All-Star Gyms Banning Athletes??

[BamaCheerGuy]

I agree that breaking a LAW should be "banned". Honestly, I take pleasure in those that leave (on shady terms) coming back in an having to tuck their tail between their legs. I can't think of any "ban" but I know a few that aren't welcome.


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I like watching athletes come from other gyms to your gym to learn tumbling while they cheer for someone else. That shows the integrity of the gym. That's why I am sold on where we are! Amazing.

 

[Nikaa]

In my opinion, if kid leave your gym to be on better Worlds team with chanses to win Worlds, or leave the gym without level 5 to be on l5 and you ban them from the gym there is something wrong with you. You raised them to be an amazing cheerleader, you teach them skills to be on level 5 team (worlds team). You should be proud of yourself. I coach some kids since they were 7 years old (and they are 13-15 years old now) and if they would leave a gym and be put on Coed Elite (or any worlds top 5 teams) I would be the proudest ex coach ever. Ofcourse I'd be sad because they left but I would be their biggest fan at all of their competitions. I teach them those skills to be on this amazing team, you should be proud of yourself and them. Not ban them from the gym. You never know when will they come back...

 

[Deleted member 25054]

A girl from my gym left her senior year to go to World Cup an no one was anything but ecstatic for her! She had the elite skills for a worlds team but was being held back on our small gym level 4 team. We were sad to see her go but we knew it was in her best interest. She super senior'ed the next year on Stars- my coach was thrilled to see someone who grew up in her gym medal at worlds. AND my coach asked her to come back to fill in a spot for an injury for U.S. Finals- no bad blood at all. We ended up winning. There's a reason you shouldn't go burning bridges with athletes....

 

[CheerBank]

Banning athletes for looking at another gym or for leaving once the season is over after they have fulfilled their committments is baby behavior on the part of the coaches and owners and shows their maturity levels. Banning someone because they left them in a lurch midseason to go to another gym...I am not sure that I would want to give that athlete a second chance either. If they've done it once, who is to say they won't do it again?
I do think if an athlete does something illegal, like underage drinking or drug use at a competition, or criminal, like stealing, then they should be banned for the rest of the season without second thought. Allowing them to stay only sets a bad example for the rest of the gym.

 

[cheercurl]

I think it is so short sited and stupid for a program to ban someone for trying out at another gym....I would love for my cp to tumble at the gymnastics part of her old cheer gym but I know that they have called kids right off the floor and asked them to leave when they found out they were cheering at a different gym.

They completely close the door on athletes who may have considered returning at some point. It is really such a poor business practice, unless the reason was extreme which in most cases it isn't.

 

[hiimsabrina]

banning an athlete for going to another gym, in a business perspective, is like banning a regular customer for going to another grocery store. makes no sense whatsoever.

 

[callmecoach]

This thread is blowing my mind. How do people operate a business this way? I can tell you for sure that if I had a child cheering at a gym that banned athletes for leaving at the end of a season, my child would be leaving too. I wouldn't want my child looking up to adults who find it okay to act like that.

And PS: If you're banning someone who leaves your gym, it's because you're upset with yourself for not being able to retain them, not with the child for leaving. If it bothers you that much then figure out how you can improve your business to give those who are considering leaving whatever it is they're leaving for. Otherwise, that's life and you need to grow up and move on.

 

[cljacks99]

It's happened to my daughter. It was pretty intense and emotional, but has worked out for the best. I honestly don't have any hard feelings. It's just a situation where what was best for their business wasn't what I felt was best for my family.

 

[Rockstar]

a kid in our gym got suspended from the gym for breaking several open gym rules within 20 minutes. they cried. when they came back, they didn't break a single rule. owned. but banning a kid under the circumstances described is a little strange

 

[Dj_Drew]

From a gym owners perspective it does make sense sometimes. Say, it's near the end of a season and Susie has decided she is going to go to another gym that a good distance away. So now Susie's mom comes to watch her daughter at her last few practices of the season with all the other parents. She starts talking to the other moms and tries to get them all to join her daughter at the new gym and they can all carpool. When the gym owner catches wind of what's happening, she bands the family from coming into the gym.

