Return to gym stories

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JessSyd

Proud Parent
This might be a bit early, but I thought I would start a thread where people could share return to gym stories. I liked the one from NZ that someone shared in another thread. And I saw a beautiful video on other social media of a (chalkbucket, I think!) gymnast getting all excited about getting a return to gym date. It was lovely. And I saw a comment from Simone Biles’ gym. Apparently the girls were commenting that they did not remember the beam was so skinny, or so high.

Here there is no talk of reopening indoor sport yet. (Even though new cases are really low - single digit low, some days we have had one positive from more than ten thousand tests). So there are no stories for us yet and we are interested in other people’s excitement.

So, coaches, parents, gymnasts.....how did it go? What was easy, what was hard? What were the best and worst bits? How much has changed?
 
We will hopefully return to gym in a week! It's not 100 % decided yet but we are pretty hopeful. The government has shown a green light for indoor sports to start in the beginning of June but the details are not there yet.

In the meanwhile, we have been practicing outside 3 times a week with the upper level girls for 2 weeks now. Some of my girls have equipment at home so we have held practices on several different back yards and playgrounds. Some girls have very good and safe (not self made) strap bars and we have tried kips, cast handstands, circles and giants on them. Some of the girls got their shoulders so sore after the first time that they couldn't even move their heads on the next day.... Even if we have been doing serious conditioning for all this time. Swinging bars is so different that even if you do floor bar drills etc it's very different to actually swing the bars.

We have also done air track and trampoline (these also very good quality and safe to use) and the girls seem to have their basic tumbling skills still down. The strap bar was much bigger "shock" to all of them! Their hands are also very sore after our conditioning on monkey bars and such. I'm quite certain that after 10 minutes of bar work (when we get back to gym) most of them will have a rip or two :oops:
 
Bars is going to be the hardest thing isn’t it. Although my daughter is a bit worried that the vault will seem extra terrifying after not doing it for so long.

My daughter has just started doing some outdoor monkey bar work. Not swinging because there is nowhere safe enough for that, but chin ups and leg lifts. She still easily had the strength for it, but said that even a little bit of bar work made her hands hurt.
 
We went back this morning for the first time, 2 hour private lesson. Her team started back with 5 hour practices this week but I’m just not comfortable yet with being around a group of people.

She was waaaay less rusty than I expected. Most skills came right back, even her straight arm kip. (She competed level 4 last fall and is training level 5/6) her hands were hurting after 10 min of bars, but no rips yet.
Seeing her grin ear to ear all day was the best feeling.
 
My dd went back to practice (very small groups) a couple weeks ago. Bars is definitely the hardest to get back. She was very sore the first few days despite doing all the recommended conditioning while out of the gym. She has her beam and floor skills back (Level 7), but they haven't attempted full skills yet on bars and vault (some due to very limited spotting abilities).
 
My dd went back to practice (very small groups) a couple weeks ago. Bars is definitely the hardest to get back. She was very sore the first few days despite doing all the recommended conditioning while out of the gym. She has her beam and floor skills back (Level 7), but they haven't attempted full skills yet on bars and vault (some due to very limited spotting abilities).

Full skills on beam and floor is a great start for the end of May. I’m sure her coaches will have drills to start up training soon If they haven’t already.
 
I doubt we'll be back before mid-July but I really hope the first few weeks is almost all strength and conditioning and not much event work.
 
My dd has been back for 2 weeks now in a very reduced capacity, just a few days a week for a couple of hours. They have been doing 3 hours a day of zoom workouts (conditioning, strength, cardio, drills and some limited beam/floor tumbling) the entire time they were out, so there really wasn't much loss of fitness for them. They are continuing to do zooms during this time to work on these things, so that the gym time can be focused strictly on skills and using the equipment. It's working well for them I think. On floor, they all have their level 8 passes back and are working on new skills/passes for level 9. Same on beam, although some of them are still working their way back to high beam for some of the level 8 skills. Bars they started slow, but now they are all able/allowed to do their full level 8 routines with the exception of the double back dismount. They are still holding off on that for a little longer. They also are doing a lot of drills for front giants, blinds and shootovers. Vault has been the slowest for sure. They haven't used the table yet at all. They are still working on runs and drills and shaping. She's been so happy to be back in the gym and to not have lost much fitness at all. She even feels better about some of her skills than when she left. I think a few of the girls might be having some mental blocks, particularly around the beam, but mostly it was girls that already struggled with that before. They didn't lose any of the gymnasts on her team and moving to level 9 is definitely still a very real possibility for all of them, which is better than expected. Overall, it's been great being back!
 
