Is This A Polite Way For The Gym To Say We Are Unwanted?

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May 28, 2019
11
5
My daughter's gym closed as the owner decided to retire. Some of the coaches from the gym decided to open their own facility. We decided to tryout there as she felt like she would be comfortable knowing the coaches and a lot of the kids from the closing gym were going, allowing her to still see friends. The gym ended up having a lot of athletes come out and is able to field 9 "elite" teams, 4 prep teams (in the tiny/mini range) and even a special needs team. We were so excited for the new gym and its owners to see such success their first season. Team reveal was last night. Each kid got an envelope with their team on a certificate, but it was chaotic and you couldn't really tell what teams were being fielded. My daughter was horrified by the placement, but I told her it was quite possible, despite the many teams, this was the only one she could really do based on age. Then we saw the team lists posted on Instagram and it was not. She politely declined the team placement, explaining that she felt she would not be a good teammate or put in effort and commitment to the team it deserved. She went on to say that her favorite part of cheer is tumbling and she felt she could not remain committed to the level team they had placed her on because of it's lack of even close to level appropriate tumbling for her. They responded saying, well, we really wanted you on our non tumble team, but you said you didn't want a level 6 team. She politely replied again, that her primary interest in cheer skills lies in the tumbling and she would in fact not be interested in the non tumble team for the same reason as the other offered team. Looking at the formed teams there was a level appropriate, age appropriate team formed. The tumble coach from the old gym is one of the new owners here. The night before at her private they were adding tricks into her level 6 tumble skills, so they know her tumble ability (and she has always been close to, if not the last pass for tumbling). They clearly think she has the level 6 stunt ability if they wanted her on the non tumble team. So why place her on a level 1 team? Would you think this was a polite way of saying the gym just doesn't want you?
 
Wait, what? When I hear things like this that don’t seem to add up I wonder what the other side of the story is? Is there anything that you can think of from the programs perspective that would justify that placement? Did they tell you reasons why she was placed where she was?
 
She has level 6 tumbling skills and they put her on 1? Did they think she needs to learn to base or something? Still, that seems pretty extreme.
 
They said she would still not base the lvl 1- she asked. She's rather small for her age. The only conclusion I can come to is that they didn't really want her at the gym.

The coaches always told us she is very coachable, very polite, takes correction, hard worker... were they lying to us all these years? I don't hang out at the gym, friend coaches on social media, or really even talk to the coaches (always told my daughter her sport, her job to talk to coaches). I always have her to every event on time ready to go. We participated in activities, donated generously, supported teams and gym... I don't know what we could have done :(
 
I want to add: She has had those tumble skills for several years. They are not new, emerging skills. The tumble coach had her doing a pass with her double that went corner to corner and bounced back the other way. I am not just a mom thinking my kid can tumble better than she can. The tumble coach always tells me she is a perfectionist and he loves it because even when he is satisfied she isn't and she will work it even harder and cleaner
 
How old, how small? Does she fly? What is her best pass? Doesn’t seem to make sense.
 
Umm ok, that's ridiculous. She has a double and they put her on level 1... plus she's coachable and polite. Maybe it's some kind of mistake? Ask them again, then find a new gym.
 
She is 15, about 4'11 (4' 10 and 3/4 at her appt last week) and 82 pounds of solid muscle. She marked any team, any position, on tryout forms but I don't think she knew that a senior 1 even existed. She has her standing full and 2 to full standing. She was working on the roundoff, arabian, round off, back handspring, double, punch front, round off, back handspring full at her last private. She has both segments on the tumble track and floor and they are trying to get her to string them together . She needs to be a little faster on the part after the punch front, but it is only something he decided to try with her starting 3 weeks ago. She tumbles at a gymnastics place as well (it is closer to home than the gym and they have always been ok with that) where she does things like adding in arabians, whips, arials and double back tucks as little tricks. She told me they are working on a standing double at the gymnastics place- they try to keep her tumble lessons geared toward cheer as they know that's what she does. They tried all last year to get her to join their power tumble team. Maybe this turn in cheer will make her say yes this year.

She did just tell me that she told them she would ideally like a level 3 or 4 since she plans to take almost all AP courses in school next year. Maybe this was why they gave her such an easy team? They have an international jr 3 (I think age wise she could have been there) and a sr 5 and sr 6 in addition to the non tumble team that I think she could have been on by age.
 
Right- it doesn't make sense to me, so I am taking it as a we don't really want you here. My husband suggested it was more that they know we go with the flow and as a new business needed to try to place others in order to keep their business assuming we would not leave.
 
This is not the right gym for your family. Its possible that they are extremely disorganized and made a massive mistake on her team placement or you are right and they don't want her there. Either way, it doesn't sound like it would be a good year.
 
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I would agree. Either they really goofed up (like they didn’t realize that your CP was eligible for IJ3), or they don’t want you. I hope that there is a good fit for your CP within a reasonable drive (I know our S3 and S5 could both use her :) )
 
Maybe they meant for her to cross over and she should be on another team as well? That would be one heck of a stacked level 1 team. It has to be a mistake.
 
Is she the only Level 5 kiddo placed like that? Do you know of any other parents saying their kids got the same?
 
It is very odd- most of the others who are the same level are all on the non tumble 6. They are all a little confused as well, but they love stunting and like the idea of worlds, so I guess they are ok with it.
 
Maybe I am crazy...but if my cp tried out with those skills and was placed on a level 1, I would respectfully ask for a meeting with the director to get clarification. I simply cannot understand how any business person would basically turn away a paying client who has the necessary skills to be competitive on a team. I would want to see the reasoning behind the decision. And maybe the reason is, “Cheerfun2, you frankly are an annoying PITA of a parent & we’d rather lose your talented cp than deal with you one more year.” Lol. But regardless...I want them to look me in the eye and explain the placement. I would not have accepted the placement either...it’s insulting.
 
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