For Parents Practicing at home!

[Monkeygirlsmom]

my kids soo want to do things at home but we dont have mats and other etc!!
Soo I let them do there cartwheels and stretching at home!!

what do your kids do while at home!! etc!!

 

[Blackie6]

I try not to let my DD(6) do anything at home, LOL, but it's hard. She mostly does handstands and splits all over the place. Sometimes tries the press handstands. I do have a balance beam (5ft) that she plays on sometimes. We also have a trampoline, but do not encourage her to do anything but jump (for play) on that either. I feel like since she is in the gym for 11 hours a week that it is ample time to practice in a safe & supervised place. I would hate for her to get hurt at home trying something from the gym.

 

[JBS]

My daughter is 2 so she can't do much. We let her do forward rolls, donkey kicks, animal walks, and all sorts of other movement education.

As a coach, I do not ever ask for skills to be done at home. Team kids maybe asked to do a little stretching or dance memorization, but not skills. They are in the gym enough, they need to play at home.

My views with homework for school or sports are the same. 90% or more of the learning should go on in the actual hours they are at the gym or school.

 

[gym law mom]

As far as at home gym practice, I agree with JBS. Most of the training should be done at the gym and left there. Sure, if your daughter wants to do extra thats fine(just like wanting to do extra multiplication). I drew the line at no acro stuff. Handstands, cartwheels, stretching, working on splits, front limbers(I must have seen 1000+ of those) are all things they can do in the house without much risk of injury. I think where JBS is coming from is no structured home practice time is needed. I only let my daughter do what she was doing without a spot in the gym, so if she was doing BWOs just fine, then she could do them at home.

Some gyms make the parents agree not to coach their child at home. We had to sign a form saying we would not in any way coach our child. Ok, I wouldn't know how to coach her so that wasn't an issue. Yes, I would watch handstands or BWOs or whatever and she would tell me to let her know about form---legs straight, toes pointed as much as they can be? There is also the never ending "can you time my handstand?" Now, with alot of hours in the gym for team, she doesn't do much at home except the timing of the handstand---don't know why that has stuck, but its pretty harmless.

 

[JBS]

I think where JBS is coming from is no structured home practice time is needed.

Exactly...if their playing includes cartwheels around the yard all day, that's fine with me.

 

[Ingymmom]

We don't do any kind of structured practice at home either... like most gymnasts mine will cartwheel to the moon & back, but I don't have any prac equip @ home and have refused my dd's pleadings to buy any... my kids all love to practice stuff at home & if they do it on their own so be it, they are allowed to do pretty much whatever they want except my dd can not do bhs's (or fhs's) on the floor (or couch, bed etc. LOL - believe me, they try) . I think it depends on how much time is spent in the gym and whether or not the child WANTS to practice at home. My dd spends an hour a week in ballet and LOVES to practice at home - I have no problem with that... some kids just enjoy it & want to continue it from class. Some skills comes easier at home just messing around, but my personal opinion (I agree w/JBS & GLM) is when you leave structured practice in the gym, they are always excited to get back to the gym to work on whatever it is they just learned or made better... in the meantime your home (at least our home) becomes quite an obstacle course to just play practice...

 

[gracefulone]

When I coach school-age, the girls always ask me what they can do at home (they are anxious to move up) I tell them to practice their splits, bridges, and after that see what their parents' limits are.

 

[gymdog]

I think it's fine for them to play around, make up routines, etc, however like someone said earlier, it's probably best to limit it to no acro skills. There just aren't suitable landings, and too much stuff around - I know a lot of people who would play around doing round off and then broke their toe when it hit the dresser Also if they kick a sibling or pet trying to do something with too much movement, it could result in serious injury to the other party. Even out in the yard if there is a chance someone else could get underfoot, probably best to keep it simple. And while I think some bridge work is fine, it might be best to keep it under excess if the gymnasts isn't naturally flexible. I don't think that kind of stress on a growing back is really encouraged and especially on harder surfaces that aren't absorbing anything when the feet or hands come down for a limber. I would suggest caution on that. A few once in awhile won't hurt of course, they just shouldn't try to push it.

 

[Monkeygirlsmom]

I was thinking the ideas of stretching and things like that!! they do cartwheels and all the other I just get nervous when I walk outside and they try to do the thing that need a spot!! they love to play gymnastics all the time!! I even bought this little kit that has some VERY basic on the dvd and that has appeased them with not making me worried!!

 

[gym law mom]

Stretching is fine. My daughter used to like to work on her splits---getting down a little lower, straight legs, pointing the toes etc. Now I notice that sometimes when she's watching TV or doing homework, she sits in a middle split---guess after a few years it just becomes natural.

MGM--Jem posted some great exercises to do at home to teach young gymnasts how to isolate and tighten muscle groups. Forget which thread its under. If the girls are driving you crazy, maybe try some of those. It will be beneficial to them and might be something new and fun they can keep doing without risk of wrecking the house or themselves!

 

[hammy]

I used to tumble at home on the cushions from my couches. I had a chin-up bar that was used for kips, flyaways (not a good idea), front hip circles, etc, jogging tramp that I liked to flip off of, and I had beam that my dad made.

