For Parents Multiple Sports

[ego248]

My daughter is thinking about going back to gymnastics (Xcel) after leaving her gym at the end of the summer. She is currently doing HS track and they practice 5 days a week after school. The head track coach has a strict policy about attending all practices. So, she would have to do two practices twice a week – track for 2 hours and then gym for 4. I don’t know if this will work. Anyone have any similar experiences?

I was thinking she could plan to take it easy during track practice on the days she would have gymnastics and might suggest she discuss with her coach. She currently trains with the assistant track coach who also coached her during fall XC and he was a bit more lenient about missing practice so he might be willing to work with her so she could do both.

She loves track and has already had the opportunity to compete in some varsity meets as a freshman, so I know she won’t want to give it up for gymnastics – but she is really missing gymnastics.

 

[kecks]

My daughter is thinking about going back to gymnastics (Xcel) after leaving her gym at the end of the summer. She is currently doing HS track and they practice 5 days a week after school. The head track coach has a strict policy about attending all practices. So, she would have to do two practices twice a week – track for 2 hours and then gym for 4. I don’t know if this will work. Anyone have any similar experiences?

I was thinking she could plan to take it easy during track practice on the days she would have gymnastics and might suggest she discuss with her coach. She currently trains with the assistant track coach who also coached her during fall XC and he was a bit more lenient about missing practice so he might be willing to work with her so she could do both.

She loves track and has already had the opportunity to compete in some varsity meets as a freshman, so I know she won’t want to give it up for gymnastics – but she is really missing gymnastics.

This will not work. Track is itense, 5 times a week is a lot at this age. She will underperform in both sports and increase her injury risk. As a track coach I would not allow this. Perhaps she can do some recreational gymnastics for one or two hours a week just for fun. That would actually be beneficial for track. But 2 full blown 4-hour (!!) practices - no way.

 

[CuriousCate]

My kid did this with school volleyball and club diving. She'd go to volleyball right after school for 2 hours and then head straight to diving for another 2.5 hours. She is only in middle school and was able to work it out with homework etc but neither coach would let up on the conditioning and that was the part that really wore her down. And this was a kid who had just stopped gym the previous summer and was very used to practicing 4.5 hours a day. But full conditioning twice was awful. She was truly spent every night and I'm surprised she did not get injured.

 

[JPC13]

I've seen a bit of this, and in the short term it didn't seem great. Long term, you're looking at a prefect opportunity for injury due to over training. If neither coach will accomodate the other sport it won't work. If only one coach will, it might work but seems suboptimal.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Wow! Her school has their track kids practice 5 days per week? That’s intense, around here school sport is not like that.

High school Sports teams would have the kids do one session a week, often either before school or during recess time one day.

I can’t see any parent here being willing to have kids do so much school sports training. If they were serious about bathe sport they would go to a private club.

 

[JBS]

This will not work. Track is itense, 5 times a week is a lot at this age. She will underperform in both sports and increase her injury risk. As a track coach I would not allow this. Perhaps she can do some recreational gymnastics for one or two hours a week just for fun. That would actually be beneficial for track. But 2 full blown 4-hour (!!) practices - no way.

I agree with this.

It typically takes compromise for track and gymnastics to work together. I have a daughter that does hurdles and is a Level 9 in gymnastics.

 

[JBS]

Wow! Her school has their track kids practice 5 days per week? That’s intense, around here school sport is not like that.

Pretty sure all of the sports at my kids high school are 5 days per week.

 

[ldw4mlo]

We have multiple kids at our gym doing multiple sports and excelling at both. They have qualified for JO/DP Level 8 and 9 states, while doing HS varsity sports as freshman and juniors. And qualifying to at least sectionals and at times states, at times. Various sports, past and currently HS diving, cheer, track, lacrosse, soccer, gymnastics

It can be done, all coaches need to be open minded but it absolutely can be done.

Unfortunately if the coaches are not supportive it won’t work.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Pretty sure all of the sports at my kids high school are 5 days per week.

Seriously!!! How do kids have time for club sports and gymnastics?

