Recent content by jjsmom

My daughter is a L9 and practices 25 hours per week over the summer (5 hours per day - Monday through Friday)

Our mental coach told us not to keep mentioning quitting, not because it isn't an option...my dd can stop any time she wants, but because if we keep repeating it, she might internalize it and think that WE think she isn't good enough to keep doing it. I let her know it's an option once, and...

It sounds to me like her success on floor has made her strive for perfection and the expectation to be the best in this event. She needs to learn that it's okay to not be perfect. The world won't come crashing down, and that relaxing and focusing on the process and not the end result will...

My dd struggles with this and it is 100% her own belief...no pressure from us parents, just her own perfectionism. We've identified that she needs more balance in her life so that she doesn't feel that gymnastics is the end all be all so we've made a new rule that we don't talk about gymnastics...

Leading up until this point, all communication usually occurs through the club coach and the college coach, which is how girls know they are being looked at or how they are making verbal commitments. The college can only send the girls general information about the school/programs. National...

AnjF, It can certainly be a whirlwind when your daughter moves up fast. My daughter started in a preschool class at almost 5, and now at 9 is competing level 8. It's been overwhelming at times to say the least. Our gym often has colleges viewing practices and in all honesty, are typically...

Coaches are also worried about injury and not just scores so I'm certain most would not want gymnasts doing things they aren't ready for simply to keep them safe.

I agree with most of the other posters. Order is not random however. Gymnasts typical compete from weakest to strongest on each event. For regular meets coaches often choose that order. State meets judges/meet staff determine the order based on scores (again typically weakest to strongest).

Kudos to your dd for a successful season! My dd had a similar progression and is now training level 8 as a 9 year old. It's been a big jump with some bumps along the road so my advice to you would be to stay clued into how she's feeling emotionally about gymnastics, give her ample time for...

I know it's a controversial subject but some of these high profile sports generate a lot of revenue for their universities and Olympic sports programs do benefit from this fact. Gymnastics certainly isn't as expensive as football, but there is a liability there that some athletic departments...

Gymnastics is a VERY expensive sport to sponsor, with insurance rates 2nd to football...many schools cannot afford to sponsor gymnastics programs.

We have several elite/hopes girls at our gym that never did tops so it's not necessarily the best or only path to elite for many girls. We were told to have our daughter skip tops and focus on hopes instead...

Definitely GK (my daughter wears the velvet ones constantly and loves them - no rolling) or Nike pro (non velvet)...good luck!

My daughter is currently training 24 hours (L7) but at 8 yo I still think it's important for her to have a life outside the gym. We typically try to incorporate low commitment activities...last year she did a dance class one day a week. This year she's starting piano. That way if she ever...

We have about 140 team members total and about 20 girls on dd's level...I know those who were with her last year but quite honestly, the composition of the team changes every season (new girls skip up or join the gym, some girls quit, etc.) so it's hard to keep track! I agree that competitions...