Parents need advice on strength in 5 year old

[newmom]

My DD is in rec gymnastics. She goes once a week, but on her days she don't she will practice on her on. She doesn't have the strength to do pull over. She did it the first month she started, but then there was 2 girls in her class that told teacher they were scared and didn't want to do it so the didn't. Now she won't do it, but she doesn't have the strength to do it either. She does pull ups on bar we have at house and does monkey bars at playground. We do handstand that I help her with. What else can she to get stronger? Also doing bridge she don't have strength to push up to get head off floor. It is flustrating when your friends dd that is 2 year younger has that strength and mine doesn't yet. I make and fun and my older son helps me so we have her laughing when she is doing it. I don't want her to see it as strength training.

 

[Ausi_poppet]

Personally, I wouldn't push her and I wouldn't do anything at home. You can't really compare your daughter with someone else because kids have different bodies - some kids are naturally stronger than others in one part of the body, or build strength more easily than others.

I don't think you can make a child good at gymnastics, they have to want it themselves, particularly when they are 5 or they just loose interest in it all together. If I were you, I'd give her a chance to build up strength without focusing on it... Swimming is a great sport to build shoulder strength and you can make it more challenging by getting them to swim with a noodle between their legs. Basketball would be good too, particularly for a young child who has to throw the ball so high.

The other option is to see if you can put her in a second class of rec, but I'd only do that is she's really wanting to do more gymnastics. We don't have anything in our house for gymnastics other than a 5cm mat which my daughter bought with her own pocket money from Ikea. She uses it sometimes to do press to handstands in front of the tv. We also have a high quality trampoline out the back which she uses less and less now that she trains 6 days a week. My daughter started gym 4 years ago and it training level 9/10 skills at 13. Honestly, you don't need to rush them into it!

 

[needcoffee]

Ok, take a step back and relax. She's five. You have a long road ahead if she sticks with it. It will come.

 

[newmom]

thanks for the advice. I just needed to hear it from someone else. We do the stretches, but it is when she wants to do it I let her say she wants to do it, even with the bars. She would like more time at the gym, but I didn't want to rush it. I was more worried about her not wanting to do the pull over on the bars. She did at first, but now won't. I have my son help and he will get us laughing and make it fun, but getting exercise I don't want her to get tired of it. For us it is more playing around than working out.

 

[gymdog]

The best is to do swimming regularly and take her to the playground and let her play.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

She is five, she should be having fun, not working out.

She is five.