Gym Drama

I've spent the week stressing over stuff happening at Megan's gym. I drafted three quite lengthy posts about it before deleting them; after all, the problem is pretty simple: Her favorite coaches are all leaving

I am surprised by how much of my emotional energy this situation has consumed. I have not been able to focus on much else. I think maybe I've invested too much of myself in my daughter's activities, which isn't healthy.

I contacted another gym -- one that is owned by one of the coaches from the 2004 US Women's Olympic team (and is currently a coach at UCLA) -- and the captain of the 2004 team is another coach there.

I know other people who tried out there and were told there was a waiting list, so they ended up elsewhere. But I also have a friend who has been there a while and told me that there might be a window of opportunity RIGHT NOW. So I arranged for Megan to try out there on Wednesday (missing her usual practice at her current gym, which has freaked out her current head coach, who has no problem putting two and two together and knows we must be looking around).

The owner of the other gym was very nice. He said Megan had what it takes to "go all the way" in gymnastics and said he thought she would be a nice fit on his team. And he told us that he trains his kids with an eye towards getting recruited by college teams. This was music to my ears.

But Megan doesn't want to make the change. She's loyal (which is a good quality). She doesn't want to leave the place that's been a second home to her these last three years, nor does she want to leave her teammates (although one of them has already defected to another gym).

She's the one who has to spend all the time there, so I feel it has to be her decision. But I am also afraid that when the coaches are gone (at the end of the month), she won't be so happy where we are.

On the other hand, she has pretty good instincts. And all the things I've stressed about in the past (regarding Megan) have proved to be just minor things. So I am trying to tell myself that we are not making a huge mistake by remaining where we are (at the same time, trying to figure out how to keep the door open at gym #2, just in case).

In the meantime, I need to step away and just be supportive.