confused about daughters progress

[starmaker]

My dd Olivia is 4 1/2 years old. SHe'll be five in April. She started gymnastics at the age of three and since then has been progressing at a fairly rapid pace. The owner of the gym that she was at started an advance preschool class and invited her to be a part of it. Three months after starting she was now in this advance class where they taught cartwheels, backbends and handstands. After just 2 months in the advance class she acquired a cartwheel, backwards roll on floor...
This past April they sold the gym. The new owners got rid of the advance preschool class but since my daughter had some skills they placed her on development team with about 12 7-8year olds(my daughter had just turned 4 at the time). That summer while on development team she aquired more skills (front pullover, backwalkover, handstands, rolls, etc.) She absolutely enjoyed her summer learning what she calls her "tricks" Once school started the gym took her off development and into an "introductory team" basically an advance class for 4 and 5 year olds. Olivia became bored with that class and was losing interest in the sport. Every week was work to get her to class. From august to october she did nothing new or learned any new skills. My husband and I finally dedcided to look into other gyms. We found a great gym by our house that's a more competitive serious gym. We took her for an evaluation and they placed her in what that gym calls "special team" basically they work with her at whatever level she is at and properly place her at a level when she is ready to compete. My daughter LOVED this new gym. There was no doubt about it. She was excited about gym again. She is currently going 3 days a week for 3 hours a day. The head couach at this gym just moved my dd Olivia to level 4. she is not even five years old yet. I am confused about her body. Is she doing to much....? She does straight conditioning for 3 hours a week. They are working on her backhandspring. Also Olivia can do a straddle press from the floor with out a spot. Its part of her conditioning to do a certain number of them. She never complains about being sore but she does stretch all day long. (constantly stretching her back and shoulders) Is this a sign of over use or muscles just growing? Also how can I help from getting bored after learning a new skill?

[mariposamama]

wow. your daughter sounds a lot like my friend's DD. lots of natural talent, very strong and super young. i know that she is holding her back quite a bit, but i think that it is hard to go back once they taste moving quick. her gym wants to move her faster than her mom is ready. she won't be 5 until july.

i don't have much advice. just glad it isn't me. LOL. i stress about my DD moving to team at 5 1/2-6 years old and that is a whole year younger. i have basically stopped thinking about it so i won't freak myself out, so i am of no use. LOL

i would say to follow your gut and her as well. it is so hard. we want them to be happy, but they don't know all the potential consequences of what they are doing.

i got a lot of good information on my recent thread regarding similar topic. here it is.
Team at 5 1/2?

good luck. sounds like you have quite the talented girl on your hands. but you wouldn't want her to burn out so young. she has lots of time. they can't compete till they are 6. and since she is already so advanced, it will probably seem even longer since she will be doing level 5 stuff early and have to wait till 7 to compete at level 5, but then she could progress more rapidly like she seems to like. hope you get some great answers soon.

[mariposamama]

Young Level 5

a similar thread. lots of good info there as well.

[gym law mom]

My feeling is what is the rush? Why does a 4.5 yo have to be in the gym for 9 hours/week doing strength for 1/3 of that time? She can't compete L4 until she's 6 which would be April 2009 and many states are done with their compulsory season by the spring, so she actually may not compete until early fall of 2009. At her age, her body is not ready for all the "tricks" she is being taught. Several coaches have posted on the danger of having a child under age 5 do any kind of back hyperextension(ie bridges, bridge kickovers, back walkovers etc)----their spine is just not strong enough to handle that yet.

You mentioned her stretching her back and shoulders quite a bit, so I'm guessing that concerns you. Thing is at your dd's age, she can't relate stiffness etc. in her back to something she might be doing in the gym. Very tough to get specific symptons out of a child that young, so you may have to really dig to find out why she does all the stretching.

To me, I would rather see quality in skills she can do safely at her age rather than try and push for alot of other skills that her body is not ready to do. As many say about this sport, its a marathon and not a sprint.

[mariposamama]

i was thinking about this today some more as i have talked a lot about it with my friend about her daughter. do you think she would enjoy something else for awhile? 9 hours a week seems to be a lot for a 4 year old. especially so much strength training. i still haven't made my decision about letting my daughter move up to team and she will be almost 6 by then. it still seems like soo much to me, especially for kids that are also in school.

would she like dance or some other sport/hobby for awhile? i see girls all the time that come into the sport at age 5-6 and pick up the skills just as easily as the girls that have been doing gym since they were 3 or 4.

hard decision. especially when they are so happy doing it, but i do think they are overdoing it for such a young child. my friend's DD is only training 2 hours a week right now and will continue that until she is 5- 5 1/2. the coaches want to move her faster, but her mom is holding her back for now.

good luck making your decision either way.

you also might want to post a link to this in the parents forum. first you need to join the parents group to post there. i think you might get more responses there. i always read there the most.

