Broadening horizons vs overscheduling vs when does a child really have to choose??

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clueless

I put this topic here rather than the parents forum because I'm as interested in feedback from the coaches' end if they'd care to comment.

It was really interesting seeing the differences (other thread) of what sorts of other activities other gymnasts do and don't do at a younger age. (Obviously a lot of older gymnasts really don't have time for much else).

I personally have liked my 7 y/o DD to try lots of different activities while she's young. I don't feel that she's overscheduled although she does have activities more days than not, and they're all active types (dance/cheer/etc).

BUT - wow that's a decision that becomes harder to juggle as time goes on. In some ways it's great to be quite sure that DD is able to choose what she prefers. On the other hand I've tended to say yes to filling in non-gym days with other things because it gives DD a desirable (to me) outlet for her energy and love of an audience.

I always knew the day would come where DD would have to choose. But I thought it would be because of incompatible scheduling. In reality I'm strongly starting to feel like various coaches and teachers would rather DD be committed only to their sport. One (non-gym) teacher was pretty negative about gymnastics, but the others have never said anything directly against other activities - but they have asked a few questions and I get a negative vibe when I answer that I can't explain. I don't think DD does enough to risk over-use injuries and they should all know her well enough to know how active she is. Do you think I'm imagining things and should get over myself?

DD will ultimately choose gym. She loves one other sport as much, but she'd lose her place in her current gym team. She's doing 3 days pw and might move to 4-5 days next year? Age limits is why I think she'll 'have' to choose gymnastics 'first'. (ie: She might be less disadvantaged to return to the other later than vice versa).

Apart from scheduling availability, meet commitments, available money/interest/energy ... How do you know when the time has come for a child to choose between activities? I think I'm worried about negative consequences if she doesn't start 'specialising' soon - but I'm not exactly sure what I mean by this. Maybe something like if coaches are borderline about promoting/cutting DD which ends up being influenced by perceived lack of commitment to gymnastics?

Please don't be too hard on me for also saying part of my motivation/worrying is preferring DD to do well at one sport rather than be the all-rounder who doesn't care far in any.
 
Every coach is going to feel that their own sport is the most important and the most beneficial, we see the positive benefits of gymnastics for our kids every day but unless we are also soccer coaches we don't see the positive benefits of soccer in kids every day so naturally we will feel she would be better off at gymnastics but a soccer coach may feel differently.

Having said that gymnastics is a very versatile sport and gymnasts tend to be very fit, strong and coordinated. So even when she reaches her teen years if she decides gymnastics is no longer for her the skills she has learned will easily transfer to other sports. So I don't see sticking to gymnastics as just specializing, I see it as a sport which opens doors to all the things a kid may want to do later on. It forms a great sports basis in a child allowing them to be keen on a variety of sports for the rest of their lives.

It won't be hard to decide when its time to stop other activities and just stick with gymnastics. When the time comes it will be obvious. You will start to have time clashes, she may complain she doesn't want to go to sport on any given and day and she won't cartwheel around the house as much as she used to.

But if the sports aren't interfering with each other time wise, and she is still rushing you out the door to get to practice and you have to fight to keep her the right way up at home then you have nothing to worry about.
 
I posted on the other thread , and I also thought that man people are "busy"! I was a Mom who thought that kids should have opportunities to try other sports. However with little DD, I am tired. She started gym on a whim and has remained in the sport since she was two. A couple of days ago we were in a huge crowd when she saw an opening and she proceeded to do cartwheels and walk on her hands. She said, " Sorry, I just had to do it! " This kid is always upside down! She has become tamer with it and enjoys just playing but gym is what she keeps in her soul. It's a part of her. If she decides later that she wants to try another sport/activity she will. But for now one sport is just fine! I don't think she would enjoy doing more if Mom was crabby having to drive from place to place.
 
Please don't be too hard on me for also saying part of my motivation/worrying is preferring DD to do well at one sport rather than be the all-rounder who doesn't care far in any.

You're awesome!

Typically...our families that have gymnasts that make it to L10 were fully committed by L4. Our kids that flip-flop activities all the way through the compulsory levels normally do not have the mindset for the amount of hard work it takes in the optional levels.

With that being said, we now have a PREP-Opt. team which is quickly becoming our most popular team. Almost all of the gymnasts on this team do other activities as well. It is lots of fun, low stress, and less commitment. It is also a much less advanced team.
 
