Parents Confused about rec/moving up...

[z2akids]

I had a couple of thoughts.

First of all, depending on where you live, compulsory competition season could be starting. This likely means that the gym isn't doin a lot of movement to preteam/team right now. You may just be in the wrongoing part of their cycle.

If you cannot stop your DD from throwing porentally dangerous skills at school, she could get hurt. My DD threw a back tuck on a couple of mats in the gym at school one time. I brought it up in front of her coaches and that put a huge stop to it.

Competitive gymnastics is boring much of the time. My DD's team spends the majority of their 12 hours a week on conditioning, handstands, shaping for skills and repeat, repeat, repeat. From what I have seen, the rec girls often have a higher skill repertoire earlier than the team girls. They don't spend their time perfecting skills and conditioning, but learning new things. Team girls on the other hand spend most of their time making their skills perfect - tight, straight legs, etc. Ultimately they will gain more and faster, but in the early years, team is pretty boring a lot of the time.

As you consider competitive gym, be sure to get an idea of the financial and time commitment. Before you let your DD start down the path, make sure it is a path you are ready to follow. I spent my morning booking hotel rooms for 4 meets that will definitely need an overnight stay (3+ hours away each). Because I don't know yet what day or time she will compete in January, I booked 14 nights for those 4 meets. Granted I will be able to cancel most of those nights once we get a schedule, but it is still going to be almost $700 in hotel costs for my 10 year old level 4 DD. And, that is just one part of the costs outside of the monthly tuition. Competition leos, warm ups, meet and coaches fees, gas, more leos, admission (often $10+ per person just to get in to watch the meets), concession food, private lessons, coaches gifts, more leos, team bonding activities, etc. And the time commitment can get crazy.

Anyway, not trying to be discouraging. DD loves gymnastics and our family is able to fit it into our life without too much difficulty. But, it isn't for everyone.

 

[tooootsie]

z2akids I love that you bring these things up.. all things I NEVER knew when getting into this. Gymnastics is awesome, my daughters love it. But we really financially struggle to keep them in the sport. The time commitment is fine, its the $$$$ that hurts.

 

[MeetDirector]

... Gymnastics is awesome, my daughters love it. But we really financially struggle to keep them in the sport. The time commitment is fine, its the $$$$ that hurts.

If your daughters have optional level gymnastics in their future, and especially the upper levels, you MUST be aware now that this sport is not a sport for the weak of wallet. As you get to the upper optional levels you will easily approach $1000 per weekend (more if you have to travel more/further) and this does not include the "normal" things (tuition, competition leos, warm-ups, tape, meet fees, coaches fees, etc). At the end of my dd's level 10 season, we were at just about $2500 per weekend. One time I added up the yearly costs; YIKES!!

Good Luck!

 

[tooootsie]

If your daughters have optional level gymnastics in their future, and especially the upper levels, you MUST be aware now that this sport is not a sport for the weak of wallet. As you get to the upper optional levels you will easily approach $1000 per weekend (more if you have to travel more/further) and this does not include the "normal" things (tuition, competition leos, warm-ups, tape, meet fees, coaches fees, etc). At the end of my dd's level 10 season, we were at just about $2500 per weekend. One time I added up the yearly costs; YIKES!!

Good Luck!

I am painfully aware.. They are just little right now.. second year JO3. I know it only goes up.. But I also know my own salary goes up as they move up which just gets sucked up by the sport which is fine.

 

[2G1B]

I would see if you can ask a team coach what the process is to evaluate for *pre-team*. It is true that most gyms would not be adding kids right now for *team*; but there is no reason that I can imagine why they wouldn't move kids to preteam since that doesn't have "a season". Go ahead and move the kids to pre-team when they are ready so that they can be ready for TEAM in the spring instead of just moving to pre-team!

Here is my experience: My 3 kids were doing rec at a smallish gym (for our area, we have some really big gyms here). My DS got moved to pre-team. His twin sister soooooo wanted pre-team too. Her rec coaches kept saying she wasn't ready (other DD was still in pre-school). DS got moved to pre-team after most of the kids got moved to it, just when his coach thought he was ready. Then, in the late fall (only a month before competitions started) he got moved up to team. The coach decided that he didn't want to wait another year for him to start competing. He competed that season and did pretty well.

Meanwhile, twin sister is wanting pre-team and we aren't hearing anything about her moving up. Finally, in the spring, twin sister was taking a cheer stunt class that happened to be taught by the owner of the gym. He asked her to join their competitive cheer squad. She thought about it and then told him that, no, she didn't want to do cheer. Since it meant that she wouldn't be able to keep up with her normal gymnastics classes, she was just going to stick with that. He looked surprised and said, "You love gymnastics? You want to do that and not cheer?" She said yes. He looked at me and said, "Why isn't she on the team??" I told him that she had never been invited and that we had been told that she wasn't ready. This was smack in the middle of the season, so definitely no way of moving to team at that time. She started pre-team the next day and when season started was put in the highest level that pre-team "fed", higher than most of the girls who had been on pre-team for the year.

so... all of that is to say that 1) kids really can move to pre-team anytime of the year if the coaches/owners are willing to. There isn't any logical reason holding that back like there is for moving to actual team and 2) sometimes your kid hasn't been seen by the right coach.