School sport in Australia is not like that that, no one would do it.

 

[pt coach]

My daughter did both high school varsity track and club gymnastics for all 4 years of high school. However, she switched to Xcel Diamond after her sophmore year and found that to be a better fit for doing both sports successfully. As a Diamond, she competed skills that she had completely mastered and did not feel any pressure to attend each and every practice. At her gym, Diamond is advertised as a perfect level for kids who participate in other sports but still love gymnastics. She also had the benefit of having a throws coach who was also a former gymnast and let her miss track for the week leading up to gymnastics state meet.

 

[ldw4mlo]

Seriously!!! How do kids have time for club sports and gymnastics?

School sport in Australia is not like that that, no one would do it.

5 day a week practice is during the season. At least in my state, which is NY. They don’t do that year round. And practices aren’t as long.

Fall sports start mid Aug to mid Nov
Winter mid Nov to mid March
Spring Mid March to mid June

It does require cooperation from the coaches to make it work. At our gym the HS kids arrive late to club gym after their HS practices. And their attendance is down during their HS season.

it works ok for most kids. Typically the winter sport kids have to choose since it’s the height of season for both. But otherwise it’s doable.

By high school the girls still doing gymnastics are in optionals. Much of their skills are the point of muscle memory. They have the summer to upgrade skills. And might they have to work a little harder to improve some loss of something when the other sport season is over? Maybe, but if they are willing it shouldn’t be an issue.

I have to say it always fascinates me when coach of “x” sport says oh that would never work for my “x” sport. It doesn’t matter which sport it is their sport is always the one it would never work for.

One of my daughters former teammates plays volleyball and was doing lacrosse and excelling at both. Last year she was doing track not lacrosse because the volleyball coach deemed lacrosse too dangerous. He didn’t want his star volleyball player getting hurt playing lacrosse. Track was fine though. PS. Turns out he is also the track coach. Lol

The other thing that fascinates is when coaches say that would take too much time away. It would hurt their gymnastics. They never say sorry your kid got injured she’s cant come back because she was away too long.

And of course there’s that one word…..COVID. Which of course (should of )taught us that you can take time off, step away, take a vacation, go to the birthday party, do something else like play a different sport.

Can all kids do multi sports, probably not. But their are many who can.
Thank goodness Bo Jackson, Deion Saunders and host of other athletes had open minded coaches.

 

[kecks]

If you are serious about track in Germany you do it year round. The winter training is what makes athletes successful in the summer outdoor season. Only doing 5 sessions a week during the summer with no GPP basic winter program seems very risky. We would not do that. It will not get best results when these kids grow up and feed into national team (at least some do). (Sure one can make a lot of things work but this would not be ideal looking at long term athlete development.)

 

[ldw4mlo]

If you are serious about track in Germany you do it year round. The winter training is what makes athletes successful in the summer outdoor season. Only doing 5 sessions a week during the summer with no GPP basic winter program seems very risky. We would not do that. It will not get best results when these kids grow up and feed into national team (at least some do). (Sure one can make a lot of things work but this would not be ideal looking at long term athlete development.)

It’s high school sports. Most kids doing high school sports are not planning on make a national team. The kids that are and who are wanting NCAA for a particular sport train differently.

And again, there are many high level athletes who participate in multiple sports, including track, at the college level and beyond. it is possible to train year round and play multiple sports. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

There is a long list of multi sport athletes that played at a very high level. Of course it can be done.

Deion Saunders ran track in college, played professional Baseball and Footbal. He actually played in a Super Bowl and a World Series.

 

[kecks]

It’s high school sports. Most kids doing high school sports are not planning on make a national team. The kids that are and who are wanting NCAA for a particular sport train differently.

And again, there are many high level athletes who participate in multiple sports, including track, at the college level and beyond. it is possible to train year round and play multiple sports. It doesn’t have to be one or the other.

There is a long list of multi sport athletes that played at a very high level. Of course it can be done.

Deion Saunders ran track in college, played professional Baseball and Footbal. He actually played in a Super Bowl and a World Series.

