WAG Trying to convince DH that team is a good idea - help, please?

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

lemondrop

Proud Parent
Hello! I am a new CB member, though I have been reading on the forums for a few months now. I have 6 yo and 8 yo DDs who have been doing gymnastics since fall of 2012. At the girls' gym, they give out invitations for new levels at this time of year, and then girls start in their new levels in June. 6 yo DD has been in a Hot Shots class for almost a year, and has now been asked to start preteam class. 8 yo DD has been in preteam class for a year, and has now been asked to start on Level 3 team. They are both very happy. However, my DH has expressed that while he has been fine with Rec level gymnastics for overall fitness and activity, he is hesitant to let either girl go beyond preteam (7 hours a week) as his perception is that higher levels of hours spent training gymnastics will impair growth/normal physical development, and will be bad for their growing bodies all around. My perception is that gymnastics has made my girls strong, fit and confident, which I love. The gym emphasizes safety, I feel confident in the coaches, and I really like their overall culture/philosophy. DD8 will be crushed if she is not allowed to do team, and will not want to be in preteam class again with her little sister (this would be her only choice if she does not move to team). I would like to try to present DH with some information to address his concerns. I am going to do my own research, but thought I would ask the experts here to chime in and perhaps point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide.
 
My husband was very hesitant to let our 6 year old train the number of hours required for team, but when I explained to him it was normal for the sport, he agreed. It helped that I was a competitive gymnast, too, otherwise I don't think he would have agreed to the long hours. It also helps that he sees how much our daughter wants to be in the gym...there is no way he could stop her from working out, even if he tried! After all the hours, she still comes home and bounces on the trampoline or does handstands on the couch. I would also say that it is a very progressive thing, so starting at level 3 would not be anything super demanding, and it would increase over time very gradually as she became more and more serious and went up in levels. Congrats to your daughters, it's very exciting! :)
 
my DD started gymnastics at 7. She did 1 1/2 years rec and decided she wanted to do team, because rec didn't go higher. She wanted to learn harder skills. I too was a little hesitant, but, now she's almost 12 and still going strong. Trust me, it hasn't stunted her growth yet. As a matter of fact, just last week I read an article about this same problem. It was about atheletic girls and why they don't grow as much when they train extreme hours
. Well, studies have you, you have to keep feeding them!!! And properly, not just anything because they are using so many calories. She went from 3 to 6 to 13 and now probably 15 hours of training. She's 5' 41/2"!!!! Still growing
 
I have twin daughters (fraternal). My gymnast developed a full year ahead of her sister in terms of puberty-type stuff. They develop when they develop, and doing gymnastics isn't going to affect that much. As for it being hard on their bodies... well, no way to get around that. It is, for sure. But DD is also crazy strong and good at any sport she puts her mind to, so it's a trade-off. I'll take that over her sitting on the couch watching tv.

There are LOTS of benefits to doing gymnastics, but speaking as someone with a spouse who is not 100% on board, it is a huge commitment of time and money for the whole family. It will feel as though your whole life (or at least your whole schedule and your whole budget) revolves around gymnastics. As much as you might be tempted to hide certain aspects from him... Like the amount of hours the upper levels train or the amount of money you're going to be shelling out on top of tuition for things like leos, warm-ups, meet fees, travel expenses, etc... you need to be totally up front. It's not fair to let your daughters get started on team and then have to pull the plug, nor do you want every discussion about finances or scheduling vacations or whatever to turn into a fight about gymnastics. Not that I would know anything about that... :rolleyes:
 
I would have him talk to their doctor about it. Also, you guys could talk about limits you are both comfortable for the girls.
 
One thing to keep in mind is that I doubt your girls will be jumping up to 20 or 30 hours right away. it will be a gradual increase in time & money. As that increase happens your dd's will get to decide if they want to continue doing it. They might stop after level 4 (the vast majority do) or go through level 10. You don't know what will happen. But you do need to be aware of what will happen if your dd loves it and wants to go all the way. My dd is a level 8 now and goes 16 hours a week and the cost is a lot. But we wouldn't have it any other way - it is what she loves.
 
Does you husband spend any time at the girl's gym? I know with our gym, if my husband had any of those concerns all he would have to do is go to one practice. He would see that the girls at our gym come in all shapes and sizes. Our level 10 girls are not malnourished pixies. They are incredible gymnasts who look like average active teenagers (normal height and physical development). Maybe your DH is used to seeing the olympic level gymnasts who tend to be so small. Have him check out some of the Division 1 gymnasts. The majority are perfectly healthy looking, average size young women who also trained a lot of hours as young girls.
 
