WAG Second chance? Difficult decision

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gymisforeveryone

Coach
Judge
I started to coach in this gym a year ago. I was given three competitive groups: level B group (all gymnasts now 8 years old), level C-D group (all gymnasts now 12-13 yo) and level E team (all gymnast 12-15 yo). In the level B group there is a kid, let's call her Maria, and in level E group there is her big sister Ella (15 years old). Well, they have another sister Sofia who is 13. She quit gymnastics because of a fear of cartwheels on beam when she was 11,5. I wasn't in this gym back then. Yesterday their mother came in the gym to talk about Maria and she had Sofia with her. When our little chat was over she introduced Sofia to me and told me that Sofia had been talking that she would love to come back and start doing gymnastics again. She asked me if there was any room left in the level C-D group which is the group Sofia was in a 1,5 years ago.

I hesitated a little but told her that she can come and try again, but I don't promise anything before I have seen her at practice. I know her sisters Ella and Maria well and they are great gymnast, pretty flexible and strong and they have nice lines and good form so I was really curious to see if Sofia was like them.

Today Sofia came to practice. She was pretty nervous and little shy. We did conditioning, bars, beam and leaps, jumps, turns and dance on floor. I didn't have time to watch her or help her very much because I had levels C-D and E all practice at the same time. She had her splits down and nice bridge and could do back walkovers on beam with a little help. Her leaps and jumps were ok. She could do the tap swings. BUT she couldn't do a kip. Actually she had problems to remember how to do a glide. And this gymnasts actually had her kip before she quit. And now she wasn't even close and I had to spot her hard.

I definitely want to see her practice a few more times. I would love to give her a second chance, but the bars made me to concern. How long will it take that she'll get her strength back? Is it worth it to take her in this group now when the other level C-D's can kip...

I love the idea of second chances, but I would also love to have a chrystal ball to see where she will be in 6 months? In May I got one other 12 yo newbie girl in this group, but with her the decision was easier because she was really strong. And now she is better than all the others who have been in this group for five years...

What should I do? How long should I give her "test" it before giving my final decision?
 
Give her a chance to chalk up up some conditioning time and get her strength back. That should help solve her kip problems.
 

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