Lisa Steiner
May 8, 2018 11:57
Our daughter started out in recreational classes at Danik last year, and when team try out announcements were made, she wanted to try. She made it to the Level 1 team. On the first day of practice for the team, I drove my daughter to drop her off. (We were told that it's preferred that parents do not stay.) My daughter was 6, so I didn't feel comfortable dropping her off without knowing where to send her. We waited and waited in the sitting area, with no one coming over to instruct us where to go. I had to get back to work (practice was in the morning during the summer, and luckily I work from home so I could drop her off). Finally, I took off my shoes and tried to walk her over to a coach in the work out area. As I am walking with her, I get yelled at, "Are you a parent? You need to go wait over there." That did not sit well with me. I complained to the head coach later via email; turns out she was the one who I had the interaction with.
To make a long story short, pretty much our entire time on the team went like that. We had very little communication with the coaches--it was all done via email, and never in person. Our daughter had some behavior issues during practice, and we were not told about it until months later. The woman at the front desk is not helpful at all and looks and acts like she hates her job. I'm not sure why the folks at Danik don't treat their clients better.
To Danik's credit, they do seem to win a lot of competitions, so the coaches obviously know their stuff. We had a couple of personal coaching sessions, and that coach was so lovely and helpful to our daughter. But all in all, the communication is just absolutely horrible. We changed gyms, my daughter is on the team, and she is thriving. She enjoys it so much, and so do we. I have talked to more people (front desk, coaches) in just three weeks than I have in a year at Danik. Danik is just not the place for us. If your child is going for a college scholarship or wants to be in the olympics, then I would suggest Danik. If she wants to have fun, perhaps it's not the right place for you either.