Time for Other Activies

[tomtnt]

It's pretty obvious that gymnastics is pretty much a full time job for most girls, especially at the higher levels.

I'm curious if you/your daughters participate in any other sports/hobbies/activities? And at what level did gymnastics become a fulltime endeavor for her?

We currently have our level 4 gymnast in dance (tap/ballet and jazz). She also does Suzuki Piano (30 minutes lesson/week but daily 30 minute practice). In the winter, she snowboards almost every sunday. This past summer, she did swim team, but not sure what the time commitment will be like this next summer.

We'd like to keep her well-rounded and am somewhat reluctant to put so many eggs into the gymnastic basket.

 

[MdGymMom01]

Hi tomtnt! I am the same way with not putting all dd's eggs in the same basket. I, too, want her to be well-rounded and have as many opportunities to do other things as she can.

My dd is a Level B (= USAG 5/6) gymnast that trains about 10 hrs a week. She also does about 5 hrs of ballet and pointe classes a week and is doing the December Nutcracker show as well. She still has a few days a week to just chill, watch TV, play with friends or do whatever. She is also a good student and seems to balance everything just fine.

 

[emorymom]

I understand what you mean. I would love to see some passions carry her on into her team years (she is almost 7). She might stay with gym but the odds are that she won't ... that's just how gym usually plays out.

I home school her ... basically tutor her for a shorter school day but year round. So she does do about 12 hours a week of other sports / arts / Scouts and it is not too much.

 

[Bella's Mom]

We do gymnastics 2x week and soccer 2x week. Leaves 3 days for imagination play, family stuff, etc.

When soccer is over, she will pick up cheerleading 2x week.

I can't seem to get her interested in any type of music lesson which is killing me. I so want her to play the violin but the little brat insists on having her own independent likes and interests. Hmph.

 

[cher062]

It's pretty obvious that gymnastics is pretty much a full time job for most girls, especially at the higher levels.

I'm curious if you/your daughters participate in any other sports/hobbies/activities? And at what level did gymnastics become a fulltime endeavor for her?

We currently have our level 4 gymnast in dance (tap/ballet and jazz). She also does Suzuki Piano (30 minutes lesson/week but daily 30 minute practice). In the winter, she snowboards almost every sunday. This past summer, she did swim team, but not sure what the time commitment will be like this next summer.

We'd like to keep her well-rounded and am somewhat reluctant to put so many eggs into the gymnastic basket.

Well she has been at this since she was 1yo in the mommy and me. Can't even tell you how long ago its been since she was full time as my son was also on team and we were there for both every day they were open.

My DD does lots of other things. She is on the school choir, school play, plays piano (lessons), Girl Scouts, and starting this sunday Cake decorating course at local bakery for teens. That is in addition to the cool things we do as a family like camping, going to and participating Pow wows (she is learning to be a jingle dress dancer), going to live theater like Blue Man Group, Summer camp (gymnastic of course), Vacations throughout the year and still has time for friends and a social life outside of the gym.

It's not that hard to do other things if the things you pick are on the days and times you don't have gym. So for instance school choir is before school 8am - 9am, Piano lessons after school on Tues 3-3:30pm and then off to gym for 5:30pm Girl scouts on Wed 2x a month at 6:30pm no gym on that day at all.

 

[Megley]

My dd has gym 5 days as week. Added to school, that is really all we have time for. I guess we could schedule other activities on her two days off a week (Wednesday and Sunday) but I feel like she needs some unstructured time to just play so we haven't tried to shoehorn a dance or other class into that one free weekday. She uses that day to get ahead on homework and then she goes outside and plays. Sundays we go to church, maybe visit friends or go to the beach. She is 9yo and will be competing Level 7 this year.

 

[LizzieLac]

It seems like we they get to level 7 and up there is less time for other things, but it can be done.

Last year, we did 2-3 days of swim practice, 2-3 days of Prep Opt gymnastics, violin, and school play. It was too much when you added swim meets and gymnastics meets.

So, this year just gymnastics level 4 and hopefully level 5 second half of season (3-4 days). Gave up swim team, gave up violin, but added Special Chorus and Yearbook Club at school. She used to take art class and did an art camp over the summer, in addition to gymnastics and time at regular ol' summer camp at the Boys and Girls Club (meaning arts and crafts and swimming for fun!).

DD is pretty good at letting me know when she is overscheduled. I think the downtime is important and now that she will not have swim meets on the weekends when she didn't have gymnastics meets she will have more time for friends and sleepovers!

