Men's Artistic Gymnastics
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What are "modified sports?"
not sure how possible it is. It woudl depend on his level and how focused he is on gymnastics. I know, with my son's optional schedule it would not be possible.
Football and he is a utility baseball player (except for first bc he is too short and small of a Target). Modified practices after school and then he would head to the gym after. We were thinking maybe of using the modified practices For strength and then running into the gym to run routines??? He’s a competitive level eight and hasn’t hit puberty yet so nine would be a struggle for him. It’s just so hard because he’s really good at ball sports but loves gymnastics. He’s more beast than artistic.
I think if your coach is willing, then you can do it. Our coach tends to move boys who want to do more sports to JD so that could be an option as well. The only issue I see is that the conditioning is different, and really, just running routines will not keep him competitive. Will he be competing as a 13 or 14 yo?
JD might be a good option for him. here is my thought process on that (and honestly, our team's for the most part).
Competing as a 13 yo L8, no nationals, but also no pommels on the horse. However, moving to JD would give him the ability to work on his L9 skills, including pommel and better prepare for L9. It would also give him a chance to do the other sports he wants to do without issue.
We have a kiddo in our state that is a competitive L9 gymnast and high level soccer player. He does well at both, but he does struggle with some injuries like shin splints a lot. Several of our JD boys also run track.
The age thing is frustrating but is what it is. Hopefully your coaches will work with you!
Not sure Nationals is within his reach until after puberty and it is in the middle of baseball season (he is the best player in his grade for now). Some of the kids have bigger arms than my son's thighs right now. The kids who made it this year were either second year level 8 JE kids or third year level 8 due to age change or looked like they hit puberty early. PH is one of his best events and he has been working with the handles on for almost a year at practice, but he is complaining about his wrists. It would be so much easier if he was born a couple of days later in June!
I am glad to hear that there are other kids who play other sports and can excel at both. It sounds like gymnastics is good training for other sports, but not the other way around. It is always funny when they move him up early in ball and the new coach says why did you send me the smallest kid on the old team early - all it takes is about ten minutes and they see why. I guess gymnasts can truly do anything.....
I am glad to hear that there are other kids who play other sports and can excel at both. It sounds like gymnastics is good training for other sports, but not the other way around. It is always funny when they move him up early in ball and the new coach says why did you send me the smallest kid on the old team early - all it takes is about ten minutes and they see why. I guess gymnasts can truly do anything.....
Hi, I am just curious. How long has your son been playing baseball and football? Or will he be new to football? And is this junior high or HS?
I would suggest, if your son is in junior high and really wants to play either of these sports in HS, then make this work even if it means missing some gym. Leaping straight from gymnastics to another high school sport (at least a "cut" sport like base, basket and foot ball) without previous training in that specific sport can be difficult. We may think gymnasts can do anything, but high school coaches may not, especially if they have a pool of kids who have been playing that sport exclusively since they were little to pull from.
I would suggest, if your son is in junior high and really wants to play either of these sports in HS, then make this work even if it means missing some gym. Leaping straight from gymnastics to another high school sport (at least a "cut" sport like base, basket and foot ball) without previous training in that specific sport can be difficult. We may think gymnasts can do anything, but high school coaches may not, especially if they have a pool of kids who have been playing that sport exclusively since they were little to pull from.
Ok good. He is clearly a very good all around athlete, and he has managed to juggle two sports all this time, so I think it likely he could continue to do so. It really just depends on how intense your gym is and how intense your HS sports teams are and how well he keeps up with his school work etc. (Or how long it takes for you to get sick of the demands on parents of multiple sports.)
The reason I cautioned about HS sports and gymnast's expectations is because in so many places (including where I live) the model is several Junior Highs feeding into one massive HS. That, plus with all the kids who do ball sports basically year round when you combine club or comp and school teams, just getting onto a HS team in these "cut" sports can be massively competitive. For kids who did not play the sport in middle school, no matter how great they were at gymnastics, at some schools it would be almost impossible for them to get on their HS team.
But aside from that concern, what we have seen is that it is definitely possible to compete in gymnastics and HS sports. But the boys on our team who do that do miss lots of gym practice part of the year. I would not say they typically "excel" at both sports.
