WAG Is this the norm for training in the TOPs, Hopes & Elite Community???

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FWIW, my daughter does conditioning for falls, etc during practice. It is a normal thing for her (she has been at this gym from the start). The moms all kind of laugh about it because 99.99% of the time the coaches don't even say a word to the girls, they just drop and do it (v- ups, push ups, ropes whatever) without being told. Once I caught a bit of vault and DD seemed to be doing a huge amount of push ups. I asked her about it and she said that no the coach wasn't making her do them, but she wasn't sticking her landing on vault that day so she started doing 5 push ups for each un stuck landing. Lol. They have the kids so well trained that they do it independently! As for yelling, yes that happens too- not name calling but yelling. Heck it gets LOUD in there! I don't consider these things strange (well gymnastics strange, in the normal world, pretty much all gym stuff is strange!), inappropriate or abusive. I know that the coaches at her gym really care about the girls- even on their worst "I want to kill them all and I am going to walk away so I don't" days. I think if you have concerns maybe you should watch a bit.
 
1. When asking for advice <--- I didn't ask for advice. I asked a question. I was told something that my daughter had to do at a gym where she was doing a trial. And I didn't like it. So I made a post to ask a QUESTION to those who HAVE or HAVE HAD kids who TRAIN or HAVE TRAINED in this community. And ASKED if this was the norm. That's it! You're definitely at free will to give whatever advice you'd like to give and your opinion, absolutely. But again, it was a question.

2. I believe it is best to be polite and not aggressive to those who took the time to respond.
<--- You're joking right? Listen, this is what is called the internet. As someone stated in their post about my inquiry/question, it is all about the delivery. You can not deliver your msg/response in a tone that may come across to the person who created the post any type of way. I can not hear your tone via your post. However, I can draw any type of conclusion I'd like based on your post. It may not have meant to come across in a negative way. And if that was the case, fine. But I'm no mind reader. And if you don't share that w/ me. Then that's what happens.

3. If you are so upset
<--- Again, I was not upset. I was annoyed. But I guess based on my responses I was mad huh? Nope. I gave it back how it was delivered.

4. maybe you are the one who is not clear
. <---- I asked those coaches and or parents who train kids or have kids doing this training in the community of my subj line, if having to do 20 rope climbs as a form of punishment for falling on bars twice is normal. My daughter is training w/ the girls who train TOPs and Hopes. As her aspirations are to hopefully one day become Elite. I asked the COMMUNITY in itself, as they all have strenuous training, if it was normal. How is that not clear enough?

You people see the word ELITE and go to town w/ your posts. And that's fine. But again, if people took the time to read the posts, you'd know I asked absolutely NOTHING about Elite. Nothing!
 
You people see the word ELITE and go to town w/ your posts. And that's fine. But again, if people took the time to read the posts, you'd know I asked absolutely NOTHING about Elite. Nothing!

Huh?! Please scroll back to the top and look at the title of your post. You asked if this was normal for the TOPs, Hopes and ELITE community.
 
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Huh?! Please scroll back to the top and look at the title of your post. You asked if this was normal for the TOPs, Hopes and ELITE community.

And? And if you read my posts, you'd see I wasn't asking about Elite training. Stop trolling!
 
That's fine. Maybe I got the verbiage wrong. And I also didn't say she missed the score for optionals. I never mentioned anything about that. She hasn't done that yet. And the last time I checked, once you're junior elite, you're elite. Junior & Senior elite. Both elite, just different age ranges.

you are not an "ELITE" until you are a Senior and over the age of 16. and some of us consider qualifying to and competing all around at Championships of the USA. And others, after the athlete has competed internationally representing the USA.

why is this? the Junior rules of competition are easier than those of the Seniors. :)
 
Trolling? Who's trolling? I tried being nice earlier but you just aren't getting the responses you want. People are encouraging you to be realistic about your daughter's gymnastics, that's all.
 
Myeyes, climb down for a minute and focus.

All of this elite stuff is a huge distraction. Pretty much all of the people who have responded to your questions about training and conditioning have been trying to help.

