Level 4 moms, help with beam routine please - Page 2

**bogwoppit** · 09-28-2008, 06:44 PM

Why don't you learn it from youtube, it's not that hard if you do it on the floor, then have her do it beside you and with you, you can make up a song for the moves as your practice. Your a home schooling mom, you have the patience and the time.

Treat it like a dance lesson and have fun whilst doing it, do the routine in 3 or 4 pieces and then in two pieces, I am sure at the end of a week you'll be looking great and so will she. As long as you just want her to learn the order of the elements and not the perfection of the elements you should be able to do fine.

mariposa · 09-28-2008, 10:15 PM

bog,

that is brilliant, except i am horrible at routines, etc. i always think she got her lack of being able to learn routines easily from me. i can do the same exercise video for weeks and still not be able to do it. LOL. she has been working on it all day today and i think she has it pretty good, needing some polish for sure, but as far as i can tell, it looks a lot like the L4 beam routines i have seen at practice and on youtube.

she is going to show her coach tomorrow. she still understands that she might not get to compete next month, but i told her how proud i am of her for trying when yesterday she was crying that she would never remember it ever. i told her what we have talked about many times, how she can only do HER best and that everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and how she will get to compete when SHE is ready, not just because she wants to be ready. i think she is okay with it. she even said she wants to go and watch her friend compete if she doesn't get to and she said she is going to make her a sign.

i think sometimes as a parent, i can get caught up in trying to "save" my DD and i need to let her do these things on her own or she will never have the opportunity to deal with her own life things. it is just hard to watch them in tears and my first reaction is to try to fix it. letting her kind of fix it herself worked out great. we watched some routines on youtube and she kept going to her beam and trying to remember what they do in class and then seeing how it fit together. she was positively BEAMING when she did it all by herself and she was like "i learned my beam routine!".

Mom2Gymgirls · 09-29-2008, 01:30 PM

Mariposa:

Why don't you try to schedule a 1/2 hour private with one of the coaches to work on the routine? This is what I did this weekend for my 6 year old. I went to the watch night for her level the previous week and saw that DD didn't know the order of the routine and was having a hard time with the turns and a couple of other things. We met with one of the coaches this weekend for a half hour session on beam and now she pretty much can do the whole thing by herself. I'm planning on doing another one with the coach in 2 weeks. It's a little more expensive than working on it at home or with a video, but sometimes it's good to have the one on one help.

mariposa · 09-29-2008, 02:13 PM

Thanks for the suggestion. Her coach is super nice, but our HC just left and she is overwhelmed I think with everything. I hate to bug her. DD is so excited to show her that she knows the routine today. I hope she doesn't get so nervous she forgets. I also keep having to remind her that even though she thinks she is ready, if her coach doesn't think she is, then she won't compete. She says she understands, but she is 6 and wants to compete so bad. She loves a crowd.

I have no idea where she gets that from. I don't even like speaking in front of small groups of people. LOL.

Gymnasticsgirl521 · 09-29-2008, 05:49 PM

How about scheduling an open gym with a friend that knows it and have them work together side by side. DD has funny little names and such for things to help her remember the key things maybe that would help your dd. Good luck.

mariposa · 09-30-2008, 09:34 AM


Quote:
Originally Posted by Gymnasticsgirl521 How about scheduling an open gym with a friend that knows it and have them work together side by side. DD has funny little names and such for things to help her remember the key things maybe that would help your dd. Good luck.

The only girl we could ask to do that is a lefty and DD is a righty. AND to make it more complicated, she is her friend that gets things before her, LOL. She actually tried to teach her when we went to the Superstars tour, but my DD refused.

She showed one of her coaches last night and they only had one thing they fixed. Who knows what will happen with the meet, she wants to compete so bad. We should know by the end of this week. I have already told her how awesome she is for wanting to learn it and for figuring out how and that if she gets to do the meet, great, if not, no biggie. I know she is still struggling with jealousy issues with her friend right now, so that will be hard, but I am working on getting her to stop comparing herself with her.

MdGymMom01 · 10:20 AM


Quote:
Originally Posted by mariposamama I know she is still struggling with jealousy issues with her friend right now, so that will be hard, but I am working on getting her to stop comparing herself with her.

Oh boy, the jealousy thing--that can be really tough sometimes to deal with. Just reinforce to her that everyone is special in their own way and everyone has important and unique qualities. There will ALWAYS be someone stronger, faster, more flexible, more graceful...it is useless and a waste of time to compare yourself to anyone. I know it is hard, especially with best friends.

DD and her best friend went through a bout of this jealousy and the girls didn't talk for almost a year because of it. My dd got kind of sick and tired of her bff always bragging and getting all the attention at cheer practices (while dd was often ignored) and dd took it kind of personally and it really stressed her out. I decided that the two of them needed some space because the parents weren't helping with the situation (they were just adding fuel to the fire). It was good for dd to get away and do her own thing a bit and get a chance to "shine on her own". It really helped her self-esteem. Sometimes some space between best friends is good. They are now better friends and see each other almost every week. Now that they do different sports, the comparisons don't come up too much and they are learning to appreciate their differences and unique qualities that each has.

Does your dd do other things without her best friend? Maybe they are too close and have too many of the same interests. Another thing that may help your dd put things more in perspective for herself is to make a goal chart. Let her decorate it and totally "make it her own". Have her write down as many personal goals as she can relating to gymnastics, school or anything. They can be big long term goals or smaller day to day goals. This way she isn't compaing herself to anyone and she has something to focus on that is all HER. I starting doing goal setting and affirmations with my dd when I saw that she was getting a little insecure and starting to doubt herself. It seems to help her and it puts things more in her control.

Sorry this is long--all this stuff just started popping into my head as I was responding!!

Good luck and I hope she does great in her first meet!!!

mariposa · 09-30-2008, 11:03 AM

Thanks MdgymMom. This isn't her best friend that she is jealous of. This is a friend from gymnastics, one of 4 that moved up together to team and they are pretty close. They don't do much out of gymnastics and she used to be fine when this friend got things before her. She is really a nice little girl and my DD loves her. Right now she is just jealous that she might compete and that she can do her BWO on beam and DD is still struggling with it, though she knows she CAN do it because she did 2 by herself last week.

I have tried to point out that she has gotten many skills before her friend. That they are very different and will always be different. That she is AWESOME for who she is and that I think she is amazing. I think we will make her a goals chart. That is a great idea. Thanks!!