Parents Has the whole world gone mad?

[FlippinLilysMom]

Back to the topic - did anyone currently part of that group notice that 60+ people suddenly joined that group? Iol

Oh and we have a fairly known social media gymnast at our gym who does do a lot of hours and is homeschooled, however that's not the norm at our gym at all - actually our gym is fairly low hours compared to other gyms. We have several girls that burned out at a high hours gym (one gym was 30+ hours for 8 years old!), took a break and moved to our gym and now they are all level 9s and 10s and one is even on the verge of going elite - all with less hours than they did before.

I was on the verge of being a crazy parent though ! My daughter wasn't getting several skills 3 months ago and falling behind her teammates so I kept bugging for privates even though they said she was doing fine. They had to keep reminding me she's younger and smaller than everyone on the entire team and she's progressing great, she just needed to get stronger which takes time and build muscle memory..but I kept asking.

It's easy to get sucked in when you suddenly see a 7 year old talent throwing crazy skills on beam and bar. Thankfully I realized how obsessive I was becoming so I backed off and started trusting the process. I finally heeded the advice I read on here all the time: it's a marathon, not a sprint.

That group gets tons of new member requests daily, as does one of the other gym moms facebook groups that I help moderate. I was asked to help mod that group about a year ago when the original creator of the group couldn't keep up with the new member requests. I probably sort through 25-50 new member requests each week, lots of creepers though that immediately get denied and blocked!

 

[TumbleTimes4]

I really don’t want CB to turn into that crazy Mom group. I enjoy the honesty and logical reasoning on this page. This has been a great source as a mom of a young compulsory gymnast to ask questions and learn about this wild ride we’ve embarked on. And the discussions are sometimes passionate but challenging and I love that. I don’t want to come here a “score this routine” or “my daughter only scored a 9.7” post. But the discussion about high hours and what is normal is extremely helpful to those of us that are brand new to the sport.

 

[RTT2]

I really don’t want CB to turn into that crazy Mom group.

I don't think it ever will. As someone else noted earlier, the crazy ones never last long. There is too much pushback. Plus, Bog doesn't tolerate bad grammar for long, which seems to be a hallmark of the crazy ones.

 

[bogwoppit]

I don't think it ever will. As someone else noted earlier, the crazy ones never last long. There is too much pushback. Plus, Bog doesn't tolerate bad grammar for long, which seems to be a hallmark of the crazy ones.

It kills me.

 

[Flicfliclay]

Well a kid training the hours of a full time job cannot be okay in anyone's eyes.

LOL. I agree with you. But we can all sit here and judge how/when/where others train, but who really knows that perfect training hours and system? I mean i guess we could mirror training of some of the gyms that produce the most elite's or college athletes? who knows. It is an interesting topic for sure, because i as a parent would love to know more about nutrition, training hours, down time etc...

 

[Taxidriver]

LOL. I agree with you. But we can all sit here and judge how/when/where others train, but who really knows that perfect training hours and system? I mean i guess we could mirror training of some of the gyms that produce the most elite's or college athletes? who knows. It is an interesting topic for sure, because i as a parent would love to know more about nutrition, training hours, down time etc...

That’s very true but I think those who have been around the competitive gym world has seen what causes burn out. In reality very few girls make it to the top and how many girls are damaged by over training and burn out either physically or mentally.
I think it takes a very brave coach/club to say whilst most of the top gyms are training x amount of hours we think a lower amount of hours are optimum.
I know an awful lot of tracking (performance, strength etc) and analysis goes on by the coaches at my dd gym, far more than I think most parents realise.
Also it’s not as straightforward as comparing hours as one gym may have a lot of standing around another gym might never take breaks.

 

[stillhoping]

There has to be an optimum number of training hours for a gymnast. I don't know what the number is. But, some seem to have made the false assumption that a gymnast will learn twice as fast training 36 hours a week as they would training 18 hours a week. That's like saying that I will get double the work done working 80 hours a week as I would working 40 hours a week. Or, maybe if I run two hours straight I’ll go 12x as far as I would normally run in 10 minutes. It's not that simple. People aren’t machines. Productivity and focus drops with the number of hours put in per week. There’s an optimum number, and after that, diminishing returns.

 

[amlfbaba]

I've enjoyed being on the sidelines eating my popcorn and reading this thread for the last week. Someone mentioned the movie Stick It recently, and that's exactly what I thought of when I first read the OP. I also got curious about that group and I became one of the "couple of dads."

