Do people do alot of privates

[littlekateskate]

I am brand new to the sport so sorry about all the questions. In figure skating private lessons are almost a requirement. You cant really get by without them .

How many private lessons do gymnasts really do? Is it common or uncommon.

Also where can i find a list of the levels everyone is talking about?

[Geoffrey Taucer]

It varies from gym to gym, but personally I think a strong team program shouldn't have to depend on private lessons; the regularly scheduled practices should, for the most part, be enough. Which is not to say there's anything wrong with an occasional private lesson, but I would discourage kids and parents from making the privates their primary focus; they're part of a team.

[bogwoppit]

I think that you will find most gymnasts do not regularly have privates. From all the posts I have read here, and thats a lot , most gymnasts have occasional privates to help them with a skill they are stuck on, or before a meet.

Most of the coaches on here, based on previous comments, seem to think that regular privates are not in the best interest of the gymnast, but have value as a once in a while thing.

In the USAG system there are compulsory levels, all girls do the same routines at every meet. Within the compulsory levels there are Levels 1-3which most gyms do not train or compete, the L1-3 routines contain basic skills leading up to the next levels.

Level 4 seems to be the entry level to competition at most clubs, girls cannot compete until 6 years of age.

Levels 5 & 6 are the two compulsory levels that cannot be skipped.

Following that is Optionals, levels 7 - 10, where girls get to compete progressively harder skills in each level with their own choreography meeting certain set requirements.

To see any of these routines just go to youtube and search for them, there are a lot to see there, in fact you could be busy for a week or two watching all the gymnastics on there!

[MdGymMom01]

My 9 yr old dd just got moved up to Level 4 competition team after being on pre-team for about 6 weeks. She was practicing 2 days a week for 3 hours each. We did no privates and she still was able to learn all the routines and get all the skills in that amount of time.

She has been a cheerleader for the past 3 years so she is in pretty good shape. In cheerleading last year we did as many as 2 privates a week (1/2 hr tumbling) and to tell you the truth it didn't really help much. I say this because she had trouble with her back handspring and I thought the extra privates would help her get it. Actually, it stressed her out more. Since we cut out the privates at her gymnastics gym, she is doing just fine with her BHS without any issues.

I am new to this sport also, but not too many people at our gym do privates. Maybe the much higher level teams but nobody on my dd's team.

I would wait on the privates. You'd be better off doing some light conditioning and streching at home with her a few days a week. Just my opinion!

Good luck!

[gym law mom]

I know about skating vs. gym. Skating is really an idividual sport, so most kids get their own coach and do private lessons in conjunction with group lessons or as their only training. In gymnastics, the kids start out in group classes and even once the progress to team, most don't do that many privates. Certainly for a child in beginner rec, there is absolutely no need for a private lesson.

My gymmie is a L7(hopefully moving to L8) and over the past year did 4 privates to get the choreography for her floor/beam routines and that was it.

[flippymonkeysmom]

We've done privates to learn her level 7 beam and floor routine. Also last year she moved to level 6 kind of last minute so I had her do 1 or 2 just to work on the routines a bit before the first meet - but that is pretty much it. I spend enough money in the gym already, lol

[maddiekate]

When i just started i did privates once a week for a few months. Now i do less than one a month.

[lakshmi369]

Our DD does private lessons usually once a week. She had come out of an ultra-competitive pre-elite group that scrambled to get every new skill and advance as quickly as possible. It was a big gym and the class sizes did not allow for my dd to really get the full effect of the lesson. It was a great tool in compulsories last year and gave a bit of an edge to getting the details really worked out. Everyone is different on this of course but if used correctly private lessons can be a great help! IMHO

[hammy]

I've never been at a gym that requires private lessons. As a gymnast I always did them just so that I could get some more time in the gym because I loved it so much. As a coach I encourage my kids to do them if they really want to accomplish something that they may need a little more time on.

[gymdog]

This varies wildly in my area. My old gym didn't like to do them at all unless they really felt like someone wasn't catching on. I had two in level 7 in order to get my giants (fear thing) and I think I was the only one that whole year. That actually makes me feel like a huge failure but whatever Anyway they didn't really have any optional coaches that wanted to do them, it wasn't worth the extra time for them. So they didn't want to encourage it anyway. It's pretty much still the same situation, I know one of the opts who is struggling with some fear issues has had a few privates. These are pretty extensive issues and so it helped to be able to set up some stuff that would normally take too much room to be doing while everyone is on the equipment. But other gyms in the area have completely different set-ups where frequent privates at the lower levels are used to get seen by the upper level coaches and accelerated more quickly. It's just how the program is set up, not necessarily good or bad, but it depends on what you're looking for. My personal evaluation of the situation is that all things considered if I was a parent looking for a program I would probably not prefer a situation where privates were necessary to get an edge, for various reasons, but mostly because of what I usually (but not necessarily...just a pattern thing) associate that with.