Our recent experience with Naydenov Gymnastics was not what I would call a pleasant one. My only real problem with the company was one particular teacher. My youngest son had a female teacher; she was amazing, caring and fun. I would recommend her any day.
My oldest son had a man named Sam and let me just say any company who deals with young children should never employee such a man. He was working with 6-10 year olds in this class and he was constantly putting them down, calling them names, yelling and making life miserable for the four weeks we were there.
Sam made one boy cry and told the child “Crying like a little baby girl wont help anything.” Then he teased and poked at the kid about having a “bad attitude.”
Sam put his hands on my sons shoulders and shook him while yelling at him during class. All because my son didn’t understand what Sam wanted him to do, as Sam hadn’t properly explained or showed the students what he wanted.
Sam only paid real compliments to his favorites and allowed the other students to make fun of the students who weren’t doing well at the class.
My son had never been to gymnastics before and Sam’s “coaching” consisted of telling them “Go do what they do.” He didn’t show them or explain it in a way that a new kid could understand and then yelled at my son when he didn’t do it perfectly. Not every child has done this before and some care has to be taken with students new to gymnastics so that they can learn the basics.
We talked to the women in the front office about our concerns and her reply was “It’s a love hate relationship, some parents love him, some don’t. He’s been working here for 13 years and we’re not going to change him.” Because of that attitude I will not be re-enrolling either of my children in any of their classes from any teacher. The mission statement on their website clearly states “He designed and built the gym to facilitate students of all ages training them, for competition, while gaining self-esteem, self-discipline, strength and balance.” If someone can explain to me how yelling, name calling, teasing and harassing students instills self-esteem I would love to hear it.
If you want your kids to be star athletes then this gym may work well for you. But if you want your kids to have fun, feel empowered, happy and positive when they leave, I would suggest looking elsewhere, you wont find it with this company or with Sam.
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