Recent content by BearMAK

Awesome! I appreciate that very much. We have raised our kids to believe in their dreams and to work extremely hard to chase after them. Time will tell.....

Thanks a ton for the info. Same is done in wrestling. While some wrestlers are amazing as freshman or sophomore's and remain so throughout the high school and collegiate career's, there is so much room for kids who started late and continue to develop later on into high school. My wife and I...

So do girls not develop from 9th grade til graduation? It seems to me that girls who continue to improve throughout high school have every bit of a chance to take the spot of injured or burned out girls who may still be offered scholarships earlier. Is that not true as well?

I've heard varying ideas of where a girl must be to compete in college. Lev 10 by freshman year....Lev 10 by junior year. Why is that?

What I'm gathering is that quite possibly the largest benefit of having a coach who competed in college is that they can give first hand knowledge of what life will be like for a gymnast heading in to that level. Understanding the life of a college gymnast through personal experience will more...

This is all good insight. I'd never expect every coach to be a college level athlete themselves. It's interesting though that some of what past college competition can provide is what a kid may NOT want to work for. Some girls aren't meant or interested for the grind necessary to get to that...

It's been my experience that great athletes don't always make great coaches-in any sport. That said, I just feel like there is an abundance of arrogance when it comes to what coaches know or can create in athletes without having done as much as they require themselves. With so little experience...

Where are they? I run a year round wrestling school and every coach I have wrestled at the college level and all but one was an All-American. The one was still on scholarship as an athlete. Why do so many clubs in gymnastics seem to be so limited with coaches who have actually competed at the...

Thanks for the input. I agree on the points about being loyal to the interests of my daughter first and foremost. While the cost is overall quite a bit higher out of pocket, the extra time with both my older daughter moving up to level 4 and the extra night given to my 6 year old, I don't feel...

We're relatively new to gymnastics and have a couple of questions. My oldest daughter just finished her first year of competition at level 3 and it seems like the gym we are currently at is a 'money farm'. It feels like the approach is to have as many athletes as possible and through attrition...