Parents How old was your child when you knew you had a gymnast?

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ODD (7) began gymnastics at 5.5 -after months of begging to start. I signed her up not really expecting her to like it or be any good at it and she took off immediately and LOVED it immediately. She had previously tried a few other activities which she did not like for long. A year and a half later she would be at gym every day if she could.

YDD is 5 and has been taking gymnastics for about 1.5 years (but most of this time in a preschool class that they actually didn't do much gymnastics in). She is also in ballet and skating and likes all 3 activities. I have been holding off on putting her in the developmental track of gymnastics b/c I want her to be able to try a few activities that she is interested in and hopefully spark a passion for one of these or something else. However I know that gymnastics is something that it is helpful to start young in. I can't have her in developmental gymnastics and the other activities. I don't think she has much of an opinion about any of this yet -she would probably willingly drop any 1 or 2 of her activities and replace them with a second day per week of another. Should I move her to devo track and drop the other activities (or one of them)? Or should I give it another year or more and see what she likes the best?
 
My L4 DD is still in rec soccer. However, this will be her last season (she's 7) as she already has scheduling conflicts and her schedule will just get more intense.

She is old enough to tell me that gymnastics is her #1 sport, and though she loves soccer, it's #2.
DD has done ballet, softball, and swim, but has always been passionate about gym (we started at the Mommy & Me level).

btw- if you decide to put her on the devo track, she can still quit, if it's not for her. She, most likely, won't be much behind in other activities.
 
I would say not until last year when she was put on team and then went straight into L4 instead of L3. She started rec at almost 6 and she took her sweet time moving through the rec levels. Gymnastics has been the ONE thing she hasn't wanted to quit, but until last year she did try lots of other things out and did taekwondo and dance (jazz, musical theater and hip hop... Hip hop was her favorite) fairly seriously at the same time as gym. Once she was selected for team, she had to quit all other activities and she had to choose herself. She chose gymnastics.
She's 10 and a L5 this year. She may stick with this until college, she may decide to try other things out next year, who knows. For now, she's loving gymnastics and it has been really good for her. I have seen a huge benefit to her school work (learning better work ethic at gym) and social life (naturally very reserved, gym has opened her up a lot
 
I signed my ds up to a rec class when he was 4 1/2... He could almost perfectly box split so I figured he had to do som thing with his flexibility...he was chosen for development there and then and is always bouncing around the house so figured he's just meant to be a gymnast,

My odd is 8 now and being doing a rec class for 3 years.. She loves it but sadly isn't a graceful gymnast and is starting to get bored..
They don't flick or anything ... In fact my ds is teaching her how to round off ...
She was picked for a tumblers squad but there's no spaces so she can't join :-(

My middle two ds are not bothered what so ever
My youngest dD has something but I suspect she will also be a tumbler...
She's 2 and 1/2... Has forward roll d from 18mths and is often seen walking backwards up a wall to handstand and is always copying her big brother! She's also super strong and can chin up :-D
I can't get her to a pre school class sadly as they conflict with school pick up but when she's 3 I will get her in one.
 
My DD started when she was 4 because my son's football coach's wife (who is a gymnastics coach) saw her at a game and told us DD was a gymnast and to get her in the gym. First meet was Nov. 2010 at age 5. She turned 9 less than two weeks ago and will be starting this season as a L8. Coach knew what she was talking about.
 
When my oldest dd joined team at 6 we knew it was her passion.

When my youngest dd started gymnastics I really wasn't sure. I made her wait until she was 6 before ever trying it - after she begged for more than a year. I started her in rec classes and after 9 months had her try out for team. She made a developmental class and within a couple of months had really taken off. I think around age 7 I knew she had talent to be a gymnast. Wasn't until she started competing that I realized this was also her thing - at age 9.
 
My DD started at 2.... But from watching her older brother she was forward rolling since 17 months.... Proper form and all.... Shortly after she turned two she was suing the window sill as a balance beam. That was a big indicator. She only did it once - don't worry. She has never stopped flipping either. She used to fall into splits since toddlerhood. Once she was about four, always in a headstand or handstand.


If younger DD isn't 100% sure, I would keep her in plenty of activities. Developmental track can start later, imo.
 
