Chloe’s Kindergym coach appears to be very knowledgeable about the sport. I’m sure all of the coaches at the gym we attend are former gymnasts, perhaps some even still competing, some sadly still playing tapes of their “Eye Of The Tiger” floor routine hoping for better than fourth place out of five competitors overall just once, but I digress. They are all bursting with energy and understand the basics with an emphasis on having fun and tiring our wee ones out while learning.

I sometimes wonder how a person decides to coach children and almost always I categorize their motivation into one of three options.

1)      They have a child involved in the sport

2)       They are putting in volunteer hours towards something involving children and/or sports hoping it will lead to other opportunities

3)      They are no longer able to compete at a level they once did but by coaching, they can still have a hand in a sport they love.

I wondered which of the above was true in the case of Chloe’s coach and thought perhaps she had  a child on the team and wanted to get involved in a bigger way.

Then last week while explaining what to do on the four beams at varying heights and widths she announced, “Okay guys, I want you to pretend the blue floor mats (covering the entire floor of the beam room) are water and in the water live tons of scary (emphasis on SCARY) sharks so you DO NOT want to fall off the beam into the water. Okay?” (How does that sound two year olds? Still looking forward to our next trip to Florida?)

 Conclusion: She is not a mother.