MAG Mushroom circles, yay!

[Deleted member 10727]

My L4 is my 3rd boy in gymnastics, and the last to finally get his circle. It just takes practice, over and over, and encouragement that they will get it. It will happen!

 

[samsmama]

I cannot wait to see a circle. Heck, I'd be happy to see half a circle with the right form!! Congrats to your son!! How old is he? I need some hope here.

He just turned 8. I do think having the mushroom at home helped a lot. It was in his room and didn't see much use there, but I moved it into my room recently (where the kids hang out a lot), and he started practicing all the time... a few weeks later, circles! Obviously, he was working toward it for a long time and it would have come eventually, but they don't do a ton of work on the mushroom at gym, so I do think practicing at home helped him along faster.

On the downside, I have a mushroom in my bedroom!

 

[OwlGalLiz]

On the downside, I have a mushroom in my bedroom!

I can so relate- we do too for my recently turned 7 year old level 4. And it gets more use there than where it was before.

 

[curlymop]

I cannot wait to see a circle. Heck, I'd be happy to see half a circle with the right form!! Congrats to your son!! How old is he? I need some hope here.

You said he's pre team, doing L4 next year, right? I wouldn't stress too much about it. I'm the OP, and my son spent his whole L4 season learning it, since he never did pre team. I think the first time I saw him do one and a half was at states last year, and by the summer he was making it around multiple times. Now he can consistently get 9 or 10, and his record is around 25.

That said, he is L5 now, and although he's staying on the mushroom for five and a half circles at competitions, he's scoring pretty low. His form still needs a lot of work, and I don't even know what to say about his pommel horse swings, except that maybe we should have bought one of those instead of the mushroom.

I also have a 5yo who is doing pre team this year (L4 next year), and he is stuck at one circle. It's tough, because they only practice 4 hours a week, so he only gets one PH/mushroom rotation in during that time. It's so much less stressful for him to be learning it without the added pressure of competing, though. Having witnessed that learning process once before, I feel pretty confident that he'll get it before next season.

 

[curlymop]

As for encouraging him to use the mushroom at home, that's tricky, because I don't want to push him to do stuff at home. It's in his room, and I find that if I tell him it's time for bed, then suggest that he can stay up a few minutes later to practice mushroom if he wants, he's more than willing to hop on. It's definitely not something he does every day.

 

[samsmama]

I agree with not pushing them to practice at home. My DS asked for the mushroom as a birthday present. He's constantly doing some sort of gymnastics around the house -- cartwheels, handstands... not practice, just for fun -- and the mushroom is fun for him. I can't imagine why -- looks pretty miserable to me!

 

[gracyomalley]

better they do circles on the mushroom in mom's room that circles/flares, etc on the balls outside of Target!

 

[samsmama]

I think that deserves a video, gracyomalley!

 

[Popcorn]

I have a video of Target circles. The looks on peoples' faces when my ds does that is pretty funny. Maybe just as funny that my dh and I just keep walking...he'll hop off and catch up. Nothing to see here.

 

[profmom]

better they do circles on the mushroom in mom's room that circles/flares, etc on the balls outside of Target!

OMG the Target balls . . . the Target balls . . . that is the one great thing about winter around here. They are too cold and icy to be tempting. I think DS is FINALLY outgrowing the Target ball thing. Thank goodness.

 

[Shooosh]

LOL. Stop talking about the Target balls!! The 10 year old inside my head can't quit snort laughing every time the word 'balls' is written.
I am excited for when they start looking like something other than a leap frog obstacle to my kids. We are going to end up in one of those 'fail' YouTube videos.

 

[Popcorn]

My favorite gymnastics "fail" is when they are learning circles on the mushroom. Mine used to fall off in the funniest ways! It was almost artistic.

 

[Popcorn]

Oh wait, the vault fail when the coach had the mats up too high for the boys is pretty great too. I think the "splat" they did against the sides of the mats was more fun for them than meeting the objective....