29 THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING THE RIGHT GYMNASTICS GYM

Blog Post reproduced from Home Gymnastics for Kids

Doing gymnastics for any age group has tremendous benefits for the body and overall health of the body. It improves both upper body and lower body strength and flexibility and it improves your balance. Not to mention all the spectacular skills you can learn.
If you’ve decided on enrolling your kid in gymnastics classes or perhaps you thought of doing yourself some recreational gymnastics, the next thing in line would be to choose a gym that’s right either for you or for your child.

Choosing the right gymnastics gym can be a little daunting especially if you don’t know what to consider in a good gym. This article is dedicated to answer this headache and help you have a guideline of what to consider when going out searching for a gym. Maybe not every point can be met by every gym, but just go through the list for each gym that you visit and whichever has the most approved point’s wins.
Depending on the needs, if its competitive classes are in your line of sight for your child, then you should have as many points approved as possible to ensure that your child will be in good hands and she will actually progress in the sport and it won’t be money down the toilet for you. And if recreational classes are what interests you, then you can be a little bit more flexible with the criteria that follow.

Bellow you’ll find all the criteria to consider when going out searching for the right gym for you or your child. Not all of them are set in stone, but some are really important to look for to insure your child will be in a safe environment and in capable hands when you drop them off at the gym.

1. THE COACHES
Everywhere you go to do something or to make something happen, you are going to deal with people. In gymnastics it’s no different. When you are going to leave your child at a gymnastics gym, the most important person you have to deal with is the coach. You are leaving your child in his or her hands so you have to get to know the coach to certain extent so you can be sure and confident that your little gymnast will be in safe and capable hands and under watchful eyes.
Ask about their qualifications, you want to know that this is not the first time when they are coaching. How many years have they been coaching? Did they have any major incidents in their careers? Watch them when you’re visiting the gym, are they stressing safety and are the children paying attention to them?
You also have to make sure that during your child’s stay in the gym, she will be improving her skills? Will her gymnastics goals be met? Having a good gymnastics coach who already trained other kids towards betterment is key in your child’s advancement. A good coach is invaluable in your child’s gymnastics development.

2. WERE THE STAFF MEMBERS TRAINED IN GYMNASTICS?
Do the staff members, coaches and spotters have gymnastics training under their belt? Again, when you’re visiting a particular gym, ask about the qualifications of the coaches and spotters and whoever will be in direct contact with your young gymnast. You want to make sure that your child will receive valuable training in that gym. Her time spent there should not be wasted and money thrown out the window.
Just think of this principle: If you want to be a spectacular chef, you don’t go to a short order cook to learn. You go to a spectacular chef who knows how to do fine cuisine and learn from him. If you want to become a concert pianist, you go and learn from a concert pianist, not a honky-tonk player. The point is that if you want your child to become a gymnast, she has to learn from gymnasts.

3. DOES THE GYM PRACTICE GOOD HYGIENE?
You probably won’t be able to see every corner of the gym when you’re visiting it, but there are some things that you can keep a look out for to see if the facility is exercising good hygiene. First thing to consider looking at is if the gym is well ventilated. Being a workout area where everybody sweats and heavily inhales and exhales, odors and bacteria accumulate in the air. Having a well-ventilated facility reduces the risks of having stagnant air full of bacteria and odors which may be harmful for your child.
Next thing you could find out, just by asking someone at the gym, is there dedicated staff members that clean the facility regularly? If there are, how often do they do it? Obviously the more often, the better. Do they clean all the equipment and the lockers and the restrooms? One easy way to see the hygiene standards of a gym is to just go into the restrooms and see how clean they are.

4. HOW FAR IS IT FROM HOME?
If you have a car and are planning to take your kids to the gym and back, you have to consider the time spent coming and going to the gym and your available time when choosing a gym. When your child gets older and more serious at gymnastics, she will spend more time at the gym and if the gym is a little too far from home, you will be commuting back and forth every day.
A good rule of thumb when considering distance is when you can’t make it to the gym to pick your gymnast up is it close enough and is it in an area so she could easily walk home without any worries? If you can answer “Yes.” to that question, than the distance between the gym and your home is fine.

5. ARE THERE SIMILAR AGE CHILDREN IN YOUR KID’S CLASS?
Ask the coaches if there are going to be similar aged children in the class with your child? This is important because your child will be able to socialize easier and develop a support team of friend within the class. Bigger gyms may have more variety in age, while smaller gym will have less.

