Parents A little Advice Please ...

[Ex member]

Hi, I have just worked out how to post in this forum ( if that's the right word lol). I would like a little advice on my little daughter please.

A little background on her situation at the moment.

J has been doing recreational cheerleading for 1 year and was invited to join the competition group around 3 weeks ago as she showed promise. J has been doing 3 1/2 hours a week split into a 1 1/2 hour session and 2 hour session, she has made leaps forward with her strength and flexibility and they do focus on conditioning for a period of time every session, she has also picked up on the skills like a backwards roll, bridge and standing back bend on a 8" mat.

J has been attending recreational gymnastics for 18 months and really loves bars and she is forever doing "parrots" on edges of furniture much to my displeasure, she loves doing skin the cats. It seam at the moment she is always doing something gymnastic related in the house, she has a thick mat that she loves to pull out and do forwards roll and backwards rolls into different positions, landing in a straddle and landing on her hands and feet that looks like a push up, she has been teaching her self this, they rarely do backwards on the floor, the use "sloops", j also likes to work on her splits at home and tries to copy the bigger team girls at the gym.

Just recently they have started a new group in gym for development, J has said to me that she wants to join this group, it seems to be coach initiated and quite a few of the girls who have gone into this group have older sisters on team.

Do you think it is worth having a chat with the coach and letting them know that J s interested or do I just leave well alone and see what happens in the future, J will be seven at the end of the year and I am worried that she will run out of time and be in recreational gymnastics until she has decided that she no longer wants to continue.

J is a well behaved little girl that does as she is told and doesn't hang of the owners like some do.

What is the best way to approach this without being labeled as pushy etc? It's just really frustrating seeing her with so much love for gymnastics being left on the side lines. I don't know how good she is or can be, but to me she is great and I love seeing the excitement in her when she learns new things, but disappointing at the same time as I feel she she be learning these in the gym and not self taught at home on her mat - backwards and forwards rolls.

Sorry for long post, thanks for listening.


Tiny Dancers Mum

 

[gymmomtoo]

Can't hurt to mention that she's interested and see what they say.

 

[GymBee97]

I would let the coach know she is interested and see what happens from there.

 

[EastCoastGymMom]

You should talk to the coach! Tell the coach that your dd is interested in joining the developmental class and ask if dd is ready for it and/or if it's a good fit for her. They may not think she's that interested in team gymnastics if she's already into cheerleading. If she's not ready, then hopefully they can tell you what she needs to work on to get into that group eventually (strength, flexibility, form, etc...).

 

[LoriLou]

I agree. Talk to the coach. If they don't see potential in her, no big deal. But it may kind of get them to consider her if they haven't before. I don't see the harm in mentioning that she's interested. How old is she?

 

[iwannacoach]

You should talk to the coach! Tell the coach that your dd is interested in joining the developmental class and ask if dd is ready for it and/or if it's a good fit for her. They may not think she's that interested in team gymnastics if she's already into cheerleading. If she's not ready, then hopefully they can tell you what she needs to work on to get into that group eventually (strength, flexibility, form, etc...).

That's about what is was thinking, but one other thought. If she's doing the recreational cheer leading and gymnastics at the same facility staffed by people that communicate with one another, it's possible they feel she's best suited for cheer leading. I'll go a step further and say that some programs have gymnastics as their main focus, but keep another activity available that has a little bling to it. For some of these programs, that's a place where they put kids who want to do something beyond the ordinary that don't meet their team criteria.

I'm not saying that's always the case, but thought you might be better prepared if you had that perspective.

 

[nameless]

first off, yay cheer! ha. my lil one practices about 7 hours a week on L3 team.. this season was her first time trying something new, so we added what my other girls know, which is cheer.. yea, um, she is pooped from it and though she likes it (and of course is their star tumbler ) she is asking when cheer will be over.. keep in mind that makes for a very busy schedule if you're talking serious cheer and serious gymnastics.. i felt like my lil ball of energy could hack anything until this week. thank God, cheer comp is in a few weeks then it is over.. your dau is a couple years older than mine, she may be able to hack both, but which does she like better? does she know that by joining a developmental team that she may have to choose between the 2 at some point?

and i would def approach the coach and let them know that dd is interested, our gym does invite only, but i've never heard anything negative from the moms who took the first step for their dd.

 

[Ex member]

Thank you for the feedback, J is on the competitive cheerleading squad - level 1 I think, she 6 years old and she does like cheer but she also loves gymnastics, she does cheerleading in the same place as she does gym but with different coaches, they have a dedicated cheer coach. They may have considered her for development but maybe cheerleading got there first if you know what I mean and probably didn't think J was interested in taking gymnastics further due to cheer.

