dani4
Proud Parent
I hate to beat this issue after it has already been beaten to death, but I need some advice. My 4 1/2 year old daughter just started in the "pre-team" track at our gym, which is a class for 4-5 year olds that only meets for one hour per week and is open to any girl in that age group (but tends to only attract the more athletic kids).
Anyway I watched most of the first class, and only the tail end of the next two classes (because my younger daughter was in a different gymnastics class in the gym next door), but my husband watched the fourth class. And he gave me a blow-by-blow report, which included back bends. He knows almost nothing about gymnastics so I had to make sure that he really meant back bends and not crab walk or something else (which I have seen them do). It sounds like they really did back bends, though not for a very long time. There were 5 girls in the class- 3 of them did them very well, our daughter struggled but could sort of manage to hold herself up, and one other girl just couldn't even get up off the ground. They did not have their feet raised.
When my husband told me this I was shocked, after reading so much about how bad this can be here on CB. Also, my 2 year old's coach (at the same gym) once approached me to say that I should keep an eye on my 2 yo DD and make sure she doesn't try to do bridges- that she shouldn't attempt them until she's 5, though she will want to because she's very athletic and has a big sister in gym . She told me that they are not good for developing little spines. So I was surprised that my other daughter was encouraged to do them in her class with a different coach at the same gym!
It's possible that the coach doesn't realize my daughter is not yet 5- I think the other girls are all 5 (I spoke to most of the mothers) and my daughter may be the youngest but she is by far the tallest- in the general population she easily passes for 6, among little gymnasts she probably looks 7 . But she will not be 5 until February, so I'm pretty sure she needs to wait until then (at least!) to do bridges, no?
I wonder if this is something I should try to talk to the coach about? Maybe there is an explanation, like they really think my daughter is 5, or they figure it's ok for just a few minutes once a week. I'm a little nervous about how to approach the coach, partly because I didn't actually witness the back bends. And she's not that approachable. But I may have to say something. Thankfully my 4 year old is not doing back bends at home. For some reason my 2 year old IS doing them, and I don't even know where she got the idea- I don't tell her not to do them (that would only make her do them more) but I ignore it and don't encourage it at all.
Anyway I watched most of the first class, and only the tail end of the next two classes (because my younger daughter was in a different gymnastics class in the gym next door), but my husband watched the fourth class. And he gave me a blow-by-blow report, which included back bends. He knows almost nothing about gymnastics so I had to make sure that he really meant back bends and not crab walk or something else (which I have seen them do). It sounds like they really did back bends, though not for a very long time. There were 5 girls in the class- 3 of them did them very well, our daughter struggled but could sort of manage to hold herself up, and one other girl just couldn't even get up off the ground. They did not have their feet raised.
When my husband told me this I was shocked, after reading so much about how bad this can be here on CB. Also, my 2 year old's coach (at the same gym) once approached me to say that I should keep an eye on my 2 yo DD and make sure she doesn't try to do bridges- that she shouldn't attempt them until she's 5, though she will want to because she's very athletic and has a big sister in gym . She told me that they are not good for developing little spines. So I was surprised that my other daughter was encouraged to do them in her class with a different coach at the same gym!
It's possible that the coach doesn't realize my daughter is not yet 5- I think the other girls are all 5 (I spoke to most of the mothers) and my daughter may be the youngest but she is by far the tallest- in the general population she easily passes for 6, among little gymnasts she probably looks 7 . But she will not be 5 until February, so I'm pretty sure she needs to wait until then (at least!) to do bridges, no?
I wonder if this is something I should try to talk to the coach about? Maybe there is an explanation, like they really think my daughter is 5, or they figure it's ok for just a few minutes once a week. I'm a little nervous about how to approach the coach, partly because I didn't actually witness the back bends. And she's not that approachable. But I may have to say something. Thankfully my 4 year old is not doing back bends at home. For some reason my 2 year old IS doing them, and I don't even know where she got the idea- I don't tell her not to do them (that would only make her do them more) but I ignore it and don't encourage it at all.