The reason I cautioned about HS sports and gymnast's expectations is because in so many places (including where I live) the model is several Junior Highs feeding into one massive HS. That, plus with all the kids who do ball sports basically year round when you combine club or comp and school teams, just getting onto a HS team in these "cut" sports can be massively competitive. For kids who did not play the sport in middle school, no matter how great they were at gymnastics, at some schools it would be almost impossible for them to get on their HS team.
But aside from that concern, what we have seen is that it is definitely possible to compete in gymnastics and HS sports. But the boys on our team who do that do miss lots of gym practice part of the year. I would not say they typically "excel" at both sports.
@7829 Tough spot. If your son has dreams of pursuing one sport over the other at the next level the time to pick may be quickly approaching. If he is on his own journey I say let him play whatever sport or combinations of sports he wants. Life is short let him do what makes him happy. For some its one sport gung-ho for others, it's multiple sports.
Yes - I wish I had a crystal ball. He is very short for his age, but then again some of the short members of our family ended up being 5'4" and some of them 6'4". It would help to know how tall he will or will not be so he would know which path to take - lol. My oldest was always in the 80% percentile for height and stopped growing early and is now two inches below average in height. Thank you for everyone who commented.
My son plays soccer in the spring, but not the fall. He did have to give up travel soccer because the hours conflicted with gym practice and soccer wanted a commit to both spring and fall seasons, and attending all the practices. Fortunately, we have an inter county soccer league so he can continue to play and practice with other kids who might play a different sport as their main sport, or don't have as high a skill level of the travel kids. Its been good for him because he still gets to play and keep his skills, learns good team skills and can attend practices around gym. This way if he decides to give up gym once he hits high school, he still has a decent chance of making a high school team.
We are also really lucky that our gym actually encourages the boys to play sport other than gymnastics if thats what they want. Because we have a large team, boys can be flexible as to which days they practice. From what I understand this is pretty unusual in gym world. Our head coach is pretty laid back about allowing boys to choose their own paths. They all know that the more they practice, the better they will be, but for some boys gym isn't their primary sport. This year for the first time we had about 4 high school boys (15-18) who did JD 2. All of them were football players who wanted to do gym as a strength supplement, but they all competed and some of them did quite well. They also practiced together so it wasn't like 4 big boys practicing alongside the 10-11 year olds.
We are also really lucky that our gym actually encourages the boys to play sport other than gymnastics if thats what they want. Because we have a large team, boys can be flexible as to which days they practice. From what I understand this is pretty unusual in gym world. Our head coach is pretty laid back about allowing boys to choose their own paths. They all know that the more they practice, the better they will be, but for some boys gym isn't their primary sport. This year for the first time we had about 4 high school boys (15-18) who did JD 2. All of them were football players who wanted to do gym as a strength supplement, but they all competed and some of them did quite well. They also practiced together so it wasn't like 4 big boys practicing alongside the 10-11 year olds.
My son will be a level 9 next year and he hasn't hit puberty yet either. I don't think that is a deal breaker for level 9. Mine is more beast than artistic also but I know with his gym schedule another sport wouldn't be possible....luckily it isn't an issue because he only wants to do gymnastics.
Football season in the fall, baseball season in the spring/summer, gymnastics "season" in the winter... it's a good plan. Let him do it all as long as he can.
My goal, on record from 2nd grade, was to play both football (quarterback) and baseball (relief pitcher / shortstop) for Ohio State. Then go to med school there and SOMEHOW play for the Cleveland Browns and Indians to pay for med school.
As a kid, I was a mostly self-taught gymnast (had a cousin that taught me and she was a former high school varsity gymnast), but I played football (2 years, then we moved and there was no football in my new town, so I only played in pick up games with a lot of the boys in town) and baseball (played for 5 years and coached for 4) ... played volleyball in middle school (instead of football) because of my dad's opposition to the high school football coach. I also tried karate (gave it up because I moved) and basketball (I only liked free throws and lay ups) and tried out for cheerleading (placed 3rd in tryouts with a sprained ankle, but they only took 2 7th graders).
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