Parents Elite sports that require “other” lessons

[Gym2halo]

This is about competitive baton twirling?

Yep! Not everyone loves gymnastics in it. Her main organization doesn't allow it, but she competes where it is allowed. Her coach told us it was probably going in that direction for her main organization again. There was an athlete injured several years ago on the gym floor with a various serious injury from what I have been told, which is why they discontinued it. These skills are required if you plan to do it in college, though. At least some of that happens on a field and not in the gym. There is an extra risk of injury when you need to complete skills quickly to make the catch. Personally, I think gymnastics should be its own separate thing, especially when everything is happening on a hard gym floor.

 

[Gym2halo]

Thank you. I have been very disappointed about the lack of front walkover; it seems like this class really wants them to work on cartwheels and back handsprings. One of the girl's mothers asks always about the BHS, so I wondered if that was the reason, but I was also clear about walkovers. I understand they have to keep it varied, but in my mind drills for a back handspring are a waste of time for my daughter.

But a school year of private YMCA lessons didn't do the job, either! We don't have a lot of "top notch" anything in our area. And I don't really need to add on another lengthy commute, which is why I was wondering if we should just give up on this idea and take something off my plate. Finding practice locations and the sport itself is probably more stressful than going to the gymnastics, but having a day where I do not have to leave the house is something that is rare!

The sad part is once you are proficient with a tumbling skill, then begins the even harder work of tossing a stick into the air, executing the skills, then catching the stick. They don't throw, really. They thumb flip toss it to get rotation. You need to mark spots, spot the stick, etc. etc. etc. There is no time to struggle to get up, and I'm definitely not letting her do anything on a hard floor until she is really good at it!

It is a very obscure sport, until you are actually in this "world." My mom was a majorette. Still, I had no idea. I've never liked that advancement was based on winning. We typically make friends with the competition and try to trust the process that everyone will get their in their own due timing, but last year was kinda miserable for me. I thank God my daughter is still young and doesn't internalize too much about how the process works.

Anyway, any small changes I can make might help me. I do not want to get shingles again. Take care of yourselves, and when you are old enough, I highly recommend the vaccine!

And oops everyone will get THERE in their own due timing.

 

[Dahlialover]

Listen, you are one person. You either have to hire help (like a tutor for your other children or a driver for your daughter’s activities) or you need to reduce your daughter’s training schedule.

Your daughter will be just fine with amount of training opportunities that you can provide while meeting the needs of the rest of the family. It’s fine.

 

[Gym2halo]

Listen, you are one person. You either have to hire help (like a tutor for your other children or a driver for your daughter’s activities) or you need to reduce your daughter’s training schedule.

Your daughter will be just fine with amount of training opportunities that you can provide while meeting the needs of the rest of the family. It’s fine.

Thank you so much! My husband is unable to help much with any of the kids’ schoolwork or extracurriculars, so everything is wearing on me. Some days I find myself wishing for a lockdown so decisions would be made for me to do nothing. Awful, I know. I’ve been thinking about returning the boys to school, but they see it as a punishment. I think many things need to give.

 

[Loopy]

The sport you reference isn't really a thing where I live, but it's kind of like rhythmic gymnastics with more spinning of the prop?
Maybe a rhythmic gymnastics class would be a better fit rather than regular WAG? Or tumbling, or cheer, or acro dance.
Rec gym don't seem to get Into skills like that very quickly, nor do they do the strength and condioning needed to do it - that's more of a team level thing and it doesn't sound like you have the time for that.
A lot of boys do tumbling so that might interest your other kids.

I would find it very hard to have my kids take up a sport were we need to travel 2 hours for lessons weekly. I can't imagine doing that with 2 kids, let alone 4. I don't home school but I do work, so it would be similar. If one was really that good at something I'd consider moving closer, but in all likelihood id tell them to pick something else to do.

One of mine has figure skating as her main sport but our local rink closed down so we are down to once a month or so lessons due to the travel involved. But that's just for keeping skills up while we wait for a new one to be built - I don't expect any real progress while we don't have a rink. She's doing trampoline gymnastics and dance instead as they are closer. Other kids affected have also switched to dance.

If your daughter is that good at this one sport - there is also a good chance that she might be good at a similar, closer sport.

 

[Dahlialover]

If your daughter is that good at this one sport - there is also a good chance that she might be good at a similar, closer sport.

This is very true!

 

[Gym2halo]

Oddly enough, we looked into Rhythmic Gymnastics and could only find one gym within two hours. She actually owns rhythmic clubs she plays around with, but it will have to remain a sport we watch during the Olympics, lol. I think she is going to be in this sport for the long haul. She likes that she is good at it. It's just really stressful making it all happen. I posted about her dance teacher being able to help with the walkovers, which I know some of you commented on, and I thought that might help. I think we will try to fill in somehow with more tumbling lessons at some point, but NOT having to take her to a class has been helpful.