Training for track in Germany means doing multiple sports (gymnastics, weigtlifting, volleyball, basketball etc.) during the winter but not outside of track practice. High level youth sports need general fitness trainig aka training different sports during the "off season". Who will be elite later on is impossible to say at age 15. We train everyone this way who competes. GDR training knew this very well... This is literally a big part of long term athlete development: Avoiding early specialisation (endurance only sports are different so) at all cost.

 

[ldw4mlo]

Top 10 Multi-Sport Athletes of All Time

For anyone who's never swung a baseball bat, strapped on a football helmet or set skate to ice, it's easy to take for granted how much dedication and commitment it takes to succeed in sports. Even for

www.therichest.com

while wiki is not most reliable it has some value and quick

List of multi-sport athletes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Also lots of pros for being a multi sport athlete

Multi-Sport Athletes vs. Single Sport Athletes - The Pros and Cons

There is no easy answer to the question, “are multi-sport athletes better than single sport athletes?” Since there are many different opinions out there on the issue and every athlete is different; the simple answer is - it depends. Today, many professional athletes and coaches are speaking out

www.nsr-inc.com

 

[ldw4mlo]

Training for track in Germany means doing multiple sports (gymnastics, weigtlifting, volleyball, basketball etc.) during the winter but not outside of track practice. High level youth sports need general fitness trainig aka training different sports during the "off season". Who will be elite later on is impossible to say at age 15. We train everyone this way who competes. GDR training knew this very well... This is literally a big part of long term athlete development: Avoiding early specialisation (endurance only sports are different so) at all cost.

So they do multiple sports

 

[kecks]

So they do multiple sports

No, they do not. The training in the off season for one sport is just set up very differently here than it seems to be done in the US. We do what we do according to results from sports science and also without youth sports being an industry. You do lots of general training in one sport in the off season instead of doing different high intensity sports but each at different times of the year. In Germany competitive youth sports are mostly done in clubs which all get public funding so they are rather cheap and college is free so no "I need to be very good at a sport to get into college". It is not something you do to make a living for the most part. Doing track only during the summer is not the best way to develop a future track athlete.

 

[ldw4mlo]

You do lots of general training in one sport in the off season instead of doing different high intensity sports but each at different times of the year.

I think perhaps your idea of what “we” do here in the US is skewed. Maybe from being here.

“We” here do lots of different sports throughput the year. There are way more kids doing multiple sports then specializing.

Not sure why you are arguing since you seem to think specializing is not the way to go, as do I.

 

[JBS]

You do lots of general training in one sport in the off season instead of doing different high intensity sports but each at different times of the year.

I would actually say this is exactly what the US does... not general training... the US does different high intensity sports at different times of the year.

So yes... you could potentially have zero off season.

LTAD is something that I would love for the US to understand better... not going to happen anytime soon though. As a whole the US understand "winning" first... secondly the US understands getting a medal even if you are a loser.

We are actually incorporating weight training into our program not only because it help... but because it is different movements too.

Hearing what is done in different countries is very interesting too me.

Here is an old thread... it's open again if you want to post in it...

WAG - Long Term Athlete Development in Gymnastics

EDIT: This is a conversation split out of another thread. You can view that thread at the following link to see how the conversation started... https://www.chalkbucket.com/forums/threads/level-4-much-harder-than-3.63006/page-2#post-562017 The concept of this conversation is basically... "Can...

chalkbucket.com

 

[wandrewsjr]

Wow! Her school has their track kids practice 5 days per week? That’s intense, around here school sport is not like that.

High school Sports teams would have the kids do one session a week, often either before school or during recess time one day.

I can’t see any parent here being willing to have kids do so much school sports training. If they were serious about bathe sport they would go to a private club.

In the US very common for high school sports teams(kids 14-17 years) to either practice or have a game/match every day after school for about 2 hours.

Edit to add: during that specific sport’s season, which generally runs 2-3 months. High school sports are played in seasons, 3 per academic year(fall/winter/spring) sports.