This Sucks! :( - more of a rant!

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I love gymnastics, more than anything!

What sucks is, my gymnastics dream literally cant come true because of my age + working full time, it really sucks wanting something so bad that just isnt possible. I mean if I was wishing that I could win a million dollars or something fair enough, but all I want is to reach a high level in gymnastics and compete but with my age and work it just isnt possible - =(

Does anyone else have this problem? (probably not!)

Thanks for reading :)
 
I would also love to reach as high a level as i can in gymnastics but my club is small and limits these goals. We have no spring floors or pits...etc And like you, i also have a very busy schedule with work, coaching gym, teaching acro, and school/homework. Plus i already feel really old and im only 16!

I'm level 5 (canada). How old and what level are you?

good luck with your gymnastics!
 
What I'm going to say is kind of overplayed but it's basically true...it's all about wanting what you've got.

I'm very grateful to have had gymnastics in my life. I kept going through my senior year and for various reasons it didn't really work out to continue at the NCAA level. I really don't like competing personally and was very stressed out from about age 12 onwards (basically when I started competing...started a little late)...although I love gymnastics and progressed fast and performed relatively well in practice, I'm not much of a competitor. Until a certain level I did relatively well in competitions simply because the skills came pretty easily. Through level 8 I could absorb the few mistakes I'd make. Then when the routines got more complicated, so to speak, it just became a lot harder for me, and it seemed like any possible mistake, I would make it in a meet, whether I'd ever had that problem before in practice or not.

I enjoy working out and coaching now, a lot. I thought I would be disappointed in myself for not reaching that "gold standard" but at some point I realized I couldn't make myself something I'm not. If it hadn't happened by then, nothing was going to click and make me a different gymnast. It was time to let that chapter of my life go. Far from being disappointed, I was almost immediately relieved in a lot of ways. There's nothing inherently better about one level of gymnastics than another. It's all about the individual situation.

The problem with gymnastics is that it's going to end somewhere for everyone. It doesn't matter where, but what I am going to say, for almost everyone, you will somehow be disappointed at least briefly. I have heard the SAME STORY from girls who quit all along the ways, from level 6 to international elite. There's always something that will feel raw and left undone and you will never feel like you're finished. But you can leave and go on and start another chapter and enjoy gymnastics in other ways. I feel like I know some people who feel stuck on a certain path and what they're trying to get isn't there...you have to accept there's no perfect finishing place and like everything in life, it's a huge mistake to think "if I just had this, I would be happy." You will most likely still be unhappy, but just with whatever it is you didn't have before. This is hard to come to terms with in your early adult life as reality hits. Honestly, lots of things are possible and life can really be whatever you want to make it...but some things aren't possible. And some things aren't right or realistic for everyone.
 
I don't think what you are saying is true. Your age does not have to affect your ability to reach a higher level in gymnastics and compete with great success. In fact being older may be an advantage. You have the advantage of adult strength, which is women gets stronger all the way through your twenties, your strength should reach its peak around 30 and you can maintain it at this level for at least a decade as long as you keep training.

Working full time will make it difficult but if your really want this you can make it work. The secret in the gym is not the quantity of time but the quality of time. Good hard work for a few hours will do more than laid back, lazy work for 20 hours a week. You can do a lot at home aswell like streching, conditioning, basic strength work, handstand work and so on. If you do this every single day you will pick up skills in the gym a lot faster.

If you really do love gymnastics more than anything and if this really is your dream you will find a way to make it work and it will work. If you want this more than anything else you will succeed.
 

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