Parents is it just me??

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sheplaysinthechalk

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or does anyone ever freak out over their child's progress? I do.

Her coaches just don't know what to do with her. They've made it clear. So they just keep working with her.

Currently, dd is 4, and going to turn 5 in december. 2 months ago, she was a solid level 2.

Now, she has all of the skills for level 3 AND is only lacking a front hip circle and the beam dismount for level 4 skills.

It freaks me out. She's so young, and so small.

The other day, i walked in near the end of class and dd was doing HANDSTANDS on the HIGH BEAM unassisted. the coach was about 10 or 15 feet away from her.I don't know if this is okay or not. She is so short that she can walk under the high beam. That part scares me. And the fact that she is working out with 7-11 year olds.

Then it was on bars. she showed the coach level 3. Unassisted. And then i thought to myself - omg. she's doing the routines on the "big girl bar" as she calls it. ARE HER HANDS EVEN REALLY BIG ENOUGH for that to be safe?


Please don't get me wrong - i'm not typically a very nervous person and i do trust her coaches (i think) I just don't know if things are moving too quickly with my little girl.

currently my little girl is excited and loves gym and is really proud of herself when she masters something new. She loves it - she's not having issues at gym. This is just me wondering if what's going on at her gym is normal and i shouldn't be concerned, or if it is a concern??

any input would be greatly appreciated!
 
If my daughter was doing what you daughter is doing at 4 when she was 4, I would have freaked out. My daughter just turned 6 and is right about your DDs level, missing the 2 exact things to compete level 4. LOL. And she amazes me. Her best friend is a lot like your DD and the other real young talented gymnasts on here and she freaks me out sometimes. :D

I don't think there is much you can do except to make sure she is safe at the gym, isn't practicing too many hours for her age (and that is controversial). At your DDs age, I would think 6 hours a week would be the max for my comfort zone, 4 being ideal. But I am not a coach and know nothing except what my mama instincts scream at me. And believe me, they still scream at me when I tell people my DD practice 10 hours a week at 6. :D

As for normal gym management, that varies greatly. It definitely sounds like your gym falls in that range or normal. I would probably be more comfortable with her being on a beam that is chest height, but that is just my mom side. As for the bars, she seems to have a very good grip on them in her level 2 routine on Youtube. :D

It looks like you just have a super talented little kid on your hands. I don't think there is much you can do but keep her safe as best as you can and then just sit back and watch her love doing what she loves to do. :D
 
I've had the same concerns/issues with my dd. She has progressed so fast for her age. She is fearless and will attempt things on bars, high beam and floor that have not been taught to her yet. A few months ago I walked in to the gym and she was on beam. She ran over to me to tell me to watch what she can do. She looked around to see if her coach was watching and did a cartwheel on high beam with no mats. She nailed it but coach caught her and she was reprimanded. And just yesterday she was on bars and was instructed to do 5 casts. Well on her 5th cast, she casted to handstand and came down so fast she fell. I was shocked!! It was the first time I saw her do it although she has claimed all summer of doing it. Now no one has really ever showed her how to do it. I guess she just figures- just give it all I got! If they actually worked with her on that, she'd have in no time. HC eventually told her to come back down slowly and do a back hip circle so maybe they will start working on that with her.

All I know is that dd is happier when she is being challenged. Her coaches have tried slowing things down a bit for her. For example she has her ROBHS but they really don't want her doing it. I think because she's competing L3 this season and they don't want her to bust out a back handspring in her routine. Eventhough they've slowed down her progress some, she is still very happy with gym (today anyway).

I would say if your dd is happy and loves going to gym. I would let them do what they do. But I can totally understand how you might feel freaked out! They are amazing little talented gymnasts!! hee hee!
 
Wow! Not many kids can walk under a high beam but at the same time, do a handstand on it unasissted! I do, I am a screamer at meets LOL. At an exabition a couple years ago before team, the first time little Lexi did her first round off bhs by herself, I screamed! :eek::eek: Or for first time flyaways, Leah was the first to do it on her level 5 team, there was also some screams from mommy. LOL
 
We have a little girl in our gym that just turned 5 last month and she amazes me. She has her ro bhs back tuck on the floor by herself. Can easily to bhs across the floor. Press handstands - no problem. Has her cartwheel and bwo on beam - and is real close to the bhs on beam. Can swing on the bars like a champ - has her kip and and cast to handstand. The most amazing thing is she only trains about 6-7 hours a week - that is all her mom will let her. She will compete this year as a level 3 since that is all she can compete at her age (totally unfair to all the other level 3's). The coaches were going to just have her not compete until she was 7 so she could go qualify out of the lower levels but she really wants to wear the pretty leo and compete. It really is something to see these tiny little girls able to do stuff like that. We are all convinced we are watching a future olympian.
 
