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Every child is different. Some learn faster than others. Some children learn faster at age 7, some at age 10, some at 12. There are many factors that determine where your child will go in this sport. Whether your child just spends a short spell with us-to have a little fun, and learn a few basics, or wants to be a National Champion, the decision is the child's decision, not yours as a parent. You control when and how much your child is there, (based on what you can afford in time & price) but you do not control their thoughts and actions while at RGA. The most successful athletes to ever come from RGA, had supportive parents, who did not try to coach, criticize, or force the child to learn. Each time you express disappointment in your child's progress, concerning this sport, you will delay overall progress, and take a little bit more fun away. 
All RGA Coaches will be aware at all times, if a child is not trying his/her hardest. Trust the coach to handle this with your child. If you have never been a gymnastics coach, you will most likely not know what to look for as your child proceeds from skill to skill, or class to class. Even if you were once a gymnastics coach, all gyms do things differently, and we have achieved many rewarding successes, had amazing triumphs, and have received much joy from the way that we do things. We have a magical recipe that can make learning much faster, with the right support and encouragement from our parents. If you have not picked up a copy of our "Gymnastics Made Easy" instructional video, please ask for a copy at the desk. The video takes you on a journey from the cartwheel, to the triple full and double back. (The video shows how progress will look from the easiest to the hardest of skills). If you would like to see the best outcome, the best possible results with your child, please do not interfere with negative comments. We try our best to provide a positive environment. Only the higher level athletes, who are not applying themselves properly will be severely reprimanded, and only by the coach. Staying at the gym will frustrate you, it is like watching grass grow. Your child will progress by leaps and bounds, we guarantee it, but it takes lots and lots of TIME. Complaining to the office staff will not make it go any faster. Many great athletes have grown up in this program. Kids already grow up so fast anyway, just sit back and enjoy the good things! Stay positive! In a couple of extreme cases, a parent has been asked to leave, because they did not know how to handle themselves, and as a result the child had to suffer. RGA is a place where people will conduct themselves respectfully, and professionally. When fear develops, no matter the personality of the child or parent, positive encouragement, and letting the coach handle it is the best policy. If your child is fearful, only your child can decide to overcome that. Nothing in the world you can do, threatening, bribing, complaining, will change that. Bribing only results in temporary success, and promotes motivation for the wrong reasons, and the end result can be undesirable. We know how to teach kids how to conquer fear, that is what we do all day every day. Like a dentist knows about teeth. That's our thing! Let us do our thing, just like you trust your dentist to work on your teeth! Absences: Absences are strongly discouraged. Once you enroll your child, try to have your child at class every week. We have very few injuries at RGA, but almost every one was the result of a child missing one or two classes in a row, leaving them weak on skills they already mastered, and making them confused in mid-air. Skills are physically AND mentally challenging enough, without the added confusion brought on by sporadic dedication, and poor attendance! Please make up your class EACH WEEK if you miss, if at all possible. The absolute WORST time to miss a class, is right after a new skill was learned. This is just asking for trouble. Please come regularly to see the best results. You must be prepared to give it 6 months with WEEKLY attendance before you should expect to see a back handspring, on an average child over the age of 10. Children under 10 are highly unpredictable, and will not do gymnastics at all, if it is not fun. Always keep that in mind. Try not complain about petty things. If you are angry, let one week pass before you say anything to anyone. If you are still angry after a week, we invite you to take up your problem with the appropriate person. Not the parents in the lobby, not your neighbor, not your cat. Bring it to the source, the root. Problems can all be worked out amicably, and we always try our best to please everyone within reason & logic. If we can keep negative comments to ourselves, the kids will ultimately be the ones who are rewarded. "No drama." We are a privately owned gymnastics club, and we reserve the right to refuse your business. If at any time, your comments begin to adversely affect our establishment, attitudes of coaches and/or children in the gym, you will be dismissed from RGA. Many sacrifices were made to provide the children of the county with a state of the art, top notch training facility, and it will be a magical, wonderful, spectacular, magnificent, extraordinary, fantastic, marvelous, super, awesome, amazing place, with your support. Attitudes affect safety. Students will treat coaches with absolute respect, because they are ultimately in charge of the safety of each child. Safety is number one at RGA. Although gymnastics does improve overall
health in many ways, a severely obese child should not be enrolled in gymnastics.
Only children at a safe weight, should be enrolled. Check with your
doctor if you are uncertain.
