Thanks for the replies
One reason I asked is there has just been a boy leave our gym as he had been offered a place on a squad at an artistic centre, and I was wondering how far ahead the children were likely to be and how much of his skills would be transferable if that makes sense - I'm reading it back and it doesn't make sense to me so sorry! Also I'm keeping our options open, now we're happy where we are but if one day one of my children wanted to swap to artistic I wondered how easy that would be.
There's many of the skills that would be transferable
. Acro is pretty much the same to start, they're going to be learning strength, flexibility, and tumbling. The only things they'll be missing out on is apparatus specific stuff. WHich tbh I don't think is too much of a biggie- floor is fine, beam is just learning to do it all higher up, vault is tumbling over a table, which isn't unlike the tempo/dynamic skills in acro anyway. Bars may be a bit trickier but if a child is talented it can be learned.
As long as your club is of a high enough standard (which it is, or certainly used to be when I was coaching
) then they should be able to transfer easily enough with the basic strength, flexibility and tumbling skills. In fact I was reading the other day a paper which proposed focussing on tumbling in pre-pubescents, as it's easier to learn when they're small, then apparatus specific stuff comes later.
Your boys may have a harder time with six-piece as the apparatus require alot of swinging skills. But then, boys tend to progress more slowly so on the positive he has more time to learn. Your girl certainly has time yet, most research shows that a talented child just needs to be started in gymnastics before 7. I think from a progression through the ranks POV though, it may be worth discussing the idea before she's 8, but again that's if you want her on the elite track as they start Level 4 (UK) the year they turn 9. Although starting much later generally may make it difficult for her placing within a club squad as she'll have the floor skills, but will have some catching up to do on the other apparatus.
The other thing I will say that is worth considering though, is IMO it's much easier to move from artistic to acro at an older age- say 12-14, than the other way round.
Sorry, bit of a brain dump there
In summary, they're fine where they are if everyone's happy. Keep an open mind, and I'm sure it'll become clear if and when they should move club.