We have a girl at our gym that is great too. She will be 8 next month. She did one year of L4 and she will be doing L5 - but they are thinking of having her do one meet @ L5 and scoring out to compete L6 instead. She can do ROBHS backlayout w/ twist on floor, has all bar - giants included. BHSBHS on beam.

she is so tiny and has incredible power. It is really something to watch. She will be 16 in 2016 - you never know !!!
 
sheplays, I totally commiserate. My girls just turned five and have had their L3 skills for a while now. Their coaches have started them working on the L4 ones, but they still work with the L3 girls because of the age limits. I don't know about all of you, but my heart practically stops when I see one of my babies (and they ARE my babies, their brothers are a year older) up on the bars or the beam like the big girls. Especially when they start doing the things those girls are doing! The rule in our house is that as long as they are having fun and the coaches and we feel they are safe, they can continue working on the harder (and progressively harder and harder and...:-O) skills, but we won't talk about competition until they are at least 6, maybe 7. Right now they are happy (and have been since I can remember). When we started Mommy & Me Gym when they were about 1 1/2 (their brothers had been going before then), they wouldn't let me take them only one day a week! They wanted to be in the gym every single day, it was (and still is) hard enough to get them to take a day off for Church on Sunday! DH and I won't let them be in the gym for more than 1-1 1/2 hours a day, so they have time to run and play with their friends and just be kids. It doesn't help that they are tiny! They really take after me, I was still in a booster seat when I went to kindergarten! I remember being the only 5 year old small enough to ride in one of those Little Tykes cars (the enclosed primary color ones that you move with your feet and are usually for 2 or 3 year olds?) for the kindergarten graduation performance. My girls are even tinier.
It could be worse though...my boys who swim like fish and are on a swim team just announced that they want to try high diving. Dear Lord!
 
Wow! Your daughter sounds super talented. That is fantastic for her age. If she is happy at the gym and happy when she comes home from training then that is a sign that things are going well. It is hard to know how many hours are right for such a young child, because every child is different. Some kids need less and some kids can't handle going a day without being in the gym. You will know if she is over doing it, watch her energy and how happy she is. If she can't wait to go to gymnastics and doesnt want to come home at the end then she is not doing too much. If she is still full of energy at home and eats and sleeps well (and practises her handstands all over the house) then she isn't over doing it.
 
I know what you mean - sometimes I have to close my eyes when I see what she is doing on bars. My dd is also 4. She is in level 2 but can do all the level 3 routines and they are starting to teach her some level 4 skills. Our gym will only allow her to do 3 hrs a week unless I sign her up for private lessons in addition to that. So that makes me feel a little bit better - i know that she isnt pushing it too much. But some of the skills still scare me. BHS and BWO terrify me - I keep thinkng she is going to injure her back or fall on her head all the time.
 
thanks everyone, i do feel a little bit better about the whole thing - especially knowing that i'm not the only one that freaks a little sometimes.

and, really, for the most part i feel safe when she's in the gym. it was just a really big shocker to see her doing some of the things she does. I do trust her coaches and know that they would never let her do anything that wasn't safe - the high beam thing freaked me out a little. Turns out, she wasn't really supposed to be on the high beam - she just wanted to try and be like the big girls in the class.

But, as far as her 'over doing' or spending too much time in gym - i really don't feel like she is. Right now she only goes three hours a week. Sometimes she takes an additional hour (a preschool class - just so i can feel like she gets to have time with kids her age in gym) It's in no way challenging for her. She just likes it because it's like play time for her - preschool class is a totally different environment than what she does in the team practice, obviously. Anyway, at the most, she's only spending 4 hours/wk in gym. She wants to do more, i may or may not let her at this point. I don't know that it would hurt anything to spend a little more time in there.
 
LOL at not supposed to be on the high beam. My DD and her friend were jumping from the low bar to the high bar. I was freaking out because no coach was there to catch them, well, they weren't supposed to be doing that anyway. Kids crack me up. Always wanting to be like the big girls.

I think you are doing everything right right now. I can only imagine how much her skills are going to explode when she is in the gym more. :D You have a talented little gymmie!

I think it is awesome that she is in a preschool class as well. Part of my whole reason for gymnastics was to have fun with kids her age and it has to be hard on the kids that are really talented and moved up quick. They still need to be little kids. :) My daughter still acts like a preschooler when she is in the preschool gym that we go to for open gym sometimes. You wouldn't know she was on team. LOL. She just has fun playing, jumping in the pit, doing the obstacle course, etc.
 

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