Parents Training hours for a 5 (almost 6) year old?

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

caligymmom

Proud Parent
Hi Everyone,

Our DD competed IGC Copper this year and had a great season. The coaches just gave out new group recommendations and want DD to move over to USAG and start training 10 hours a week, up from the 4 hours she trains right now.

Our concern is with her being so young. I know kids can get injuries from overuse, and I especially worry about growth plate injuries. Is 10 hours too much for a child her age??

Any info is much appreciated! Our daughter loves gymnastics and seems to have some talent for the sport. We really want to support her, but also protect her.

Thanks!!
 
IGC coppers at DDs gym train 12 hours, and many are in the 5-7 year range. It seems about normal (around here) for that age in competitive gymnastics, whether IGC or USAG.
 
It's a lot, but obviously is not unusual.

You know your kid best. Will she cope with it? How do you feel about focussing on one sport so young?

Honestly, she's 6 and it won't harm her long term "career" if she takes it slow for another year.

My DD was 7 when she jumped from 3 to 12 hours a week, and caught up easily (and overtook :) ), all the kids who had been training those hours from 5 or 6.

I suppose the big question though is how flexible is your club if the 10 hours is too much? Are they happy to keep her in her 4 hour class, will they let her hit middle ground with 6 or 8 hours for a few months to ease her in? I'm a fan of dance, swim etc at this age, first to build fitness, flexibility and strength without risking too much overuse, and second to give them a look at what else is out there before they commit :)
 
My son was 5 when he joined our level 4 team. They trained 4 hours during the week and had an optional 3 hour practice on Saturday. He did fine but, there were nights that 7pm was too late ( school starts absurdly early here). So for a while he left practice at 630. His coach was flexible and understood how much younger he was.

I think the concern is far less physical and far more developmental. Is she ready to focus that long. How old are the other team members?? The only reason it worked for DS, was it was an older group and they REALLY took care of him.
I also agree that 5 is a little young to be in the gym so much your social life and other activities "suffer".

I realize my experience is with a generally slower to develop, he person. She people a a whole different universe. Eithor way, you need to remember that as the parent, it ok to say "we need a night off" once and a while.

Good luck!!
 
I am sure she will be fine. My 5 year old (turning 6 in Sept) is starting to train 9 hours a week. But she was bumped from 2 hours a week and then a month later 4 hours a week, and then a month later 6.5 hours per week... so I think that helped her adjust. Is your kiddo going into 1st or Kindie?
 
I really think it's a family/personal decision. For us, the answer would be that it's too much. We deliberately go to a gym that doesn't push the young ones to high hours fast because that's what works best for our family and kids and life outside of the gym. Another local gym pushes them up in hours really young and quickly but a lot of kids (and parents) seem to burn out earlier (but for the ones that don't, I'm sure it works well).
For our family, going slow has worked better. DD is 6 and only trained 3 hours/week this year, not sure what the plan is for next year yet. For her, more would have been hard, but she's a kid who heads up to prep for bed at 6:30 (in bed by 7:30 and gets dragged out in the morning). So even now with only a few hours a week, she finishes gym at 5:30 and eats, does homework, and goes to bed.
For other families, though, where kids don't need as much sleep or aren't as easily overwhelmed, it might work fine. :)
 
Thanks for the feedback! DD has been involved in various activities since about 2, and actually chose gymnastics herself to begin with! We scaled back on other activities when kinder began to keep things low stress with her first year having homework, and quite a bit of it I must say. This summer we'll add back in swim and ballet, at her request.

She loves being in the gym and asked us for more hours, but we said to wait and see what her coaches suggest. I know she will be fine with it. I was more asking about the impact of that much gymnastics on a little body. Dad and I were both athletes, but neither of us know anything about gymnastics. I read as much as I can here, but I still feel uncertain much of the time. This sport is kind of scary! Lol!

I've checked out all the gyms in our area, and 9-10 hrs seems to be the standard, but I don't know how old most level 3's are.

Sounds like she will be fine physically, based on what many of you said. The issue seems to be more whether we're okay with that number of hours or not!

Thank you!!
 
L3's can be anywhere from 5 (turning 6 before states) to 12 I guess. At our gym my lil 5 y/o is the yongest and the oldest is 9
 

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

New Posts

Back