Parents need advice on possible gym change

[LJL07]

I guess that would depend on what scores are winning compulsory meets and the kids.

I found with my daughter this year, that a few extra privates went much further then an extra day would of. She was at point where it was the details were what needed work on, hard to drill down to that level in a group practice, the few privates is what kicked her up the .2-.3 that she needed.

We have major gym issues in our area. There is a big focus on compulsories and few gyms with decent optional level programs. For example, the kids that win level 3 score in the 38+ range. I'm not sure it's necessary to do 12-15 hours of gym per week for level 3. Unfortunately the kids that do 9 hours of level 3 per week tend to score lower mid 36-ish on average. I feel like that is still decent mastery of form/skills at that level and why is it necessary to score 38+ and win the level 3 olympics, but what do I know?

 

[Deleted member 18037]

We have major gym issues in our area. There is a big focus on compulsories and few gyms with decent optional level programs. For example, the kids that win level 3 score in the 38+ range. I'm not sure it's necessary to do 12-15 hours of gym per week for level 3. Unfortunately the kids that do 9 hours of level 3 per week tend to score lower mid 36-ish on average. I feel like that is still decent mastery of form/skills at that level and why is it necessary to score 38+ and win the level 3 olympics, but what do I know?

That's about where we are at by end of season, thanks for the info

 

[my4buffaloes]

I think 4 sports year round - 2 heavily in the same season might be too much for anyone - let alone a 7 year old. It might be time for her to narrow it down - maybe try 3 sports and see how it goes. Have you talked to her about it? Why does gymnastics have to be the one that is either nixed or changed? Maybe there is another way to work things so she can still pursue her top choices.

 

[LJL07]

See above. I'm not sure it's even possible to do both travel soccer and competitive gymnastics. Just about every soccer tournament or league game has conflicted with gym meets. The tournaments are typically 3 games over a weekend, and I'm sure you have already seen his crazy long these gym meets are. I am impressed you manage traveling for hockey and gym meets.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I think that other sports are very important and they are encouraged by all of our coaches. As a nation we have a problem of kids being less and less active each year and they cannot meet the recommended 2,5 hours of exercising by only doing gymnastics. Also gymnastics does not get them out of breath that often which is very highly recommended to happen several times a day.

We keep the hours on the lower side to make other sports possible. One day we had a little poll about activities with my 9-10 year old competitive gymnasts who do gymnastics 7,5 hours a week. ALL of them d other sports too and some of them also are in a sports program at school so they have PE class 2-3 times a week. They do soccer, dancing, figure ice skating, ballet, horseback riding and swimming on top of gym. Here are all the girls and their activities:

Girl A: gymnastics 4 times a week (includes one morning practice), swimming 3 times a week, school sports
Girl B: gymnastics 4 times a week (includes one morning practice), swimming 3 times a week, school sports, ballet 2 times a week
Girl C: gymnastics 3 times a week, soccer 2 times a week, dance once a week
Girl D: gymnastics 3 times a week, horseback riding once a week
Girl E: gymnastics 3 times a week, figure ice skating 3 times a week, ballet once a week
Girl F: gymnastics 3 times a week, dance once a week
Girl G: gymnastics 3 times a week, dance 2 times a week
Girl F: gymnastics 3 times a week, dance once a week
Girl G: gymnastics 3 times a week, soccer 4 times a week
Girl H: gymnastics 3 times a week, circus once a week
Girl I: gymnastics 3 times a week, soccer 2 times a week
Girl J: gymnastics 3 times a week, dance once a week

Most of them also walk or ride bike to get school and go to ski on weekends with their families but I still think that only half of them meet the required amount of activity a day. So if they tell me they have started a new sport I'm very happy. If they sometimes have to miss a practice to go to dance show or swimming comp I'm fine with that! We even sometimes have "LET'S TRY OTHER SPORTS TOGETHER!" days. We have went to circus class and swimming together as a group and also played outside and went to indoor activity park once. Next we are going to try baseball or volley ball. The kids love those days!

