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Deleted member D3987
Her girl is 9 years old and trains 4 hours a week at prep op level and has her L4 skills. Please illuminate us, parents love the inside scoop. THanks ahead of time.
okay bogwoppit, here goes.
usag has 77,000 athlete registered members. this is not indicative of other programs that exist all over the USA that have nothing to do with USAG. there are many. and they are gymnastically irrelevant.
of the 77,000, over 60,000 are levels 1-6 on the women's side. then you have boys, tramp and tumble, acro & rhythmic. there about 2200 registered boys at all levels.
last count there were 4500 gymnastics schools. for level 10 women's nationals for example, top 7 from each group X 8 age groups= 56. 56 X 8 age groups=440 athletes. some regions are not able to fill 56 spots. and they couldn't borrow enough gymnasts from other regions that had scored a minimum 34.00 AA to meet the rule. therefore, there were not 440 athletes competing, but less. the top is diminishing and the low is increasing every year for the last 5. at level 9 they went to 16 age groups. why? so your child had a better chance of getting an award. the dumbing down of academics and sports began about 10 years ago. competition be damned. and 'up' with achievement awards...USAG visionaries saw this coming as far back as 1985. hence, the level 1-10 system and other programs were born in 1989 competitive season right after the seoul olympic games. i'll expound on this further downthread.
so, looking at the industry as a whole [and i've given just a couple of statistics] and if you own a gym, and you want to be very profitable, have low coaching overhead, have no stress of having to succeed or exposure to injury and lawsuits...then level 1-4 is the way to go. and this is what is currently happening. then there is cheer for tumbling, cheer only gyms, mom/dad nights out, open gyms, rock climbing walls, lock ins, etc; gyms have become profit centers.
what does this mean? in the time it takes a parent to figure out that their dd is going no place she will then be to old. 9 is not old. 9 is a good age to get serious and get moving with training.
you insinuated that your child is hungry. then get her in a gym where there are level 8's, 9's, & 10's. let them evaluate your daughter's potential and see if you might be spinning wheels anyway.
in my mind, any gym is good for kids to be exposed to gymnastics. and they all have reasonable coaching staffs. but if you are really looking to advance, and you are at a gym that has 100 level 4's & 5's, some 6's, a couple of 7's, zero 8's, zero 9's, & zero 10's...
and to parents, gymnastics is the hardest sport your child will ever endeavor. they should not be competing at the ages that you have your children competing. but you want us like soccer. and 9 year olds should not be training excess hours because you've been told this will progress them, or because YOU think that this is what must be done. you want us like soccer. they should be training consistently and year round. but because parents drive an industry like ours, they have pushed our sport to areas that are unacceptable from a training/competitive standpoint. and the parent wants their cake...and go on forever vacations and then ask for tuition discounts cause you don't want to pay, and you don't want your child to train in the summer, or holidays when necessary, or forego birthday parties and sleepovers when your children are 14. so a gym could be trying the best they can but will never be able to hire a high level coach cause your actions will will not support such. then when you come back in september, you expect to have your child right back on that team. and you have been doing this for years. you go to your summer homes for 3 months every summer. you've been doing this for 5 years. 5 years X 3 months every summer is !15! months of training that your child has missed. then you complain when she is still a level 5 and now drives a car and can drive herself to level 5 practice. and she is the only carpool that transports other girls on the level 5 team that are 7 year olds...
back in the day, competing on a team anywhere was a privilege. now TEAM is either a club requirement or that of the parent. and if they are not on a team then someone must be doing something wrong. and we have to give lower level gymnasts achievement awards so that they 'feel' good about themselves.
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