Advice for gymnast from small gym

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My daughter is from a small gym and we dont have the equipment the other gyms have. We have the basics... bars, beam, floor and vault. Oh and a strap bar and tumble track... can she still be competitive in optionals without foam pits? Any advice on how to keep my gymnast competitive with the girls from the other gyms who do have more updated equipment??
 
Are you close enough to a gym that has pits and more updated equipment? If so, I would move her there so that she could start off in the gym with all the equipment. It will be hard to train "big" upper level skills without any pits, and by this I mean keeping her safe training her because if she's always landing on hard surfaces, it's tough on the body...not that it can't be done but thinking long term, you might want to plan down the road...
 
My daughter is from a small gym and we dont have the equipment the other gyms have. We have the basics... bars, beam, floor and vault. Oh and a strap bar and tumble track... can she still be competitive in optionals without foam pits? Any advice on how to keep my gymnast competitive with the girls from the other gyms who do have more updated equipment??

no. you have to have some kind of training pit. speak to the owner about doing a fundraiser and find someone within the gym in construction. it's not that hard or expensive to do.

and if they have high ceilings, a carpenter can build above ground pits. these are even less expensive than in ground.
 
The gym I am at has no loose foam pit - similar set up to what your gym has. We produced last years LV9 eatsern national floor and beam champ, and Lv 10 5th place AA this year, on top of another lv 9 national top 5 placer, and multiple state and national gymnasts.

You can have top of the line equipment in a state of the art facility, but that will never replace experience and coaching.

Look at the programs success, not the equipment - unless it's blatantly unsafe.
 
How many other optional girls are training at this gym and how are they doing? I know some gyms without a pit will arrange for their girls to go do some practice time at a gym that has the pits to work on certain skills
 
Gosh I am jealous we never even had a tumble track!!

What about resi pits, as in out of ground mats that absord. I know not every gym can afford pits, both from a space and a money stand point.

BUt really I would like to think for advanced optionals there would be training opportunities at bigger regional gyms.
 
A lot of the optional girls quit :( Previously we have had a couple of girls go on to do gymastics for some D2 or 3 schools. One of our level 10 qualified for nationals a few years ago but that is about it. Not that those arent accomplishments... So far my daughter has been an amazing compulsory, just wondering if that will transfer over to optionals without the equipment.
 
My gym has no in ground pits, but we have plenty of resi pits, and big bulky mats to land on. If you haave safer landingmats for training new skills, then your daughter can go somewhere. :)
 
The gym I am at has no loose foam pit - similar set up to what your gym has. We produced last years LV9 eatsern national floor and beam champ, and Lv 10 5th place AA this year, on top of another lv 9 national top 5 placer, and multiple state and national gymnasts.

You can have top of the line equipment in a state of the art facility, but that will never replace experience and coaching.

Look at the programs success, not the equipment - unless it's blatantly unsafe
.

To some degree, I agree with your statement Ryantroop about the coaching being what you are really looking for ...but I notice you are in Region 5 so I would imagine there are gyms that you might take some of these upper level girls to to use their pits on occasion...

As the OP's daughter is still a compulsory and the closest facility with pits is 2 hours away, I would guess she's ok to continue as the skill level isn't that great yet. I do agree with what Dunno said about seeing if someone is in construction connected with your gym....that's how our gym ended up with its pits ...one of the dads was in construction and built it and we are a National Team Training Center so you had to figure we would definitely have pits but they were added after the building opened...
 
To some degree, I agree with your statement Ryantroop about the coaching being what you are really looking for ...but I notice you are in Region 5 so I would imagine there are gyms that you might take some of these upper level girls to to use their pits on occasion...

As the OP's daughter is still a compulsory and the closest facility with pits is 2 hours away, I would guess she's ok to continue as the skill level isn't that great yet. I do agree with what Dunno said about seeing if someone is in construction connected with your gym....that's how our gym ended up with its pits ...one of the dads was in construction and built it and we are a National Team Training Center so you had to figure we would definitely have pits but they were added after the building opened...


people should be careful about what they say when they don't give specifics...level 10 5th place all around? level 10 regionals?? top 7 puts you on the regional team to nationals...where? and national gymnasts? in illinois?? no pits??? there was not 1 level 10 from illinois who qualified to level 10 nationals whose gyms do not have pits. and i am aware of another gym who has a resi, and they have to move the vault table there in order to practice vaults. this gym also has a pit that's covered and not used. this gym did have a girl qualify to easterns.

