Does your gym do theme weeks? Over the last few years I must admit that theme weeks have contributed to the overall improved quality of our program. They engage the kids, show off our kid-friendly approach and when done right, it makes me feel like a Theme Queen. Some days, I LOVE working on a really great theme, getting all the details right and spicing up old ideas with new innovative twists. Other days, I HATE theme weeks because I don’t have time or energy to really focus and/or the ideas I come up with are totally LAME-O. My roller-coaster relationship with themes can be summed up like this:
We do monthly(ish) themes at my gym. This was fun to plan on my own for the first year on the job, but as my plate of tasks grew, I had less and less time/energy/ideas to keep theme weeks up to snuff.
So I put a call out to all my staff, inviting them to join the “Theme Team”!
This was one of the best decisions I made last year. Nearly all my “HATES” were solved. I had about 5 regular team members who were able to:
- contribute awesome theme topics
- brainstorm ideas to incorporate on all the events, plus a couple ideas for warm up & cool down games
- help set up & take down
- increase buy-in from all the other staff. Partly because there were more coaches advocating for & explaining the details of each theme (since they planned it) and partly because no one wanted to disappoint their colleagues (aka friends) who put in all the prep work!
I love theme weeks again (most of the time) and I LOVE that it’s also created a leadership opportunity for Theme Team staff to impact our gym in a really positive way!
Something to consider if your theme week relationship is on the rocks – I’m sure you have keen staff eager to be your Theme Team, too!