6. ARE THERE ENOUGH COACHES IN THE GYM?
If it’s a big gym that you’re visiting, take a look if there is at least one coach for every 8 child. You want to know that while you’re not going to be in the gym for that one hour, your child has constant watchful eyes over her.

7. IS THE GYM WELL EQUIPPED?
Entering the gym, take a look around at the equipment. Do they have everything from a pommel horse, to bars and rings and a lot of mats? They should have mats everywhere. The basic equipment they should have is a spring floor, pommel horse, rings, beams, high bar, uneven bars, parallel bars and a tumbling track with a vaulting table. They should also have landing pits filled with foam cubes under the high bar, the rings and also at the end of the tumbling track. And, as I mentioned, they should have lots of mats, not only under the equipment, but you should also see a bunch of mats lying against the walls.
Everything more than the above mentioned basic gymnastics equipment is a plus and increases the gym’s fun factor, such as a trampoline.

8. CERTIFICATION
If the gym is a registered member of USA Gymnastics, USAIGC (United States Association of Independent Gymnastics Clubs) or AAU Gymnastics (Amateur Athletic Union), one of the three, the gym then abides by certain rules within the membership. Rules such as having a high safety standard in the facility, having liability insurance in case of an accident which results in an injury and only hire staff with qualified backgrounds. They are also required to do background checks for all coaches, staff and volunteers.

9. IS THERE A PARENT VIEWING AREA?
Depending on the age and the level of your young gymnast, you may want to wait out that one hour a week in the gym while your child is in gymnastics class. Check and see if there is a designated sitting area for parents where you can see your child during her gymnastics class. And ask about what are the dos and don’ts when sitting there. Some common don’ts, for example, are not using flash photography while in the viewing area, because this might distract a gymnast and could cause the gymnast to injure herself. Another doesn’t would be to keep the noise down while in the viewing area and never enter the floor area.

10. DROP OFF AND PICK UP POLICY
Ask the coach about the procedure of dropping off and picking up your child at the gym. Coaches should not let children home alone. The parents should hand them over to the coaches before the class starts and coaches should hand them back to the parents at the end of the class. Of course, if you have some other preferences for dropping off and picking up your child, you can discuss it with the coach and I’m sure you can find a common ground.
Depending on your situation, you may not be able to pick your child up from the gym every single time, so you may be sending someone else like your oldest child who is more responsible, or another relative. Just make sure you let the coach know who is coming after your child, so he will be able to hand him/her over to the right person.

11. GYM SCHEDULE
Ask about the gym’s schedule. At what times will your child be having classes and on what days. Compare their class schedule with yours and see if you need to make arrangements. Most gyms have classes every day of the week except Sunday and usually in the afternoon so it won’t interfere with school time.

12. ASK ABOUT TRIAL CLASSES
Some gyms offer trial classes for first timers so children can try gymnastics out and see if it’s their cup of tea or not. Many gyms offer a free first class, others offer more than one trial class, paying for them on the spot without having to commit to a payment plan of 8 to 10 weeks at a time.

13. WHERE DO THEY USUALLY HOLD GYMNASTICS MEETS?
If you can put your hand on the last years meet schedule, you can check out where the meets were held. If your child will be in the gymnastics team, he/she will be going to meets and competitions at some point in her gymnastics training. Having the meet held in a local area will save you from a lot of commuting to meets and competitions. Having to travel long distances to meets costs a lot of money and time. But there is a good side to this as well. If you do have to take your child to a distant city for a meet, he/she will be exposed to more people, bigger gyms, bigger meets and bigger competitions. So it’s not all bad. You do have to consider your preferences about this.

14. DOES THE GYM OFFER BOTH RECREATIONAL AND COMPETITIVE CLASSES?
Depending on your child’s or your own needs, the gym should provide both types of classes: classes for those who just want to do gymnastics for health benefits or as a hobby and classes for children who want to do gymnastics as a carrier orientation. Recreational classes are for both children and adults and not that time consuming as competitive classes. For recreational classes, you arrange your workout times according to your schedule, but in competitive classes the child has to arrange her schedule according to her workout times. While recreational gymnastics is more about fun, competitive gymnastics can be said that it’s about fun as well, but it needs a higher level of commitment in order to be able to master all the required skills. Those who do competitive gymnastics must really love the sport.

15. HOW MUCH DO CLASSES COST?
Depending on what type of classes is opted for, there is a difference in pricing between recreational classes and competitive classes. As a guideline, prices for recreational classes will be more straight forward than prices for competitive classes. Recreational classes for preschoolers cost at about $10-$15 per class and they are held once a week. For school-age children, recreational classes cost at about $15-$20 per class and they also meet once a week. And for adults, recreational classes cost at about $20 per class. Some gyms offer drop in classes too where you can benefit of more practicing time to improve a particular area in your gymnastics skills, such as your flexibility.

