I totally understand! Same thing happened to mine. Only she ended up quitting after 1.5 yrs of sitting in a squat on the low bar every practice (and competition!), staring up at the high bar. She has a huge fear of heights, which doesn't work well with gymnastics. She jumped for a few months...
This is probably not helpful at all, but here's our story ;) At 10 DD developed major fear issues that a year and a half later, she really couldn't overcome. She was on xcel gold, which helped some because she could change skills around according to her fear of the week. But after a while...
I actually just saw this dismount for the first time at xcel meets. There were quite a few girls doing it, actually looked cute... :) No idea what they call it though.
We have had a mini bar and a low beam for about 2 years. Like a PP, DD's birthday/xmas list was always bar (for years), beam, mat, springboard, vault, etc. Didn't play with toys. That was her list. (It's now moved on to ipad, ipod, laptop, etc, but that's another story). I didn't cave on...
we have a big, round, cheap one from walmart. Don't even know the name, but it serves its purpose. The kids love it. Staked into the ground to hopefully prevent it from flying away. :) My 2 cents is DD would have preferred a rectangle one but they were much more $$.
When DD was on preteam and first, starting learning bridges, she asked me to do it. I thought "no problem, I used to do this all the time." But never after children. So I did it and it felt like I pulled every abdominal muscle I owned. Never tried again! But I still have some killer splits...
Yep, totally! Obviously not flipping, there wouldn't be enough room, but jumping, yes! You can lecture if you want, but i'm not sure if they're on here to see ;)
Edited to add: of course I don't agree with the policy, just stating the irony that 3/4ths of injuries occur with more than one...
we have one also... And i'm totally okay with it. Funny thing is it helps my DD with her homework too. Especially practicing for spelling tests. She likes to jump in between me asking her words. Gets some energy out. And great exercise. Totally winded me after a few minutes. ;) And yes...
Another rec thought: "Look at those crazy preteam moms. The kids have been in splits for like 15 minutes. That can't be fun for them. I'll never do that to my kids." Until you realize that is exactly what your kid wants to be doing...
I never get what's so bad about watching (unless the kid doesn't want you to watch). I watch my other kid's soccer and swimming practices, what's so different about gymnastics? You're just a silent observer, not yelling out instructions... That being said, I usually just drop DD off and go to...
DD loves Xcel and it was a much better fit for her. While she was on old level 4, definitely had the level 4 skills, her form and dancing was not very pretty and since Xcel has their own routines, they can play up the strengths. She also has a lot of fears that come and go so the routines...
Long time lurker, but just wanted to reply because that sounds a lot like my DD. She loves gymnastics, flips around my house nonstop (and has been for years). When she was on level 4 (age 7/8) she started looking bored all the time, fooling around, totally not trying at all unless it was...