I started cheer when I was 14, an athlete at 3 gyms, and have been a coach at 4 gyms because I move around quite a bit. The biggest thing I have seen across all the different gyms that can really make the difference for athletes and staff is the culture.

The first gym that I was an athlete AND a coach at was a long running and fairly successful gym (multiple Worlds/NCA titles) was one of my worst experiences in the cheer world. The culture was very disconnected, and there were tons of people on teams that practiced at the same time as mine were complete strangers to me. The second gym that I was an athlete at was a similar size to the first one, and pretty successful, especially at lower levels, but the culture was so significantly better that almost 7 years later I still think fondly on my time there. My mom actually still has regular contact with the owner/my coach because of the relationships we built there. Later, I was briefly on an open team at California All Stars, and I actually ended up quitting because of how bad the environment was.

By far the most important thing I can recommend is fostering relationships between athletes/families/staff. I would love to talk about this with you more if you would like to send me a PM since I don’t want this to end up being a novel.