Competitive gymnastics will cost more because the gymnast will spend more time in the gym training. Depending on the age of the gymnast, what level is he/she in and how many hours he/she spends in the gym, competitive gymnastics classes cost around $150-$350 per month.
Ask about other costs that can occur for gymnastics gear such as grips, warm-up clothes, leotards and such. Does the gym provide this equipment or do you have to get them elsewhere? If the gym does provide them, ask about the prices. Who knows, you may be able to find them somewhere else much cheaper.

Another thing you should ask regarding the cost of competitive classes is, does the price include competition meet fees, or will you have to pay for those when the meet season comes around? Also, are summer camps included in the price?
For more information on the costs that come with doing gymnastics, visit How Much Does It Cost To Do Gymnastics for a more detailed overview.

16. WHAT KIND OF WORKOUT CLOTHES ARE REQUIRED?
This may be more adamant in competitive classes, whereas in recreational classes you can be a little more flexible about what to wear. Gyms may require certain types of clothes to be worn during training for both comfort and safety reasons. For children the best thing to wear are leotards for girls and t-shirt and shorts for boys. For adults, any type stretchy clothes will be fine. There requirements for clothes are there so, during training, the clothes will not get in the way of body motion. Clothes should give way to the movements of the body so it will not stay in the way of progress. If the clothes are too tight they can cause irritation and potential injuries. Stretchy clothes are a must.

17. DOES THE GYM HAVE SOME KIND OF COMPETITION HISTORY?
A good way to find out how good of a gym you’re dealing with is to ask about previous competitions, which the gym may have participated in. Find out about their winnings, this way, if the gym has some recognizable winnings, it means that it has a good program and it’s capable of growing gymnasts into levels of competition. If competitive classes are what you’re looking for, you want your gymnast to receive the necessary knowledge and training that will help them reach the various gymnastics levels in the sport.
This point goes back to what I’ve already mentioned at the beginning of this post and that is, who do you listen to? If you want to become a great chef, you don’t learn from a short order cook, you go and learn from a great chef.

18. ARE THERE FIRST-AIDERS IN THE GYM?

This is a pretty important piece of information that you have to find out. Gymnastics is a sport full of jumping, tumbling, swinging and hard landings. It’s a good thing that almost every corner of the gym is covered with mats, but even so, you can never predict a possibility for a serious injury. Injuries can happen everywhere, outside the gymnastics area as well in the restrooms or the locker rooms for example. This is why it’s important to always have first-aiders present in the gym. Ask your coach if in an event of an emergency, are there staff members that are trained in giving first aid?

19. ARE THE CLASSES ORGANISED?
If you have the chance to watch a class in progress, notice if it’s structured or not, Are the classes organized and structured, or are they hectic and the children are not even paying attention? For young beginners, are the coaches making the class a fun activity with circuit based activities and games keeping the whole class interested?

20. ARE THE STAFF MEMBERS FRIENDLY?

Are the staff members friendly to both the children during training and to the parents? When you walk into the gym are you greeted with a friendly atmosphere? Are the children feeling comfortable during the class and are they paying attention and having fun? If your child won’t be feeling comfortable and relaxed at the gym, she won’t like going to the gym anymore.

I remember when I was little and was going to piano classes. They were actually private lessons so there were no other kids around me. It was just me with the tutor. And every time I went to piano lessons, it was as if I was going to a war zone, because the tutor was a strict woman and I was always feeling tense. Do you think I know how to play the piano these days? No, I don’t. I told my mother that I don’t like playing the piano and I quit. But the point is, that it was that tense atmosphere that made me quit, not the actual activity. So, does the gym, that you’re visiting, have a friendly atmosphere?

21. COACHING METHODS USED
Depending on your preferences, if you prefer to send your child to nice, easy, laid-back gymnastics sessions, then you want to make sure that the coaches are not too strict and hard with the pupils. On the other hand, if you think a strict program will benefit your child, then make sure that the gym you’re visiting is not too easy going. If the gym is too easy going, your child may not learn and progress as good as he/she could. But if the coaches are too strict, your little gymnast could end up quitting gymnastics just like me when I quit piano lessons. I think the best is to have a little bit of both sides, so your child will progress and won’t lose interest in the sport.

