Earlier this week I told you about our Coffee & Conversation meetings I do each year and how some years I get some really amazing takeaways. This year our parents are really thrilled with how the season is playing out so far, and it’s been a little tougher to get that constructive feedback. Nevertheless, I do have a few things we’ll be changing moving forward, and I thought I’d share those. 

While we’re a large gym by nature, our all star program is fairly small. I have 136 all star kids, but a very large portion of those are prep and novice, so my elite program is fairly small, and by USASF standards, we’re a D2 gym. I’ve also been a microgym with those 28-30 kids being the only cheerleaders in the gym. It’s just been the last few years (thanks to the All Star Academy) that I’ve seen substantial growth in our lower levels.

So here are the areas we’ll be adding/changing for next season:

  1. I feel like we’ve never quite figured out the best way for our all star kids to do tumbling. (If you’re a small gym, you may be nodding your head because you know what I’m about to say…) Not every athlete on my Y2 team is tumbling at the same level. Some are still working on handsprings and some are working tucks. It’s a team of 11, and that team was the best for each of them based on age and skill. So a team tumbling class only benefits the lower half of the class as the more advanced athletes tend to not be as motivated. It also poses quite the challenge for coaches working through back walkovers and tucks in the same class. So, we vetoed team tumbling a few years ago. This year we tried again to have our all star kids join in on rec classes. (We have a HUGE rec program, so scheduling-wise this was also a good option.) However, now we see the athletes are struggling to stay focused and pushed. Rec is just different (I’m preaching the choir. I know.) So, next season we’re going to do competitive-only leveled tumbling classes. We offer competitive tumbling, so this will provide a make-up option for those athletes and allow athletes on varied teams to still do classes alongside one another but at their respective levels. They can move up when they test out of the class, and they can be pushed by competitive coaches. I’m really looking forward to this too, because I think kids who aren’t tumbling at the level of their team will work hard to be there so they can be in class with their teammates. It will also help kids across all teams get to know one another more.
  2. We did a great job of educating parents at tryouts about the difference of Novice, Prep and Elite. However, my Novice parents who started in August (when those teams began) were really only educated about Novice itself. So, I found out last night that they had no clue what their options were moving into next season because they didn’t really know the difference. The moral here is – I need to provide the information for those who may be interested even if it doesn’t seem like it would directly apply to them. I think if they had known the prep teams are the next step, they would have paid more attention to our prep teams at competition and practices where they often practice right beside each other.
  3. We have really done a good job at separating what comes with novice, prep and elite. Maybe too good of a job…Our novice parents mentioned this was the first time all season they were in the same room together. (They did welcome night together, but they may not realize that since it was the first night of practice.) That meant they didn’t make those connections early enough to get help with hair and make up from other parents at showcase, competition, team pictures, etc. While our novice teams don’t quite do the same level of bonding our prep and elite teams do, we need to get better at helping them build a connection early in the season.
  4. Follow through is everything. We do Meet the Team graphics on Band. We take the child’s picture at Welcome Night and they are sent a google form to complete with their favorites. We put them into a graphic and post on Band. Our director is really good at consistently posting these so everyone can get to know their teammates. Some of our parents weren’t great at completing the form this year, and when they finally did, she was already done scheduling them out. So, the athlete never got a Meet the Team graphic. Though we did our best to stay on top of it, the parents themselves had gotten behind and we never set a due date on that form…which meant we never knew when a new one was coming in. While I do everything electronically, next year that will be a paper form on Welcome Night. You’ll fill it out while you wait your turn and then turn it in at the end. Then, we have the info on time and can make and schedule those graphics early on and make sure we have everyone!

So, as you can see, the feedback I received will make minor changes for next season. Nothing will really affect pricing or major policies in the gym, but it’s a series of these small changes that lead to big shifts in culture and morale. At our tryout meeting for returning athletes next month, I’ll thank everyone who attended Coffee and Conversation and have a few slides with our changes for upcoming seasons based off their feedback. 

So there you have it: Over the last week or so, I’ve told you why I run it, how I run it, the questions I ask and what I do with the responses. I hope you’ve found this helpful in obtaining your own parent feedback!

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