 

[#1GYM-MOM]

My daughter does gym 6 days a week (29 hrs), so the only day that she has off is Sundays. She just turned 9 and she is a level 8. She is homeschooled and she has a tutor at the gym so we do have our evenings to do family things! Sunday, is her day to play and be a kiddo!! It seems like such alot for a 9 yr old, but she truely loves it, and never complains about going to practice.

 

[flipper's fan]

DD is 11 years old and practices 4 days a week/16-18 hrs (level 8)and plays fall and spring soccer ( 2 practices and 1-2 games per week). She is in most of the school plays ( 2 per year). She has taken diving classes at times, and equestrian classes at times.

She has always put gymnastics first and soccer a very close second. She has wanted to do riding again, however I am not letting her do it again other than an occasional ride. She quit twice out of fear and it is far too expensive if she is not going to compete. She rode last week and said she thinks she does not want to ride again.

There is one day of conflict between soccer and gymnastics and she usually tries to go to at least part of the gymnastics practice and play the soccer game. She skips the soccer game if there is a meet. Some gyms would not let her do soccer, but this gym is accommodating.

She is an excellent skier and snowboarder and has been skiing since age 3. We do this on some weekends and usually one trip each year. She really doesn't have any regular free days, but she has a lot of Sundays free.

 

[Granny Smith]

My dd played travel soccer up until she was a level 8. She was able to do this because her dad was her soccer coach and allowed her to miss 1 day of practice due to gym. Once she got to level 8, she had to choose which sport she was committing to - this wasn't dad's demand, but gym coaches. She is now a level 9 and really gym is all she has time for with school work and such. Dad is ok with choice, you could clearly see she has the body for gym and was starting to get tossed around like a rag doll on the soccer field, those girls were so much bigger than her!

 

[hakunamatata]

No DD for me, but I can share my own experiences. When I first joined team I was still doing daily swimming lessons and a once weekly violin lesson (but, similar to your situation, about 30 minutes of practice a day was include with the music lesson). That was when I was a level 5 and only practicing about 10-12 hours per week. When I reached level 6 the coaches upped the hours to 16, and then about two weeks later they increased it again to 20 hours, which was the schedule I stuck with through optionals, as well, during the school year. That was the point where I felt like I needed to give all the other activities up. I was more than willing to, because I loved gymnastics and wanted to really commit to it, but I'm glad I got to have those other experiences when I was younger so I could develop a wide range of interests. But at that point it just got to be too much with school, homework, other activities, and gym. I know that some of my teammates stayed involved in all their other sports and activities even when they were level 7s and 8s, but for me that was WAY too much busyness. I think it just depends on the individual child's personality, whether or not she feels like she can take everything on at once. My parents always told me that they were glad I was enjoying all my activities but that I was welcome to let them know if I felt too stressed out with everything that was going on, so eventually that's what I did. I think it worked out pretty smoothly.

Phew. Sorry I wrote a book! To answer your question, I guess gymnastics became full-time in level 6.

 

[shelovestoflip]

My daughter is competing Level 6 this season and practices 4 days/14 hours a week (though technically she should be going a 5th day) She has 2 weekdays off plus Sunday and I think that's important for her. Gymnastics has always been her sport (Though when she took swimming lessons they tried to get her on the swim team and skating lessons wanted her to do more!) This year seems calmer as she dropped violin after 3 years....having two weekdays off is good for her...she needs some down time to just chill...that is important for me to give her!

She came to team 'late' in life....did advanced rec until last year and then went to Level 5...had a great season scoring 35-36 at all meets....This year she is in 6th grade and competing Level 6....she has time to play, time to do school work and time to work at the gym.

You know your daughter but my feeling is sometimes we need to make the choice for them between overscheduling and giving them time to just be! This schedule works for her and she's not missing out on learning at the gym, learning/participating at school or being with friends and family!

 

[bogwoppit]

We have always made sure there is time for other things. We have three kids, son never did organised sports, twoo DD's one still in WAG the other (after 10 years of WAG) now does dance, tramp and guitar. We have always skated, skied, snowboarded, sailed and travelled a lot. THey have done birthday parties and sleeepovers etc.

We made a decision a long time ago that we wouldn't let sports run our lives, gym is time consuming, but it is about choices. TO the OP you will find your own fit, but do remeber to reassess once a year or so, just to check whether it is all working for you.

 

[tomtnt]

Thanks for all the responses. It's good to hear from your experiences.

I often hear from other non-gym parents who make comments such as "she's missing out on her childhood"... When asked what their kids do with the spare time, the answer is often TV or "hanging out" - which is pretty much what I did as a kid with all the free time I had. If that is the case, I don't mind her missing out on that...

 

[Bella's Mom]

Thanks for all the responses. It's good to hear from your experiences.