Thanks for the ideas! No, my DH has not spent much time at all watching at the gym, and I think that might help. I also think a chat with our doctor could help. We are no strangers to commitment of time and money as we have an older DS who competes in another sport at an elite level. In all honesty, DS' practice schedule/travel/fees make gymanstics team look pretty reasonable. I am going to try to do some research tomorrow and also encourage DH to go to the gym tomorrow to watch.
 
Yeah, have him check out the college gymnasts (Youtube, etc). They are definitely not under-developed females. They are the definition of strong and fit!

If you've googled by now, I'm sure you've hit the latest literature review (2013) on the growth-stunting topic:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3751410/pdf/40279_2013_Article_58.pdf

Excerpts from conclusion:

1. Adult height or near adult height of female and male artistic gymnasts is not compromised by intensive gymnastics training.

2. Gymnastics training does not appear to attenuate growth of upper (sitting height) or lower (legs) body segment lengths.

3. Gymnastics training does not appear to attenuate pubertal growth and maturation, neither rate of growth nor the timing and tempo of the growth spurt.

4. Available data are inadequate to address the issue of intensive gymnastics training and alterations within the endocrine system.

There's definitely a lot of self-selection in gymnastics, I'd say, that can shift the average gymnast height/weight smaller and lighter than the overall population. Taller kids are often steered into other sports (most sports reward greater height), and heavier kids might be deterred by the stereotype that gymnastics is only for tiny kids, or might have slower progress in the beginning as they build the strength-to-weight ratio necessary for skills, and drop out sooner.

As for injuries, well that is a risk with high practice hours, as in most sports. I personally weigh the benefits of fitness and personal achievement higher than this risk, since it is my daughter's true passion. Can't keep her in a bubble (though I'd like to sometimes). :rolleyes:
 
......There's definitely a lot of self-selection in gymnastics, I'd say, that can shift the average gymnast height/weight smaller and lighter than......

Darwin??

Done correctly, gymnastics will provide a sense of confidence and purpose that they may not be able to get elsewhere.

One of the more difficult feats is to find something our kids want to do so much that they'll give up "screen time" to become more involved. Harder still, is finding something they're passionate about and will care deeply enough to keep them working toward short and long term goals.

So ask your darling husband if he thinks his dear daughters are self disciplined by nature, or have they dedicated themselves to a passion that tells them to be self disciplined.
 
As far as growth related issues I know that the smaller, more petite gymnast will potentially go further because it is a sport that is designed for that body type. That being said our gym is full of girls and boys in all shapes and sizes. However, the ones that tend to go the furthest are the ones that are typically smaller, muscular and flexible. As far as talking to your doctor, I know that my doctor was not a fan of competitive gymnastics at first. That being said now that my daughter is competing at the national level he sees the benefits that she has received from being part of an elite sport. It is helped both my daughters and my son to become more confident in themselves to be able to be disciplined in the gym and out of the gym and to be aware of how they treat their bodies with regards to diet and nutrition. All of my children are healthy, lean and muscular and absolutely love putting in the time that it takes to get better at their sport. My son is an elite gymnast and he trains 14 hours per week moving to 17 hours next year, my older daughter is 12 and trains 22 hours per week and my youngest daughter who is 6 trains six hours a week and will be moving up to nine hours next year. It is definitely a family commitment but if it's where your daughter's hearts are then it totally worth it!
 
@peginer | From my own personal experience (I'm 6' 01"), I've found that as long as you have the power to weight ratio, you are unbound. This means you can do anything that gymnastics requires of you. The only disadvantage I can see is the uneven bars setting. If a taller girl were to compete on the uneven bars, they would certainly need to be set pretty far apart. A taller, heavier person has more mass to move. However, if they have the strength to move that mass effectively, they have the potential to produce very high levels of momentum and power. That being said, I've seen an NCAA girl that was 5' 9" compete phenomenally on bars. I truly believe that any handicap is purely in the mind.
 
In our family it was my husband's parents who started muttering about stunted growth (dh's dad is extremely short so I guess that is where his concern was coming from). However one trip to our gym's summer show convinced them that their worries were unfounded- the teenage boys, most of whom are in the top ranks for their age groups nationally, were clearly not scrawny or short! And in fact since starting gym, my ds who was always a bit small and slight, has now filled out as he puts on muscle, and is growing like a weed!
 
I really wonder if anyone's done some long-term studies on gymnasts. I would not be in the least surprised to discover that the intensive working out during the time that they are putting down a lot of the bone mass they will carry for the rest of their lives lessens their risk for osteoporosis when they reach their 70s. Though perhaps those who reached L10 and were there for a while may have a higher risk of arthritis.