modern day gymnastics can not be taught without some kind of pits whether they are above ground or in ground. it's just not feasible. :)

and looking at gyms in illinois...there is 1 gym in southern illinois down near st. louis. they had no pits when they moved in their new space a couple of years ago. my understanding is that they now have pits. their old gym DID have pits. now, they had a girl take 5th at the illinois state meet. and most of her training took place at the old gym with pits.

and there is 1 more who also had a girl take 5th in another age group. there was a time quite awhile ago when they did not have pits. but they went to another nearby gym to use theirs. and they now have pits also.

then looking at level 10 region 5 regional results. EVERY gymnast in a 5th place spot comes from a gym with pits.

then looking at level 9 region 5 results. every gymnast in a 5th place spot come from a gym with pits with the exception of the gym in southern illinois that i may have misunderstood that they had finally put pits in.

i hate being anal about this. i just don't want anyone being misled that modern day gymnastics can be practiced without some kind of pit. it is unsafe for the athlete AND the coach. it is irrelevant how good a coach might be. coaches have a 'shelf life'. and it would be even shorter without pits.

pits of some kind are the norm and the standard.:) and in furtherance of my point, everyone that comes from a gym with no pit whatsoever should post up. i don't know how to put up one of those poll surveys. maybe someone else that knows how can do that.
 
I have been wondering about this very thing.....my daughter is just starting level 5 so I have a ways to go but out gym has no pit. There has been talk of putting one in since we are getting some upper level girls and I hope it happens soon. The owner is apparently waiting on some estimates. I am not sure what level you start really needing them at but I know some of the upper level girls are scared to do their bar dismounts due to not having one. Luckily if we get to that stage there are several gyms we can switch to if need be. I do love our gym and our coaches are great so I hope they do get one!! Dunno, at what level do you think a pit is an absolute necessity?
 
You know, like everything else in life, you do what you can with what you have. If this gym is your best/only choice, love it for what it is... a small, personal environment where everyone in the gym knows (and hopefully loves) your daughter. If you think that doing fund-raising for a pit is a possibility, go for it. Just think what a gift you are giving, not only to your daughter and her teammates, but to those who come after. But if it's not a possibility, then don't stress it. Your daughter will still get lots of wonderful things out of gymnastics, pit or no pit.
 
Well honestly i think if the training program is good and the coaches are good all you really need is the basic stuff to do well. We started at a small gym with just the basic stuff and my kids did really well there. We might still be there is one season just about all the coaches left and there were just high school kids teaching. Although the drive there is over an hour away now that we moved twice since we were there.
 
Here in GB it isn't uncommon for a gym not to have a pit. However it is becoming less common!
We have recently moved to a larger facility in order to have a pit, so has another club in our region.
For over 20 years we had no pit. We did travel 1 hour each month though to a facility with a pit, but once a month is nowhere near enough!
None of our gymnasts ever progressed to performing double somersaults on any apparatus. The ones with potential usually moved on to other clubs with pits/experienced coaches.
We are still in the early stages of having a pit and our gymnasts are still getting used to it - they are so used to not having one that it is difficult for them to get their tumbles right, however we are getting there. Still no double somis but hey, we'll get there!
 
We don't have a pit - even if we raised funds for it, I don't think we have the space. Our gym owner's dream is to move to a bigger location one day and have a pit, so it could happen in DD's gym career. It's hard for us to be competitive at higher levels for a variety of reasons - the lack of a pit isn't really a major one. In fact, a pit may not be the wisest use of funds right now because there are still so many constraints to our gymnasts progressing really high. Still, the barriers lower every year, and the day is coming soon when we could actually start to get more competitive, and then I think we'll need the pit for sure. DD is only in level 4, so we're just enjoying the ride right now and not really expecting great things.
 
I have been wondering about this very thing.....my daughter is just starting level 5 so I have a ways to go but out gym has no pit. There has been talk of putting one in since we are getting some upper level girls and I hope it happens soon. The owner is apparently waiting on some estimates. I am not sure what level you start really needing them at but I know some of the upper level girls are scared to do their bar dismounts due to not having one. Luckily if we get to that stage there are several gyms we can switch to if need be. I do love our gym and our coaches are great so I hope they do get one!! Dunno, at what level do you think a pit is an absolute necessity?

from the beginning. they must 'learn' how to use a pit just as they must learn how to do gymnastics. but in the case of a gym that starts out with no pits and observes their athletes evolving, then i would say by level 7.
 

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