Try to attend to what matters. What matters right now is not HOPES or elite or pre-elite or elite qualifiers, compulsories, optionals, or kitty cats. What matters right now is if your daughter is in a gym that is training her appropriately. Are they a) training her with care and compassion for her whole being, b) showing that they are invested in her development as a gymnast, and c) pushing her to improve at an appropriate rate FOR HER? And here's the cool thing -- those questions are the right ones to be asking whether your child is in Mommy and Me or training for the Olympics.

What is your plan to figure out the answers to these questions?
 
I would question whether a coach that feels the need to resort to some of the things described by various posters in this thread, from constant rope climbing to "torture" ( described with surprising apathy), has the technical expertise and presence of mind to coach at a higher level, much less international elite level. These are highly technical skills. Rope climbing is a great skill, but it isn't highly technical or specific to giant techniques. If this is what the coach is resorting to in order to correct a relatively beginner giant, I'm not really sure you're on the right track.

Of course some people might say what if that's the only thing the child responds to. Then you're definitely not on the right track. Personally as a coach when a child doesn't care, I don't make them climb the rope or do anything else, I call them out on lack of effort and ask what their goal is and if they think they are doing what they need to do to reach that. Or I tell them to get off the bar until they can focus and not waste time. Rope climb is just a part of everyday practice, but I don't have time to be sending people over there 20 times a day. If they don't care enough that I had to torture them to get them to do basic things, I would tell their parents they aren't going anywhere, not that I'm training them for elite or even the next JO level.

If your question is whether this is normal, there are seemingly many coaches who subscribe to this kind of conditioning. Whether it's effective, who knows, guess it'll depend on the kid and their talent level to benefit from non specific and not highly technical coaching.
 
Quadqueen, girl bye! At the end of the day, my inquiry was never about her aspirations. And age is no indication of a individuals future. But looking at the amount of your posts, you'd know that. Since you're on this thing religiously. And you've seen posts about this.
 
Profmom, I'm just responding. I've already moved forward w/ what I'm gonna do.
 
And age is no indication of a individuals future.

Age is not usually an indicator, but in gymnastics it is a huge one. Being 10 years old and never having competed optionals to me is a massive indicator.

Check out Sophia Groth on youtube, watch out her videos from L5 and through the levels. That is what I expect to see, that quality of gymnastics and that progression.

If she is happy at her new gym, then let her be. Certainly not my style of coaching, but then I am done with gym for my kids and I see things differently.



Mod note - Be careful with the name calling though. Troll is not a nice name to use on the forums.
 
Gymdog, thank you! One of the few posts that is actually addressing my inquiry.
 
In case you haven't noticed, haha, people are pretty sensitive about using "Elite". There are many parents who use the term and don't have a clue what they are talking about (Some think qualifying TOPS is an automatic path to Elite, haha). There are also many gyms who use the term as a marketing gimmick and don't know what they are talking about. The elite road is beyond difficult and it's many levels above level 10. It requires a commitment of the kid, parent and coach that most people aren't able and/or willing to give.

Your thread title indicated that you are possibly not very aware of what Elite is all about. TOPS has nothing to do with Elite and you had them in the title of a thread. Kinda bad start to a thread. I know 30-40 girls who have been to TOPS A camp throughout the last 5 years none of them are Elite and don't have a prayer of making it. Many are no longer in the sport. In fact one of the best "TOPS gyms" in my area hasn't had a girl do well at JO nationals (level 10) in the past 3 years. But they talk about "Elite". They will sell you on how the head coach has coached elites and olympians. And though HOPES is a precursor to many JR Elites it is still not Elite. Jr elite requires a higher optional score. And assuming the kid's execution is the same they have to pick up all additional points in difficulty (new, harder skills) to make it from HOPES to Jr Elite. Even if the execution improves substantially, it is still not an easy move. Not to mention that learning a Shaposh, Tacachev, double full Yurchenko, etc take quite a bit more time to learn than lower level optional skills. Then Senior is an entirely different animal. As Dunno mentioned, many don't consider you a "real Elite" until you qualify for Championships.

And to answer your first original question, our gym doesn't use conditioning as punishment..... They just YELL at you :)

Good luck to you and your daughter.
 

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