After we left that gym (DD actually never ended up competing for them, we swapped gyms and that gym also put her on the same level that the first gym had her slated for) younger DD also got evaluated and put on pre-team and moved to team before the next competition season.

 

[thefellowsmom]

Everyone here has given you some great advice. I agree that if she is 8 and has the skills you say she does, even if her form needs work and she want to be on team then I would try to have her evaluated. For sure at her gym but if they won't then I would take her somewhere else, even if just to have her evaluated. You may or may not decide that other gym is a better fit but it would give you a ton of info.

I agree that you need to get in front of the right person. My first stop would be the website. Is there a team contact email or phone or something on the team page? Like ours has a "If you are interested in having your daughter evaluated for team, please contact so and so". There may also be someone in charge of pre-team. At our gym they call it developmental and the staff person you would look for would be the person in charge of the developmental program. I would send an email or leave a message directly for one of these people.

a pre-team coach would know for sure who to talk to. Is there a pre-team coach there at the same time as you are that you are that you could track down and ask a question of? this sometimes is easier to do than talking to the team coaches who are very busy and really focused just on team. It is the pre-team's coach's job to be on the lookout and transition parents into team so I have found them to be a supportive lot.

Now, given all that, two other things come to mind. It would be a strange time to move someone, especially if compulsory season is about to start so that may be playing into it but I wouldn't say for preteam. Also, not that it can't be done, but 8 is late to the game for pre-team so this gym may have even unspoken criteria. I know that our gym is very inclusive of all kinds of kids but even here an 8 year old not on pre-team yet would likely get funneled into xcel. Do they have that program at your gym or another gym in your area? It is a great option for kids getting a later start. But I will also say that if she has those skills, then someone at our gym would definitely at least take a look at her and give you an opinion about what the possibilities are. It would just be a matter of finding the right person to talk to, which isn't always so clear.

Good luck! I hope you find a great fit for her.

 

[thefellowsmom]

I had one more thought. Do any of the pre-team or compulsory coaches teach a rec class. Some of our do. A class taught by one of these coaches would be a great option if you are thinking of adding another class.

 

[gymjunkie]

In addition to some of the other good advice here, I will tell you what I tell families at our gym when they are interested in a future pre-team spot... Sign her up for as many rec classes as you can so that she is already training at a similar number of hours as the pre-team. At our gym, this amounts to signing up for 3 days/week (90 minute gymnastics classes), plus adding a 60 minute tumbling class onto 2 of those nights. If open gym is supervised by team coaches (some are, some are not), she can add that too. It's hard not to notice a rec kid who is at the gym that often and if the teachers are any good, they will see that she needs to be moved up or at least make her time there more challenging.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

As a pre-team coach I am constantly scouting the rec classes for promising kids. I do teach a few of the higher level rec classes just for that purpose, as well as to provide a nice bridge to the team program.
I couldn't imagine why a gym program wouldn't consistently scout rec classes for team and preteam. I also wonder why someone hasn't been able to point you in the right direction... Every gym surely has people/coaches in charge of selecting for team/preteam. At our gym, anyone asked (other rec coaches, office personnel etc) would know to point parents my way and/or leave a message for me.

Yes, I'm doing the obligatory "please don't let your kid practice any gymnastics (especially involving backhands and tricks) at home or at school. As a coach I really, really dislike having to re teach horrible home taught "skills". I seriously just rejected a child with horrible home taught skills because she wouldn't listen to corrections and needed to start over on soooo many things..!

Ask again about how the pre team program works at your gym. Ok, so it's by invitation only. Who does the inviting? Is it possible they're not around at the time your DDs class is? Are certain coaches more likely to recommend kids to preteam (happens at our gym)? What's the process? Ask, but don't be a nuisance. I appreciate parents asking, but not presuming their kid would be a candidate (especially not on the grounds of home taught skills!) .

 

[notthatmom]

I definitely think it's a great idea to find out who coaches pre-team, find out if that coach also does any rec classes, and get your daughter in that class.
My DD had a rec coach for months who didn't "notice" or seem to care about my daughter's ability....I felt exactly how you do.
Then her old coach left for college and the pre-team coach took over...3 practices later she invited DD to pre-team.
If her technique needs work, a good pre-team coach will help her fix things so she can be ready for pre-team. As long as the right people know you're interested in more than just rec, they will give you the info and the training to get you there (hopefully and most likely)