I have a question and since I am new, I am not sure where to post it, so this seems as good a place as any. My daughter is 8 1/2 years old and has been in gymnastics for three years. One month ago, she moved up to L3. She has been training L3 skills for this past month since she moved up, and this past weekend attended a meet and competed L3. She did horribly. She barely knew any of her routines, fell off the balance beam (not that big of a deal, but they took off alot of deductions) and totally messed up her floor routine - she basically didn't know it all, in fact she told me she had just learned it the week prior. What makes that worse is that she was sick last week and only got 2 out of 3 workouts because she missed a day being that she was sick. Her floor routine was so bad, the music finished and she wasn't......she buried her head in her hands when she was done, and walked over to her coach......we were in the stands, left to just feel our hearts breaking for her. Needless to say, she walked away with only one medal for 12th place overall, which seems ridiculous. Even she asked why they bothered. My question is really two-fold - shouldn't SOMEONE at the gym, the coach or otherwise told us, hey, she's not ready to compete at L3 yet? (She had previously competed at L2, been to about 5-6 meets and did average). There were several of the girls that had been moved up at the same time that also had the same issue. I would have rather not spend $500 + in travel, hotel and meet fees than to watch this mess. Be truthful and tell me she is not ready. You can't possibly teach 4 apparatus routines in a month.....Also, if she was moved up too early, tell me that too!!! Is artistic gymnastics not for her? Tell me!!! Maybe she would do better in tramp and tumbling! I have no expertise in this and I rely on them to tell me. I wish I knew how to get answers ......My daughter spent a about a year and a half at L2, so maybe the reality is that this is not the sport for her. She has trouble with upper body strength. She has no problem with cartwheels, roundoffs, vault is ok. Her problem really is upper body.
If anybody has any suggestions for me, I would greatly appreciate it.
If anybody has any suggestions for me, I would greatly appreciate it.