Parents Switching gyms, moving up, and broken foot

[mom23]

First time posting here and would appreciate any thoughts. DD is 12. Competed 7 last year and did quite well. For the last couple of years I feel her current gym has not been fair to her (basically not setting her up to succeed, really setting her up to fail in some instances.) They do "discriminate" and have their favorites (of which she’s clearly not one.) Also, she’s had some fear issues that she’s worked through but with no help from them (they see it as defiance I think). Anyway, she was told this summer that she’d probably not make it to 8 for the next season which is her goal (at her age, repeating 7 doesn’t seem productive or reasonable especially since she qualified to regionals, 2nd on beam at region 3 – basically a good season). Anyway I voiced my discouragement and they basically said they make the decisions, blah, blah. She did better than many of her teammates that are moving up to 8, so this really made no sense to me. Considered switching gyms (we’re in a somewhat rural location so not too many options but there is one other reasonably close). Problem was that she just loves her teammates.

Now to completely throw a wrench into everything. She broke her foot and tore ligaments in her ankle 3 weeks ago – will be in a boot for at least another 3 to 4 weeks and then not sure exactly how long before she’s fully back. This is her first injury and her current gym moved her to the level 7 workout group (the girls that competed 6 last year) and now they’re citing her injury and stating that she won’t be ready/able to do 8. Hearing that, she’s agreed to try the other gym and we’re going tomorrow so she can at least see the practice, other girls, coaches albeit she’ll be limited by her injury.

Anyone have any thoughts on this – switching at this point. Also, with this type of injury is it reasonable that she could move up a level from 7 to 8. Not sure what to expect recovery time to be. She’ll be out of her boot mid-September but I’m not sure how long until she’ll be back 100%. Thanks in advance!

 

[profmom]

Torn ligaments can take a while. It would be unwise to rush. For moving up in optionals, whether a child can hit all the requirements is more important than how she did at the level she was competing most recently. So, that said, how was she doing before the injury?

Prior to the injury, how close was she to flipping her vault?
Does she have a good pirouette? Can she kip out of it?
Sounds like beam is a good event for her, but does she have BHS-BHS acro? What's her dismount? Was she making progress toward FHS
Does she have double salto on floor? Can she twist?

If she was pretty close to having everything she needs before the injury, she should be OK.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

How she did at level 7 really tells us nothing about if she's ready for level 8 or not. There's a big jump up skill-wise. Sorry about her foot, hope it heals fast.

 

[mom23]

Torn ligaments can take a while. It would be unwise to rush. For moving up in optionals, whether a child can hit all the requirements is more important than how she did at the level she was competing most recently. So, that said, how was she doing before the injury?

Prior to the injury, how close was she to flipping her vault?
Does she have a good pirouette? Can she kip out of it?
Sounds like beam is a good event for her, but does she have BHS-BHS acro? What's her dismount? Was she making progress toward FHS
Does she have double salto on floor? Can she twist?

If she was pretty close to having everything she needs before the injury, she should be OK.

Thank you for responding. They don't work a lot on vault so not sure where she is on that though think that would be reasonable for her to get. Bars is her weakest event. She has a pirouette but can't kip out of it. She had her hand-hand on beam before the foot injury (if she can get it back without having the fear creap in). She did a roundoff back tuck on beam for her L7 dismount. She's had her front walkover on beam forever and they have them do either that or a FHS. Not sure about the double salto?? on floor (level 8?). She can do a HS bounder tuck/pike and front tuck, front tuck (not consistently on that one). She competed a half on floor in L7 so I think she can get her full. Thanks again.

 

[wallflower]

I don't think anyone can say really if she could be ready for level 8. Too many factors. I think it depends a lot on the standards of the new gym. Some gyms let kids compete a level where they barely have the requirements. Other gyms have kids competing below their skill level and compete only where they can be super successful.

I think at the end of the day you should never leave a gym because you don't like the level your kid was placed into or the decisions they make regarding your child's level. What will you do if the new gym does the same? Just make sure it's for the right reasons. Switch to the new gym if you are okay with her repeating level 7 there because you think the gym is a better fit and long term is the better place for her.

 

[ZJsMom]

I think it's worth checking or the new gym. Coming back from injuries is tough. Maybe it can be a blessing in disguise though. You said bars is her weakest event, so hopefully she can spend a lot of time on it while her foot is healing. In terms of making level 8, it sounds like it might be though. Vault is one of the big hurdles and there's not much she can do there until her foot's 100%.

 

[Azgymmiemom]

Thank you for responding. They don't work a lot on vault so not sure where she is on that though think that would be reasonable for her to get. Bars is her weakest event. She has a pirouette but can't kip out of it. She had her hand-hand on beam before the foot injury (if she can get it back without having the fear creap in). She did a roundoff back tuck on beam for her L7 dismount. She's had her front walkover on beam forever and they have them do either that or a FHS. Not sure about the double salto?? on floor (level 8?). She can do a HS bounder tuck/pike and front tuck, front tuck (not consistently on that one). She competed a half on floor in L7 so I think she can get her full. Thanks again.

This could be the deal breaker for level 8, especially with her foot. Level 7 is fhs vault. Level 8, you need to flip a vault, or your start value will not really be competitive. And flipping vaults are not something you get in a practice or two. They take a lot of time and drills. Seeing as you say your dd doesn't work a lot of vault, she is probably behind. Some gyms will let kids compete L8 with a fhs vault, but she should still be working to learn a tsuk or yurchenko.

 

[mom23]

This could be the deal breaker for level 8, especially with her foot. Level 7 is fhs vault. Level 8, you need to flip a vault, or your start value will not really be competitive. And flipping vaults are not something you get in a practice or two. They take a lot of time and drills. Seeing as you say your dd doesn't work a lot of vault, she is probably behind. Some gyms will let kids compete L8 with a fhs vault, but she should still be working to learn a tsuk or yurchenko.

Maybe I said that wrong - I know she's flipped a fault on the "fakey" and they have a skill card that they use to measure a gymnasts' readiness to move up she's on track with what they have for vault. A couple of people have mentioned that vault is a big step at the 7 to 8 level which I can totally see. I think since she's flipped them and is consistent on her drills (like that's not a problem area for her) I'd think she could get it. Guessing I'm just thinking if she's back to "normal" a month after her boot coming off (which will be 6 weeks after the break) then she'd still have 3 months to acquite/get back her skills - maybe that's not reasonable though which is good to know - just want to clarify. This info and advise is really helpful as I can't really talk to other parents (considering she'll be possibly switching gyms) and the coaches are not very helpful in terms of specifically why they don't see her moving up. The current gym is fairly consistently a top scoring gym in our state so they definitely don't have girls compete when they just barely have something or won't score competitively so that's not the case. Thanks very much for all the replies!

 

[ascarter1]

There are many factors that determine whether a gymnast is ready to move up or not. Our gym looks at bars first (not only though) so if she is struggling on bars, for some gyms, that could be enough to hold her back!

At her age, she could still repeat 7, and if she doesn't repeat again, should be a 10 by 10th grade. That still gives her time to be picked up by a college.