Hours in the gym?

[canadiangymmom]

With all the recent introductions, I've noticed a big difference in the nuber of training hours. I'd love to compare a bit.

My daughter is in a pre-team type program and will be competing as a level 4 this winter. She's almost 8 and trains 9 hours a week.

How does this compare to what others are doing?

Canadian gym mom

[gracefulone]

I think I'm the only non-club person here. I do YMCA. Everyone (level 3-9) trains between 5-7.5 hours a week. It is required to do 5, and some make the choice to train more. I can't beacuase of cheerleading, but I do sprots-specific wprkouts on the side and open gyms.

[gymbabisMom]

Gymbabi trains 4 hours 4 days a week. She should be doing 5 days now because she's training for level 8, but we live an hours drive away, so coach takes pity on us. Plus Gymbabi gets more out of her 16 hours a week than most of the girls get out thiers. If it wasn't so far, I'd definitely take her the 5th day.

[Megley]

My daughter just turned 5 and is in preteam. They work out twice a week for 3 hours - so a total of 6 hours. She's too young to compete this year even if she gets all the skills she needs, but she will move up to Level 4 next year and the Level 4s are in the gym 12 hours per week. I know the Level 5s at our gym are practicing 16 hours a week with an option for an additional 4 hours if they want to do it. I think after that the hours get pretty crazy and I know a lot of kids can't handle it and wind up dropping out. I don't know if it's the same at other gyms, but there are decreasing numbers of girls as the levels get higher. I'm sure this is due in part to talent but probably also in part to the number of hours the girls are required to practice to compete at those levels. As it is, my DDs practice finishes at 8 p.m., which is tough. She's in preschool so no homework yet, but I can see issues with that arising when she gets into 1st Grade and beyond.

[gymbabisMom]

The level 5's that work out 20 hours a week are the ones that score 37 all arounds at every meet. Personally, I think that is way to many hours for a kid to work out at that level. Especially when your talking about kids under 13. It can cause problems like Severs syndrome (heel pain), Osgood Schlaters (knee pain) and elbow problems. These kinds of problems are fairly particular to gymnasts and they are all caused by to much repetitive torque and cuncussion on growth plates. Not to mention that fact that kids just burn out because they can't have any life outside of gymnastics. Kristen (gymbabi) has had issues with both severs (working out 12 hours a week) and an elbow fracture (working out 16) both were growth plate injuries. Her growth plates are just now about half closed at 15 (we actually had a series of hand ex-rays to check this), her slow maturation is due in part to the hours she works out. I wouldn't be in any hurry to get my little ones up to 20 hours a week.

[gracefulone]

This is very interesting for me to here about. I've always been in the relaxed YMCA program and some of the hours just fascinate me.

[Megley]

Most of those Level 5s are 7 and 8 years old so they are still very young. I have mixed feelings about the hours. My DD loves gym and spends a lot of time at home doing handstands, walkovers and the like, but that's a lot less structured than hours in the gym. I just found out from a friend whose daughter is a 6 year old Level 4 that they raised the Level 4s to 14 hours a week, which seems like a lot to me. It makes sense that the risk of injury goes up the more hours they are in the gym. I guess we will be confronted with the issue next year.

[gymmom]

Here are the levels and the hours at my gym...

Preteam 9 hours
Level 3 9 hours
Level 4 12-16 hours
Level 5 21 hours
Level 6 21- 27 hours (this is when they practice before school & after)
Level 7 30+

Two a days are optional and by invitation only. My dd is a level 4 and practices the 16 hours. However, I am considering moving her to the 12 hours. She seems to struggle a little to keep up with the other girls in her group. She just turned 8 and half of her group is 11 and up. The older girls seem to learn skills faster and because of that the group as a whole moves fast.

Gymmom

[Perfect10n_ineverything]

for my gym it is:

Level four - 3 hours
level 5- 13.5 hours
I am not sure about levle 6 and up.

there is a gym taht is a mayjor competitior of ours and there schedule is

levle 4- 20 hours
levle 5- 30 hours (about ten to five hous with every levle that you progress)

[Perfect10n_ineverything]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Megley Most of those Level 5s are 7 and 8 years old so they are still very young. I have mixed feelings about the hours. My DD loves gym and spends a lot of time at home doing handstands, walkovers and the like, but that's a lot less structured than hours in the gym. I just found out from a friend whose daughter is a 6 year old Level 4 that they raised the Level 4s to 14 hours a week, which seems like a lot to me. It makes sense that the risk of injury goes up the more hours they are in the gym. I guess we will be confronted with the issue next year.

Yes I some waht agree with this. But my Team only spends 9 hours and one of my girls has 4 spranes of her right side (thank god it is her bad leg.) one in her ankle, her knee, her wrist. and she complains of her back hurting.