Explain the WHY. So often we get frustrated when a parent or staff member is asking us questions as if they don’t totally believe what we’re saying. The reality is – they may just not understand why something is so important. Maybe the staff member used to work at a gym where rescheduling a practice because the coach had plans was common practice. In fact, maybe you’ve allowed it at your own gym, and realized it was tough to justify that missed practice to the team. Perhaps the idea of rescheduling was easier when you were a smaller gym, but now finding floor space another night a week would be tough. I find that when we tell someone why something is the way it is, they can understand it more clearly from your perspective. Even with a “why” though, it has to benefit the other person as well. “It will be hard for the team to understand where their spots are if Suzie isn’t there for choreography.” Well, that may fall on deaf ears if mom is more concerned about Suzie than about others on the team. However, if you rephrase that to, “It will be very challenging for Suzie to learn her spots during a private lessons since our choreography often integrates partnerwork and floorwork where we really need the other athletes present.” Look at situations from a variety of angles and perspectives so you can find the greatest benefit for the person you’re speaking with and explain it from that angle. “I know you like to have a full floor for at least an hour of practice. Unfortunately if I move your practice to any other night of the week, I wouldn’t be able to give you that. We also run into issues where the kids who play other sports may not be able to commit to practicing on that night. For those reasons, we won’t be able to move your practice to Tuesday.”

Look at alternative solutions. These days if you tell a staff member he/she can’t have the night off work, you run the risk of losing that person altogether. Is that the way it should be? Maybe not, but it’s a reality. We employ people who work 8-10 hours per week. They may get paychecks that don’t even cover their car payment or rent each month. Many of our young staff don’t do this job because they have mouths to feed at home. They do it because they love it. But when you take away their flexibility, they often stop loving it. We find that working with someone to exercise all possible options is always best. For that reason, start looking at what compromises or solutions you can find. Look outside the box. While I won’t reschedule a team practice, I’d be willing to shift a practice by an hour every so often to help out a coach. There also may be coaches in reserve who would be willing to fill in. The best part about getting yourself off the schedule Monday through Thursday is that you can fill in and help your staff out in these situations. Eventually, you can hire a program director to fill in. I have already been faced with this issue this season. I have two kids on my Youth 2 who reserved their spots at Cub Scout camp back in October 2021. That means four months before our packet even came out, they had paid $600 to book a week at camp. I have 115 kids. I can’t change choreography dates because of those two kids. They also shouldn’t be penalized for reserving something almost a year ago. Instead, I’m going to find an alternative solution. One is up for a big Cub Scout promotion (that’s not my world, so probably not the right verbiage) and he really can only miss one day of camp. So, I worked with his mom to pick the day that I think we’ll be doing dance choreography as that’s often the hardest for someone else to hop in and learn. Will it be convenient to have him gone? No. Not at all. We will make it work though. If you owned a gym in 2020, you’re probably really good at alternative solutions. These days I always think to myself… “If this kid got COVID the day before choreography, what would I do?” What was a MAJOR problem in our gyms in 2019 is a minor problem these days. We can make just about anything work. 2020 showed us that!