My husband actually brought this subject up to me last night asking when did I think that our DD would have to choose to just do one sport. I suspect that time will be when it's time to move to optionals (going 20 hours a week). DD is one who loves different sports. She goes to gym 3 days a week, but she did fit in soccer this spring (low key AYSO, one practice, one game a week). We also have her going to several sports day camps this summer as well (tennis, soccer, basketball)- she gets to be involved in other sports even with the commitment of gymnastics. With that being said, I would just follow my instincts and your daughter's lead on this.
 
Hmm, i will answer this for my oldest child first, who is 13 and just 3 weeks ago decided to start gymnastics. He has been the type of kid that wanted to try all the sports and played a different one every season. He is going into 8th grade and now for the first time really has to decided what sport to play. it is agony in our house right now. Options are middle school soccer team, which he played on last year, or the fall travel baseball team which he is playing on currently. He is much better at soccer, so my dh and I are steering him in that direction, but he wants to play baseball more. Not sure what he will end up doing. All of this to say that he made it to age 13 without having to pick one thing.

Now, for my 10 year old who has been doing gym since she was 3. She has frequently commented that she wants to try other things or sports. I have always been open to this and at one point even tried to get her to drop gym for another sport. But when we looked at the schedules and time commitments it always became obvious that she could never do both.

I firmly believe that if a child commits to something then they are commited and should try to never miss. The girl on the team that misses gymnastics practices weekly and always leaves early for softball is a good example of what I will not let happen. A one time miss for something is different. So I tell my kids if you are going to do it, then you are going to do it all the way and if you can't do that with 2 sports then you can't play 2 sports.

Of course money and time has factored into these decisions in the past as well, because we have 4 kids who do activities. My dd has ALWAYS chosen gymnastics over anything else, BTW. As you can see with my 2 oldest kids - it can vary tremendously. I think letting them do summer camps in other things they are interested in is a great way to introduce them to different things with a very low commitment level. We are doing this with my dd right now, she did a theater camp already and will do a dance camp this week.
 
Just throwing this out here. I remember several years ago there were articles and reserach on kids "specializing" in a sport at too young of an age. The bottom line, from what I remember, is that the younger the kids specialize, the more overuse injuries they sustain and end up dropping out before they even get to high school age. I remember reading all of these studies because of a little neighbor boy who was pushed, yes, I'm saying PUSHED, into soccer from the time he was 6 years old. Dad played soccer in college, so dad and mom wanted son to pursue the same path. Little son grew into middle school and wanted to play football. Dad said NO. Son continued to play soccer in high school and began to suffer some serious injuries to his feet. He did not play at all his senior year and just graduated from high school. No college scholarship.... I just wonder what could've happened if they hadn't forced him to stick solely with year round soccer? Would he have come around to play soccer anyway because it was a sport his parents were wild about? We'll never know. I'll try to see if I can find one of the articles I'm referring to.
 
These are great questions and I don't think folks are too hard here - maybe a litte more honest than folks are use to but over all eveyone tries to be helpful.

With that said people who are not into gymnastics don't usually understand the commitment it takes to do this sport. It's very different I think than any other a child might choose. My DD's friend does soccer and has no issues missing a practice or even a game like many others on the teams but my DD wouldn't miss a practice or meet unless she was too ill to do it. Once in awhile she will ask to miss a practice but it's usually for something very special (like her graduation dance) or school related activity that is required to attend.

We are fortunate that her practice in the Summer is in the evening so it gives her the opportunity during the day to try lots of other things. We have told both our kids from when they were little they can do 2 things each that we have to drive them to and thats it so if they want to try something else they have to drop something. This was to prevent me from going crazy being the mom taxi and to give them some down time to just veg out. We do let them do the school stuff like she takes piano at school before school starts in the AM and Chorus after school which happens on the day she doesn't have gymnastics.

We believe every kid can't do everything and just like in adult life we have to pick and choose from all that is available. We believe that if you choose something you should do your best (not THE best) and follow through on that commitment before adding things that would cause a scheduling conflict. Not eveyone agrees with that perspective but I guess that's what makes life interesting.

So far Gym and Girl Scouts are her 2 activities of choice. Its a good mix as GS you don't have to be perfect and they do alot of variety in activities to get a good introduction to other things. We have done lots of camping stuff with them, indoor rock climbing, karate, horseback riding and much more. But she is a gym nut and will be with this from what I see as long as she can.
 