My eldest DD could stand unaided at 6months and was walking by 9months. Was a complete nightmare, running around and climbing on everything in sight :-/

I woke up one morning when she was around 11months to find that she'd climbed out of her cot, climbed up into the bathroom sink and flooded my whole bathroom and hallway!!

Didn't really come as a surprise the way she took to gymnastics :) and now at age 7 she's still upside down the majority of the time..with FAR too much energy!
Younger DD on the other hand, is much more normal thankfully!
 
Maybe two or three. She would sit and watch TV and start pushing up off the floor into a pike with perfectly pointed toes!
 
My daughter was very active in utero so I felt like she would be a pretty active child. And she always has been. We did a Mommy and Me class because at the time, our family lived in a townhouse and she was very active. Plus it was about the only physical endeavor that accepted kids her age. We had fun but I had no idea that she would return to the gym with a vengeance one day.

We did a couple of sessions of that and then she got old enough to do soccer and then finally dance which turns out, I wanted more than she did. After her first dance lesson, the teacher came out and told us we had a gymnast, not a ballerina....sent us packing to a small gym in a neighboring town. I was heartbroken but when I did finally get over my grief and embarrassment, we took her to the gym.

After about two months, it was obvious. She was probably a young 5 about then. But she took to it like a duck to water and we've never looked back.
 
Odd one out here, I guess it depends on the definition of a gymnast but I don't think either of mine (10 & 7) are gymnasts.
Dd1 isn't a gymnast, she's dancer. She goes to gymnastics and loves it, she won't go to dance class (because she "knows how to dance"), but yep she's definitely dancer.
I haven't figured out what dd2 is, she goes to gymnastics and enjoys it.
 
My DD was 6 when I realized that gymnastics was her thing. Before that she was doing dancing and a few other activities, including gymnastics once a week rec class. The only reason I signed her up for gymnastics was because the gym was right around the corner from our house, and I hoped gymnastics would help with her dancing. When she was 6 she suddenly decided that she didn't want to dance anymore. I spent the next few months almost forcing her to go to each lesson. Finally I let her quit, and asked her what she wanted to do instead, and she chose gymnastics. That was the first time I realized that gymnastics for her was more than just once-a-week fun activity, that she really wanted to do this seriously. I wish I would have listened to her sooner.
So, to answer your question, ask her what she wants to do. You think she doesn't have an opinion, but maybe she does. That's how I was, assuming she loved dancing just because she was good at it.
 
Around age 2 1/2. The nearly perfectly executed layout vaults onto the couch were a pretty good sign (this was the trigger point). Plus, there were the climbing onto the roof incidents where she showed no fear. And I suppose I should have guessed like @cbifoja that the non-stop movement during pregnancy was also a clue.
 
When I was 19 weeks pregnant with dd I had to be hospitalized for a stomach bug that dehydrated me. I felt miserable and was hooked up to fetal monitors. The nurses who were caring for me kept mentioning that although I felt lousy the baby was doing great flipping and cartwheeling in the womb. Looking back at it, that was my first sign.
 
DD danced at age 3 & 4. Her ballet teacher when she was 4 was the one to suggest we put her in a gym class. she started rec classes just after she turned 5, joined the pre- pre-team just before she turned 6 and pre-team at 7. She's 8 now and lvl3.

She loves gymnastics, and has willingly dropped other activities for more time in the gym. That said, she's a performer. She loves dancing, acting, etc. and flipping is something that makes her feel special. I'm not sure how far she'll go in gym, but for now she's a gymnast :)
 
When I found my naked three year old climbing the supports of the canopy on her day bed and using the cross supports as monkey bars. That's when I put her in gymnastics
 
It was about here:
DSCN3133.JPG

That we knew we were in trouble if he was a gymnast, since he obviously has issues with following directions and hand dominance...

And about here:
1014092_10152257976854515_348730245_n.jpg


When I figured he was right where he should be.
 
OG was 4 ... climbing door jambs and hanging on the top of the jamb... doing tuck ups, pull ups, and pike ups (before she was EVER in a gymnastics class).

YG was almost 17 months. She was too short to climb the door jamb herself, but she wanted to hang from it... would go to the doorway and try... and say "up" and jump. When we put her up there, she would do tuck ups too. Also on the bars at the park, they were able to go across the monkey bars and do chin ups, etc.
We got them into gym the next month!
 

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