Are there minimum training hours at the elite level?

[Granny Smith]

Understandable, but I believe that LMV resides in the United States and while a gym here or there might identify a "young" talent, there is no system in place that works like Australia's system.

 

[bogwoppit]

Understandable, but I believe that LMV resides in the United States and while a gym here or there might identify a "young" talent, there is no system in place that works like Australia's system.

Which I think is a good thing. Being ruled as too old by age 6 seems way too harsh. Nice that the US system gives so many opportunities to move in the the Elite system.

As to your DD LMV< it is amazing that she has reached L9 by such a young age. It would be amazing for a child who hasn't struggled, but it is evident just how talented she is. Perhaps the coaches can train her 15 hours a week towards elte, but have some of those hours one on one, making more use of the time in the gym. Her remaining healthy and happy has to be at the top of the list. SO glad the coach is understanding the situation as a whole and is trying to work with you on helping DD reach her full potential.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

she is 1 year away from being able to do anything at the elite level. you can come in at 12. but 13 is the most common. so, say she went to 18 hours a week. and not knowing her medical condition. 3 more hours a week of beginning the learning of the compulsories. it's not that much more strenuous. see how she does. see if any symptoms show up that concern you and her doctor. then go from there.

this way you get a head start. if the compulsories can be learned by 13, and verified thru testing, that's the end of that. then she can focus on optionals. 18 hours consistent can provide for a reasonable elite experience. it can be done. proper rest, nutrition, conditioning & recovery between work out sessions could mean like 24 hours to someone else where time can be wasted just due to all the hours that most kids spend in gyms anyway.

then there will be puberty, hormones, etc; i have know way of knowing how the changes that takes place may affect her medical condition or disease. maybe it won't at all? and something that can me monitored?? and is it something that will improve after puberty and further distance is between whatever happened then and where she might be 4 years from now???

if a kid is driven, and the opportunity presents itself then you go after it. the window is very small and 5 years at best to see how she might handle what she needs. and i'm saying this having seen kids at the elite level with cancer, MS, 1 kidney, heart conditions, scoliosis and a whole basket of other medical conditions. it never occurred to me at those times that those kids were anything but athletes.

and as coaches know...where there's a will there's a way. doing the elite level with a perfect biological specimen is easy. and boring too. there truly is nothing like a little adversity in the way of becoming a gymnast no matter the level.

and i do believe in parents being aware of their child's station in life. sounds like you got the edge up!

only way i could edit a confusing word in my post in bold. sorry for any confusion.

 

[Muddlethru]

when it's done right, and everyone involved are on the same page, pursuing the elite level is not a pipe dream and although the experience is a blur the taking over of your life is expected and embraced.

Like has been said time and again, elite and the Olympics is not for everyone but only for a very small (really small) core group of gymnasts. And if you are in that small group, then it is a dream come true and every "sacrifice" that comes with it is as dunno says expected and embraced.

 

[LMV]

Yes, we do live in the US.

Dunno---
Thank you for your post and your suggestions. We have made incremental hours increases over the past year plus and it's something we will continue to work towards as is possible. Perhaps I was focusing too much on not thinking that she will ever be able to train the hours we keep hearing are expected. It is encouraging to hear someone say that there are coaches who are willing to work with a less typical training arrangement. I'm not really clear on this, but do the elite compulsory skills line up with L9/L10 skills? From something her coach said I got the impression he felt they did. I presume there is a list of them somewhere [and he may even have it]. I know he doesn't really want to train elite but I wonder if this is something he could and would do with the plan to look at other options if she was at a point where she was getting ready to try to verify or qualify. I think increasing hours in a gym where they know her would be a better option than trying to make a gym switch and hours increase at the same time.

Bogwoppit---
The optional level teams at her gym are small [it seems about 3-5 girls/level with another handful of kids doing Prep Op solely or doing Prep with a plan to come back into USAG L7 or L8 at some point] and seem to have a coach:athlete ratio that does allow quite a bit of one on one. When she was first coming back she did work with their HC independently [initially she was only doing a few hours a week and didn't really fit into any established training group] and we might look into that kind of scenario if we were adding hours. I think his offer to work with her before was just an example of him trying to do the right thing for each kid as much as possible and I think he might be willing to do so in the future for the same reason. You’re right her health and overall happiness will always be our priority so I guess we will just have to see what happens and perhaps try to take on some optimism on her behalf.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

LMV---

kinda lines up with 9 & 10 skills. take a look: http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/PDFs/Women/ElitePre-Elite/11elitecompulsory.pdf