I often hear from other non-gym parents who make comments such as "she's missing out on her childhood"... When asked what their kids do with the spare time, the answer is often TV or "hanging out" - which is pretty much what I did as a kid with all the free time I had. If that is the case, I don't mind her missing out on that...

Especially when they get in their teens! Teens with too much free time can get in trouble FAST.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

I would definitly take advantage of other activites when they are starting out. My daughter did swim team until she joined the gymnastic team and also soccer. She was good at both but she really did not like them as much as gymnastics then it sort of conflicted I did keep her in swim but she would sit there and shiver and she wanted to quit. She briefly did voilin and she has danced non competively since 2 but also quit that this year despite that it fit in just fine with her gym schedule. Last spring she did track she came to gym late for a few practices then she got bored with that. This year she is doing volleyball she liked it in the begining now she no longer wants to go to practice since it interfers with gym despite that it was already okayed by head coach to miss some practice. She really wanted to try cheer this year but the practices are late and I am afraid that it will get to difficult because cheer competition season and meet season are the same time. So I had to put my foot down and say no I think she really just wants to hang out with her friends at school and they all do cheerleading. I think the sports that do not reguire a lot of commitment and if they are do when meet season is not happening are probally best. I do think it is hard eventhough my daughter practices 4 days a week weekends during meets are tied up because you never know when you are competing and at daughters gym they. Are not allowed to miss practice the week before a meet. I keep telling myself that I did not choose this path for her but she did because of her love for the sport. My older daughter is the opposite she is a swimmer a dancer played softball piano and is now doing fieldhockey I would actually prefer it if the younger one was more like her sister. The one good thing is gymnasts are in such good spape they probally could transition to another sport.

 

[Bobby]

....I can't seem to get her interested in any type of music lesson which is killing me. I so want her to play the violin but the little brat insists on having her own independent likes and interests. Hmph.

I SO hear you!!! We have a piano in the house for a reason ... but madam just wants it played FOR her so she can make up/perform gymnastics routines! Hmph.

 

[nettyinpa]

My dh and I had a heated discussion about this last night. He thinks the gym schedule runs our lives, that dd is too skinny, looks tired all the time, etc. He doesn't understand her desire to do gymnastics. He wants to know where this is going, why is she doing this, why must she do gym and only gym? We've approached her over the years with other options ~ soccer, cheerleading, dance, softball, etc, all to no avail. Granted, she's only 9 but it's what she wants to do. He doesn't care about that. All he sees is the money and the time that we're 'wasting'. She's joining the girl scouts and she joined a club at school. Even going to a novice optional/prep-op team isn't very feasible. Sure, the time comittment is so much less, as would be the money, but the skill level and the coaching isn't there. I think she enjoys the progress she makes and is proud of herself for it. He's only been to one meet in her whole competitive career and that was a level 4 meet. She's now in her 4th year competing. He doesn't like it and would pull her out today if he could.

We decided to let her continue through the rest of the season. Then, she has to take a step back, try another sport. There's a swimming/diving team nearby that I'm going to take her to, see if she'd like to try that. Honestly, I wish it weren't so expensive. Every day there seems to be another fee that we owe. I'm going to need a 2nd job soon! So why do we do it??

 

[gymkat]

From another perspective: I wish my parents had stepped in and limited the number of activities that I did in high school. I was in the gym 16 hours/week, played violin in one of the strongest orchestras in my state and also took lessons, took piano lessons until 10th grade, was in four clubs at school and was co-president of two of them, and had about 3-4 hours of homework per night. I have to imagine that I would have been happier and healthier if I had only done gymnastics and one or two clubs at school...

 

[LizzieLac]

Netty, since my DD did competitive swimming with a serious club for 2 years, I will share my experience....

Cost, a little less. Time, just as much!! The meets are worse, as they are always both days on the weekends due to the number of events. Sometimes Friday night too, as that is when the long distance events are swam. Pools are hot and very uncomfortable for spectators. At least with gymnastics, a level competes in one day! Maybe a little less in total hours per week, but just as many days of practice! And you must consider how far away the pool is. Ours was right in our neighborhood - thank goodness!!

I think the bottom line is this: with any sport a child wants to focus on and be competitive at, there is a significant investment in time and money and comes from the family. Now, your DD could decide to do "rec" soccer etc., but if she becomes good and is a competitor, I will bet you will be right back in the situation you are in now...it will just be a different sport.\

Maybe the answer is to participate in something that doesn't focus on comeptetion exactly - maybe music or art lessons....?

It seems to me to be competitive at any sport, the commitment is huge.

Good luck with whatever you decide!