Parents Sad gymnast

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Tmacs

Proud Parent
My daughter (8) did really well in Level 2 last year and so the coaches put her in a training group to most likely skip L3 and compete L4 next year. However, we then got this crazy oppotunity to live overseas for 7 weeks and we couldn't pass up. Now, she'll be doing level 3 instead and is o.k. with that because she never thought level 4 was really an option. But now she is so stressed over being behind and losing skills. We've tried finding a gym over here so she can keep her kip but it's been tough. What can I say/do to get her to see life beyond gymnastics? I feel like her stress is causing me to be stressed about her missing such a huge chunk of uptraining. And I hate that it is clouding this once in a lifetime trip!
 
Tell her she doesn’t even need a kip for level three, and she is ahead of the game as it is if she already has/had a kip in the first place! At 8 years old, she should not be stressing over losing skills. It only gets harder. She should enjoy her vacation and know that when she comes back she just needs to work harder than she ever had before, and the skills will come back with time.
 
She will take cues from you. If you stay calm and be matter of fact about it - tell her that she desn't need to worry about it because she will be fine and her skills will come back quickly - she will calm down if you stay low key about it. And if she doesn't, get tough with her. You can't really stop her from worrying but you can stop her from obsessing about it verbally. That will at least reduce your stress and let you enjoy the trip a little more.
 
I'd tell her that her gym is closed for 8 weeks because technically, it is "closed" to her. She's 8 , do not worry about any time missed.
 
I was just going to type, if she feels like she needs 'control' over this, let her condition.
Thinking about it. It’s actually not even feeling like control... really it’s her controlling what she can. A valuable life lesson.
 
My daughter was a 7 year old Level 4 (Level 3 now I believe) when I took her out of gym for a month in Dec. for a trip to Asia. She got back a week before her first meet and won that meet. She did some stretches at the hotel the first two days and then just forgot about it. My daughter already had her Level 4 skills before we left. But I don’t there is a big difference in skills between Level 2 and Level 3. Just tell her she’ll be fine. I’d talk to her about the fun she’ll be having at the trip and that she’ll have enough time to get her skills, which she will. Like you, I did worry about it because her coaches kept telling me my daughter was showing promise. If I learned anything in the 10 years my daughter has been in this sport is I wish I enjoyed the lower levels more and worried less.
 
Hi one thing you can do is ask the coach for a list of thing that she can do during the trip.
Stretching exercises or working on handstands, let her hear from her coach that she will be fine to come back without missing any skills by doing those activities.
 

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