Parents Flexibility tips?

[Teammom]

My 6 yo DD is super strong for her age. But, her range of flexibility is far behind the other girls in her group. I’ve tried to get her to do splits for one minute on each leg before she goes to bed, but (since she is six) doesn’t want to most nights. Should I just not worry about it and hope one day she’ll want to do it on her own? Can you make flexibility “fun”? She only takes one 3-hour gymnastics preteam class a week, so it’s not like she is stretching all week.

 

[sce]

If she does not want to work it at home, don't push it. Is she interested in dance? A weekly dance class can really benefit gymnastics in many ways, flexibility being one of them.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Does her coach give her “homework”? I do at the preteam level, because they are not at the gym enough hours to get it in otherwise. It is way better coming from her coach... . (And it is universal. I am a qualified gymnastics coach, but nothing *I* say would bear any weight with my gymnast DD. So I ask her coach to tell her. )

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Oh, and FWIW.... I have one higher level Optional gymnast and one very accomplished 16yo dancer. None have ever wanted to stretch (or do their prescribed PT) at home without nagging. It is not a battle I choose to have.

 

[Teammom]

She isn’t interested in dance. But that might be something I look into. I heard her coach say that they need to work on their splits. I wish she gave them a “homework” chart. That would make her feel like she had to do it!

 

[triplethreat+1]

My girls love it when I stretch or condition with them. I ask them to 'lead' stretching, warm-up, etc. I think it helps that I pose it as I would like to increase my flexibility/ strength vs implying that they need work or are behind. They also find it funny (and a confidence boost) that they are much better than I am.

 

[Rose7777]

My daughter is the same way- very strong and builds muscle mass easily, but she has to really work on her flexibility. She's eleven now, but when she was your daughter's age, she really only worked flexibility in the gym. When she started team, she started working splits at home. Her biggest struggle, though, was (and still is) shoulder flex- she'd work hard on it in the gym, but only sporadically worked on it at home. Only in the last two years has she started choosing to work on it consistently. She's made huge progress and is very proud that her coaches often use her as the example to some of the younger girls that you can become flexible even if you're not naturally so.

ETA: I forgot one of my main points, lol. I have always been big into the notion that gymnastics is her thing, not mine. If she asks me to do or help her with something, I will, but I don't push her to work anything at home. As she grew and became more aware that her lack of flexibility was holding her back, she made the choice to really work on it- but it was her choice. I did, however, tell her a couple of years ago when she was complaining ALL.THE.TIME about her shoulder flex (and was being encouraged to work on it at home by her coaches) that if she didn't care enough to work on it, then she didn't care enough to complain about it constantly.

 

[Teammom]

@triplethreat+1 I’m going to try that!!

@Rose7777 you have described my daughter! Her shoulder flexibility is already holding her back. I think once she learns backhand springs, she will take off. Her lack of shoulder flexibility makes her back walkovers difficult. It’s good to know that she can overcome this issue. I agree though, it has to be her decision to really take control and get better. At age 6, I don’t think that’s going to happen!

 

[Rose7777]

@triplethreat+1 I’m going to try that!!

@Rose7777 you have described my daughter! Her shoulder flexibility is already holding her back. I think once she learns backhand springs, she will take off. Her lack of shoulder flexibility makes her back walkovers difficult. It’s good to know that she can overcome this issue. I agree though, it has to be her decision to really take control and get better. At age 6, I don’t think that’s going to happen!

And that's okay. My daughter took longer to learn her back handspring than some, but when she got it, it was great- powerful and nice and long. She literally competed it less than a week after getting it on the floor for the first time. She now has a beautiful back walkover on beam and got her first back handspring on the high beam just before the holidays. Her flexibility will always be something she has to put real effort into- and even with that, she'll be less flexible than most girls on her team... but as she advances, she's starting to see the real advantages of her strength.

