Parents Thinking about changing gyms.

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stillgotmyleotard

Trainee Numpty Watcher
Proud Parent
And in need of some advice/moral support.

My daughter is 11 years old and has been in a development group for almost two years. She loves her gymnastics and would really love to do more than is on offer to her at her current club; her group does not do grades or any kind of goals system and there is no scope for being moved into another group at her age.

They train mainly floor and vault but the group is clearly not a priority at the club; they receive stark little technical advice and seem to be left to plod on at whatever pace they choose. They get to do beam and bars for 15 minutes a time at their Saturday training but this was described to me recently as 'just so they can have a go.'

She has progressed during her time in the group and made some good friends but recently they don't seem to do anything different and I feel like the whole thing is stagnating. It's not that I think she could be phenomenal but I do think she could be much better than she is. It's difficult to know whether this is just my parental bias though and a recent attempt at a conversation with the coach only yielded a 'she's doing pretty well at the moment.'

I don't want to sound like I'm slagging the club off, as they do a great job with so many gymnasts and my own girl has made progress, as I've said. But I also don't wish to be delusional about her capabilities just because she is my precious girl and obviously I think she is awesome.

I wonder whether there is a chance that I am misreading what is happening in the gym or worse, that I might be a crazy mum. Is it the wise choice to move her so she has chance to explore her potential or should I just be content that she is doing something she loves among people she likes and making progress, bit by bit?
 
Different clubs have different goals.

Some "high profile" clubs seem to have their pick of girls and will only enter the ones the ones they feel will increase the profile of the club into any level of competition. They sweep the board with medals at high profile competitions and boast Elites.

Other clubs work on a different premise. They will never have a girl go to Challenge Cup, never have an elite, never win in most high profile competitions.

However,

they give their girls every and any opportunity to enter competitions, knowing full well that they may come last, if that girl has the skills required, they celebrate small miracles, like going backwards on beam or getting giants, they get write ups in the local press cause its a big deal, and they are the majority of clubs in the country turning out the majority of gymnasts, who are mostly happy with their lot.
 
You need to be clear about what your dd wants. Is she just doing it for fun and keeping fit or does she want to compete. Does she want more hours or is she happy to sacrifice hours for her friends. Or do you think she can't answer that because she doesn't know any different from what she has. Very hard to know.

Some girls look promising , move clubs and get swallowed up because it is harder to shine at a more successful higher level club.

Others look middle of the road, move clubs and shine.

I would take the lead from her. Talk to her about other options and what they might entail and where they might lead. She is definitely old enough to make the decision here.
 
If there is no potential for growth in her group and she wants to move forward with gymnastics, I would move her. It surprises me that her group spends so little time on bar since this seems to be most gyms top priority out of the 4 events.
 
JSO- floor and vault is a fairly big competition stream here. Many clubs don't have pits, or full sets of bars, so it's impossible to progress much past pullover, cast, back hip circle, possibly kip.

SGML- ask her. She's 11. Does she want to continue with her friends having fun, or try 4 piece properly. One warning though, at 11 it will take quite a lot of work conditioning wise to catch up to the strength needed for bars. Hours tend to be on the heavy side, and she'll be looking at secondary school and puberty soon which will make it even harder.

Could she go to a summer/holiday camp and try it out maybe? Lots of gyms take kids for the day, although it does tend to be more of a fun thing.

Another option is Acro- if she has a sound base on floor, at 11 she still has the possibility of getting quite far, even national standard if she has an eye for catching people :)
 
You said your daughter has said that she would really like to do more than she is doing? And you are sure there is no scope for her to move to 4 piece in your current gym? Well I would say that there is no harm in taking a look at other gyms you feel are in travel range and asking what sort of classes they offer for a girl of her age and ability.

I would agree with what others have said - you need to find the right gym, as people make the mistake of assuming the bigger or more successful the club, the better the options will be, but that is not necessarily the case for out of age gymnasts. Thinking about my dd's club... the competitive classes are excellent but the truth is that the non competitive side looks very similar to many other clubs. The competitive girls all have a strong grounding in all 4 pieces from the start, so she would either have a lot of catching up to do (which she might love, or might find demoralising?) or it is very likely she would end up in a group similar to the one she is in and doing floor and vault.

There will be clubs who can offer a more competitive experience for her, if that is what she wants to do. Some, maybe smaller clubs will have grades girls as their super stars and do a wider range of competitions which give girls who might be swallowed up in a big club chance to shine.You need to make sure that you ask all the right questions about the competitions they do and the sort of age groups and so on. It would be very hard for any gym to commit without working with her for a bit and you don't want to end up in the exact same predicament a few months down the line.

Look around. I think you will know if you hear something which sounds right up her street.

Good luck, I hope it's out there.
 
Thanks everybody for your input; it really helps to get the opinions of people with a broader view.

The gym she is currently at is a well-equipped and successful club with an extensive elite programme and high-level gymnasts. As well as my daughter's group, the current coach also coaches successful elite path gymnasts. In some ways, seeing what the coach is capable of producing makes it sting all the more that my daughter's group just doesn't get the input. There is definitely no scope my girl being placed in another group at her current gym.

