Hours in the gym?

[Gym Chix Mom]

My daughter is 10 years old in her second year at level 5. At our gym level 5 can either attend 4 days or 5 days a week (3 hours each day). My daughter goes 5 days (15 hours) plus 1 hour of dance is required. Additionally, the gym offers a 45 minute vault clinic, 45 minute bars clinic, 45 minute beam/floor clinic and a 2 hour open gym. So in total she could end up in the gym over 19 hours. She usually goes 18.5 hours and loves it. (I'm tired just thinking about it!)

I coach in the UK, and my 6&7 year olds attend my national gymnastics school, and train 40 hours a week

[JBS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by LasswadeCoach I coach in the UK, and my 6&7 year olds attend my national gymnastics school, and train 40 hours a week

Wow...this would be considered extreme in the US. What do they do during all of this time?

Do we have any other UK coaches here? How do you feel about this amount of time?

(By the way...I checked out your website, your gym looks very nice.)

Thank you, and yes that amount of hours we train is considered extreme in the UK too, but we only accept very few children and of extremely high standard, and the parents rarely object, they train 5 days a week for 7 hours on a monday - thursday, and six on a sat & sunday, 3 hours is spent on physical preparation, flexibility, strength and drill work each day. The rest is spent on full routines, and the training of new skills

[JBS]

Quote:
Originally Posted by LasswadeCoach Thank you, and yes that amount of hours we train is considered extreme in the UK too, but we only accept very few children and of extremely high standard, and the parents rarely object, they train 5 days a week for 7 hours on a monday - thursday, and six on a sat & sunday, 3 hours is spent on physical preparation, flexibility, strength and drill work each day. The rest is spent on full routines, and the training of new skills

Do you set any time aside specifically for dance/choreography? Also...is Lasswade Gymnastics the UK version of WOGA? Have you produced any world class athletes?

No, we havent produced any world gymnasts, because our gym is quite new, and yes we have 1 and a half hours set aside for choreography each day, it is a very very important part of gymnastics in my eyes. However our best gymnast, who's 11 recently won the British championships and will be competing at the next commonwealth games, we do hope to hav world class stars of the future, as our yougest kids are already competing very difficuly skill.

[davjam]

Thats a lot but i guess every one is different

[littlegymchampsmom]

I am curious, especially after reading about how many hours a young gymnast can work out each week.. why talented gymnmasts are asked to work out even MORE hours? I hope this does not sound too naive or even silly to ask... but I am so new to all of this. If there was true talent would'nt they be able to greatly excel during regular gym time? My daughter who is only 5 (her coaches stress 5 and a half to me when I say this, she turns 6 in sep) works out 8 hours a week on a pre-team class training for level 5 + takes a one hour rec class and goes to a couple of open gyms every month for fun + she is always practicing at home, well anyway on top of this her coaches approached me and said they think she is very talented and wanted us to add a private lesson every week. They stressed it was not about the money (I kind of asked that in a round about way), but rather that she can't reach her full potential with her current schedule... now as a proud mommy of course I can rave about all of her accomplishments and know she is a wonderful gymnast, but I see so many talented young gymnasts around. She does seem to catch on quickly and I think she is a pretty stong kid, but don't the kids all catch up at some point on a more equal playing field? How do coaches measure talent vs' drive and determination... what do they look for in a gymnast that says you need more time in the gym?? She does have a couple of other things that are probably a little advanced for her age, but again in a couple of years don't they kind of even out? I wish I just understood this sport a little better. It just seems the better they do the more the coaches want more??

[Geoffrey Taucer]

My philosophy is to limit the hours that kids spend in the gym when they're young, simply because I don't want them to burn out. I'd rather have a kid wishing he/she could come more than burning out and wanting to spend less time in the gym.

But then, my gym isn't aiming to train top level elite gymnasts.

It often gets on my nerves when coaches try to arrange private lessons and additional gym time with their most talented kids, when the ones who really need those lessons are the less talented ones. A less-talented kid who works hard can pass up a talented kid who doesn't very easily.

[littlegymchampsmom]

... I actually saw that happen at a meet last week. lesser talented, hard worker placing higher then the more naturally talented gymnast...

Now, I don't want to bad mouth our coaches at all... I think they are very passionate about what they do and have been wonderful to all of the girls on pre-team and team - they coach all the way from pre-team to elite.... and I love watching my daughter progress and see she responds so well to them... but at this age, learning to go around on the bar (sorry I don't know what this is called) and backwalkovers on the beam - i think that is a level 6 skill? do coaches try to get them to do as much as possible - earlier the better sort of thing? .. she can't even compete level 5 for another year and a half... why do they push to learn the more difficult skills so soon now? AND should I be careful about that?? as a parent I know nothing about this and I feel like I should know when to step in and say enough, but I really don't know... honestly, even I get sucked into the "wow, look at how little she is and how much she can do" sometimes... that matched with me seeing she does have strong desire to learn more... maybe what I am missing is that at that age they are probably just so hungry to learn, learn, learn? Do we just let them? but honestly it would be silly to add private lessons just to advance more/sooner, right??? sorry now I am just thinking more out loud.. they only approached me yesterday about this and I actually lost sleep over it last night... maybe I am just making more out of it then what it even needs to be...