WOW... there were so many articles re: the cons sports specialization at a young age, so I just picked one:

Early Specialization and Professionalization in Youth Sports Leads to Overuse Injuries

The problem is that anyone in any level of the JO system has already committed to a year round schedule (at most clubs)...so you are either specializing...or doing more activities. Anyone who does gymnastics year round and basketball (or other sports) part of the year is not looking at less overuse injuries...they are looking at more because they are doing more.
 
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The problem is that anyone in any level of the JO system has already committed to a year round schedule (at most clubs)...so you are either specializing...or doing more activities. Anyone who does gymnastics year round and basketball (or other sports) part of the year is not looking at less overuse injuries...they are looking at more because they are doing more.

Not necessarily. I've been reading a book called "Warrior Girls" that talks about injuries from overuse. The author mainly looks at the girls competing in soccer and basketball and the high number of ACL tears seen with these athletes at the higher levels. The one sentence that has stuck with me so far is this: "Mia Hamm and her 1999 World Cup teammates did not generally play the same kind of endless seasons as the girls today. Some competed in other sports: basketball, field hockey, softball. This is virtually unheard of now even though such versatility is widely considered to be as protective as cross training." Mainly, I think that you're using different muscles for the different sports, so the threat of overuse is not exactly present. Not to say that it wouldn't happen, just that it's less likely. With our DD, we stress to her about making the commitment to the gym and work everything else around it. She's happy because she has gym, but she gets to have other things in her life. In fact, last month I asked her before beginning to pay coach/meet fees if she wanted to commit to another competitive season and she said yes. That is our deal- she knows that once we start paying meet fees, she commits to completing that season. I do look at not overscheduling, mainly because I like having down time too! The only other activity that she did this last school year was chess club and that was after school at her school. I didn't have to drive anywhere, LOL!
 
My thoughts on this are that you should let the kid have some input on what they are involved it, but remember you are the one that's going to be driving them around. My dd is 12 and has done many things other than gymnastics, but scheduling has always been an issue. She wants to be level 8 this year and is now finding time an issue. I made her drop karate because the time was not working with gymnastics and I felt I was waisting my money. She thinks there is time to do everything. lol. Meanwhile she still plays violin and wants to join symphonia and do girlscouts and clubs at school, etc. About middle school is when I noticed the crunch in time. School gets out later and there is less time between school and gym practice. Also, at the optional level, you need to practice more, period!
 
I have three children so time and schedules are definitely limited. During the school year, they can each do ONE activity, which translates to my driving to three. During the summer, I let them do two activities, if they want, but no more. It is purely a time/financial decision.
 
Well, unfortunately for my third child, she needs to choose sooner than her older siblings, DD #1 (almost 9) is on a year round swim team. Practices are almost daily with weekend long meets. She does Girl Scouts as well, just started band at school learning the clarinet, and some fun day camps during the summer.

DD#2 age 7 does 3 days a week of preteam and one day of ballet. She had to change ballet schools and give up ballet productions with lots of rehearsals to change over from Prep opt to the fast preteam. This was her choice. She also does girl scouts and fun summer camps.

DD #3 is almost 5 and just started preteam gymnastics two days a week for three hours. She is also trying out the youngest group on the swim team two days a week this summer. She starts full day kindergarten this and will do Daisy scouts. Sadly, the child has to choose between gymnastics and swimming after the summer. I might squeeze in a ballet class if I can make it work. She seems to have an affinity for both sports. There are probably other activities she would like as well.

But, they have to choose. There are only so many place physically I can take children in the hours after school and on the weekends, and frankly pay for. So everyone gets one sport to focus on and girl scouts. It's the best I can do. I also think if you are going to do a sport like gym or swimming that they are so demanding and go year round that it only makes sense to focus mostly on them. They all have had a chance to play soccer, softball, ballet, swim lessons. I simply cannot do more or pay for more than this. My husband and I often separate on the weekends for swim meets and gymnastics meet. Little DD has to pick. Fortunately she likes both, but picking is going to be difficult. I think it will be gymnastics with a weekly swim lesson to keep up her swimming skills, but no swim team, She can start swim team at a much later age if the gymnastics doesn't go well. Right now she loves it.
 
