Sometimes attending classes is something that can be impractical for one reason or another. Maybe your schedule is simply too all over the place for you to attend a class at any set day and time of the week. Whatever the case may be, knowing what to expect here is a good way to know if this might be just what you need.
Getting private gymnastics lessons usually costs somewhere $40.00 to $100.00 per session. Therefore, if you are having one session a week, then you can spend somewhere between $160.00 to $400.00 per month.
There are any number of reasons why you might want to have private lessons with a gymnastics coach even if you can attend the regular classes. Private lessons do tend to be slightly more expensive than classes though, so you should weigh the pros and cons as much as you can first.
Why You Should Take Some Private Gymnastics Lessons
One of the main reasons why you might consider going with private lessons is because it allows you to work one on one with a coach. You can be at any level of gymnastics, whether level 1 or level 10, and the personal time can often help you to learn faster.
Sometimes a gymnast can have some sort of a mental block, often when it comes to doing a backward flip or something like this, and having some one on one time with a gymnastics coach who knows what they are doing and how to conquer this problem might be just what is needed in order to get past that block so that you can do the skill.
You should keep in mind that a coach never has enough time to teach all that they would like to and all that they could teach in a class. In China they keep the young kids for months at a time and can often have more than one training session nearly every day.
However, that is not something that most people in the U.S. could do, but having as much time as possible with your gymnastics coach is still something that is a good thing if you can afford to have the extra private lessons.
This is all assuming, of course, that the coach that you hire for your private lessons is a good one who knows what they are doing and how to help you get the most out of your one on one lesson. Very occasionally you will even see a coach give a medal promise.
What this means is that they are giving you their guarantee that if you schedule the one private lesson with them every week in addition to the group class that you will win a medal at one of the State events. While that medal might not be the gold, this is still a great sign that a coach is confident that they can teach you well.
The personal time is great at increasing a gymnast’s abilities, but often private classes are best done for only one or two specific events so that you can really get something down instead of trying to spend 15 minutes on all four of the different events.
If finding time is an issue for you, then you should keep in mind that you do not have to go with full one-hour private lessons. It is perfectly alright to schedule a private lesson for one half of an hour, and you might be surprised at how much you can accomplish in that amount of time with the undivided attention of your coach.
On the other hand, you could also go for longer private sessions if you can, such as a one and a half hour long session or even a two hour a session if you wanted to. Preferably this is something that should be scheduled on a day when you do not have your regular group practice training session.
The floor, the beam, and the bar are the ones that you should really request to work on during private lessons, with the bar being one of the more popular ones that might need the most work. One of the reasons why the bars in particular is best suited to a one on one training session is because of the fact that it is one of the pieces of equipment that will need the most amount of spotting from the coach when a new skill is being learned and a coach may not have the ability during a group class to do this.
Vaulting might be a lot of work, but this is one of the areas that is perfectly suited to a group class since it takes time for the first gymnast to walk back to the starting spot anyway and in the meantime the coach can point out to the other class what the first person did wrong or right for the rest.
There are some teams that require each of the gymnasts to have private lessons at some point in the week in addition to their group ones. Sometimes this is included in the price of the class package, but at other times you may have to pay for this in addition to the cost of the group classes.
Why You Should Go With Group Gymnastics Classes
While there are obviously plenty of advantages to getting private lessons when you are learning gymnastics, there are also some benefits to be a part of group lessons to. As mentioned, group lessons are much more likely to be cheaper than private lessons.
However, a group setting is capable of being more nurturing than a private lesson can be. By becoming a part of a group of gymnasts you really get to work on your social skills, but there is a lot more to this than that.
This is because gymnastics is much more than just mastering certain movements, though this is a very important part of it. Other things that need to be developed are right attitudes, patience, and confidence even when you know other people are around watching you.
One option that you are likely to see a little of is something that is called semi-private classes. These classes are often only made of two, or sometimes three, young gymnasts at one time and therefore allow each one to take turns doing as instructed and getting spotted by the coach.
This is a great option for a number of different reasons. First is that each gymnast still gets plenty of training. Next there is the fact that this is often a little cheaper than an individual lesson. These are best done when the two gymnasts are as close to the same level of skill as possible.
Final Things That You Should Know
All in all, there are both advantages and disadvantages either way you go when it comes to taking gymnastics group lessons. However, generally speaking the best thing by far to do is to go to a group class and then to supplement that as needed with some private lessons.
Often times when you go this route you will get to have some form of a discount on the extra lessons, and you will also be getting the full advantages of both options.
There are also a few things that you should know about private lessons, other than the fact that you will still need to be wearing the appropriate clothing, no jewelry, etc. One of these things is that you will have to set an appointment for each lesson and you cannot choose a time of day that is already booked with a class.
There are essentially two ways that you can schedule your classes. Recurring lessons are most often purchased as a package and are set at the same time and day every week or every other week. The other way is intermittent classes which are scheduled ahead of time one at a time.
You should also know that you will have to give the gym a 24 hour advance warning if you are going to need to cancel or reschedule for any reason. If you fail to do this, then most of the time they will charge you for the lesson anyway.