MAG How many future stars boys homeschool?

[munchkin3]

The post on how many hours got me thinking. I wonder how many of the top finishers in the future stars 10/11/12/13 actually home school and focus solely on gymnastics?
I know the a few kids who do homeschool and train 30 or more hours a week....8 years and up.
Just wondering if it is the norm.

 

[profmom]

We currently only have one in the gym at that level (made nationals every year and was on the national team). He homeschools, but not because of gymnastics. He does not train 30 hours a week. Probably more like 24-25. He's currently a L9 and just aged out of Future Stars.

I don't think any of our guys who are starting FS will make it to Nationals this year, much less make the national team. All are in public or private schools, though one of DS's teammates is toying with the idea of homeschooling for gymnastics.

DS's coach, who has big ambitions for these boys, would not agree to train them those kinds of hours during the Future Stars years, because he does not think it's wise for boys that young to be training that much. He is focused on the long game and doesn't want them worn out or burned out. Don't know what he will do or recommend once they are through puberty. And I don't know if his ambitions include getting one or more of these boys onto the FS national team, though he likes the program and the skills.

 

[Mom2twingymnasts]

My son is on the Future Stars National Development Team. He is not home-schooled, in honors classes and has tons of homework. He trains 20 hours per week. I do think there are several that are home-schooled but a good number that aren't. I do know that at JE Nationals, my son didn't have high enough start values to medal in that all-around even if he had a perfect day. I think the home-schoolers are able to get the higher level skills at a young age with the additional hours of training and hence the higher start values. I'm hoping a bit slower and steady can still with the race in the end.

 

[profmom]

He'll catch 'em at late L9 - early L10, Mom2twingymnasts! Or college! (Seriously, he's a lot less likely to be beat up and broken by the time college coaches are looking.)

My poor DS would love to be homeschooled and be in the gym 50 hours a week, but that ain't gonna happen.

 

[Seeker]

DD's former gym had a big future stars team and they were very successful. As far as I know, none of the boys did homeschool. Maybe one, but it certainly wasn't the norm. I was friendly with many of the mom's and am not aware of any that did. They practiced about 20 hrs a week.

 

[skschlag]

I think 30 hours a week is a lot at the Future Stars Ages. We have a top gym here in our state that runs a program for its gymnasts for school/gym, and they even do not work out that many hours. The lower levels still do about 3-31/2 a day, and it goes to 4-5 a day at the upper levels...topping at about 20.

 

[munchkin3]

Hmmm.... interesting.
I would think that even though the evolution of gymnastics seems to be harder skills, more hours and more dedication, I am glad that kids can still be very successful and assimilate into regular school.

 

[profmom]

Honestly, I have only heard about two gyms that had homeschooling programs and boys in the gym for outrageous numbers of hours per week. One is in our region and the L5 boys we saw at regionals were indeed very good -- but on par with, not significantly better than, our motley mostly public school crew.

 

[munchkin3]

Yes, I agree.....L4 L5 and L6 is sort of a mixed bag. We had one kid leave to dedicate 100% to gymnastics and he was indeed very talented. he wants to go for the olympics....i guess he has 6 or so years not to blow up??

 

[profmom]

Or get injured or develop fears or burn out . . . hmm, just like DS's former teammate who was being homeschooled for gymnastics and working with one particular coach for hours and hours and hours on end. He wound up quitting after making JE finals at nationals last year because he'd just had it. Drove the coaches nuts, but what can you do if the fire has just gone out?

I'm pretty sure Sam Mikulak graduated from a public high school before he headed off to Michigan and the Olympics. And of that crop of fairly young guys who represented the US in the 2012 Olympics, I think I'd put money down on him as the one who's most likely to make the 2016 team (though I'm rooting for Orozco too!).

 

[munchkin3]

Or get injured or develop fears or burn out . . . hmm, just like DS's former teammate who was being homeschooled for gymnastics and working with one particular coach for hours and hours and hours on end. He wound up quitting after making JE finals at nationals last year because he'd just had it. Drove the coaches nuts, but what can you do if the fire has just gone out?

