Quitting gym?

[stargazer]

I was wondering if you have any advice on transitioning from competitive gymnastics to adult recreational classes?

I'm 18, Level 5 and training 8 hours a week with a coach I love and obviously, doing a sport I adore. This is only my second year in competitive, I joined very late, and I'm not sure if I will have enough money to come back next year. It's over $2000 a year and I'm a university student so that's a lot of money. The thing is, gymnastics has been my passion since I was 12, and even though I train with girls ages 12-16 I'm in love with the sport and don't want to give it up.

If I quit gym, I'll have more money and more time to socialize with people my own age.
If I don't quit gym I'll still be doing the sport I love but at a cost to my wallet, social life and possibly my academic life. Though not very much I should hope

I wouldn't have a huge problem with doing an Adult Rec class instead and I've even gone a couple times just for fun, but that's the problem: it's very low key and definitely just for fun. There's only two coaches for about 40 people which means that if I need spot for new skills and they're not available for most of the evening I'll either have to chuck it or become very comfortable with falling

So, have any of you been in the same situation or have any thoughts on the matter?

 

[GetaGrip]

I can see your dilemma. Gymnastics is an expensive sport, though fun and usually rewarding.

You could really go either way. Its obvious that you love gymnastics, so this isn't a matter of how much you like the sport. Though I'm not a university student, I've heard how expensive it can be, between books and other materials. $2000 dollars a year is a lot anyways.

There's two trains of thought really. One of them is that while gymnastics is fun, school is your main focus. If you strongly believed that, I'd either cut down on training hours or quit if it came down to it.
On the other hand, gymnastics is a sport with limited time. You can't do gymnastics when your 50. It'd be hard to do it when you were even 30 unless you kept it up until then.

If gymnastics is really what you love, I'd try to stay with it, even if it meant doing Rec classes.

Two coaches sounds like not neaaaaarly enough for that many gymnasts, many of whom I'm sure will need spots. One way to avoid having to eat mat is to build the skill as much as you can. Do the drills, use the safety mats, and have a spot when you really feel you need it to be safe. I personally don't like spots, and I don't use them unless I think that it will really benefit my safety.

I wish you luck and hope that you come to a happy decision!

 

[GymSurvivor]

I understand where your coming from, I'm 17 and training level 5, So like you started late.
One thing is, were you competing USAG because if you were I would check into the age limits, I'm not sure USAG lets above 18 year olds compete.
But I know AAU does and sometimes AAU is cheaper to compete in so if you aren't competing AAU you could check and see if any gym around have a team that does.

That aside you could check to see if you could work for training. We have a couple girls at my gym who work for training and it works really well.
I can understand about not wanting to do the Adult Rec. That does sound a bit like a 3 ring circus!

Or you could take a break for just a bit and see how you like it and then if you really miss gymnastics then reconsider things.

 

[GetaGrip]

I understand where your coming from, I'm 17 and training level 5, So like you started late.
One thing is, were you competing USAG because if you were I would check into the age limits, I'm not sure USAG lets above 18 year olds compete.
But I know AAU does and sometimes AAU is cheaper to compete in so if you aren't competing AAU you could check and see if any gym around have a team that does.

USAG lets 18 and over year olds compete. On my team I competed level 7 with a 24 and a 31 year old! They both made it to states as well.