Newbie gym mom here!

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AngiesMom

Proud Parent
Hello everyone! I am very much a newbie gym mom - my daughter has been enrolled in gymnastics for a grand total of two weeks. She is 9 years old, has never participated in gymnastics or any sport, and is quickly falling in love with gymnastics so I want to become as educated and supportive as I can be. She has one group lesson a week and I have added one private lesson a week so she can fast-track, since for her age group she is very much behind. We plan on building a balance beam so she can practice at home, and add a set of uneven bars when we reach that hurdle. With a lot of practice, I am hoping she will be able to compete next year!

It is nice to meet you all! I'm very much looking forward to being a part of this community :)
 
Welcome! My DD is 8 and had been doing gym for about 4 years, rec, pre-team and now team. You will learn a lot here (I know I sure did/do). I look forward to hearing about your journey!

One word of caution, be careful of the home equipment. DD has always been taught to "keep gym in the gym". There are safety issues as well as the issue of her practicing skills incorrectly. In gymnastics form is everything and if a skill is learned/practiced with just slight modifications to proper form it can really be a nightmare for coaches to fix, and can really hinder your DD's progress.
 
Angiesmom,

Welcome to Chalkbucket and welcome to the world of gymnastics. Your desire for your dd to advance quickly and to catch up with her age group is understandable, but home training is not normally recommended. If you will do a search on chalkbucket for 'home equipment' you will find that anything other than floor mats and home conditioning generally leads to your dd learning bad habits with just have to be fixed by her coaches before they can teach her the right way to do it. Gymnastics is all about form and that needs to be taught by a coach. It is better to stick with the gym sessions and rely on her coaches to teach her. Good luck to her.
 
Welcome! You DD reminds me a bit of myself. I started when I was 12 without any athletic experience & was way behind others my age. But I fell in love with the sport immediately! Now 5 years later I'm competing level 7. I'm still behind for my age, but it doesn't matter to me because I LOVE what I'm doing.
Please please please leave gymnastics at the gym. I know you have good intentions with the home equipment, but learning and practicing skills at home will only hinder her progress because she can pick up bad form. Bad habits take much longer to break than learning it right the first time. It's also dangerous. Age 9 is still young! She has plenty of time to learn skills and develop into a great gymnast :)
What she can do at home is stretching & conditioning. If she has no prior athletic experience, she probably lacks in strength and flexibility (I know I did).
Good luck to your DD on her gymnastics journey. You've found the right place to come with any questions you may have!
 
Welcome to gymnastics! :) personally, I have found a home beam useful for my girls, they worked their cartwheels and handstands on it. Be sure it is a low one though (like on the ground), I would never consider getting uneven bars for my girls though. First, they aren't something you could safely make and they cost thousands, and more importantly, they could be very dangerous. Best case you have them learn some stuff with bad form that has to then be fixed (and muscle memory is really hard to break); but a bigger concern is the injuries that could happen.

I recommend maybe the low beam (though really, that can wait. For now you could just put down a 4 inch thick line of painters tape on the floor - about 6-8 feet long) and a chin up bar. That one is for chin ups and leg lifts, NOT for doing gymnastics on. One of the best things your dd can do for her gymnastics is to build strength and flexibility.
 
Thank you for all of the responses! I really appreciate the insight regarding having gym equipment at home. My thoughts with having a balance beam at home was so she could work on her balance for starters, and also just practice where her feet are suppose to go, turning around - just the basics. I did not intend for her to do any sort of intricate moves at home, especially in the beginning stages. As it stands, the program she is enrolled in is an hour and a half once a week, and a half hour private lesson. I would really love it to be more than that but that is what is available right now so I was thinking doing "homework" at home would help her be more prepared when she does attend class, but if incorrect form is a big concern, I might have to reconsider that. This week will be her first private lesson so we will see how indepth that is - maybe it will be enough for her to catch up quickly!
 
My DD has a floor beam and I think it was a good purchase (although as an 8 year old working on level 3/4 skills she doesn't use it much anymore). So I don't think it's "absolutely NOT" as far as home equipment goes. I just encourage you to be careful. Gymnasts tend to be adventurous risk takers and with home equipment you might be surprised how quickly they will start to "try" skills. When my DD was 5 we got her a chin up bar for strength. We placed it low in the doorway so she could reach it with only a step stool. This theoretically left enough room above the bar for her to circle it. I didn't even realize she had been doing back hip circles on it until I heard a crash one day. Her hands had slipped and she went flying across the room. Thankfully she was alright. Your DD is older than 5 so if you do get a floor beam make sure you lay out the guidelines as to what is acceptable as per her coach because she can pick up bad habits doing something as simple as walking across the beam. Best wishes to you! :)
 

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