u/Low-Call5510

Hi everyone! I’m a gymnastics coach and I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how many things coaches are kind of expected to just learn as they go. Many (including myself five years ago) get thrown in without fully understanding what they are getting themselves into. Yes, it takes experience to be a good coach, but what if there was something that made you learn faster and made you not so anxious when you step into the gym?
I was talking to another coach at my gym recently and she mentioned feeling like a bad coach because she doesn’t know how to spot many skills yet, doesn’t really know what corrections to give, and just wants to become better. It got me thinking about how helpful it would be to have better resources for things like coach training, spotting confidence/progress, skill corrections, drills, class management, lesson planning, etc.
So I wanted to ask other coaches and gym owners: what do you wish you had at your gym?
It could be anything. Something you wish existed when you first started coaching, something you wish you could hand to coaches now, resources that would make things easier, etc.
Basically, what problems do you run into as a coach or gym owner that make you think, “I wish there was something for this”?
I’d love to hear from coaches of any experience level!

There’s a child in one of my preschool classes that started almost two months ago. We’ll call her Anna to simplify this (that is NOT the child’s real name). Anna was really enjoying her first few times at gymnastics so much, that she would cry every time she had to leave. Parent started doing two classes a week for Anna because it seemed she loved it so much. Within the first class I could tell Anna was going to be a wild child, but I figured that I have taught many wild ones before, and they start to calm down once they realize what the usual routine is at gymnastics. I was proven wrong this time.

It’s like a switch flipped last week. She refused to do anything and would sit on the floor pouting almost the entire time. I was much more firm about expectations this week, so that possibly could have set her off, idk. She would stare at me when asked to stretch and give me a “I’m not going to listen to you” look. She wouldn’t listen to a single thing I said such as: “Anna, go sit with your friends” she would then go sit on a mat away from her friends. “Anna, if I see that you don’t have your listening ears on, we have to go sit with your grown up” she eventually flopped onto the floor and started hitting the floor. I ignored the behavior to see if she would calm down, but it got worse. She eventually stood up and started hitting the wall with both hands and began making pouting noises (not screaming, if that makes sense?) That is when I asked a coworker of mine to take her to her parent. Parent was not in the waiting area, so they had to go outside to find them. She didn’t come back in, so I can only assume they left. I don’t know what was said to them.

I am at such a loss about this, should I talk to the parent about this? What would I even say? Should I talk to my boss about this? My coworkers describe me as being the most patient person they know, but if I’m being honest, it felt like I was about to go off on this child. I feel like the way I described this situation wasn’t even similar to what it was actually like, because it felt 10x worse. Anna was in a preschool summer camp last week, and my coworker took a video of her having the same kind of meltdown, but it lasted much longer for her. Wth do I do?!?