Back to the original post topic. For some reason this morning I remembered when I first found chalkwarrior and something that really stood out while reading gymnasts' bios. (Just about) All the bios have a last paragraph that begins, "Currently, [gymnast name] practices XX hours per week with [coach name]." You pretty much see 25 and up and many in the 30's. It's an odd part of this sport's culture that hours practiced is included as fact(?) right next to AA and event placements on a very reputable website. It struck me that day a few months ago because as I was learning more about competitive gymnastics I had to fight the urge to run to my wife and say, "OMG, we have to get DD to a new gym to train more hours and on and on and on." Of course, that conversation never happened and instead the correct voice inside my head said, "Hey dingbat. She's six. She did pretty well in her first season."

For the record, she trains ~ 11 hrs/wk now and will probably move to ~14 in 2 years. And, finally, I hope no one reads this as a complaint against that particular site. It's an excellent resource!

 

[Flicfliclay]

That’s very true but I think those who have been around the competitive gym world has seen what causes burn out. In reality very few girls make it to the top and how many girls are damaged by over training and burn out either physically or mentally.
I think it takes a very brave coach/club to say whilst most of the top gyms are training x amount of hours we think a lower amount of hours are optimum.
I know an awful lot of tracking (performance, strength etc) and analysis goes on by the coaches at my dd gym, far more than I think most parents realise.
Also it’s not as straightforward as comparing hours as one gym may have a lot of standing around another gym might never take breaks.

So true! Guess we as parents need to just watch our kids and make sure they are balanced. Which can sure be hard sometimes. I for one make it known to mine that while i love that she wants to pursue gymnastics/college gym/ that school is number 1! And the rest we work together to balance. So far so good, but she's not a teen yet, that will deliver a whole new set of problems! gahhhh!

 

[John]

To divert just a little I find it interesting that US parents like to say that school is number 1. I have caught myself doing this, I do not like to say this. I have an older son, 23, and I preached this to him. It did not take, he never liked school, I think the preaching hurt our relationship. School and Gym have somethings in common and for me, the most important is that you can not make your child love either, it must come from within.

 

[Flicfliclay]

To divert just a little I find it interesting that US parents like to say that school is number 1. I have caught myself doing this, I do not like to say this. I have an older son, 23, and I preached this to him. It did not take, he never liked school, I think the preaching hurt our relationship. School and Gym have somethings in common and for me, the most important is that you can not make your child love either, it must come from within.

I guess for us, it means that if you can't keep you homework done, grades up, etc then there's no gymnastics. I don't preach to love school, because i don't expect them to love it. Just that it is a priority over gymnastics which is "extra curricular"..

 

[amiandjim]

There has to be an optimum number of training hours for a gymnast. I don't know what the number is. But, some seem to have made the false assumption that a gymnast will learn twice as fast training 36 hours a week as they would training 18 hours a week. That's like saying that I will get double the work done working 80 hours a week as I would working 40 hours a week. Or, maybe if I run two hours straight I’ll go 12x as far as I would normally run in 10 minutes. It's not that simple. People aren’t machines. Productivity and focus drops with the number of hours put in per week. There’s an optimum number, and after that, diminishing returns.

I agree there is probably an optimum number of hours, and it probably varies a bit with each child/gym. Just like I work 52 hours most weeks, and that’s fine for me. I have co-workers, however, that say they could never work that much. I think we can pretty much all agree, though, that the optimum number of hours does NOT involve a 5 year-old training with the high hour homeschool group or a level 3 training 21-24 hours a week (yes, I have read both those scenarios in that FB group in the last 24 hours).

 

[Deleted member 18037]

To divert just a little I find it interesting that US parents like to say that school is number 1. I have caught myself doing this, I do not like to say this. I have an older son, 23, and I preached this to him. It did not take, he never liked school, I think the preaching hurt our relationship. School and Gym have somethings in common and for me, the most important is that you can not make your child love either, it must come from within.

I’m required by law to educate my kid. I hope she likes it and gets something out of it. It’s really great if she loves it. But I’m required to educate her.
There is no such requirement for gym.

Also she is unlikely to be doing gymnastics into adulthood. But she will likely need the basics of her education for what lies ahead for her.

So yes, here education is the priority.

 

[twinmomma]

I’m required by law to educate my kid. I hope she likes it and gets something out of it. It’s really great if she loves it. But I’m required to educate her.
There is no such requirement for gym.

