History

We've had many great coaches at Hangtime over the years, and everyone brought something unique to the business in one way or another.   The challenge was creating a new culture and getting buy in from existing employees or coaches with a gymnastics or cheer back ground. 

There was a risk of coaches picking up bad habits from past training or coaching.  When a gym enrollment hits 200, everything changes if you are not prepared in advance. How did we fix the issue and make sure to give our customer a quality coaching experience?

The answer is to develop a culture that requires all coaches to learn, train, and track the same way across the gym. More than one training style does not work and causes more problems than you can imagine. For instance, you were trained by Savannah and now lead your own Bronze class. Parents love you. Tomorrow you need to take off work for a final exam. No worries! The other coach agrees to take your class tomorrow so life is good. The backup coach has been coaching for a few years and was a great athlete. However, the kids in class gave her a hard time because she is not teaching them the skills that they were working on last week since there was no lesson plan or skill tracker. Parents are now whispering in the lobby about their child working back rolls again. Finally, the coach learns that the kids are working  on cartwheel and begins to teach them handstand drills. The coach has everyone get in a single file line and take turns one by one.  After class, a few parents come up to the front desk and ask who  is the new teacher? We don't feel like she was teaching the same way.. We feel like the kids spent most of their time sitting down waiting. The point is that there are many specific reasons for standardizing our coaching style. pThe system works fantastic when everyone believes in the process and takes each step of the process seriously. 

The Start To New Culture 

Why did we invest so much time and energy into our standardization efforts? As a business, its important that each customer gets the best service and experience possible.  It is equally important that we set our coaches up for success and give them the proper tools and training to become the best coach they can be. In the beginning, Savannah taught most of the classes in our gym, recreational and team classes. In less than a year, our enrollment jumped from 40 athletes to 150 athletes. A year later, Hangtime's enrollment was over 500 kids.   At the age of 23, this young business owner and coach went from overseeing 5 classes each week to managing over 80 classes per week with 20 coaches. 

A good program includes training, planning, coaching, evaluations, skill tracking, and continuous improvement.  It is like a circle.  First,  a list was built  with all of the tumbling skills in a progressive order. Next, the drills for each skill.  the list in a progressive order.For example, a student will learn a forward roll before learning the front tuck.  will come before the standing handstand skill.   Now, the

Beginner Bronze Class

Stay tuned for next week where we will run through class management.