Sk8ermaiden
Proud Parent
I don’t think many of the parents are well educated. That’s why they are willing to condone absurdly high hours, overtraining, and verbal/emotional abuse at the compulsory levels for 7 year olds. And the culture has historically condoned this type of coaching, so no wonder they think it’s ok. EVERYONE needs to be held accountable. Coaches, gym owners, USAG, and parents.
The number of people who come on those facebook groups are are like, "My child has a severe sprain but the coach says she is faking, and she constantly screams in my child's face that she's a loser and then makes her do a handstand hold for an hour while encouraging the rest of the team to laugh. Then the gym owner videos my daughter's tears and puts them on Facebook. I'm not sure what I should do but now my daughter spends all her time hiding in the closet eating her hair. I'm not thrilled, but the next nearest gym is an hour away. I don't know, is this just how gymnastics is?"
"Is this just how gymnastics is?" Follows EVERY SINGLE post I have seen about egregious abuse. So yes, this is the public perception of gymnastics. Though you would think any sane parent would want no part of it if they truly believed it was universally that bad.