Just brainstorming...

[MdGymMom01]

Since my background is in experimental psychology and I love statistics and numbers, I thought it would be interesting to see a graph of gymnasts progress through the years. I haven't really found anything on the internet related to this but thought that it would be really interesting and enlightening. What I would like to see is a type of poll or plotted chart with the following data points tracked every 6 months:

- age of gymnast
- current level
- hrs training in the gym per week
- other sports or supplemental activities (ballet) and hours per week
- injuries or stopped taking gym for whatever reason

This is just a rough draft and I am sure that I am probably missing some other data points that could be pertinent info. By tracking this every six months I think that it would be interesting to see the difference in data and at what ages/levels kids make certain levels or completely drop out of gymnastics. Of course there would need to be a controlled set of "subjects" in this longterm study who would be willing to participate and log their data every 6 months regardless of where their gymnast was at that point in time.

Anybody else have any comments or suggestions on this? With over 5,000 members here on CB, I would think that here would be a great place to start with this.

 

[bogwoppit]

COuld be very interesting. I think you'd have to stick with girls in the USAG programme and probably L4 and up to make it more cohesive. But as you say with the number of members we have you should be able to get enough for effect.

Bear in mind we have 5000 members on paper, but the number of active members in WAY less. As you know they come and go like the wind, or when they have taken what they need. The number who stick around for a while is limited.

 

[Billy]

The data on this chart is old (2003) but it's interesting nonetheless. It's the ages and numbers of gymnasts at the various levels at WOGA in TX as compared to nationally. WOGA > <span>WOGA Team Gymnastics</span> > Balancing Training & Life > Ages of Gymnasts at Levels

 

[bookworm]

I think you see a lot less girls at Level 10 and Elite than in years past..the requirements are just so rigorous that the numbers just keep dwindling.

 

[MdGymMom01]

The data on this chart is old (2003) but it's interesting nonetheless. It's the ages and numbers of gymnasts at the various levels at WOGA in TX as compared to nationally. WOGA > <span>WOGA Team Gymnastics</span> > Balancing Training & Life > Ages of Gymnasts at Levels

Thanks Shawn!! That's really interesting data and kind of what I was looking for.

Bog--I do agree that it would be hard to get an accurate number becuase so many people on here either don't post or aren't even involved or have moved on like you said. By Shawn's graph of WOGA/USAG data, it does een like there are a lot of level 4's and 5's and then the numbers drop after that.

 

[Billy]

If you were really interested in doing this, you could come up with a form to be completed by parents and then contact gyms around the country and ask them if they'd hand out the forms and request that the parents complete them and return them. A lot of people would ignore it but I'm sure you'd get some to respond, too, especially if you make it easy and anonymous.