Hi,
I want to share/vent my experience with my dd.
She is 6 year old and doing her first year of gymnastics with a recreational group (she did a year of preschool dancing before. She liked it, but decided that is was not for her). She is very energetic and flexible, so I thought it would be a good match.
She only trains 2hrs a week. While she likes it that I watch, I usually only see the last 30 minutes, but sometimes I look at the whole training (usually due to external circumstances).
One of her problems is that she is very shy to strangers, and takes a while before she gets warmed up. Gymnastics helped her to build some confidence because she found something she is good at, but it also created some other issues.
The problem is that she sometimes gets transferred from group to group (later I noticed she moved up each time). She had a friend that moved together with her, so it wasn't that bad. The teachers also rotate all the time between groups, so no big difference there. With the recreationals, they have colored ribbons to identify in wich group they train. Quite straightforward and easy for her. These groups train at a different pace (but it is not communicated which group is higher or lower). This settled after 3 months in the "strongest" recreational group.
Once I noticed at the end of the training, that she was again in another group and was a bit uncomfortable, but afterwards no colored ribbon. I didn't make anything of it, and she trained in her normal group next time. I now know this group was the a-group (or pre team). They train the same hours, but make better use of their time, and have fixed coaches, and have no ribbons.
Month 4: she was second in the gym championship (recreational group). Being second between children doing gymnastics since préschool is quite good I think, so, a proud daddy.
Month 5: she started to do backbend kickovers (seems something all coaches came to look at, because they don't learn it there). She also seems to execute cartwheels, headstands,... in a more advanced form than her group.
Month 8: The teachers of the a-group start to teach my dd's group. The a-group does tryouts with the entry-team (and some kids from the entry-team do tryouts on a higher level team). They start doing some harder stuff. The week after, she suddenly can do back walkovers. The week after that, front walkovers.
Month 9: six girls in the first and second grade (including my dd) do a tryout with the headcoach of the entry-team. My dd is seperated from the group and asked to show her walkovers (at the time she starts doing them like they look easy).
I'm very happy with the gym and the coaches from the recreational group. They communicate very well and are always there for questions, but there seems to be a communication block between the two. We get no information why or how these tryouts are organized or what they are going to do (or even ask if we are interested)
Now, last training, the "shy" problem started again. During the warmup dance (in the recreational group, they stretch during a dance), a coach from the a-group picked her out (only her) and brought her to the a-group/entry-team. They are discussing about papers while my dd is still waiting there. They instruct the entry-team to go to the beam, but my dd is still waiting there. She is too shy to ask, and the coaches didn't notice her. She almost started crying, but a recreational coaches brought her back to the normal group. Another parent (probably from an a-group kid) gave me the mail adres from the coach to talk about this. After this incident my dd didn't talk about gymnastics for 3 days (not normal for her), but then she remarked that she wanted to train with that team, but didn't know what to do.
I understand that my dd is very shy, but I do find this unacceptable. I talked to the recreational head coach, and she agrees but they seem unaware what the team coaches are planning. I also send a email to the team coach about this incident (I was quite polite, just indicating something went wrong, and asking that if they get my dd out of the group, to do this in a softer way), but got no reply back.
I'm very close to asking to stop this "picking my dd from the group" completely, as I'm also happy that my dd stays in the recreational group, but I'm still stopped by my dd asking to do more advanced stuff (also a policy from the mother: do your stuff at the gym, not at home).
I don't know if they will pick her out again the next 2 lessons (end of season after that). If not this might again dissapoint my dd.
If I look at what she does, she is certainly the queen of the floor in her age group. E.g. only 1 girl of the a-group can sometimes to a back walkover, front walkovers out of the question, while my dd does them and make them seem as easy as walking. Bar and beam are at similar level to what the girls in the a-group do.
They are doing a club barbecue this weekend... Maybe I can get some more info there.
I want to share/vent my experience with my dd.
She is 6 year old and doing her first year of gymnastics with a recreational group (she did a year of preschool dancing before. She liked it, but decided that is was not for her). She is very energetic and flexible, so I thought it would be a good match.
She only trains 2hrs a week. While she likes it that I watch, I usually only see the last 30 minutes, but sometimes I look at the whole training (usually due to external circumstances).
One of her problems is that she is very shy to strangers, and takes a while before she gets warmed up. Gymnastics helped her to build some confidence because she found something she is good at, but it also created some other issues.
The problem is that she sometimes gets transferred from group to group (later I noticed she moved up each time). She had a friend that moved together with her, so it wasn't that bad. The teachers also rotate all the time between groups, so no big difference there. With the recreationals, they have colored ribbons to identify in wich group they train. Quite straightforward and easy for her. These groups train at a different pace (but it is not communicated which group is higher or lower). This settled after 3 months in the "strongest" recreational group.
Once I noticed at the end of the training, that she was again in another group and was a bit uncomfortable, but afterwards no colored ribbon. I didn't make anything of it, and she trained in her normal group next time. I now know this group was the a-group (or pre team). They train the same hours, but make better use of their time, and have fixed coaches, and have no ribbons.
Month 4: she was second in the gym championship (recreational group). Being second between children doing gymnastics since préschool is quite good I think, so, a proud daddy.
Month 5: she started to do backbend kickovers (seems something all coaches came to look at, because they don't learn it there). She also seems to execute cartwheels, headstands,... in a more advanced form than her group.
Month 8: The teachers of the a-group start to teach my dd's group. The a-group does tryouts with the entry-team (and some kids from the entry-team do tryouts on a higher level team). They start doing some harder stuff. The week after, she suddenly can do back walkovers. The week after that, front walkovers.
Month 9: six girls in the first and second grade (including my dd) do a tryout with the headcoach of the entry-team. My dd is seperated from the group and asked to show her walkovers (at the time she starts doing them like they look easy).
I'm very happy with the gym and the coaches from the recreational group. They communicate very well and are always there for questions, but there seems to be a communication block between the two. We get no information why or how these tryouts are organized or what they are going to do (or even ask if we are interested)
Now, last training, the "shy" problem started again. During the warmup dance (in the recreational group, they stretch during a dance), a coach from the a-group picked her out (only her) and brought her to the a-group/entry-team. They are discussing about papers while my dd is still waiting there. They instruct the entry-team to go to the beam, but my dd is still waiting there. She is too shy to ask, and the coaches didn't notice her. She almost started crying, but a recreational coaches brought her back to the normal group. Another parent (probably from an a-group kid) gave me the mail adres from the coach to talk about this. After this incident my dd didn't talk about gymnastics for 3 days (not normal for her), but then she remarked that she wanted to train with that team, but didn't know what to do.
I understand that my dd is very shy, but I do find this unacceptable. I talked to the recreational head coach, and she agrees but they seem unaware what the team coaches are planning. I also send a email to the team coach about this incident (I was quite polite, just indicating something went wrong, and asking that if they get my dd out of the group, to do this in a softer way), but got no reply back.
I'm very close to asking to stop this "picking my dd from the group" completely, as I'm also happy that my dd stays in the recreational group, but I'm still stopped by my dd asking to do more advanced stuff (also a policy from the mother: do your stuff at the gym, not at home).
I don't know if they will pick her out again the next 2 lessons (end of season after that). If not this might again dissapoint my dd.
If I look at what she does, she is certainly the queen of the floor in her age group. E.g. only 1 girl of the a-group can sometimes to a back walkover, front walkovers out of the question, while my dd does them and make them seem as easy as walking. Bar and beam are at similar level to what the girls in the a-group do.
They are doing a club barbecue this weekend... Maybe I can get some more info there.
