoachMandiCF]

Oh m

My advice...if your parent viewing area is closed in, with a window to look out onto the floor, get that 2 way mirror stuff. That way the parents can see in, but the kids can't see their parents. I can't begin to tell you the conversations people have through the window. Once, parents even held up signs in the window directing their kids :rolleyes:

Oh my lord did they really??? Wow! I'll definitely bring that up to the owner in our next meeting. We're contracting out the design of the parent area next week. THANK YOU!!!

 

[NJ Coach]

Oh m

Oh my lord did they really??? Wow! I'll definitely bring that up to the owner in our next meeting. We're contracting out the design of the parent area next week. THANK YOU!!!

you have no idea...lol. I think they sell the 2-way stuff as a sticker too, which would be cheaper, but I'm not sure. We wanted to get mini blinds, so that we could close practices when it got bad, but never did it. It felt like a fish bowl in the gym. All the parents would hover around the window looking down on us. :confused: It's funny thinking back on it, but definitely wasn't funny at the time.

 

[mecheermom]

Some of our practices are closed. My CP has told me that she prefers the closed practices to the open practices. She tells me they get more done and have less distractions. I know the coaches like them because Suzy's moms can't interfere and give their 2 cents (with signs, hand motions or outright yelling)... I like to watch, but I understand the need for closed practices from the the CP and coaches points of view!

 

[mecheermom]

you have no idea...lol. I think they sell the 2-way stuff as a sticker too, which would be cheaper, but I'm not sure. We wanted to get mini blinds, so that we could close practices when it got bad, but never did it. It felt like a fish bowl in the gym. All the parents would hover around the window looking down on us. :confused: It's funny thinking back on it, but definitely wasn't funny at the time.

I could see the noise being caused by shifting mini-blinds...with parents trying the look out when they are closed...to be qute a distraction :rolleyes:

 

[NJ Coach]

I could see the noise being caused by shifting mini-blinds...with parents trying the look out when they are closed...to be qute a distraction :rolleyes:

Haha...we were going to put them on the gym side of the window...


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[sun77]

Haha...we were going to put them on the gym side of the window...


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Our gym has curtains that hang on the gym side and get pulled closed at times.

 

[INeverStopCheering]

Our gym is an entirely open floor plan, so when parents are there, they are right there. So for those of you who think having parents behind the glass, try having them 3 feet away. That being said, I like open practices. The parents are very supportive. It's very motivating when you hit a perfect routine and the entire building applauds. We do close practices the week before competition

 

[luxerae]

We have closed practices with a parent viewing area, but I've never seen any extreme cases of parents yelling through the windows or being distracting or anything. Might be because the floors are still a good distance away from the windows and you can't see the entire gym unless you're sitting in the corner.

 

[ChoreographyInTheBack]

Have a barbecque outside the gym while they're practicing.... That's what the moms at my gym do....

 

[Born2Tumble]

Wow some of your gyms seem crazy, well the parents do for that matter LOL! Thanks everyone for putting your two cents in....it kind of puts everything into perspective and lets me know im not alone in this. Tonight was our first night with a closed practice and i actually enjoyed not sitting there listening to Suzies mom go on and on about her daughter or the coaches! (:

 

[12stepCheermom]

you have no idea...lol. I think they sell the 2-way stuff as a sticker too, which would be cheaper, but I'm not sure. We wanted to get mini blinds, so that we could close practices when it got bad, but never did it. It felt like a fish bowl in the gym. All the parents would hover around the window looking down on us. :confused: It's funny thinking back on it, but definitely wasn't funny at the time.

They do, you can get it at just about any car parts shop like Pep Boys or something.

 

[SheCheers]

Our team practices are closed and while sometimes it makes me a wee bit sad, I'm very thankful not to have to interact with Suzy's mom twice a week. Tumbling is open, though. Considering that is specific to individual kids, it would upset me if that was closed, too.

Anyway, at our old gym there was an upstairs viewing area with windows and there was a mom who was unhappy during a tumbling class because they weren't working on Suzy's BHS and a teenager was distracting the coach and wasting time, so she stood up and banged on the glass and started screaming at the coach to "get move on!" It was horrifying.

