relocating?

[flippymonkeysmom]

How old is your daughter??

[lagymmom]

Hi Gymdog,

Your suggestions might would work if I lived anywhere other than rural northeast Louisiana. There is absolutely nothing here, nor is there anyone who wants to do anything to make things better----maybe down the road, 10 or 20 years, things could change. I have hope with our new gov (Bobby Jindal), but who knows!

I'll kind of go through your list of suggestions and explain:

High school----there are no h.s. teams anywhere within driving distance of where I live.

University---the 2 universities are Centenary in Shreveport and LSU in Baton Rouge (either way, it's a 3 hour drive for me)

Nonprofit gyms---again, where we live---it would never work---just not enough people for something like this to work, and then where would we get the coaches from?

Our current gym---I could ask her coach to keep her in the JO levels. This may work, but if she says no, then I guess I'm back to square one. It's already hard to drive an hour away for training, so if we don't move, we'll more than likely just quit gymnastics---this breaks my heart because she loves it so much.

The only other sports available to girls where we live are softball (there is a spring league (dixie youth) and school related basketball beginning at 7th grade. There is also dance. She took dance lessons at age 2, 3 and 4, and she was (naturally) very good, but it bores her.

I really appreciate all the great suggestions. Oh, and someone asked how old my dd is---she will be 6 years old in February. She's level 2 right now and has been doing gymnastics since she was 3 (believe it or not, the gym has a great preschool program).

Thanks again!

lagymmom

[ZJsMom]

Frankly, at that age, she just isn't old enough to really know whether she wants to be a comptetive gymnast in any capacity. And although you and her coaches may see her as very talented, I just don't think you can tell who's going to be the standout that young. Gymnastics is an incredibly mental support. It takes a lot of guts and determination, in addition to some God-given talent to make it to the highest levels. I think moving because you believe your dd is going to excel at gymnastics is a really bad idea. On the other hand, you do point out that there's a general lack of opportunities in your area. If you're moving because it's the best thing for the entire family for a variety of reasons, that's great. But if you're telling yourself and your dd you're moving so she can be a great gymnast, IMHO you'll be making a mistake.

[momof5]

At her age and level I would definately stay where you are and let her develop as far as this gym can take her. As she gets a little bit older and matures a little you will be able to tell if she continues to be very passionate about the sport. If at some point down the road she feels that the current program is not suffient for her then It would be something to consider if there were other factors besides just gymnastics. Talent at this age is a dime a dozen and what will play out down the road is whether she has the drive and motivation to pursue this far. There are a lot of talented young kids who love the sport but as they get older and train longer a lot decide its not for them. I would only consider moving if my child was at the elite level and needed a program that my current situation couldn't handle. My sister in law as an 11 year old was very talented and passionate about the sport. The gym that she was at felt that they couldn't take her any further and spoke to her mom about her training with Bela Karoli (sp) and her mom said that she didn't want her daughter at such a young age to leave home. So her parent said no and she eventually switched to diving and was very sucessful but to his day she is still a touch resentful that her parent would not let her pursue her talent and dreams.

[catesmom]

It's always a hard decision to make when you are trying to do the best for your kids, I feel the strain that you are feeling. Let me tell you a story that happened at our gym. We had a very talented level 5, lets callher Sue. Sue scored very well as a level 5 and her parents were very supportive of her. Our gym has no elite gymnasts, we have one training but thats just started this year.

Anyway Sues parents were very devoted to having her compete. She actually finished 1st at states in her age group. We didn't learn till later that her parents were having real finacial difficulties paying her way. They were paying for gymnastics instead of meeting their other finacial responsibilities. Eventually their home was foreclosed on and they had to move out of state to find work. Even that didn't stop the dream. They sent their dd back to live with a family that home schools so that she could continue. She was very sad to be away from her family, especially her younger b's and s's and eventually she quit and went home.

I guess all I am saying is that for this sport to work it has to be in the best interests of the whole family. It is important to be sure that all your families needs are met, then comes gymnastics. I love this sport, and I am glad that I am able to have my dd participate, but I make sure that it is not a strain on the rest of the family, especially finacially.

I would never make a move just for gymnastics, but then again we are not on the elite track. My dd is competing at level 6 and I am totally happy that next year she is moving to level 7. so few girls make it to that point. There is another thread that shows how the numbers change at each level, it might be a good thing to look at. My second child started out in gymnastics and at age 6 changed her intersts to other sports. Now she plays softball, basketball and still does dance. you just never know.

Please think carefully before you move just for gymnastics, but if it is what you choose to do, good luck on your future.

[hunde2]

I would consider trying out a summercamp to see how my daughter is doing in a bigger gym,if she would like it.It could be a trip for the whole family.I just remembered that my daughter's gym has a 7 year old girl on the team that lives about 4 hrs away from the gym.They either stay in a hotel or have their daughter stay with a friend.I don't know what she does for school.This would defenetly not be an option for us.I do admit(see my first post)since we moved(not just for gymnastics)my daughter has come a long way.

[flippymonkeysmom]

You said she also danced for a few years - a lot of dance studios have competition teams that include acro classes. That may be a happy medium.

[gymdog]

I think the main question is, is where you live currently the best place for your family despite the lack of elite child athletic activity? If it is, I wouldn't move to pursue child athletics. If this is just one part of dissatisfaction with the area in general, then you could view it in terms of that. But still, I'd caution against deciding where to move based on gymnastics, because it seems too likely to lead to disappointment, especially at this point in her progression in gymnastics. There aren't many guarantees. I know kids who found out at 8 or 9 they had genetic back problems that were really going to be problematic with gymnastics and they had to make the decision to quit then rather than go down the road of surgeries, etc at age 10.

I think the first thing you have to do is talk to her current coaches about how far they are willing to go. It may be now that they only have older girls who want to do prep op, so that's what they're doing.

I am not sure if this is where you already go, but this seems to have been posted today:

http://www.thenewsstar.com/apps/pbcs...ORTS/801230338

http://www.rustonleader.com/sports.php?id=3472

It seems like this is program is new but prepared to expand as the girls progress and work with whatever goal they are aiming towards.

How close are you to parts of Mississippi or Arkansas?

[lagymmom]

My nephew goes to this school. It is about 1 hour and 20 minutes from where we live. I had heard that they had a team, but didn't think this was an option because this school (obviously) isn't in our school district. I told my husband about it and he thinks that if you live in a school district that does not offer your sport, then you are eligible to move to that school, even if you don't live there. I'm not sure if this is correct, but if it is, this may be worth looking in to. It wouldn't be as far for us to travel, and we could still live where we are. It would mean getting up really early every morning to take her to school though and going every Saturday (ugh!). I actually get the news star paper, but didn't even get it out of my driveway this morning (how crazy is that???). Thanks for the link though! I actually have a little hope now.

lagymmom

[gymdog]

http://www.cedarcreekschool.org/site350.php

Here is the link to the contact info. It appears to be a private k-12 school, not part of a public school district. It doesn't say whether you have to be enrolled in the school or not. They might just not have a policy on that yet, perhaps they can just work out tuition for gymnastics? I would definitely contact them and see what they say about it. Maybe if you are willing to volunteer to help somehow they will want you Worth a shot I guess.