Other things that will last beyond the team experience: perseverance, patience, ability to tolerate frustration and work through it, skills for managing fear, sportsmanship, and time management skills. For girls especially, learning to be proud of having a strong body and being able to do things with it is priceless.
 
Explain to him that gymnastics team is excellent preparation for any focused sport training, and that teen girls focused on sports are much less likely to get preggggnant (use the inflection of Zefrank here).

My husband and I agreed when our girls were quite young that they would be involved in some sort of sporting activity at all times. In this day and age there are way to many temptations for kids. We do not want to be pre-mature grandparents...

So for our family gymnastics (and swimming for YDD) provides the following....

1. Busy hands. My girls do not have a whole lot of time for shenanigans.
2. Like minded parents. I have found that families with sport-involved kids seem to have similar values.
3. Raising strong confident women. Gymnastics definitely takes care of the physical as well as emotional strength. I am confident that both my girls will understand the cause and effect nature of hard work. I own my own business and its astounding how many adults have not figured this one out yet. They will respect themselves and their bodies so that they will think twice before abusing it with casual sex or drugs.

So, this is our plan. As they are still 'tweens' it may work out the way we hope. Only time will tell.
 
1. Busy hands. My girls do not have a whole lot of time for shenanigans.
2. Like minded parents. I have found that families with sport-involved kids seem to have similar values.
3. Raising strong confident women. Gymnastics definitely takes care of the physical as well as emotional strength. I am confident that both my girls will understand the cause and effect nature of hard work. I own my own business and its astounding how many adults have not figured this one out yet. They will respect themselves and their bodies so that they will think twice before abusing it with casual sex or drugs.

So, this is our plan. As they are still 'tweens' it may work out the way we hope. Only time will tell.

Yes, this will work out. :) I could write pages and pages about how gymnastics has done all that for me. My mom probably could too. We always say thank goodness for gymnastics!
 
Hello! I am a new CB member, though I have been reading on the forums for a few months now. I have 6 yo and 8 yo DDs who have been doing gymnastics since fall of 2012. At the girls' gym, they give out invitations for new levels at this time of year, and then girls start in their new levels in June. 6 yo DD has been in a Hot Shots class for almost a year, and has now been asked to start preteam class. 8 yo DD has been in preteam class for a year, and has now been asked to start on Level 3 team. They are both very happy. However, my DH has expressed that while he has been fine with Rec level gymnastics for overall fitness and activity, he is hesitant to let either girl go beyond preteam (7 hours a week) as his perception is that higher levels of hours spent training gymnastics will impair growth/normal physical development, and will be bad for their growing bodies all around. My perception is that gymnastics has made my girls strong, fit and confident, which I love. The gym emphasizes safety, I feel confident in the coaches, and I really like their overall culture/philosophy. DD8 will be crushed if she is not allowed to do team, and will not want to be in preteam class again with her little sister (this would be her only choice if she does not move to team). I would like to try to present DH with some information to address his concerns. I am going to do my own research, but thought I would ask the experts here to chime in and perhaps point me in the right direction. Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide.

RUN DH RUN!!!! Listening to compulsory floor music over and over and over again for the hundredth time will make you go mad!!!!!
 
Thanks for the link, Sasha. I have been swamped at work and have not researched yet, so this is very helpful - I just printed it out.

DH does not really need to be convinced of the benefits of sports generally; he just isn't crazy about gymnastics. DD8 is actually also involved in another sport (has been doing it for about 4 years) where she competes at a fairly high level for her age. If she does team, she would be at gymnastics for 13 hours a week (is currently going 7 hours). She trains her other sport 3-7 hours a week (though would advance more quickly there if she trained more as well). The gymnastics coaches are fine with her being in another sport (and missing practices occasionally) in Levels 3-4. If she did advance in gymnastics, though, she would have to choose between these two sports at some point. But, I would like to give her the opportunity to actually compete in gymnastics for at least one year/season before forcing a choice. I think DH feels she should just commit to sport #1 now.

Thanks again for all your thoughts!
 
We had a similar situation when our youngest DD wanted to be on team. She was a competitive softball player - a pitcher, in fact. She played on a team with mostly older girls and often looked like David going up against Goliath. The local high school coach knew her name and was watching her. My husband coached the sport for over 15 years. Our older two girls also played. We were a family steeped in softball. But our girl wanted to try gymnastics so we put her in rec classes. I would watch her class and tell my husband how her body was built for gymnastics and how good she was, and he would tell me that she was a good softball player too. We let her do both teams for a year and then she chose gymnastics. Once he saw her in action, my husband had to admit that she is a natural. It keeps her so busy that she doesn't have time to get into trouble. It gives her an outlet for her intense personality. It gives her unbelievable confidence. Thank goodness for gymnastics!
 

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

New Posts

Back