K
KatieB
Hi everyone,
I'm a *brand new* "gym mom." Background: My 6 1/2 year old son decided he wanted to be a trapeze artist after seeing something on TV, and convinced me to search for trapeze lessons for him. I decided to humor him, assuming there would be no such thing, but found a circus school here in Orlando. With no prior experience in anything, he had to begin with their tumbling and trampoline class. He went to their summer program one day a week for 3 hours and has been taking tumbling and trampoline since *correection* Sept. (5+ months). His coaches were high level gymnasts at the Olympic training school in Russia and then were recruited to Cirque Du' Soleil and performed or still perform in the show down here by Disney. Anyway, so he's been taking that class for 5 months, and moved past the other kids quickly. His main coach suggested he add in gymnastics. I have no idea what talent would look like in a little young gymnast, but in tumbling, he can do a really good (? the coaches tell me) cart wheel, round off, back handspring, back tuck combo, can stay in a handstand for as long as he wants, can do maybe 20 pull ups on a bar, can hold himself up in a pull up for a minute, can do a split etc.. He has no other experience with ANY gymnastics apparatus. He's fallen in love with the sport, in part because he's very strong and athletic but not very successful at other sports because he's TINY - at 6 1/2 he's the size of a 3 1/2 year old - not even on the growth charts.
So anyway, not knowing anything about gymnastics, I signed him up at TWO gyms (mistake, I guess?) because each only had one day I could make it to recreational classes. Each wanted to evaluate him on his first day of Beginner classes. At gym 1, they immediately invited him to join their pre-team to prepare to compete as a level 4 next year. At gym 2, they moved him from beginners to intermediate on the first class, then today, told me he should be on the pre-team. Not sure how this happened, or what level 4 kids actually do, but from what I saw, he did great in tumbling, was able to swing and turn himself upside down and hold it on the rings after a few tries, swung himself back and forth on the parallel bars, did this swinging side to side thing while lifting his legs up and then sticking one leg over, and then the other to get off on the pommel horse (but clearly struggled to hold and basically had to do a split to reach his leg over since he's so small), he couldn't figure out how to pull himself over on the high bar, and did a little spinning around on this mushroom thing, but not as well as the other boys. I don't understand how he got invited to the pre-teams (really, nothing he did seemed nearly as hard as what the girls were doing!)
Here in Orlando, if a girl wants to compete, there's one gym that is known as the best. I only know this because some of the women at his circus school were gymnasts and talk about it, and then in doing an internet search, they pretty much win everything around here. I have no idea how to figure out which men's team is better. I also have no idea if I need to pick the "better" team at this age. He loves the idea of competing, so I'm going to let him do this. How do I pick which pre-team, then team he should join? What do I look for? Neither coach told me much other than that they think he's talented, and since he has coordination and the muscles he will need to use for the apparatus are strong, they think he'll learn fast. I honestly know NOTHING about gymnastics - seriously didn't even know what a pommel horse was called until after his class. I didn't expect him to get invited to any pre-team, so didn't know not to sign him up at both gyms - I was just thinking about what times were best for our family for recreational gymnastics. Both pre-teams practice at the same time, which works for me and my other kids, both cost the same. I have to decide quickly (like by Monday) since I'm going to have to sign a 30 day withdrawl form at one gym or the other. Sorry this is so long... I'm SO clueless here!!
Katie
I'm a *brand new* "gym mom." Background: My 6 1/2 year old son decided he wanted to be a trapeze artist after seeing something on TV, and convinced me to search for trapeze lessons for him. I decided to humor him, assuming there would be no such thing, but found a circus school here in Orlando. With no prior experience in anything, he had to begin with their tumbling and trampoline class. He went to their summer program one day a week for 3 hours and has been taking tumbling and trampoline since *correection* Sept. (5+ months). His coaches were high level gymnasts at the Olympic training school in Russia and then were recruited to Cirque Du' Soleil and performed or still perform in the show down here by Disney. Anyway, so he's been taking that class for 5 months, and moved past the other kids quickly. His main coach suggested he add in gymnastics. I have no idea what talent would look like in a little young gymnast, but in tumbling, he can do a really good (? the coaches tell me) cart wheel, round off, back handspring, back tuck combo, can stay in a handstand for as long as he wants, can do maybe 20 pull ups on a bar, can hold himself up in a pull up for a minute, can do a split etc.. He has no other experience with ANY gymnastics apparatus. He's fallen in love with the sport, in part because he's very strong and athletic but not very successful at other sports because he's TINY - at 6 1/2 he's the size of a 3 1/2 year old - not even on the growth charts.
So anyway, not knowing anything about gymnastics, I signed him up at TWO gyms (mistake, I guess?) because each only had one day I could make it to recreational classes. Each wanted to evaluate him on his first day of Beginner classes. At gym 1, they immediately invited him to join their pre-team to prepare to compete as a level 4 next year. At gym 2, they moved him from beginners to intermediate on the first class, then today, told me he should be on the pre-team. Not sure how this happened, or what level 4 kids actually do, but from what I saw, he did great in tumbling, was able to swing and turn himself upside down and hold it on the rings after a few tries, swung himself back and forth on the parallel bars, did this swinging side to side thing while lifting his legs up and then sticking one leg over, and then the other to get off on the pommel horse (but clearly struggled to hold and basically had to do a split to reach his leg over since he's so small), he couldn't figure out how to pull himself over on the high bar, and did a little spinning around on this mushroom thing, but not as well as the other boys. I don't understand how he got invited to the pre-teams (really, nothing he did seemed nearly as hard as what the girls were doing!)
Here in Orlando, if a girl wants to compete, there's one gym that is known as the best. I only know this because some of the women at his circus school were gymnasts and talk about it, and then in doing an internet search, they pretty much win everything around here. I have no idea how to figure out which men's team is better. I also have no idea if I need to pick the "better" team at this age. He loves the idea of competing, so I'm going to let him do this. How do I pick which pre-team, then team he should join? What do I look for? Neither coach told me much other than that they think he's talented, and since he has coordination and the muscles he will need to use for the apparatus are strong, they think he'll learn fast. I honestly know NOTHING about gymnastics - seriously didn't even know what a pommel horse was called until after his class. I didn't expect him to get invited to any pre-team, so didn't know not to sign him up at both gyms - I was just thinking about what times were best for our family for recreational gymnastics. Both pre-teams practice at the same time, which works for me and my other kids, both cost the same. I have to decide quickly (like by Monday) since I'm going to have to sign a 30 day withdrawl form at one gym or the other. Sorry this is so long... I'm SO clueless here!!
Katie