My girl has expressed a sincere wish to be doing more than she is for quite a while now. She is enthralled by the gymnasts in the higher groups and works at home on both the conditioning her own group does and the conditioning she sees higher groups doing. She has loved competing, where she has, but has noticed herself that she and her peers have been less-prepared for competition than others they compete against.

We are lucky that there are several clubs within range for us; some are the small, local facilities described by a couple of you. Another is a very high-profile, successful club. We have encountered that club in competition and they have been very impressive, even at this level. This is the club my daughter talks about and I know their programme at this standard is more extensive than where she currently is but flossyduck hit on my main concern; that she would certainly need to catch up and may struggle with how that feels. I certainly don't want to set her up for a fall.

My daughter is already at high school, being at the very young end of her year group. She gets along ok at school, but academia is not really her forte. This is one of the reasons gymnastics has been important to her. Having something she loves and is good at has been valuable for her self-esteem and I am worried about her losing heart if things continue as they are at her current club. She is already noticing that her group gets less input than most and, as she gets older and wiser, I think this could limit her progression further.

I think the way forward is to have her look at other gyms and weigh up for herself what more commitment and harder skills would entail, as well as leaving the comfort of the group she has been settled with. I trust her judgement, as far as it can go with little to measure it against, given that she has only ever been where she is. But I do worry how that may affect things where she is, as the culture is not to look sympathetically on gymnasts who look elsewhere.

Thanks again for everyone's views. You have all made some very valid points and, while I still have the dilemma, you have helped me towards clarity on some of the reasons.
 
And in need of some advice/moral support.

My daughter is 11 years old and has been in a development group for almost two years. She loves her gymnastics and would really love to do more than is on offer to her at her current club; her group does not do grades or any kind of goals system and there is no scope for being moved into another group at her age.

They train mainly floor and vault but the group is clearly not a priority at the club; they receive stark little technical advice and seem to be left to plod on at whatever pace they choose. They get to do beam and bars for 15 minutes a time at their Saturday training but this was described to me recently as 'just so they can have a go.'

She has progressed during her time in the group and made some good friends but recently they don't seem to do anything different and I feel like the whole thing is stagnating. It's not that I think she could be phenomenal but I do think she could be much better than she is. It's difficult to know whether this is just my parental bias though and a recent attempt at a conversation with the coach only yielded a 'she's doing pretty well at the moment.'

I don't want to sound like I'm slagging the club off, as they do a great job with so many gymnasts and my own girl has made progress, as I've said. But I also don't wish to be delusional about her capabilities just because she is my precious girl and obviously I think she is awesome.

I wonder whether there is a chance that I am misreading what is happening in the gym or worse, that I might be a crazy mum. Is it the wise choice to move her so she has chance to explore her potential or should I just be content that she is doing something she loves among people she likes and making progress, bit by bit?


I was just thinking about your situation with your dd's development group, it sounds similar to my dd's group, my dd only goes once a week though.

I was thinking that they wouldn't move them out of the 1 hour a week Rec class and train them more in terms of conditioning and form if they have no plans for them in the future, it makes no sense as it would be a waste of time for the coaches and the children to work with no end goal for them. Have you spoke to the coaches about the plans for dd's group? ( You might have mentioned it but I may have missed it).

I have been reading on here about the various gymnastics paths in the uk and things are getting a little clearer.

I have been really guilty about overthinking this situation about my dd's group snd it has suddenly clicked (just like my dd's pullover lol) that if there were no plans for our dd's then why would they move them out of the Rec classes.

Things are changing all the time in gymnastics and clubs are changing the way the do things and I would rather my dd be where she is now then the 1 hour a week rec class as there is more chance to go further as she is getting better training and conditioning etc.

The only thing I wish was that communication was better, even a simple class structure chart on the gym clubs website or notice board showing where each class leads from Rec would be great.
 
I can see some similarities too, tinydancer. Except that my daughter has been in her group for almost two years. When she was newly pulled into her group we were still very excited and hopeful that it would help her progress on to another, more serious route.

In the time she has been in this group, there has been no child taken out of it and put elsewhere, though the other groups are constantly moving. There are girls in there who have been there for four years or more and often with no skills higher than those my daughter has gained. I have long noticed that, though the kids do a decent amount of conditioning, they don't do conditioning or drills that are skill-specific. For instance, some of the kids are working on upstarts (and some have even got them) but they have learned no drills to support correct form or to build the skill. This, as well as being told by the coach that Saturdays are 'just so they can have a go' absolutely confirms that they are not intending to progress them. I think that, once they have made a decision about a child, it is not gone back on.

My daughter and I talked about it yesterday, without mentioning names of clubs, and I have asked her to really think about what matters to her most about her gymnastics. Meanwhile, I've had to ask myself similar questions and it does all come down to her doing something she loves in a place where she is happy, so I think I'm prepared if she decides she wants to stay where she is. We talked about her progress and her skill set and what it would mean to enter a different club alongside girls who may be more advanced and more experienced. We also talked about how she feels when she is happy there and how she feels when she is not. It is really hard not to tell her what I think we should do but I think I have managed. My plan is to now leave her to mull it over for a few weeks and discuss it where it comes up.

