All-Star The Appropriate Way To Move Gyms.

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Dec 16, 2010
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I have seen TOO many nasty transitions when a parent decides they need to move to a new gym. No matter how upset you are about what GYM X did to your child, their IS a graceful way to leave the gym.
I am just going to list some advice for those parents that are in this situation so that they transition gyms as smoothly as possible.

-NEVER quit in the middle of the season. You committed to a team for a FULL year and no matter how bad you hate where your at, Suck it up and finish out the season. Quitting mid season per-conditions your child to think its OK to not finish what they started.
-If your child is quitting, and they are at the appropriate age. The athlete should tell the coach and the team themselves. If you drive yourself to practice, but you have to have your parent break the news to your coach about quitting, not only is that disrespectful to your team and coach, its being a coward.
-Never EVER leave a gym with them feeling bitter towards you. You NEVER know what your going to do in the future and you might want to come back to that gym at some point.
-Never cause a scene in front of other parents or try to solicit their child to leave with you. You will only be making your self look like a fool.
-Never discuss quitting to another parent or athlete if you are even considering switching gyms. Those other parents you complain too, 99% of the time, are telling the gym owner everything you are saying and its going to make you and your child end up being kicked to the curve.
-After moving gyms, talking trash about your old gym doesn't make you look cool, it just qualified you as the psycho cheer parent at your new gym.
-When telling a coach you are moving gyms, have a calm conversation about why you are making that decision. Try not to be to harsh to the coach about what THEY did wrong, but let them know you are doing what you think is best and you feel like the gym is not the best fit for your child. Believe it or not, quitting convos with coaches can actually be a calm and mature. It all depends on your tone of voice, word choice and being truthful. Blaming everything on the coach will never end up well.


Please continue to add any other advise... we all know we have a BUNCH of parents/athletes in the middle of this situation right now.
 
Never leave and attack the staff on your way out. Only to then send anonymous letters pretending to be a current member, saying that you run an unethical business and pretending you're aware of imaginary situations within the gym. -___- Get a life.
 
This may be rocking the boat, but I just have to ask.....Why does everyone feel that a parent/child has to tell the gym they are leaving? If you stay thru the season, you should be able to just leave after the last team practice/competition. Parents are the paying customers, not the other way around...I don't have a calm reasonable talk with Starbucks to tell them I'm going to Green Bean Coffee.
 
i think what annoys me about gyms is they somehow feel entitled to the athlete like they're the reason that there good at cheer or whatever if that makes sense? i know that at the first gym i cheered at they were always nice to me kept in contact with me while my family and i relocated temporarily to the us and when we moved back to a similar area i joined another gym because it was closest to my house and i could get there easier then had i gone back to the other gym once the owners found out the stopped talking to me and athletes and all the coaches deleted me off facebook and would talk about me saying the only reason i went to the other gym was because of x,y,z it hurt me a lot because i viewed this one gym as a family and they would simply not take what i was saying seriously :/
 
Also remember that it always comes full circle, meaning that gyms merge, coaches move to other gyms and gyms go out of business every day. You may eventually end up with either no place to go or back with some or all of that group, embarrassed and at a major disadvantage if there aren't a lot of options available.
 
I agree, except for the quitting in the middle of the season. Last year I quit a team (mind you it was 3 months before competitions started) but I had to, for personal reasons and for other reasons as well. Thank god it was a smooth transition :)
 
This may be rocking the boat, but I just have to ask.....Why does everyone feel that a parent/child has to tell the gym they are leaving? If you stay thru the season, you should be able to just leave after the last team practice/competition. Parents are the paying customers, not the other way around...I don't have a calm reasonable talk with Starbucks to tell them I'm going to Green Bean Coffee.

At the same time, I think your athlete's relationship with their coach is probably a lot deeper than your relationship with your Starbucks barista. I think you should be able to leave- we don't OWN these kids. But as a coach who has spent a lot of time with your kid, and frankly, cares about the kid as an athlete and a person I guess I think it would be a courtesy to at least mention that you're leaving.
 
At the same time, I think your athlete's relationship with their coach is probably a lot deeper than your relationship with your Starbucks barista. I think you should be able to leave- we don't OWN these kids. But as a coach who has spent a lot of time with your kid, and frankly, cares about the kid as an athlete and a person I guess I think it would be a courtesy to at least mention that you're leaving.
I see and understand your POV, it seems though that some coaches (not you) believe that since they train our kids, that we should bow down and tell them our every move. As a parent, that is just frustrating, because we are the paying customers. I DO NOT believe in burning bridges, but I want the coaches to give me the same respect and common curtsey, they expect from me.
And sadly, my daughter and I have a great relationship with our Starbucks barista....They know our first and last names and what we order...It's a very bad habit, we need to break. Lol
 
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