22. DOES THE GYM CLOSE DURING BAD WEATHER?
This is to check the structural integrity of the gym. In an event of a heavy rain or high winds or heavy snow, will the gym handle the weather or will they have to close it and miss a day’s or even weeks of training? Don’t get me wrong. If there’s a 100 mph wind outside, go home, lock yourself in the house maybe go down into your basement and forget about the gym. I’m not talking about extreme weather. I’m talking about every day normal bad weather. Obviously the words “normal bad weather” has different meaning in every parts of the globe.

23. TYPES OF GYMNASTICS AND OTHER TYPES OF FITNESS
There are different kinds of gymnastics like acro-gymnastics, cheerleading, rhythmic gymnastics, competitive gymnastics, trampolining and tumbling. If you are interested in one type over the other, find out if the gym provides classes for the type of gymnastics that you are interested in.

24. IS THE GYM OPEN ALL YEAR ROUND?
Ask the management if the gym has closing policies on holidays and other special dates. If it closes one or two days on holidays like Christmas, that’s understandable. Everyone wants to be home for Christmas. The idea here is, for how long do they stay closed? Is it only a couple of days or is it weeks or who knows, even months. The longer it is closed, the longer your child has to go without training and the muscles start “to rust”.

25. DOES THE STAFF PUT AN EMPHASIS ON SAFETY?
Are there a bunch of warning signs on the walls and the doors of the facility? Are the mobile equipment arranged neatly in their places every time after use? Do the coaches and other staff members look like being concerned about safety? These are all questions that you can find answers to just by looking around in the gym during a class and watching and listening to the coaches and the staff talk to one another.

26. DOES THE COACH GIVE FEEDBACK TO BOTH GYMNAST AND PARENT?
Getting feedback is very important in any sport and any undertaking. Feedback grants us the possibility to find out what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong in a certain activity. And if we are doing something wrong, we know what we have to correct to get back on our course. Gymnastics is the same. If your child wants to do competitive gymnastics, it’s imperative for her to know whether she’s doing something right or wrong. How else will she know if not through her coach letting her know.
Feedback is also important for the parent. The coach should talk to parents about their child’s performance in class and he may be able to give pointers about what could a parent do at home to help her child improve in the sport.

27. HOW IS THE CUSTOMER RELATIONS ETIQUETTE?
The customer relations should be open and transparent towards the parents. Staff should help the parent with administrative stuff like registrations, payments and any other questions that they might have.

28. GYMNASTICS ACCESSORIES
When your child will become a gymnast, as time passes and skills get mastered, she will progress to higher and higher levels. As the skills get tougher, the more little gymnasts will start carrying gymnastics accessories with her, which help her in her training and keeps her from getting injured.
A gymnast will need gymnastics grips to protect her hands when swinging on bars. She will also need gymnastics shoes, leotards, wrist bands, and many other stuff. For beginners these accessories, if needed, may be provided by the gym. But I do recommend having his/her own so the equipment will not have to change hands every time it’s used. Ask if you can buy these accessories from the gym, otherwise you can purchase them elsewhere.

29. CONSULT OTHER PARENTS
Lastly, the easiest thing you can do in choosing the right gym is to talk to other parents. When you’re visiting a gym and you decide to stay and watch a class, in the parents viewing area there will be other parents who you will get to meet and discuss gymnastics. Usually parents are very helpful to one another and they will be happy to answer some questions you may have about that gym. You can also ask about the staff that’s working in the gym, to see how other parents relate to them.
A great thing in talking to other parents is that maybe some of them have already visited other gym in the area and they can tell you firsthand about the coaches and the facilities. You can find out a lot from other parents who already have walked in your shoes and you’ll get a sense of what’s what more quickly.

CONCLUSION
After deciding what type of gymnastics you want to enroll in, or what type of gymnastics you’d like your child to get involved with, you have to look for a gym to go to. Finding a gym is easy. Finding a gym that’s right for you can be a little more challenging. The above mentioned list of things to do will give you a greater sense of what to look out for when visiting a gym, thus choosing the right one for you will be that much easier.

The great thing about this is, you don’t have to come up with all the questions to ask and all the things to look out for. It’s already given to you. Just write down the headlines on a piece of paper and take it with you to a gym and use that as a guideline. By doing this, you will be sure that you have asked all the right questions and looked at all the right things to come up with a well thought out decision.

If you are interested in exploring local gymnastics classes in the North Pittsburgh | Cranberry | Wexford, consider X-Cel Gymnastics. Learn more at www.xcelgymnastics.com