I would recommend you to take your daughter to the other gym. She's so young and she should't drop the other sports quite yet.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

There are a lot of good points here. I think it only proves that all kids are different! My 9yr old dance DD changes her mind every day on what activity she wants to do. She's probably done with competative dance after this year, but then again it wouldn't blow my mind if she were all over it again come August...with her it's very hard to "trust" her opinion. But my barley 8yr old gymmie knows exactly what she wants. She chose to quit her other sports. I let her choose whether or not to skip gym to go to school events. She goes 6 days a week by her choice (Friday is extra). She's the type of kid that can look at the big picture, my older daughter is not. And that's ok. From what you're saying, it sounds like your daughter wants to stick with 3 days, so I would probably honor that? I like the idea (I forget whose!) to ask your current school if they'd let her to 3 days. At 7 I think she's still young enough to kick it back up if she changes her mind. But, unfortunately, that window is fairly small. A kid could be brand new to softball/soccer ect at 10/11/12 and still excel, but she'll probably have to decide before then if she wants to be competative at gymnastics. But there is nothing wrong with doing it at a rec level or low level competitive as a teen either! There are many paths in this crazy sport...good luck!!!

 

[krstew29]

We're also going through this. DD is a 9yo L3 who also does swim team and lacrosse. If she moves up to L4 (too early to tell) and/or she changes swim practice groups (very likely) something is going to have to give, so we talked about it. She made it clear that she doesn't want to quit other sports and do only gymnastics. She's fine with either moving to Xcel or possibly changing gyms to whatever has a schedule that works well with swim, so we'll be looking into that after her season is over. We were lucky this year that swim practice didn't directly conflict with gymnastics, but meet season we've had to juggle some. We did miss one gymnastics meet because the swim league championships were on the same day/time and we've had a couple of other times where she did a gymnastics meet in the morning and a swim meet in the afternoon. We're the odd one out on her team, the majority of the girls do only gymnastics. Her swim coach told me when we started this that in swimming a kid doesn't have to get serious (meaning drop other sports) until around 11-12yo and they encourage the kids to do other sports.

I don't know what travel soccer is like in your area, but in ours it's almost a year round sport. It's usually a 4 day per week commitment in the fall (2 practices and 2 games a week), indoor during the winter, and spring season is also 4 days a week. While winter and spring are optional, everyone does it so they don't get behind. In our area it would be hard to pull off with gymnastics, hockey, and lacrosse without missing a lot of practice. Does your hockey league have a house team that doesn't travel? I would consider rec leagues for the other sports (soccer, etc) for now if you stick it out with your current gym next year or ask them if she can do 3 days.

 

[profmom]

See above. I'm not sure it's even possible to do both travel soccer and competitive gymnastics. Just about every soccer tournament or league game has conflicted with gym meets. The tournaments are typically 3 games over a weekend, and I'm sure you have already seen his crazy long these gym meets are. I am impressed you manage traveling for hockey and gym meets.

DS has a teammate who does travel soccer. Not elite, but definitely the year-round kind. He is rocking L6 this year and will move up to L8 next year. It requires some flexibility on the part of both coaches, but it works for him. Helps that he's in a league where tournaments are generally before and after the gymnastics meet season.

 

[Midwestmommy]

While she sort of "make the decisions", she is seven and seven year olds follow the cues of adults in their lives (that's just where they are at cognitively). Keep in mind that statistically she has a miniscule chance of making the Olmpics and a very small chance of an NCAA scholarship. With that said, what are your family's priorities and your priorities as a parent?

Ours are:

1. Faith and family
2. Education
3. Being a well-rounded person which to us includes all the benefits of sports and physical activity, and also learning to be a good friend, etc.
4. Education
5. Music (learning to play an instrument and not being musically illiterate)
6. Education

Everyone's list is a little different. Does being at the gym 12 hours a week still leave room for your top priorities? 16 hours? 20+ hours?

You don't have to decide everything this year, and right or wrong (or various shades of gray depending on your gym and family), the gymnastics funnel for being really competitive narrows pretty young. There are, however, more options than there were five years ago (at least in my state) for kids to enjoy this sport...

 

[Midwestmommy]

I would including developing key values such as being humble, kind (to each other and to the earth we live on), and generous under 1.
Being goal-oriented and successful under both 1 and 2 and 3.

What/where you thinks sports and gymnastics in particular contributes and what they get out of it depends on the values you want to teach and your priorities... To me, it is really important for my daughter's healthy development to have friends outside of gymnastics as well as on her team. Not everyone is the same, you as the parent need to decide that for your family when your child is seven...