Also she is unlikely to be doing gymnastics into adulthood. But she will likely need the basics of her education for what lies ahead for her.

So yes, here education is the priority.

The problem lies in seeing gymnastics as less than education. There are many days I feel like my kid gets more life skills from gym than she does at school. While school is a priority here as well, I believe in seeing outside of school activities as co curricular rather than "extra". Changes the focus and mindset quite a bit.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

But, some seem to have made the false assumption that a gymnast will learn twice as fast training 36 hours a week as they would training 18 hours a week. That's like saying that I will get double the work done working 80 hours a week as I would working 40 hours a week. Or, maybe if I run two hours straight I’ll go 12x as far as I would normally run in 10 minutes. It's not that simple. People aren’t machines. Productivity and focus drops with the number of hours put in per week. There’s an optimum number, and after that, diminishing returns.

I don’t think it is a false assumption at all when it comes to physical skills. Which is a different beast then what most of us do at work.

Part of getting these skills is repetition. That’s how you build muscle memory.

If you have more opportunity in a week to do more reps it’s not unreasonable to expect it to become muscle memory sooner.

I weight train, sure there is an optimal way to train. But if I train less frequently it will take longer to build muscle.

There are many things where this applies. “If you don’t use it you lose it” My kid takes Mandarin lessons. She lives with non Mandarin speakers. She will take longer to acquire the language then kids who go home and speak with parents who know Mandarin. Simply because they use it more then she does.

Arithmetic drills they become memory the more drill you do. If you drill them multiple times a week you will get them quicker then once a week.

There are many factors that go into training. But no, I don’t think, it’s a false assumption at all.

 

[kayjaybe]

Our optionals practice about 18 hours/week (20 in the summer). We are not a super-large gym (about 25 optionals). We usually have 1-2 girls/year get a full athletic college scholarship.

I really think it is more about the talent of the particular kid than the hours, once you get to a certain point. I would just about guarantee that my dd wouldn’t do well enough to get a gymnastics scholarship even if she practiced 30+ hours/week. Too many fear issues!

 

[LJL07]

The whole world has definitely gone mad. I just spent five seconds on instagram, and I’m considering going off the grid. The sheer number of baby Instagram gymnast accounts was staggering. I can’t take it.

 

[josie55]

My two cents:

* The "optimal number of hours" likely varies by kid and includes factors like how efficient the practices are/how many reps they are getting in, and that particular kid's ability to learn quickly, as well as how many hours that particular kid is happy training.

* It also strikes me as odd (as I think @John said) to read people put out there on chalkwarrior how many hours they are training. It's a bit like a badge of honor, and I get that some people see it that way, but I certainly don't. If anything it's the opposite.

* I think that regardless of how many hours my kid has ever trained, I've always thought that those doing more were somehow doing too many, or at least what I perceived as too many for my kid. This holds true for when mine started at L3 - I thought nine hours was kind of crazy, that it might be too much for my kid, and how on earth are others doing 12??

No idea what the right number is, but I wish mine were doing less. I suggested not long ago that she cut back a bit and I'm not sure I've ever seen her so upset in my life, telling me her time at gym is the best part of her days. Not to say that I can't make that happen (yes, I know I'm the parent), but when the kid is managing to somehow get the schoolwork/grades done along with everything else, and it generally is working for the family, it's hard to know where to cut things off. I guess it will be a journey.

One thing that I do find encouraging is that the hours do not always seem to just pile on. Some of the older L10s at my dd's gym go one or two fewer days than the youngers and they do great.

And regardless of what's happening in gymnastics and on that fb group, yes, it does seem as though the world has gone mad ;-)

 

[bogwoppit]

My solution is to follow nobody on any social media. Literally the only gymnastics related person I follow is the balance beam situation, he is hilarious. I decided a long time ago that the way to keep sane is not to follow these kids, or their crazy gyms.

 

[raenndrops]

It kills me.

Me too ... and if I ever have a grammar mistake, please forgive me (I am mildly dyslexic and dysgraphic plus have ADHD and a mind that races a mile a minute).
My fingers often can't keep up with my mind. I will mix up letters and leave out word endings or entire words or start with one thought and mid-sentence, I will finish with another thought that was in my head but never made it into my post.
I try to double check before submitting, but sometimes forget.
Most of the time my errors will look like typos "teh" instead of "the" and "studnets" instead of "students." It really was not good when I was in grad school for education... I wrote a lot of papers about studnets until I set up Microsoft Word to autocorrect it