[starmaker]

After I posted this yesterday I realized the minimum age requirements for competition. I don't think Olivia's coach realizes she won't be able to compete this coming Fall. I believe she is under the assumption that 5 is the age requirement. My dd loves gym. She loves the girls she trains with and the attention she gets too. Imagine, she is the only 4 year old in a group of 8-12yrs olds. She is also a funny little girl. She makes them all laugh even the coach turns around to keep herself from laughing with her. She is proud to be a L4 and "work hard mama" She thinks conditioning is FUN because she loves to count and keep track. Her only complain is that on gym days she gets home after 7:30pm and its dark and that means no time to play(with her 3.5 year old sister). I don't think she feels 9 hours is too much. I am going to be more lenient about taking days off and holidays. I am also concerned because I don't think she'll be able to do two more years of L4 without getting bored.
I read about the mom keeping her child from advancing but dd would not be very happy.

[gym law mom]

It might be the head coach was confused as to her age thinking she was 5.5 and not 4.5. I'd be a little worried if a head coach didn't know the age minimums since they are a national standard and not something set locally or by state. Sounds like you need to discuss what the best plan in the long term would be for your dd. Moving her to the L4 team and just having her there for 18 mos doesn't make alot of sense. She'll see the others getting ready for meets and won't understand why she can't go.

Is there a L4 pre-team or is that what she is in now? Just me, but I would cut her hours in the gym to 6/week, encourage her to try another activity(not to replace the gym) and not get too concerned about competitive teams or anything else. She only gets to be 4.5 for a brief period in her life and also only has this one body that is still developing/growing and changing. She can have gymnastics and the healthy life of a pre-schooler at the same time, but the adults have to make the big decisions as hard as it may be to do what is best physically, emotionally and psychologically for her.

If she does continue with the stretching of the back/shoulders and she can't explain why, then take her in to see the family MD. She is way too young to start down the path of overuse injuries.

[Aussie_coach]

Wow, you daughter sounds like she has real talent and most of all an icredible love for the sport. She could go very far with it but it is important to make sure there is a good balance between keeping her interested in training and not causing her any kind of damage.

The key to watch is her enjoyment, if she is eager to go to practise and excited for it, if she comes home and talks about it. Then it is a good sign. Each child is different and what their bodies can cope with is different. Regular check ups with the doctor are a good idea, just to make sure she is staying healthy.

A good gym will not let her get bored by having her stuck in level 4 for several years. When she is old enough to compete level 4 she can still be advancing and learning the level 5 and 6 skills and so on.

It is true that a lot of these skills are not taught to 4 year olds because their bodies are very young, but there are some 4 year olds who will do them anyway. Your daughter sounds like one of them. If she isn't in class learning to do the skills safely, they she will be trying to learn them at home.

The best way is to keep a close contact with her coach and gym. Ask for certain exersizes to be modified if there are any concerns for her safety.

[lannamavity]

You may want to slow down a bit...

There has been research done that shows that girls under 6 should never do any type of hyperextension of the back, or it can cause lasting damage.

Just because she "can" do a lot of stuff doesn't mean she "should".

[LasswadeCoach]

I totally agree with the previous poster

gymnastics training at that age should be about fun, it should also be about learning the very very basics correctly and being to perform the perfectly. Your daughter should be learning the basic body preparations and body conditioning to be able to perform these skills later in life. There really is no rush. At my gym we once had a girl who walked in at 8 and was placed in a recreational team, she had very little talent and was very weak, however she was so determined and worked so hard that she got onto the elite team and is now one of the best for her age in our gym. Your daughter reminds me of this girl, so determined and so strong minded, and only 4 years old! There is no need to push her onto hard skills so quickly, overstretching and performing skills such as backhandsprings at that ages DOES cause lasting damage to the joints, and it also can do damage mentally, gymnastics should be fun, not tough at this age, even if she does enjoy it at the moment, when she starts learning harder skills and the frustration of not being able to do them straight away like she's used to kicks in, she will be very angry and dissapointed at herself.

I can tell that your daughter is very talented and has a great passion for the sport, but you must be careful and slow it down abit, she can still be an extremely good gymnast by going at a slow pace, theres no rush, but if you do rush too much she probably will damage her health.

Hope to hear from you soon