Little Girls in Pretty Boxes

[Ingymmom]

movie is from 97

Here is a teaser of the book by Joan Ryan

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0446676829/ref=sib_fs_top/002-3003920-7076823?ie=UTF8&p=S00V&checkSum=RJcHlN19TNhH9TqUV8 vvp4Xg0JxaQXYFlnN2ZsxR8Dk%3D#

I was hooked and could not put it down when I read it... it was a very disturbing read for me, thankfully, and I highly recommend this - I immediately read "Letters to a Young Gymnast" right after by Nadia. I realized then that not all was at it seems and there were a lot of things said for shock value (use of bogwoppits words) in the gymnastics world.

[bogwoppit]

love the intro to the crazy gym moms lol... actually that stuff DOES still happen. One of our moms of a L9 got assaulted in the parking lot one day by a "crazed" mother (her dd was L8 at the time) because her dd got a trick before crazy mom's dd did.[/quote]


Now that is incredible Here's a funny one I was talking to my girls about last night. When oldest DD was 6 she did her first comp, she was barely ready on bars but everything else was good. On bars she got a 3.45, she fell off 3 times trying to do her squat on. Anyway another girl from our gym went on bars next and got 2.5, her parents were so mad that my DD beat her that they went up and started shouting at the bar judges, our coach was absolutely gobsmacked and had to drag them off and then apologise profusely. This was a small regional comp and both girls were 6, it was, and is, the most bizarre thing I ever saw at a comp.

[Marge Simpson]

Oh, this is not good...I am also a junkie and will be checking back later tonight to see if the next part is up.

And I am slightly ashamed to admit that I am mentally giving the girls and crazed parents names--including me!-- that correspond to DD's gym community. I'm also speculating that Dana's mom's bag includes a flask.

At least the movie provides a mental checklist via archetype of parental behaviors to avoid! Anti-inflammatories, anyone?

[maddiekate]

I think i'm guilty of the anti-inflammatory. My bag has sudafed, excedrin, and tylenol. Granted, i get headaches and migraines all the time, though.

[Aussie_coach]

It has been on TV here many times and I have it on DVD also. I really don't think it is an exageration of the way elite girls train. Our elite girls have a very similar situation. At that age (she is 14) they train 35-40 hours week. They do 3-4 hours in the morning then head to school for a few hours and do a few subjects and then in the afternoon train another 3-4 hours every day.

Our elites are given regular skin fold tests to check their body fat and told what they should and should not be eating. At any given time the majority of them carry some sort of injury be it minor or major. They are yelled at if they are too scared to perform skills in order to motivate them to try.

If they do not learn skills fast enough, if they grow too tall, if they don't show enough comittment, if they turn out not to be strong enough they are thrown out of the program. They may return to regular gyms and continue to train and compete at a lower level but most walk away from the sport and never return.

They must learn certain skills by a certain age or they are thrown out. But, having said that very few feel they are mistreated. Most desperatly love what they do and do put up with pain and fat tests and pressure because they want this more than anything else in the world. Just to make it to this level means you have to have incredible desire and drive. These girls take it in their stride.

[Ingymmom]

ooh, part 7! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzZh3MPx3DM

[gym mom]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksCIyMnBL1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9F1sleakuE
PARTS 8-9

[skfleming255]

I really enjoyed watching all 9 parts. Thanks to everyone who did the research to find all of them.

[bogwoppit]

Ah, thank goodness I have seen it all now. Love the sloppy ending, I am not sure most teenage girls would forgive that quickly, but it was a good "hallmark" moment.

THis is always a good moral......

"Remember who the parent is, and why!" It is not the coaches job, it is always ours.

Now, I can go back and have a life again!

[Marge Simpson]

[
Now, I can go back and have a life again![/quote]


What she said!