It's interesting that I came across this thread on CB because we are starting to cross this bridge at this very moment. Dd also does high level ballet in addition to the gymnastics and it is starting to get a little crazy with the schedules--especially this summer. She really wants to compete in gymnastics this upcoming season and it will probably be her last :(. She understands the time commitment of ballet now that she is en pointe. She will be in 7th grade in the fall and the homework will only get more intense. She wants to join the dance team in high school so concentrating on the ballet and other dance styles (she is interested in taking some jazz, modern and lyrical) only seems like a natural progression after this year. Plus, you also have to weigh in her fear issues that she continually struggles with in gymnastics. She will probably repeat Level B for the third year in a row. She is fine with this probably being her last year in gymnastics but is also excited about progressing in dance and possibly going away to a dance summer intensive next year, maybe in NYC.

Making decisions is hard expecially when they love more than one activity that they participate in.
 
Not necessarily.

What part are you referring too when you say the above?

Since "specialization and professionalization" are two things that are basically built into the JO gymnastics program, I can't imagine how adding more sports would reduce stress injuries. Sure...if you did gymnastics for three months and then basketball and then 2 others sports...that would be one thing. However, gym parents are always looking to keep gymnastics and add more...not take a break from gym...the sport just doesn't work that way.

A perfect example is gymnastics and cheer. I had a girl doing both because they were on opposite days. Needless to say...she quickly developed wrist, heal, knee and back pains that she did not have before. She ended up taking time off due to the wrist.

Another one is the gymnast that started playing basketball and almost immediately developed heel pain.

I agree that if these two gymnasts would have stopped gymnastics during those sports they probably would have been fine. However...they were both fine before they started the other activities. Coaches cannot monitor what they are doing somewhere else.
 
JBS, your original response to this thread was confusing to me. I've re-read the article to which I posted a link, as well as several others this a.m., and they all consistently point out that it is the early specialization of a partpicular sport that leads to early overuse injuries. NOT mixing up different sports causing injuries. I think that is what lhmom is referring to.

Quoted from the article:

"The spring is one of the busiest times of the year for youth sports. For many families, this is a great time of year, filled with fun, exercise, team camaraderie, the development of new skills and popsicles after the games. However, it’s a dangerous time for kids under the supervision of overzealous parents and coaches. The current trend in youth sports is professionalization — young athletes increasingly being treated like mini-professional athletes. In addition, the proliferation of club teams and travel teams as early as nine years old has spawned a troubling trend: early specialization in a single sport."

These club and travel teams (at least in my uber-competitive area, practice all year long w/training camps, competitions, olympic-coached training sessions, etc. There is no break. This is true w/baseball, soccer (especially!!!), basketball and I'm sure there are other sports that do this that I am just not famliar with! I also work in an elementary school, so I see the kids come in w/the casts, splints, etc. I ask them how they got injured and it's usually from the intense training from the above mentioned sports. These are 8 and 9 year old kids!!! Yet the parents ARE promised that their child, with enough work, CAN make the olympic team(s). I've often wondered whether it's crazy like this all over the country? My sis, who lives up near Niagara Falls thinks everyone's just crazy down here.... I kind of tend to agree w/her!
 
JBS- what I meant is that there may be injuries from another sport, but more than likely it won't be "overuse" because a lot of times, your child uses different muscles for different sports. For example, the overuse injuries seen in sports such as basketball and soccer are to the ACL (knee), whereas for gym, you'll see injuries to wrists, ankles or back. I will say this: my kid loves competing in different things. I honestly feel like giving her chances to do the different sports camps this summer as well as doing low key leagues (AYSO) will keep her competing longer in gymnastics. I know the time will come soon enough when she will have to choose but I don't that time should be when she is in elementary school. Of course, this is only my opinion. I think you have to find the best balance for your own family. What I feel works for our family may not feel right for another.
 
I have three children so time and schedules are definitely limited. During the school year, they can each do ONE activity, which translates to my driving to three. During the summer, I let them do two activities, if they want, but no more. It is purely a time/financial decision.

That's about how my family went! I'm a single mom who worked 7 am-4 or 5 pm Monday-Friday. The girls were allowed to do one activity at a time during school, and that involved a lot of penny pinching and carpooling. My oldest went in the gym direction and my youngest went in the dance direction naturally, after trying out a few things around age 5-7. That made the decision making process pretty easy. It gets so much easier when one starts driving, hang in there!
 

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