Rowland Ballard Kingwood - Gymnastics & Preschool — Local services in Houston

Coach David damaged my daughter’s confidence as an athlete. We landed at Rowland Ballard in Kingwood the first year they had a competitive team. They told us the team at Rolland Ballard in Atascocita was full.

The first year was all training and no competing. However at the end of the year my daughter competed in her first team meet (against all her teammates). The competition ended with my daughter placing first in two events, second in one event and FIRST OVERALL!! However, by the time the season started for her to compete against other teams, she didn’t even make the roster to compete; she was an alternate.

The gym we previously came from, we done privates every single week because I know my child needs 1:1 attention. When I asked the coach David if he could work us in privates he said, “they currently weren’t offering any” he even brought his assistant coach over to further confirm that there were no privates at that time. However, after sitting in the parent area during practice, I heard another mom talking about how her daughter was taking privates every week...I confronted him about it and of course he was then willing to take my money and do privates.

After two seasons with this team and slowly seeing all the other athletes become better and better and my daughter remain at the ability she was when we first came was frustrating. Coach David told some of the older the girls (including Kaleah) they would have to try out for the team at the Atascocita location. I then asked if he would work with her on her back handspring before tryouts. His response “you can work with her, because I’ve tried.” I walked out of there and never paid that place another dime. I tried to get my daughter to join other gyms for gymnastics but she refused.

What I didn’t find out until recently is, that that same day we left, during practice he called the girls in one by one and what he told my daughter was “You’re older and tall; maybe you should try another sport like swim or something”

If I wasn’t before, I am utterly disgusted. My daughter was only 9yrs old at the time. A supposed Coach is always supposed to build up their athletes, not...

STAY AWAY! Rowland Ballard has recently been sold to new owners and what was once a wonderful home for many families and athletes in the community has changed and not for the good. There has been ZERO communication from the new owners - Powers Gymnastics Group (Jill Powers and Trevor Thompson) - since they have taken over. People literally found out the gym was sold on Facebook! We were told they would introduce themselves - they never did. We were told there would be “no changes.” More lies. The Dance director who’s been there for decades is now gone and the gymnastics Director, who’s been there 20 years, was then fired (which we also found out about on Facebook!) And now, they just cut the entire team program leaving every single one of those 60+ girls heartbroken and either scrambling to find a new gym or leaving them no choice but to quit the sport they love. It is very clear they do not care about the loyal coaching staff, the parents, or the athletes. This is solely about greed and money. Do not give...

There are a lot of ways this gym could improve, but mostly, they should be patient with young children. Especially since they also operate a preschool there. My 4 year old son started kindergym there with coach J. She randomly one day pulled me aside to express concerns about my son’s “behavior.” My husband and I had talks with him at home about listening and took some of his favorite things away to earn back with good behavior reports from coach J. After coach j expressed her concern, I was watching him like a hawk during class. I never took my eyes off him and did not notice a single instance of him misbehaving. Not one single time. However, after that class she again came up to me saying that his behavior was “the worst it had ever been.” I would accept this concern if I hadn’t been watching him the entire class, but I had been. My son was trying his best to do what she expected. I hope that in the future the staff is more patient with young children as they all develop at...