I am very new here. In most sectors of my life, my personality would accurately be described as 'forthright'; I generally don't leave room for ambiguity about what I might be thinking. If anybody has any drills for parental restraint, I would be very happy to receive them!
 
I can see some similarities too, tinydancer. Except that my daughter has been in her group for almost two years. When she was newly pulled into her group we were still very excited and hopeful that it would help her progress on to another, more serious route.

In the time she has been in this group, there has been no child taken out of it and put elsewhere, though the other groups are constantly moving. There are girls in there who have been there for four years or more and often with no skills higher than those my daughter has gained. I have long noticed that, though the kids do a decent amount of conditioning, they don't do conditioning or drills that are skill-specific. For instance, some of the kids are working on upstarts (and some have even got them) but they have learned no drills to support correct form or to build the skill. This, as well as being told by the coach that Saturdays are 'just so they can have a go' absolutely confirms that they are not intending to progress them. I think that, once they have made a decision about a child, it is not gone back on.

My daughter and I talked about it yesterday, without mentioning names of clubs, and I have asked her to really think about what matters to her most about her gymnastics. Meanwhile, I've had to ask myself similar questions and it does all come down to her doing something she loves in a place where she is happy, so I think I'm prepared if she decides she wants to stay where she is. We talked about her progress and her skill set and what it would mean to enter a different club alongside girls who may be more advanced and more experienced. We also talked about how she feels when she is happy there and how she feels when she is not. It is really hard not to tell her what I think we should do but I think I have managed. My plan is to now leave her to mull it over for a few weeks and discuss it where it comes up.

I am very new here. In most sectors of my life, my personality would accurately be described as 'forthright'; I generally don't leave room for ambiguity about what I might be thinking. If anybody has any drills for parental restraint, I would be very happy to receive them!

It doesn't make sense to move out of rec and train for nothing, how many days does your dd go?

You mentioned skill-specific conditioning and drills, my dd's group was working on bars and they had to do some conditioning as part of it, they had to lay on their backs with their hands stretched above their head and hold on to a small stick or bar attached to something stretchy, they had lift their arms up and pull them to their chest (or lower as I couldn't see all of it) and then back to the start. Is that a skill-specific drill, they usually rotate around a bars (pull ups and pullovers) training bars (front support amd casts) and the lay down thing I just mentioned while they are waiting to work with the coach on a set of training bars - One set high and one set low with a crash mat at the low bar height, they have to cast up into a handstand with a spot and the fall into a flat back type thing on the crash mat.

They do nearly 1 hour of conditioning and the spread the rest of the time between beam and bars until 20 mins to end of session when they do cool downs and stretches, sometimes they jump on fast track, sometimes they go on the trampoline and sometimes they climb rope or do pull ups in the 20 min cool down. The session is 2 1/2 hours. They haven't worked on the floor yet or vault unless you can include the one time they run across the fast track (long trampoline) and did handstand flat back on high crash mats. Dd has been in the group 12 weeks and the other new girls started in January.
 
You need to sit back and realistically look at her goals and possible achievements.

I'm a list person

I look at it like this :

what, realistically is the highest level I can expect from my daughter ?

Which club/clubs have the ability to take her to that level ? ( and if you are not elite then the answer is probably "most of them").

What competitive opportunities do these clubs offer ? Local comps, F&V, Novice Invitationals, County competitions, regional comps, Grades etc etc

If you are looking at compulsories in age - head for the bright lights

If you are looking at regional Grades, tbh sometimes its nicer to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond - the sharks wont eat you up !
 
@Iwannabemargo brilliant response, I knew Dd1 was never going to be national quality but she loves gym and even though they are a very small club if a child is talented they will take them all the way, some of the little clubs are diamonds in the rough.
 
@Tally Ho we are on the same page.

We go to national comps and I tell my daughter if she makes top half I am delighted. She trains 10 hours a week in a club with no pits and is competing against girls doing 20 hours plus. For us the milestones are getting the skills, keeping up with others in county and having a blast.
 
@Iwannabemargo are we at the same club!
I truly believe talent shines, there was a girl at british quite a while ago that came from a little leisure centre gym, can't remember her name, but if you have a good coach then the skies the limit, don't be blinded by all the big names.
 
though the kids do a decent amount of conditioning, they don't do conditioning or drills that are skill-specific. For instance, some of the kids are working on upstarts (and some have even got them) but they have learned no drills to support correct form or to build the skill. This, as well as being told by the coach that Saturdays are 'just so they can have a go' absolutely confirms that they are not intending to progress them. I think that, once they have made a decision about a child, it is not gone back on.

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I am not disagreeing with you at all but just bear in mind that it is sometimes hard to recognise what drills are specific for. I have had parents voice worries to me in the past that their children were not working on skills that they needed. However they were working drills for different parts of the skill, the parents just couldn't tell.

It does sound like she won't be moved from that group so have a good think about the plus and minus points of that group for her and what she wants from gym.
 

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