All it takes is one parent and the next thing you know you have a whole team worth of kids leaving for another gym. Yes, the program might lose a kid or two, but it's better than losing 10 or 20

 

[FullUpFierce]

We never have a problem with banning athletes because they have decided to switch gyms here in the UK, because there is literally not many places you would move to go to a bigger programme except perhaps Unity. We have banned one girl of our senior team this season, due to her constant negativity and bad mouthing including swearing to the coaches. This generally helped our teams atmosphere.

 

[Jessicalynn]

I saw someone get banned for not paying their bill but that's all


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[Aussiekat]

We had an IOC athlete that was strongly discouraged from coming back because it was alleged (perhaps confirmed by the owner) that he was under the influence of something while on the comp floor. Other than that, I happily hug all my kids at comp no matter where they went or what colours they're wearing. I'm happy they're still cheering and that's my number one priority: that they're happy, healthy and succeeding. I know I'm a good coach and I have a great club but it's not for everyone. I'm certainly not going to penalise a child because of their decision, or more likely their parents' decision. It's not just good business, it's being a good person. As @SharkDad always says, a good heart wins.

 

[mecheermom]

Happened to both my kids. We just left gym 2 after 4 years. We'd paid the entire season for both kids up front (so being behind was never a concern) and they finished every commitment they had to their team before moving on.

However, it was made very clear to us that should we choose to leave we would be unwelcome in the gym, and cut off from their coaches for all eternity.

I won't speak for the tumble coaches but that last private lesson was horrible. It's like all four of them realized in the last five minutes that it was the LAST five minutes. I was squalling, the kids were a mess, I won't speak for the coaches. My kids spontaneously burst into tears through dinner and after we tried to take their mind off it with Ironman 3. And they're 13 and 15. Hours later we'd see them (and me) sniffling in the back seat trying to hold it together.

It was horrible. Felt exactly like someone had died. I can't understand why people who claim to love kids and/or ever claimed to love mine could do that to them.

The only thing clear to me is that they never did. They loved the inordinate effort and money we poured into the program. They loved my tuition check. They loved having my kids in their uniform....but clearly never loved them at all if that's how they are willing to treat them for changing colors.


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That is so sad. A similar thing happened to us last year when we decided to leave our old gym. CP has a tumbling coach at our old gym who she adores and he is an excellent coach. However old gyms rules are that they will not allow you to tumble there if you are cheering at a competing gym. It is sad...


Mommy to CP and BP!
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[tumbleyoda]

A couple of seasons ago, I was "banned" from a gym because the owner caught wind that I planned on moving gyms next season. I really don't know how he found out and I wasn't openly talking about it around other athletes. I thought that was crazy until a couple of days ago. A friend of mine decided that for her last season, she wanted to try out for her dream team. Her home gym (ill call them gym "A"), banned her from ever returning even this athlete has been loyal to them for a number of years. I'm just curious to know if anyone else has run into this problem. Is this a common thing now?

I try to always remember that somebody everywhere knows somebody everywhere. You don't have to talk about, brag about, post or whatever. Parents text other parents, coaches text other coaches, kids take videos and pics and post them on social media before you know it. Sometimes innocently and sometimes to start trouble. I have flown across the country for job interviews in my other profession and met people that knew people/had relatives where I was working/living. I certainly never told anyone of my intentions but it got back just that quick that I was looking for a new position elsewhere. Which then strained things where I was, rightly or wrongly.

Is it right to ban an athlete? Definitely depends on the situation. Personally I have only banned one athlete in returning to a gym that I worked for. That was because they were openly and unashamedly trying to recruit the higher level kids to go to their gym to cheer. To the point she was pressuring the kids and slamming our gym's cheer program in the process. All while she was coming to our gym to tumble and stunt because we did that better than her cheer gym - according to her.

I would ban if it was a criminal act committed by the kid/parent. Especially if it was knowingly done. I also would potentially ban a kid if the parent was delinquent about paying their bill AND bragging about it/flaunting it to other parents.

If a kid moves on to follow their dream of cheering for a big name program, or they want to go to Worlds, etc. I wish them the best. I agree with @Nikaa on that one, even though that recognition that it was a smaller gym that helped that athlete get to that point to be on the floor at Worlds and do so well was not always recognized by that athlete/parent or the new gym. But that is a different thread for another day.

Now I have worked for gym owners in the past that have banned athletes for trying out at other gyms, being friends with kids at other gyms, going to other gyms Open gym which IMO is totally wrong.