Hello Community!
My account just got approved - yay! So hello everyone, I am very glad that I found this website
I want your opinion and would appreciate everyone's input.
Two of my girls are in gymnastics since 3 years, older DD (14) does it more for fun, spends most of her time tumbling.
Younger DD is 11, but more ambitious. I would say that in the USAG system she would be a L6, although she is a little scared with the back handspring on beam sometimes.
However, we are going to move to South Africa by December, because my husband got a good job offer there and we are going to stay for at least 2 years.
Currently, younger DD trains 6 hours a week, but her gym is not competetive AT ALL. Although there are older girls, my DD was one of the best in the whole gym and she really is not that good.
Last week we were in South Africa to have a look at houses etc, and I also visited some gyms in our future home area. 3 out of 4 gyms are hell. There were no colours, 2 of them haven't neither got uneven bars nor a real vault, people were really unfriendly and the areas are pretty dangerous - so no way!
But the 4th one is amazing. Very nice people, expenisve (yuck!) colourful, safe, they have some really good gymnasts, but also very competetive. DD seems to have no problem with all the "drill" she has always been really tough and enjoys working hard. But here is our problem:
She would be allowed to attend class 3 next January, because of her skills on the events (I showed them a video clip I made). She would be training with the other girls 4 days a week for 3 hours each. BUT she needs some strength and flexibility skills she hasn't got yet, because as I already mentioned, her gym wasn't really a "hard working" one.
I had a chat with the HC of the gym. He told me that this gym is one of the best in the area, but due to space and coach problems, they don't have rec teams or so. If you want to do it just for fun, you need to go to another gym. If you want to train here, you either have to pass a test for the level you want to train in or start at level 1. He said, by Level 3 in his gym the gymnasts need to have the "ideal" requirements to get to more advanced skills. So no lack of strength, passive or active flexibility. They should all have the "perfect gymnast body" (of course, everyone lacks somewhere). He also talked about injuries etc. A really nice experienced man, he knows what he is doing and he said it would be his pleasure to have DD in his gym.
So as I said, DD would be in level 3. She meets all the skill requirements on the events, but lacks in strength and flexibilty. The coach gave me a sheet with all the requirements.
As her gym never does any of those skills and DD just works on them on her own every now and then, I had her try all of the kills yesterday and took notes to see if there would be a chance or not.
Strength:
3 straddle press handstands in a row (she can do one from a raised surface)
1 pike press (she can do many against a wall, she can do one with a little jump)
16ft rope in L (she can do about 12ft)
10 pull-ups (she can do 4)
20 dips (she can do 6)
20 full hanging leg lifts (she can do 7)
60 secs L-Sit (she can do 35secs)
Passive Flexibility:
front oversplits of 10 inches left and right leg (she has both splits down, right oversplit of 5 inches)
middle split (she misses 3inches)
pancake (she has it)
shoulder flexibility; shoulders 5 inches over hands (she has it)
Active Flex:
180° split jump from a stand
180° straddle jump from a stand (pancake position allowed)
180° split leap + sissone
180° needle kick
All of her jumps from a stand are about 160°, but her legs are not totally straight and it just looks a little uncontrolled.
As she has never every done any leaps before, she has no idea how to do them and her legs are maybe 120° apart and it looks totally whippy. She just hasn't got the technique.
My question is now:Would you give it a try? DD wants it but I don't want her to be dissappointed if she is not going to make it...
I bet if she has one or two things she can't master completely they would turn a blind eye, but she should have everything generally speaking.
I talked with her coach and she said she would give her private lessons 3 times a week for an hour each to work on the strength stuff and she should also stretch at home everyday and practice leaps and jumps, maybe with therabands and so on.
Siiiiigh.....such a hard decision! I and also DD would love to be in a competetive team and learn all the cool skills... but maybe I am a little unrealistic... looking forward to your opinions!
My account just got approved - yay! So hello everyone, I am very glad that I found this website
I want your opinion and would appreciate everyone's input.
Two of my girls are in gymnastics since 3 years, older DD (14) does it more for fun, spends most of her time tumbling.
Younger DD is 11, but more ambitious. I would say that in the USAG system she would be a L6, although she is a little scared with the back handspring on beam sometimes.
However, we are going to move to South Africa by December, because my husband got a good job offer there and we are going to stay for at least 2 years.
Currently, younger DD trains 6 hours a week, but her gym is not competetive AT ALL. Although there are older girls, my DD was one of the best in the whole gym and she really is not that good.
Last week we were in South Africa to have a look at houses etc, and I also visited some gyms in our future home area. 3 out of 4 gyms are hell. There were no colours, 2 of them haven't neither got uneven bars nor a real vault, people were really unfriendly and the areas are pretty dangerous - so no way!
But the 4th one is amazing. Very nice people, expenisve (yuck!) colourful, safe, they have some really good gymnasts, but also very competetive. DD seems to have no problem with all the "drill" she has always been really tough and enjoys working hard. But here is our problem:
She would be allowed to attend class 3 next January, because of her skills on the events (I showed them a video clip I made). She would be training with the other girls 4 days a week for 3 hours each. BUT she needs some strength and flexibility skills she hasn't got yet, because as I already mentioned, her gym wasn't really a "hard working" one.
I had a chat with the HC of the gym. He told me that this gym is one of the best in the area, but due to space and coach problems, they don't have rec teams or so. If you want to do it just for fun, you need to go to another gym. If you want to train here, you either have to pass a test for the level you want to train in or start at level 1. He said, by Level 3 in his gym the gymnasts need to have the "ideal" requirements to get to more advanced skills. So no lack of strength, passive or active flexibility. They should all have the "perfect gymnast body" (of course, everyone lacks somewhere). He also talked about injuries etc. A really nice experienced man, he knows what he is doing and he said it would be his pleasure to have DD in his gym.
So as I said, DD would be in level 3. She meets all the skill requirements on the events, but lacks in strength and flexibilty. The coach gave me a sheet with all the requirements.
As her gym never does any of those skills and DD just works on them on her own every now and then, I had her try all of the kills yesterday and took notes to see if there would be a chance or not.
Strength:
3 straddle press handstands in a row (she can do one from a raised surface)
1 pike press (she can do many against a wall, she can do one with a little jump)
16ft rope in L (she can do about 12ft)
10 pull-ups (she can do 4)
20 dips (she can do 6)
20 full hanging leg lifts (she can do 7)
60 secs L-Sit (she can do 35secs)
Passive Flexibility:
front oversplits of 10 inches left and right leg (she has both splits down, right oversplit of 5 inches)
middle split (she misses 3inches)
pancake (she has it)
shoulder flexibility; shoulders 5 inches over hands (she has it)
Active Flex:
180° split jump from a stand
180° straddle jump from a stand (pancake position allowed)
180° split leap + sissone
180° needle kick
All of her jumps from a stand are about 160°, but her legs are not totally straight and it just looks a little uncontrolled.
As she has never every done any leaps before, she has no idea how to do them and her legs are maybe 120° apart and it looks totally whippy. She just hasn't got the technique.
My question is now:Would you give it a try? DD wants it but I don't want her to be dissappointed if she is not going to make it...
I bet if she has one or two things she can't master completely they would turn a blind eye, but she should have everything generally speaking.
I talked with her coach and she said she would give her private lessons 3 times a week for an hour each to work on the strength stuff and she should also stretch at home everyday and practice leaps and jumps, maybe with therabands and so on.
Siiiiigh.....such a hard decision! I and also DD would love to be in a competetive team and learn all the cool skills... but maybe I am a little unrealistic... looking forward to your opinions!