It would also really bother me when I would watch team practices and see kids goofing off or being mean, but the coaches didn't notice and therefore didn't do anything. So, it helped my stress level moving to a closed practice gym where I can pretend that every little thing they do and say is exactly how I think they should do it and it's all sunshine and roses :)

 

[TheVipersMom]

I have wrote this somewhere before but here it is again.

At CCE practices were open. We sat right on the edge of the floor. So parents could talk, yell, and scream at their kids. Then you have those parents who like to have a get together and are loud as can be and not watching and they would be louder then the coaches and kids on the floor and it was so frustrating.

Well we had a crazy mom or 2 on my daughters youth team. They started changing the pyramid one day and the WHOLE pyramid was not hitting. We had Suzies mom yell across the floor to tell her daughter not to catch my daughter if she fell.

Well me and several moms told the coaches that night. My daughter said she didn't want to even fly in the pyramid anymore. So I told the coach and they took her out and let her tumble across the front (my daughter would tumble the whole routine if they would let her)!

The next practice they put another girl up there. Suzies mom starts up again telling her daughter not to catch her flyer because if she gets hurt again she will not be cheering. So the girl who was now flying has a mom that was a lot more vocal then me and she went off on Suzies mom. That night we were informed practices were closed from then on because Suzies mom! So that lasted about 2 practices and she allowed us back in because Suzies mom didn't want to sit in there with us anymore because we were all mean to her. I'm so thankful she got the hint. She posted on Facebook that we were such negative people so that's why she didn't stay. She is the person who always plays the victim. It was ridiculous- so glad to be done with her!

Now I loved watching practices don't get me wrong but when we moved to Stars I was kind disappointed we can't stay for cheer practice only tumbling but it is for the best. That way when they start working the routine it will be a complete surprise every time I see it. I don't know if it is because we are at a different gym but our practices at CCE were very laid back. When I'm at Stars watching my cp at her tumbling class I get to watch level 3 practice (kind of there in the back) but anyways practices just started last week and those are hard core practices. I see why Stars is so good. They put in major werk! I think it wouldn't be as major if parents were allowed to watch so I see the benefits of not having crazy moms around. I know the crazy moms will still talk but it definitely limits it by not allowing them to stay. Last year at CCE the first 2 months I was seriously ready to pull my daughter off youth2. A lot of hateful moms that had been there for 5 years were whining and complaining that my daughter was a tiny when she was 5 in her first year cheering then the very next year she just turned 6 and made youth 2. It wasn't fair that it was a 6 year old on the team and their kid had to spend 3 years on minis and 2 years on tinys before moving up to youth2. Then you have this 1 mom yelling at her daughter saying "a 6 year old is tumbling better then you, you should be better then her she is 6"...
I sit there and look at her like are you serious and then she says to me oh in trying to motivate my daughter. Like I heard it all!!

Ok I'm sorry I didn't mean to go off and rant but last season I was all for open practices but now I'm so happy and the benefits far outweigh the curiosity that kills me every time they have practice. Lol

 

[TheVipersMom]

Our team practices are closed and while sometimes it makes me a wee bit sad, I'm very thankful not to have to interact with Suzy's mom twice a week. Tumbling is open, though. Considering that is specific to individual kids, it would upset me if that was closed, too.

Anyway, at our old gym there was an upstairs viewing area with windows and there was a mom who was unhappy during a tumbling class because they weren't working on Suzy's BHS and a teenager was distracting the coach and wasting time, so she stood up and banged on the glass and started screaming at the coach to "get move on!" It was horrifying.

It would also really bother me when I would watch team practices and see kids goofing off or being mean, but the coaches didn't notice and therefore didn't do anything. So, it helped my stress level moving to a closed practice gym where I can pretend that every little thing they do and say is exactly how I think they should do it and it's all sunshine and roses :)

Lol I love how I was writing my response as you wrote yours! We are definitely on the same page!!:)