 

[Madden3]

I have one regret with my boys as far as gymnastics goes and that is that I trusted that the coaches would make sure they stretched enough and stretched properly- after all they were at practice 4, then 5 and now 6 days a week! But I still thought for years they were not emphasizing stretching enough at practice- but I was never able to get my boys to work on flexibility more at home (I even once tried to send them to a yoga class, which they hated.) I eventually gave up trying to encourage them to stretch. But the fact is, some kids have to work much harder and much more consistently on stretching than others, but with consistent and appropriate stretching everyone can improve their flexibility.

If the coach is not giving out stretching homework, I strongly suggest, ask for some. Or find another reliable source for learning some safe stretching techniques. Even if it is only for 5 or 10 minutes a day at first, in hindsight I believe that getting into a daily or almost daily stretching habit is very important. My older DS has always struggled with flexibility and I tried for years to get him into a daily stretching habit and it just never took. Now that he is 14 he is able to see how his lack of flexibility is holding him back. It's a little late in the game for him but (with me encouraging him and helping him find the time) he is finally stretching daily at home (as well as what he does at practice.)

Also do not assume that the coaches at your gym know every way to stretch or the best ways to stretch. For example, saying that the kids "need to work on their splits" without explaining HOW to do this is not very helpful. There are many ways to work the different muscles that need to stretch in order to get further into a split in a more individual manner. Also-perhaps because I took yoga for several years so that is where I learned to stretch- to me, in gymnastics, there seems to be too much focus on "forcing" the muscles into a stretch. Forcing creates tension in the muscles. Learning to properly breathe when stretching, so that the muscles can relax, can deepen any stretch.

 

[Teammom]

Are there any good YouTube videos that go over stretching? I totally agree that there has to be a better way then just forcing splits. But still, even if there is a video I’m not sure she’ll do it. Maybe i’ll try an incentive chart.

 

[FlippinPrincess]

[USER
@Rose7777 you have described my daughter! Her shoulder flexibility is already holding her back. I think once she learns backhand springs, she will take off. Her lack of shoulder flexibility makes her back walkovers difficult. It’s good to know that she can overcome this issue. I agree though, it has to be her decision to really take control and get better. At age 6, I don’t think that’s going to happen!

My little one is exactly the same. She also hates stretching at home. I try to do stretching with her but she loses interest quickly. I’m going to try the homework/chart idea. She will probably love checking off those boxes!

 

[Peachy88]

I won't let my daughter do any gymnastics at home without stretching. She complains and whines, but I tell her its like brushing her teeth and eating her vegetables, preventative and that she can just choose not to do any gymnastics at home and it doesn't bother me, but that she is not going to work on handstands, cartwheels, back walkovers, etc without making sure her body is warmed up. She is only five and this tactic seems to work.

 

[momstrong]

My girls love it when I stretch or condition with them. I ask them to 'lead' stretching, warm-up, etc. I think it helps that I pose it as I would like to increase my flexibility/ strength vs implying that they need work or are behind. They also find it funny (and a confidence boost) that they are much better than I am.

That's an awesome idea!!

 

[spider_monkey]

There's a girl on You Tube who is CRAZY flexible, Anna McNulty. She has a lot of how-to videos and daily stretching videos that my DD (9) absolutely loves, and she will stretch without complaining if she can put Anna on the big TV and follow along. It's helped her with her back flexibility a lot. I'm sure there's other stretching videos out there and they are WAY more fun for a kid than mom yelling at them to stretch.

 

[kiwi2406]

Could you try making some sort of sticker/reward chart that you cam use as some type of motivation?

Like for example draw out a 5 x 5 grid on a piece of paper and give her a sticker to put on it every day that she stretches. Then when she has filled it up, give her a 'reward' such as going to watch a movie she has wanted to see, choosing what's for dinner, or make a larger chart and make the reward a leo she has been loving.

This would work well for me when I was younger, and in my opinion, its all about getting the gymnast to really want to do it.

 

[Mamabear123]

This was my life last year. I look at my DD's floor routines from last season and I cringe a little with my poor baby and her splits. Lol. She's now 7 and seems more interested in stretching at home, but she gets so discouraged because her flexibility doesn't come easy like other things have come in gymnastics for her. I always tell DD that her coach wants her to stretch, not me. Also, as someone mentioned above, have her show you how they warm up at practice. At this age, they typically like to lead.