Openness, honesty, and transparency is the best case scenario in sport as in life.
I am suspicious of all gyms that are closed to spectators. It begs the question, “What do they have to hide?” — even when there is nothing to hide.
That said, there are better and worse ways to open a training venue to spectators. Altadore Gymnastics has the best set-up I’ve seen: big one way mirrored windows. Parents can see in, but the kids cannot see out.
Funtastics was the first gym I saw to provided closed circuit video monitoring of those parts of the gym not visible from the spectator area. Another great idea.
3 comments ↓
Interesting topic.
At a gymnastics gym I work at, The spectators, parents are right there behind a 3 foot wall. They sit right there and hear everything within 30 feet and they have a whole panoramic view of the gym. They don’t have to move unless they want to hear more clearly.
At the other gyms I worked for, I actually preferred doing my private sessions with the parents right next to me or at least close by. Some parents already understand that their kid gets distracted when they watch so they try to peek hiding behind a wall.
Parents were my best marketers, especially for the young students. Parents talked to each other and how much their kid benefitted from my private sessions. It’s also more fun educating the parents of what’s going on with their kid; their psychology, technique, etc. Some of these things you can’t really explain to 5 to ten year olds. And when they (the parents) learn what’s going on, they realize how much their kid needs to work to get to their goal.
Other coaches like to be more private. I don’t know what the big deal is. But I do admit that sometimes parents will try to play “coach”. But it’s just a minor nuisance and never had a real problem with it. I really think that developing the relationship with the parents is just as important as with the kids. Besides, they have the money.
That’s cool by the way with the one way mirror. Perfect set up.
Coach Mack
At our gym we literally don’t have the space for parents to stay – the only sessions they can stay for a pre-school sessions. We have an open evening once a term so that parents can see what goes on and we leave the curtains open so that parents can see in from the outside if they really want to. Once a month the squad trains at a facility with a balcony where the parents can stay and watch – but like i said before we just don’t have the space for them to stay at our gym – not ideal I know but our parents seem ok with it after the first week or two – mostly after that they go off and do their shopping, happy to leave their kids for an hour and a half!
I like the idea of the one way window!
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