My DD started back this past Monday. They are taking it slow. 2 hours per day last week, 3 this week, and back to normal 4 hour schedule next week. They have done mostly conditioning work and a few basic skills. She is training level 10 and going into her junior year, so she's hoping she has time go get those 10 skills back that she had plus new ones. She has rips on her hands and bruised hips from the bars from just the little work she has done but she said she's ready for more. She's also starting a new gymnast weight training this week outside the gym, but they are also starting slowly. She had kept up with daily conditioning, stretching and the drills that she could do from home daily while out of the gym which hopefully will help her come back quicker. She didn't feel she had enough conditioning in the gym this past week so she did some additional at home on Saturday. She said the work at home did not prepare her for some of the muscles she uses for kips and casts though but she can still do them. She has a pull up bar and a floor bar, a fold up floor beam, but no air track. She was able to do back handsprings on the beam without issue but she also worked on those at home. Looking forward to more progress this week!
 


Here is a link to the video WCC posted about their first day back.

They had a ton of kids warming up on floor. Does Texas have restrictions on number of kids in the facility at one time?

We have a huge facility, so looking at running a couple of small groups at once, but the current regulations in CO are kind of vague.
 
They had a ton of kids warming up on floor. Does Texas have restrictions on number of kids in the facility at one time?

We have a huge facility, so looking at running a couple of small groups at once, but the current regulations in CO are kind of vague.

I think in CO, you have to go through your local health department. I have talked to several families, and what they can/cannot do is different based on the local authorities regulations.
 
In Texas right now it's 25% of capacity for gyms, and I can tell you that our gym that is a fraction the size of WCC is "allowed" something crazy like 160 people. (We aren't allowing near that many though, of course.) Many of the mega gyms here opened back up with their full class load and the only concession was gaps between classes instead of overlapping times.

Now, not everyone came back -especially rec kids, but they could if they wanted to...
 
In Texas right now it's 25% of capacity for gyms, and I can tell you that our gym that is a fraction the size of WCC is "allowed" something crazy like 160 people. (We aren't allowing near that many though, of course.) Many of the mega gyms here opened back up with their full class load and the only concession was gaps between classes instead of overlapping times.

Now, not everyone came back -especially rec kids, but they could if they wanted to...


This has been bothering me for the past week. Our gym will be allowed 30% capacity, which they say with staff works out to about 100 people. I never would have guessed it was that high as our facility is on the smaller side and to have groups of five in genuinely separate locations I don’t think you could fit more than 30. There was no mention of shooting to come in under the occupancy limit. We told them we will be back for in-person classes, but that was when I imagined only 20-30 people in the building. I feel like they should be more conservative, but I am hesitant to suggest this because they are desperate from a financial standpoint to get as many kids back in as possible. So, now I’m reconsidering our decision to join group training. I can’t (hopefully) be the only one. I imagine that the more crowded the gym will be, the less parents willing to send their kids back at full tuition, which results in less money for the gym than if they’d kept numbers low. It will be tricky for gyms to find the right balance.
 
This has been bothering me for the past week. Our gym will be allowed 30% capacity, which they say with staff works out to about 100 people. I never would have guessed it was that high as our facility is on the smaller side and to have groups of five in genuinely separate locations I don’t think you could fit more than 30. There was no mention of shooting to come in under the occupancy limit. We told them we will be back for in-person classes, but that was when I imagined only 20-30 people in the building. I feel like they should be more conservative, but I am hesitant to suggest this because they are desperate from a financial standpoint to get as many kids back in as possible. So, now I’m reconsidering our decision to join group training. I can’t (hopefully) be the only one. I imagine that the more crowded the gym will be, the less parents willing to send their kids back at full tuition, which results in less money for the gym than if they’d kept numbers low. It will be tricky for gyms to find the right balance.

Thats a ton of kids. I wouldn’t be comfortable coaching or sending my kids for practice. My husband is not even loving the idea of very small group practices (likely will be10 or less in the facility). I get that it’s a financial strain on the gym, too. Full rec classes pay the bills. There are lots of kids coming in for privates throughout the day, but likely not near enough money coming in.

Is your gym at least spacing things out throughout the day? If they start with team or classes early in the morning and go till late evening it might help lower capacity.
 
I know our gym is hurting badly with the numbers low. Coming in right after 9 weeks of closure, the precautions combined with the fact that rec has not snapped back has to be murder for them financially. They did what Laura said and started at 7:30 am, running until 10 some nights.

We were pretty sure we were heading back upon open, but 100 kids in the gym at a time would have kept us home. I felt like the 15ish in some groups was really pushing it already.

We did have some parents say they were waiting a few weeks to come back, and a couple who are waiting until much later. I doubt you'll be the only one.
 
Yes, they will be spacing things out from morning to night, but we don’t have a schedule yet. Gatherings of 50 people aren’t even allowed until the phase after the phase in which gyms can open, so I don’t understand why they can have more than that in the gym even if it’s a low percentage of capacity. It should be whichever number is lower, you know? Oh well - I don’t have all the details, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and wait to see the schedule. Maybe the numbers will all work out, or maybe other parents braver than I will have broached the issue with the owner and they’ll voluntarily lower the number of groups.
 

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