If you've read other pages of this website, you know it's essential to find a gym that fits your gymnast.

Selecting a gym, especially for competitive gymnasts, isn't as easy as signing up at the closest gym. Although it could be that easy, it's not always.

For many gymnasts, selecting a gym means checking out multiple gyms and comparing them.

Just how do you find the right one for your gymnast?

There are so many things that go into deciding if a gym is the right fit for your family. Let's start going over some of them.

The gym philosophy is the gym's overall belief system that guides their everyday behavior and actions.

The philosophy of each and every gym will be different. To find the right fit for your gymnast, investigate the gym's philosophy.

Each gym's attitude toward training will be different. Of course, the environment in the gym will directly affect a gymnast's training and emotional state.

In gyms where the gymnasts are respected and listened to, self-esteem soars. Children who feel good about themselves are more focused in training. They're more open to listening to corrections. Children training in positive environments understand their value and worth isn't tied to the coach's correction. They're less likely to get hurt or suffer an injury. They're more likely to pay attention to what's going on around them in the gym.

Gymnasts training in a negative environment, faced with sarcasm or demeaning comments, are more distracted and emotionally stressed. They're accidents waiting to happen because of the emotionally unstable training environment.

To find a gym with a positive training environment that fits your needs, you will need to ask some questions and look around.

Some questions to ask when assessing the positive nature of the gym include:

• How does the gym provide performance feedback or information about what needs to be done physically to successfully achieve the skill?

• Does the coach provide consistent positive reinforcement when the gymnast achieves pieces needed for success?

• Does the gym foster an environment of respect?

• Does the coach motivate the gymnast to achieve mastery, or is it more about 'good enough'?

• Are there rewards for efforts on an ongoing basis? Note: Rewards don't need to be physical things, and in fact, rarely should be an actual prize. For example, a gymnast may be rewarded with leading an exercise in conditioning after showing good form. Or, the gymnast who quickly corrected a shape may be asked to demonstrate the proper shape.

One of the most critical parts of a coach's job is to prepare gymnasts for the next level. If a coach skips part of the progressive building blocks, it can have training ramifications for years. Every skill's success depends on diligent drilling, training, shaping, and practice. Taking short-cuts in training (for any reason) will only cost more time in the long run. It takes longer and is more challenging to go back and fix a skill than to train it correctly the first time. (Parents, this is the exact reason coaches don't want your gymnast learning new skills at home - just thought I'd mention that.)

Taking the time to go back and fix a skill also delays other training and can impact multiple events. Problems on bars don't always stay on bars (nor were they probably created on bars).

It is in everyone's best interest to train progressively, carefully building upon skills to reach the gymnast's potential. That means training some skills you may never compete - simply because the skill is an essential building block in your progression as a competitive gymnast.

Some other questions to ask to assess training philosophy include:

• What are the training hours by level?

• How do they determine which gymnasts will move up a level?

• When are level determinations made?

• How is up training handled? Is it only during summers, or also during the competitive season?

Every gym will have different policies regarding the safety of gymnasts. While keeping your gymnast safe will be your first concern, it's your job to make sure the gym takes its role seriously.

All gyms will say safety is a priority.

I encourage you to look deeper, and trust what you see, not just what they say.

Part of understanding how your gym treats safety is understanding their policy regarding injuries. Some questions to ask include:

• How does the gym handle gymnast injuries?

• What happens when a gymnast needs modified conditioning?

• How about if my daughter is restricted in the skills she can perform due to injury?

Some gyms place more emphasis on safety and injury prevention than others.

Our understanding of how gymnastics training affects growth and development has grown and changed tremendously over the past few decades.

We (now) know that our training practices at even the lowest levels need to be geared toward safety to protect gymnasts' health long term. Just as our knowledge of concussions has grown, our understanding of repetitive training injuries has also increased.

Repetitive injuries are a genuine concern in gymnastics - and some gyms take them more seriously than others.

Gyms should have a policy regarding injuries and injury prevention. It's not just about handling an injury once it's happened - the gym has a responsibility to keep your gymnast safe during training.

Having seen the damage gymnastics training can do to young bodies, I encourage you to discuss it with your gym. Remember, their priority is *not* to protect your gymnast - that's your job as their parent.

Some questions to ask about the gym’s injury prevention policies:

• Do all levels warm up and stretch?

• Are there caps on hours for any levels?

• Are skills trained on softer surfaces, such as trampolines or tumbl-traks, before being taken to the floor?

• Are sting mats be used to reduce the force on wrists and ankles?

• Is conditioning ever used as punishment?

• Are there conditioning rest days in between tough conditioning sessions?

• Do the gymnasts do strength training with weights? If so, what size weights are they using on average?

• Are coaches trained in injury prevention?

Open communication between the gymnast and coach is necessary for a healthy training environment. Gymnasts should always be encouraged to bring concerns to their coach.

Coaches should be willing to listen to the gymnast's concerns and address them appropriately. No matter the crisis, the coach should take it seriously and handle it.

It would greatly concern me if a gymnast was not comfortable bringing a concern to their coach.

Whether it's a question about why she's doing something or a question about IF she can do something, a gymnast should be able to talk it through with her coach. That doesn't mean the coach needs to stop the practice immediately to address it. But, they should be addressing it in a caring and compassionate manner and work toward a resolution.

Some questions to ask gymnasts at the gym you're considering include:

• Do the gymnasts feel comfortable taking a training question to their coach?

• What if they have an injury during practice? Are they comfortable telling their coach?

• What if they have a fear of doing a skill? How does the coach handle it?

Having open and supportive communication between your gymnast and their coach is imperative - especially as the skills get harder.

Your gymnast needs to be able to trust their coach and gym.

Make sure you do too.