I have spoken to a parent at the gym who has a child on the development team and was advised to have a word with the coach responsible for this and let him know that J is interested in development group and see what happens.

 

[gym law mom]

Certainly talk to the coach who's in charge of the developmental group. As you said they may see her on a competitive cheer team and think she's just doing gymnastics to help her cheer.

 

[Ex member]

I agree. Talk to the coach. If they don't see potential in her, no big deal. But it may kind of get them to consider her if they haven't before. I don't see the harm in mentioning that she's interested. How old is she?

J is 6, will be 7 near the end of the year. I was going to speak to the coach yesterday but the coach wasn't around in the hour the J was there, J has cheerleading practice tomorrow, Hopefully I will get a chance then to see the coach in question, I am really nervous about it though as I am not comfortable with people I don't know but I am willing to do it for J, if I had my way I would have just waited it out, any tips on what to say without coming across as pushy.

 

[LoriLou]

J is 6, will be 7 near the end of the year. I was going to speak to the coach yesterday but the coach wasn't around in the hour the J was there, J has cheerleading practice tomorrow, Hopefully I will get a chance then to see the coach in question, I am really nervous about it though as I am not comfortable with people I don't know but I am willing to do it for J, if I had my way I would have just waited it out, any tips on what to say without coming across as pushy.

Then I would definitely go ahead and talk to the coach then. I don't know really how it is in other areas, but in our gym age 7 - 8 is kindof the cutoff for our L2 team. I think the coaches just have an unwritten rule that if the child hasn't gotten to L2 by 8 at the latest, they direct them to prep-op. There are exceptions, but it isn't very common. Again, that is in my gym only. I've seen the same basic pattern throughout our state too. Average age of L2 around here is 6 - 7 at meets. Sorry if that was rambling.....that was a really long way of saying that age 6 is a perfect time to start considering team.

 

[Ex member]

I have come up with something to say to the coach,

I will let the coach know how much J loves gymnastics and she prefers that over cheerleading. I will also tell the coach that J currently attends 2 recreational sessions as she loves it so much , I will ask if there is anything else J can do except recreational. I asked J why she wanted to move up and she said she wanted her gymnastics to look more "pretty" and she told me that she loves bars and want to learn more skills - that's coming from a 6 year olds mouth lol.

i think the reason she likes cheerleading is that she is learning new skills, more than what she learning at recreational, but she wants to learn more than floor skills. I would like to know if she has any potential before she gets to far into cheerleading.

How does that sound.?

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Sounds good to me. The clubs I've been to down here dont do cheer, so we only do gym. I know that our development sessions are invitation only and the progress from rec to development comes as they progress through their badges. Has she done many badges on the BAGA scheme ? My small was on badge 4 when she moved from rec and into competitive gym.

'Margo

 

[nameless]

sounds good.. i was thinking she was 7 going on 8.. but, she's not much older than mine.. and i hear 7 is some sort of magic age in gymnastics when things "click", so sounds like this is a perfect time to mention something.

 

[Ex member]

Sounds good to me. The clubs I've been to down here dont do cheer, so we only do gym. I know that our development sessions are invitation only and the progress from rec to development comes as they progress through their badges. Has she done many badges on the BAGA scheme ? My small was on badge 4 when she moved from rec and into competitive gym.

'Margo

The gym J goes to is invite only I think, but someone has moved up by a parent asking and they were 3 years older than J.

J has done some badges in the proficiency scheme and has got a yellow one (badge 3), from the requirements there seem to be no problems with her passing the last 2 either, J has passed her badges on first attempt so far. J has badges 7,6,5,4,3 with 2 and 1 to go before moving on the floor and vault badges - Bronze, silver and gold in both.

When J first started Recreational gymnastics they had to pass 6 out of 10 elements to pass the badge, but now it is one 7 or 8 elements out of 10 to pass and they have changed some of the things they need to do, before you had to pass badge 2 and you automatically pass badge 1, now you have to pass both separately.

still nervous about tomorrow and J will feel if they say she isn't suitable for development, if she gets turned down I will feel bad for asking when maybe I shouldn't have, like I said before I don't like putting my self forward but I don't like J missing out on what she loves because of me and my nerves lol.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

A coach once said to me that they judge how sucesssful a gymnast will be by how committed the parents are. You are just showing that both you and she are committed to training more often. Whats the worst they can say - no ? Different clubs judge the badges differently. BG says 8/10 requirements, however dd's current gym says they have to get all the elements to pass the badge.

If she is on 2 then she should be ready for more advanced stuff.

Remember, not suited for that class now doesn't mean not next term or never will be. If they say no for now then ask what their requirements are.

Chin up, and thing of your little one