Parents What's the best thing gymnastics has given your child?

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RTT2

Proud Parent
I'm going to go with confidence. She's a naturally shy kid, but doing gymnastics has given her such a quiet confidence in herself that she carries with her into so many other areas of her life. Last week she texted me during a water break, "I AM FEARLESS!" and it made me smile for hours, even though I had no idea what skill she'd done to be so excited and proud about. I love that this sport helps her believe in herself and her own fearlessness.
 
Work ethic and drive. I truly believe without gymnastics, my son would be a kiddo that is passing high school, but not driven to do super well. Just happy to hang out with friends and be social. But gymnastics makes him want more....all the time. And he knows he needs the grades to do that. So he really pushes himself hard to do well in school, gymnastics, and in other aspects of life
 
Work ethic. And I absolutely love that the girls are taught that when you fall off the beam, you just jump right back up there.
I love this too. A few weeks ago they were doing skills testing and my DD didn't make one skill and then they moved on. Toward the end she asked her coach if she could try again and made the skill several times in a row. There will come a day in her life when it won't matter at all if she can do any gymnastics skills, but there will never be a day in her life when it won't be important for her to know she can pick herself up and try again.
 
The ability to bounce back from disappointment. DD (9) broke her arm (elbow) two weeks ago, just 6 days before the provincial competition. She insisted on going to the competition, made good lucks for every girl and cheered like a maniac.
I also find it amazing that she has no anxiety around gymnastics, but is often paralyzed by her anxiety disorder at school and elsewhere.
 
I love the physical strength. My DD's classmates are all pretty sporty, but I loved the pride she felt during push up contests and chin up contests when she could even beat the boys. :) And now that she is middle school, and beating boys is less appealing to her, I love that being strong makes her feel that no physical task is insurmountable.
 
Work ethic, the ability to fail, and get back up and try again, and again, and again. Time management, leadership, confidence, strength in body and mind.
 
My daughter knows the answer to everything is “Practice!” She’s very growth-mindset, which I’m grateful for because I didn’t learn that until I was an adult.

Also, delayed gratification is not something kids encounter often these days, but gymnastics offers it by the bucketful! We let her make the choice at age 7 between JO or Xcel, and she chose JO - knowing that it would require a year of stepping backwards to correct her form - because that was what was required to reach her end goals. I think knowing she has made that type of choice before and come out on top will be quite valuable to her in the future.
 
Yes to everything that has been said so far. I’ll add this: it’s given my daughter the ability to grind through slumps and difficult periods (post injury, tough transitions, etc), lasting weeks, sometimes even months. There was one time so tough that I wouldn’t have even been surprised if she had thrown in the towel. But she pushed through and went on to have the best season of her life. I’ve got to believe that this perseverance will help her in real life long after this craziness is over!
 
It's an interesting question, because of the chicken/egg problem-- some of the resilience/tenacity may daughter innately has was probably enhanced, but her natural inclination to keep trying things even when knocked down is partly why I think she's been successful at gym. The things I know she's gained is a place to feel confident when school beats her down (she's dyslexic and school is often not her happy place), as well as a good group of friends outside of school drama. It's also helped her with executive function in the form of planning and time management, since as we all know, you have to plan to get homework done when you are in the gym on school nights. Gymnastics has been such a good thing for my daughter so far, and I hope it stays that way. I know that's not a given.
 
Without a doubt confidence, a strong work ethic, learning how to preserve through hardships (mental blocks and difficult skills), and discovering the satisfaction of hard work and preservation when a victory is achieved.
 
I agree with a poster above maybe these kids all have the untapped ability to keep trying. I remember my daughter returning from a day at kindergarten with tears in her eyes, she couldn't tie her shoes. She sat down and practiced, crying, for two hours until the knot was matered. This was prior to finding fymnastics.

Confidence in her own abilities. Would she say anything more than hello to anyone new, no. Does she know she is fearless and can overcome, does she have great inner pride in her abilities? Yes and yes and yes.
 

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