I'm pretty sure Sam Mikulak graduated from a public high school before he headed off to Michigan and the Olympics. And of that crop of fairly young guys who represented the US in the 2012 Olympics, I think I'd put money down on him as the one who's most likely to make the 2016 team (though I'm rooting for Orozco too!).

I agree that if you are good enough to get to the top, and have a relatively balanced life, that is success.
I hate to think about all the kids out there who have had the decision made for them.
The one boy who left for this type of 100% commitment has an opened ended 'Welcome back' from old gym. He said if he burns out he can come back to regular training and school whenever he wants. I just think when a kid gets burnt out, they don't care about the Olympics anymore. The worst thing, is this boy is probably good enough to do both regular school and train hard!!!

My son's idols are the kids who make it to college gymnastics.....I can't imagine the hard work it takes to do both like Sam.

 

[J&A's mom]

The three young men from Wisconsin that are on the national team are not home schooled.

 

[Deleted member 10727]

We homeschool , but we homeschooled before gymnastics was even on our radar. We don't Homeschool to dedicate our lives to gymnastics. It's a bit irritating to me that people assume we get more hours because we Homeschool or it's in some way an advantage for gymnastics. My boys have schoolwork, farm chores, and play time outside of the sport.

 

[curlymop]

We homeschool , but we homeschooled before gymnastics was even on our radar. We don't Homeschool to dedicate our lives to gymnastics. It's a bit irritating to me that people assume we get more hours because we Homeschool or it's in some way an advantage for gymnastics. My boys have schoolwork, farm chores, and play time outside of the sport.

The only advantage with regards to scheduling I can think of is that you're able to arrange schoolwork to fit your schedule. I love the elementary school my boys go to, but there is a lot of wasted time in their day. Bus rides, shuffling between classes, discipline issues, etc. I can't start their day earlier so that we can finish earlier to get to the gym. They still need at least 11 hours of sleep every night, so between school and sleep, there's not a ton of time left for after school activities. If they were going upwards of 15 hours at the gym, there is no way they would have time for outside play, let alone chores or homework.

 

[Deleted member 10727]

Yes, and flexibility is a major advantage of homeschooling. We are very dedicated to academics, and it's our belief, in our case, that having basically one-to-one tutoring without the distractions that occur in school settings is necessary to achieve lifelong learning objectives. I had my older kids in school, and only my eldest son went all the way through high school in a school setting. My oldest daughter was homeschooled from 6th grade on (and she had no sports interests) and is now in college with a 4.0. More importantly, she is very certain about what career path she wants and is using college efficiently to achieve that goal.

 

[alongfortheride]

This is my first grader's first time at Future Stars, and we do not homeschool. I have no plans to homeschool either. I personally feel that even if my child were super good at sports, I would want them to have a "regular" life outside of that, including a normal school experience.

 

[munchkin3]

We homeschool , but we homeschooled before gymnastics was even on our radar. We don't Homeschool to dedicate our lives to gymnastics. It's a bit irritating to me that people assume we get more hours because we Homeschool or it's in some way an advantage for gymnastics. My boys have schoolwork, farm chores, and play time outside of the sport.

Please dont take this string as a knock against homeschooling per se. I have know several families that home schooled for many reasons that have nothing to do with sports.
My question was more about how many boys who make it towards the top home school BECAUSE their gymnastics schedule has become the dominant factor in their lives.
Is it common?

 

[profmom]

The impression I'm getting is that it happens but it's not nearly as common for boys hoping to go elite as for girls. I guess I just come back to asking what the point is of training more than about 16-18 hours a week for a boy prior to puberty? I will concede that you probably see improvement in form if you train more, but the margin of improvement likely goes down substantially with every hour that you add after a certain point.

When DS was a L4 and we were in our first meet season, I remember running into some parents from another gym at the hotel's breakfast room prior to a meet. We got to talking about hours, etc., and I was appalled to hear that their boys were working out 18 hours a week during the school year and 20+ over the summer. I was like, "uhhh, yeah, and here's my kid who is in the gym six hours a week!" and prepared mentally to watch our little podunk team get mowed down. But fast forward to this year and it looks like that team has folded.