I would love to read your stories about late starters who caught up with other gymnasts who started at 4, 5 or 6 years old. Those stories are always so inspiring!
There is this one video on Youtube where you can see the progress of a 15 year old gymnast who started at 13. It's so cool and shows that if you work hard you can reach anything even if you didn't start at young age!
I placed a 12 year old beginner gymnast in my team last may. She did gymnastics for a year when she was 7 and then moved to dance for 5 years. Her mother game to gym and asked if her daughter could try one practice with my team. I let her and I saw real talent in her. I asked her if she can do a back hip circle and she said yes she thinks so. I let her play on bars and after a few minutes she was trying glide kip and I almost bit my tongue when she almost did it! A girl who had practiced bars 5 years ago. I said her she is welcome to start in team if she is willing to work really hard. At first she was of course behind others in everything. She had never done a handstand on beam or used grips or straps. She didn't know the gymnastics terminology. But she was so determined to learn that after a month I couldn't see a difference between her and the old team members.
Well, now she has done gymnastics for 5 months and she has become the best gymnast of the team! She just recently competed for the first time and won by score of 36+. She only competed the level B once and now she is going to compete level C on Saturday. She's so solid with her routines that I'm pretty sure she will score 36+ in this level too. She even has a chance to win. Then she'll move up to level D (she already has the skills and more) and compete level E (the first optional level here) this time next year. So she'll do 3 levels in 1 year. The other girls in team will do those levels in 4-5 years.
She amazes me at every practice. And her progress is so fun to watch because she gets new skills every week. She's not afraid of anything and she is pretty mature and understands my corrections so well. She has made me understand that sometimes starting at older age is a great thing. She's not going to burn out any time soon because everything is new and exciting!
Did you or your daughter start late? How did you get in team? What has the journey been like?
There is this one video on Youtube where you can see the progress of a 15 year old gymnast who started at 13. It's so cool and shows that if you work hard you can reach anything even if you didn't start at young age!
I placed a 12 year old beginner gymnast in my team last may. She did gymnastics for a year when she was 7 and then moved to dance for 5 years. Her mother game to gym and asked if her daughter could try one practice with my team. I let her and I saw real talent in her. I asked her if she can do a back hip circle and she said yes she thinks so. I let her play on bars and after a few minutes she was trying glide kip and I almost bit my tongue when she almost did it! A girl who had practiced bars 5 years ago. I said her she is welcome to start in team if she is willing to work really hard. At first she was of course behind others in everything. She had never done a handstand on beam or used grips or straps. She didn't know the gymnastics terminology. But she was so determined to learn that after a month I couldn't see a difference between her and the old team members.
Well, now she has done gymnastics for 5 months and she has become the best gymnast of the team! She just recently competed for the first time and won by score of 36+. She only competed the level B once and now she is going to compete level C on Saturday. She's so solid with her routines that I'm pretty sure she will score 36+ in this level too. She even has a chance to win. Then she'll move up to level D (she already has the skills and more) and compete level E (the first optional level here) this time next year. So she'll do 3 levels in 1 year. The other girls in team will do those levels in 4-5 years.
She amazes me at every practice. And her progress is so fun to watch because she gets new skills every week. She's not afraid of anything and she is pretty mature and understands my corrections so well. She has made me understand that sometimes starting at older age is a great thing. She's not going to burn out any time soon because everything is new and exciting!
Did you or your daughter start late? How did you get in team? What has the journey been like?