"Attitude"
More: Children have the most potential to learn the sport of gymnastics or tumbling between the ages of 6 and 12. This is the most crucial time of life when kids are most fearless, and most agile. Typically, if they have not received any training prior to age 12, it is ok to have high expectations, and desire will conquer fears. If the desire is there, almost anything is possible. To see the most for your money, enroll your child in a year-round gymnastics program, as early as you can. I have seen many start their children in serious gymnastics training too early. Nothing saddens me more than a child who has quit gymnastics before realizing her full potential. To avoid this, you must let your child decide how much, and how often she wants to train. Forcing a child of any age to participate in a sport as difficult and challenging as gymnastics, will result in disappointment on both the part of the parent and student. Some children can begin training seriously at age 6, and train happily all the way to their senior year in high school; while others who start serious training at age 6 will burn out and quit before realizing their full potential. It largely depends on the work ethic naturally born within each individual child, and whether or not the parent is too demanding. The parents who are willing to be patient, and respect this process, are always the parents with the most successful kids at our gym. Safety is our number one priority. Just because a student appears physically strong enough, does not mean they are ready mentally. Many students are already strong enough to do very difficult skills right now, but the mental awareness needed to complete a skill takes a long time to develop. Just because a child is strong enough, does not mean her MIND is ready for the task. Mind and body must work together to perform gymnastics and tumbling. I have seen many of out best tumblers lose all their tumbling ability for a while, due to mental blocks, and fear issues. Those who lose their tumbling, get it back sooner, when the parents DO NOT interfere, but rather, offer sympathy and friendly support. The interference of parents can make it difficult to proceed. Most students learn gymnastics better at a snail’s pace. Snail’s pace learners will stay in gymnastics longer, while quick, impatient, fly-by-night students who look for ways around the hard work, and short-cuts to success, become susceptible to injury and loss of confidence. It takes about 2 years average for students, from Beginners class, to get on the gymnastics team, with year round attendance, IF they pay attention and follow directions in class. It takes about one to two years beyond that for team girls to learn a full twisting layout. Students on the team attend up to four days a week, for three hours each day. That is 12 hours of training each week - YEAR ROUND. The team gymnast does about 5,000 back handsprings in practice per year. Compare that to a girl who comes to gymnastics one month before a high schoolrleading tryout to learn a back handspring. BIG DIFFERENCE! Not everybody reaches the level of team. There are many reasons, but the main reason is a lack of patience on the part of the parent. I have seen kids come to beginners for over a year, spend one month in intermediate class, one month on pre-team, and boom!, suddenly they are awesome, and are on team! Sometimes they are in beginners for two years before this happens. The children are all given the same curriculum here, but it is how they respond to it that determines their pace. Everyone is different, and everyone will progress at a different pace. This pace cannot be influenced by negative comments to the child from the parent. Positive encouragement is always the best thing a parent can offer to ensure progress! Children are reluctant to believe parents know anything, especially about the dynamics and psychological complexities of gymnastics. Even if you know a lot about it, your coaching tips will stimulate a possible rebellion, or even a loss of interest. Children even as old as high school age, want parents to be astounded and spellbound, not questioned or criticized of their every move when gymnastics is already difficult & frustrating enough. They don’t need a disappointed looking parent, while they proceed through a NORMAL process of gaining and losing skills. Acting like you know nothing about it, and being impressed that they do, always makes them want to learn it more. Offering encouragement, and holding back on the coaching is always the best suggestion I can offer to parents, no matter what the personality, or relationship of the child and parent. If you become frustrated with your child, try to remain positive! They won’t learn because you want them to. They will learn if it is fun, and if they want to! “Will my daughter get this faster if she takes private lessons?” I have also heard “We did a ton of private lessons, and she still didn’t get it!” Private instruction is not really ideal. Learning with others in a class situation, can provide a student with more time to rest between activities. Students in a class meet new friends, that help motivate each other. Private lessons can be very dull and boring, because there are far more repetitions than an average class. ***The competition between students can strengthen their desire to learn.*** Private instruction is by no means a short cut to learning anything, and is only advised when a student is already enrolled in every class possible, but is having extreme fear issues which will become safety issues, or has difficulty understanding a specific skill that needs one on one attention. People get their back handsprings much faster in a group situation. Instead of paying for 3 months of private lessons, save your money and enroll your child year round in the proper class at the gym. Private lessons will burn your child out twice as fast, and will also empty your pocket book twice as fast. There are no overnight answers to learning. People who try to get around the hard work, and defy the normal, snail’s pace process of learning, will experience instability, uncertainty, sudden crashes, loss of confidence, will regress, and will ultimately get discouraged and drop out. Furthermore, year-round participation is required for progress. If your child does not attend year round, you are not going to see the results you want. The child will basically be bored to death, because she will be learning and re-learning everything - again and again, instead of constantly building on what she knows, and continually learning new things. Remember, snail’s pace learners stay in the sport longer, and see the best results! Don’t expect to see magic overnight! By the time a child has gone through beginners, intermediates, pre-team, and becomes a very advanced team gymnast, she has spent approximately ONE THOUSAND HOURS in the gym. That is a conservative estimate! Give it time, offer support & encouragement, and help your child to become consistent by getting her to the gym year round! Consistency is the key to success. This is the recipe for an amazing gymnast or cheerleader! |
