If you feel that a “license” makes the person better, ask yourself these questions: Have you ever had a bad haircut? Have you ever felt screwed by a doctor or lawyer? Do hunters always hit their targets? All these professions and more require licenses.”

Yeah, even people with licenses make mistakes or are not fit. The quality of the people with the license is also proportional to the rigor of the license requirements. Check out the number of bad gyms in the US. USAG background checks just started. Safety certification is an open book test affair that focuses on liability. And the coaching courses are not quality courses. You can’t learn to coach by reading a book and watching a video. I hadn’t heard of a judging course. The last I checked, it was get the books and study and take the test. That’s not a course.

If you feel that a “license” makes the person better, ask yourself these questions: Have you ever had a bad haircut? Have you ever felt screwed by a doctor or lawyer? Do hunters always hit their targets? All these professions and more require licenses.

Uneven bars is the biggest nemesis right now for the USA in World competition. Can you imagine if the girls cannot work on the bars?

I am also wondering what will happen to Karolyi’s camp for the elites if this happens. Almost all attendees are children.

The reason the bathroom thing is stupid is because the main gyms aren’t run as child care facilities and they don’t need all the sink/bathroom space.

I would like to let all the Texas gyms know that they are welcome to come to Colorado and open their gyms!

Is that the specific language used in the bill? “Children who train more than 10 hours a week?” If so, that’s unclear. Is it saying per child, or all children combined? As in, a gym without a team program may run gymnastics programs 5 hours an evening and throughout the day, all week, and 10 hours on Saturday, but no individual child trains 10+ hours a week, though the facility itself is “training children” more than 10 hours. If the language is specifying a particular child who trains more than 10 hours, then it looks like the statute would only affect gyms with “team” programs. This wouldn’t really differentiate between most of the gyms in my home town, as pretty much all of them had teams, but it may force some gyms (who have teams just to “have a team,” but don’t make it necessarily a focus of the facility) to make a decision about whether they want to continue their team program or just be a recreational gym. Part of me doesn’t think that effect would be such a bad thing…

However, even for those gyms it would affect, or all gyms if the language is intended to mean more than what it literally indicates to me (at the moment)…

Bathroom/Sprinkler standards might be difficult to implement. I’ve never owned a gym, and I don’t know what the standards are, but considering most gyms I’ve ever worked in are old converted warehouses on back streets named “Industrial Blvd,” retrofitting them to accommodate modern requirements might be a financial burden small gyms would find it difficult to meet.

Licensing may or may not be a hassle depending upon what’s involved. Does it require an actual education degree? That’d be a lot to ask for (I’m not certain preschools require that right now anyway…maybe they do, maybe they do in Texas, I don’t know). But if it’s just another online certification, then, ok, fine, it’s annoying, it’s silly, it’s just another hoop, but whatever.

As for matting, safety “fall zones” etc., I think the best authority for whether or not uneven bars are safe is probably the super-cautious insurance company who has decided to insure the equipment, and wouldn’t do so if it didn’t meet some supremely high standard. So, yes, representatives need to be educated in that regard. Gym equipment is probably doing a fairly good job of self-regulating on that front, without the need for state legislatures to jump in. I could be wrong, there, too. I don’t manufacture, sell, or insure equipment.

**Note: Just a civics reminder before we all get too flustered, “passing the Senate sub-committee” is not the same as “passing the Senate.” It’s like saying “All the people who worked on putting this bill together agree that the bill has been put together.” I’m sure everyone knows that, and I apologize if that sounded condescending, I just thought it should be mentioned.

Some of this is pretty dumb and as long as people don’t sit on their butts – which I don’t see happening in sports-crazy Texas – it won’t go through in it’s current state.

I don’t have a problem with workers being licensed. Shit, USAG won’t require a license so I’m glad somebody is.

I don’t have a problem with facilities meeting child care bathroom/sprinkler standards.

The outdoor playground and the uneven bar climbing structure things are dumb. They’re not showing up for 10+ hours to go outside and play on the jungle gym. And an uneven bar safety fall zone is called a landing mat. Gymnastics LMs are way better than anything you will ever see under a playground climbing structure.

This certainly cant be the first that everyone is hearing about this, and it seems that a lack of our (coaches) understanding of the legal system, and communication with state senators pointing out the “best interest” of the people is what caused this. It still needs to be signed into law (and pass through the house), so many people can get their voices heard and make sure it does not fully pass without serious overhaul.

Right now, educating those who are in power is absolutely necessary. I certainly hope that everyone who has a say and is effected by this speaks up. If Texas sets a standard like this, it’s really only a matter of time before other states begin to consider it.

Then again.. pointing out obesity as a reason against this bill hasn’t been a major motivator in Texas as late – you know, everything’s bigger in Texas: Even the people. Perhaps this will help make people in Texas understand why they have such a problem with overwight children, and make concerted efforts to get law makers with the right mind set into office.

Much like Linsul, this makes me rather upset too; and I don’t live in Texas. If I did, I would be writing my representative daily; and every other representative I could get a hold of.