As far as giving kids "assignments" to do at home, the only ones that I give are to practice choreography for floor and beam routins (and that's just to help them learn their routines).

As long as they're being safe and smart, I say go for doing stuff at home!

 

[maddiekate]

I do gymnastics a lot at home. Most likely because i only get 4 hours in the gym. We have a pull up bar, and i do strength training there, i have a mat that i do standing tucks on, 2 crash mats that i like to put on our trampolines, and 2 trampolines in the backyard.

I know all of this is not advised and dangerous, but its fun. My mom taught me to do a backhandspring in our living room a year before i started gymnastics.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

trying to stop mine is the problem !!

She is pretty competative and hard on herself (which I am trying to stop - but...) She is very close to her back handspring by herself - she just has trouble keeping her arms straight enough to keep her head off the ground (it doesn't 'hit' the ground - doesn't hurt, just skimming). A girl in her class who just turned 6 got her back handspring a couple weeks ago and new my dd age 7 tells me she 'sucks' I am not sure what to do, I have tried explaining that she does not suck and that this little girl has been at the gym for 3 yrs and her only a year and a half. She can do many things the girl can't (handstand and cartwheel on beam, pullover on bars, great back walk-over) she just out of the blue did a back walkover on a foam beam the other day - BUT to her she can't do this one thing a younger kid can do and it is a huge issue for her.

I did gymnastics for years and we have some mats, I know how to spot the BHS so I do, but other than that she cartwheels and handstands everywhere.

any suggestions on how to explain that these kids doing all these tricks have been taking gymnsatics much longer than her................

 

[Charlotte's Mum]

I built an extension/gymn on the back of are house one is a dinning
room the other is a mini gymn this a balance beam and a floor beam
with matts all around. My daughter goes to gymn 5x a week for 3 hours.
And when she gets home we dont make her but if she wants she goes
in the gymn and practises the moves she knows but we have rules
she can not experiment she can only do what she knows we dont want
her trying things that she has never done before or cant do properly!

 

[Carmansunshine]

trying to stop mine is the problem !!

She is pretty competative and hard on herself (which I am trying to stop - but...) She is very close to her back handspring by herself - she just has trouble keeping her arms straight enough to keep her head off the ground (it doesn't 'hit' the ground - doesn't hurt, just skimming). A girl in her class who just turned 6 got her back handspring a couple weeks ago and new my dd age 7 tells me she 'sucks' I am not sure what to do, I have tried explaining that she does not suck and that this little girl has been at the gym for 3 yrs and her only a year and a half. She can do many things the girl can't (handstand and cartwheel on beam, pullover on bars, great back walk-over) she just out of the blue did a back walkover on a foam beam the other day - BUT to her she can't do this one thing a younger kid can do and it is a huge issue for her.

I did gymnastics for years and we have some mats, I know how to spot the BHS so I do, but other than that she cartwheels and handstands everywhere.

any suggestions on how to explain that these kids doing all these tricks have been taking gymnsatics much longer than her................

This was an issue for my dd because she went to a new gym where alot of her form was bad so they put her from level 3/4 to level 1. she worked her way back up to level 3 but all the kids in this class were younger and smaller than her, but could do cartwheel on beam and she just wasn't picking it up it drove her crazy even though she had loads more skills than them because of her other training, FHS, back limber, and her level 4 vault to name a few. That little skill made her say she sucked. I didn' know what to say either. Her school counsler is a friend so I mentioned it to her and she told me to have her list all the thing she learned in the last year. After that she said to ask her if she enjoied doing gym. And finally she said to ask her if she was competing with anyone or if she was trying to make herself the best gymnast she can be. It really put a lot of perspective in her life and then we talked about how she could set goals for herself and reach them. In this sport there will always be some one better on any given day, They need to know that. But they have the power to change any skill with hard work. This sport really points out how life isn't always fair, but sucess comes with hard work and dedication. Some kids a born thin and have great lines for beam, while others are born with strength and are powerful tumblers. There are very few gymnasts that are true all arounders. THe may wi all around metals but it may be because of a really high score on one event and 3 decent scores on the others. This new outlook has change my dd and her confidence in life for the better and has added years to her maturity. Good luck!

 

[Ingymmom]

any suggestions on how to explain that these kids doing all these tricks have been taking gymnsatics much longer than her................

as far as I can tell, all gymnasts practice at home gymmomntc - I think its great that you have exp as a gymnast and can help your little one - we had a back "head" spring stage as well LOL... we have also had issues with girls being mean (girls are catty by nature - mix in a talent and some become divas). Time (even a short period of time) can make such a difference, they all eventually catch up to each other - and you figure all top out somewhere along the way. Some stay in the sport and some move on to other things... while it gives proud moments, who gets what 1st never really matters later. The amount of time a gymnast has spent in the gym is not always the best way to approach it though, because some gymnasts just take to the sport easier then others... There is a little girl in our gym that had never done a split, cartwheel or even taken a gym class - she spent 2 mos in rec and then the next 10 mos on team and now will compete lvl 5 this year & I think will do very well. There will always be someone better, faster, stronger so .... The always do your personal best, hard work and perseverence lesson is always a great one! Gymnastics teaches so many great life lessons - they are countless... it gives parents a great excuse to discuss so many different views, even at an early age.