giving up other activities for gymnastics

[Panda-girl's Mom]

I agree with most of the replies, my daughter is adament that she does not want to give up gymnastics. There are many other dance studios in our area but I just happen to really like this one teacher she gives the girls such confidence and many still attend in their 20's. The one good thing is if she ever quits gymnastics she could always go back there her flexibility and skills in dance are advanced due to the numerous hours of gymnastics. After the summer she is going to be possibly training for level 5 which is more hours so I really do not see her doing much other activities. It is just hard because my older daughter who is not as focused on one sport gets to experience more things so I feel bad that younger daughter can not do this. But younger daughter does not want to give up gymnastics or switch to a less intensive gym that trains less hours. I am hoping when she gets older if she really wants to give up gymnastics to do other things she will let me know because I do not want to decide for her.

[hunde2]

DD did rec soccer when she first started gym.That was when she was 6 years old and only went 1 day/wk.Now she goes 4 days/wk right after school and does not get home until 08:30 at night.She knows it is a big commitment and went through a phase were she wanted to do another sport.She now realizes that gymnastics takes all her time and if she wants to succeed she can not skip any practice.She skips gym on occasion for birthdayparties etc.She also knows that it is very important to go to all practices during competition season and is not upset if she can't do anything else.We decided to give homeschooling a try.This will give her some time to do other things to.

[gym law mom]

I don't feel an 8yo should be restricted to just 1 activity if possible. Talk with her about leaving the door open to a dance class depending on which level she'll be competing at come fall. At both gyms, my gymmie has been at, kids have come to practice late or left early(usually only 1 night a week though) so they can do another activity whether its sports, church, school related etc.

Once you know her practice schedule for the fall, see what you can work out. She may just need that 1 hour/week outlet doing dance.

[Blackie6]

We really haven't given up much yet. I have three kids and they all have hectic schedules but because I love that they try new things I am willing to work it out. My daughter does about 10.5 hrs/week as a L4. We sqeezed in Girls Scouts, CCD classes and teener ball. She took dance a couple years but once she made the team she wanted to quit dance. I think she liked the dance class itself but not that they spent 1/2 year preparing for the dance recital and she always HATED the foofy dance costumes. Now, CCD, GS and Teener ball is done and we start Dive team on Monday. They have a ton of gymnasts on the dive team at all levels so they are super great about practice, and offer morning and evening dive practices. I am thankful that all my kids activities are in town and within a couple mile radius too so sometimes (like today) I bring her to the gym for a while, run her to teenerball for an hour and then run back for the last hour of gym. There was really only one thing I said "no" to all year and that was an after school art class. Only because it was on Thursdays and she gets a ton of work to do and has a Spelling test every Fri and had to get it all done before gym at 4:30.

I guess it all has to do with what level your DD is. I think at the lower levels there can be more flexibility with activities. I think by the time the girls reach the higher levels they either commit to just the gym or end up leaving or switching to less intensive programs. If she wants to do dance & you can sqeeze it, in I say go for it. If doing the recital is too much then maybe she can do the class and opt of of the recital stuff?

[Gymmonkeymomma]

We have always made our oldest DD "choose" since she was 7 yrs old when she was asked to join the level 4 team. She was, and is, very committed to gymnastics. She has NEVER taken time off to do dance, soccer, basketball or any of the other thnigs her teammates did. She did Girl Scouts and CCD on days where there was no gymnastics. My little DD has never even sampled those other activities as she was practically born into the gym, lol.

However, at 11.5, my oldest is feeling that social pull of her friends and constantly having to say "I can't do xxx because I have gym" was starting to wear on her. So..... now I have worked it out so my girls can do town cheering with their school friends in the fall. Older DD is training Level 8 and my 7 yr old will likely repeat Level 5. Both of those seasons start in Jan while cheering runs Aug-Dec. I made arrangements with the cheering commissioners that they will only have to miss a minimal amount of gymnastics as long as they know their cheer routines. I made the girls (esp. older one) agree that when she is at the gym, gymnastics gets 200% of her efforts. They were both excited to learn yesterday that they both made the competiton cheer squad as well.

I think it all depends on the inividual child, whether they can enjoy another activity, while being committed to gymnastics. I'll report back later this summer to let you know how it's going for us.

[catesmom]

Let me throw just a little suggeston into the mix. You have said that your dance instructor is someone that you have known for a long time. You are probably quite comfortable talking to her. I would bring your concerns to here now in the summer before she makes up her fall schedules. Many times classes switch days or times. Without suggesting that she schedule a class just to accomodate your dd, let her know how much your dd would like to do dance with her but her schedule is XYZ.

We are blessed because we have a full dance studio in the same building as the gym. The instructor makes every effort to schedule classes for the gymnasts when they have an off day for gym. The coaches even co-operate with silly things like pictures, or special practices. DD is allowed to go to practice, run over to the studio, do her thing and come back to practice. The dance instructor co-operates by making the Christmas recital a small production, as we are going into meet season, and the spring recital the big one, when gym is less intense.

As dd is now a 7 it means that she has activities 5 days a week, but we consider the one hour dance class a day off compared to gym. Just a thought that might help.

Good luck

[margymmom]

I agree with the other posters that if you can fit it in and your daughter is happy, go for it. But I also think that you should not feel guilty telling your daughter "no" if it is too much of a strain on you or your family. I have two gymnasts and one competitive swimmer, and all of the kids take music lessons in addition to their sport of choice. I shuttle kids from 3:15 til 9 M- F and it is all I can do to keep the car going in the right direction! My oldest gymnast mentioned today, after a summer league swim team practice, that she might really enjoy year round swimming but that she couldn't fit it in with gymnastics. I figure she'll have another avenue to explore if she ever tires of gymnastics.