A spin off from the other elite thread

[Billy]

My DD wants to be an elite. She is a 9-year-old training for L8. She is at a gym with at least eight current elite gymnasts and two national team members. She is in the best possible position to make her dreams come true. Now it's up to her and her coaches. We'll keep driving and paying the bills.

 

[lhmom]

lol MDM!! I wouldn't know what to think if that happened.

 

[mom2kazkids]

My DD wants to be an elite. She is a 9-year-old training for L8. She is at a gym with at least eight current elite gymnasts and two national team members. She is in the best possible position to make her dreams come true. Now it's up to her and her coaches. We'll keep driving and paying the bills.

Shawn,
Did you change gyms? I did not think that the gym that Boo was at had National team members or elites?

 

[Billy]

Shawn,
Did you change gyms? I did not think that the gym that Boo was at had National team members or elites?

We have had to relocate again for my husband's job. The economy stinks, moving stinks, but I guess it's good for gymnastics. (Looking for that silver lining here...).

 

[sportsmom22]

My dd has no idea what an elite gymnast is, and I just want her to make it over the vault table! I do love to watch them on tv, and hopefully someday I will be watching a few kids from here!

 

[momof5]

My DD wants to be an elite gymnast. She is training L8 and will be age 10 for the season next year. She has been talking about it since she was 6 years old. When she was 6 she was going to win the Olympics, later it changed to hoping to go to the Olympics. Now she states her goal is just to become and elite. I think she has a more realistic view of what it is like to become elite ( and yet I still think its going to be harder then she thinks). She is not at an elite gym nor are there any in driveable distance. She is at a good program that is strong on basics and her coach has had JO placers at nationals and girls that have gotten scholarships to good schools. Her coaches don't know that she has this as a goal. We take it one day at a time and we have always told her that we would support her in whatever her dreams are. I asked her the other day when she thought that it would be a good time to tell her coach that this was a goal and she said not yet so I am going to continue to go with the flow.

 

[mom2kazkids]

Boy Shawn, Boo must have quite the collection of competition leos as it seems you are at a different gym the last few seasons.

 

[MdGymMom01]

I am a creature of habit and do not like change. Moving gyms that often would drive me insane!!! That has to be so stressful for all involved .

 

[Billy]

Moving stinks. Whether it's moving gyms or moving a household. Moving just plain stinks.

 

[gymdog]

Well if it's like what would your dream be...if I had a child in gymnastics I wouldn't particularly want them to go the elite route. Mostly because there are so few gyms that do that, even compared to the relatively few gyms who can train L10s and NCAA quality gymnasts, so it depends, where I live now there ARE some gyms in a reasonable distance with national team members or recent NT members...but they aren't huge programs. Also because I really don't have the nerves for the additional physical risks it would involve, especially when it would be MY child. So that would play a big role for me...even in level 10 would be a stretch in that sense.

If they really wanted to be elite and had the talent, I'd be encouraging, but reserved in a lot of ways. I just wouldn't want to set up the possibility of massive disappointment. It is a really fine balancing act in my opinion (same really goes for the NCAA thing anyway). In a lot of ways it is easier just to say we can't really do it, we're just going to stay at a strictly JO gym and do our best there. But if push came to shove I know I'd probably do whatever I could to let them do it.

Getting a college scholarship is nice, but most likely even if they made it that far they'd be looking at walking on, possibly a potential scholarship. And there are all the issues if the gymnastics in college thing didn't work out. Based on my personal experience and the experience of close peers, I would be outwardly reserved on that one too. But I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be delighted if that did actually happen and it was a positive experience. NCAA gymnastics is fantastic. I much prefer it to the "elite" scene. So yeah if it's MY fantasy - that would be great. But in reality I would struggle with some things. It wasn't a positive experience for everyone I know, and for some it wasn't exactly negative but I think at that point they may have better invested their time in other academic pursuits. Many gymnasts do pursue demanding academic and career paths (particularly at some schools), however completing college is going to be easier for some rather than others and it just realism to state there are certain paths that you don't seen many athletes in unless they do additional years of schooling. So if my child also came to me stating a certain academic dream that I thought would be likely incompatible with athletics at the school in question, taking their academic and organizational ability into account, I would advise them to consider their options carefully at that point.

 

[cathiann]

Beth has no desire to go Elite. We have had two girls at our girl attempt that path and after seeing the time commitment, Beth decided NO WAY. She does want to compete in college--hopefully with a college scholarship, so we'll see how that goes!

 

[Sunobo]

Well since dd is 12 and only a L5, there is no way dd will every make it to elite status and frankly I really don't want her too. Too much pressure and too expensive for our family. Dd has too many fears and lacks that attention to detail to go far in gymnastics. I'm just happy that we found an more laid back league and she is having fun again.

 

[3rd_time_around]

So my question in all this is, what about the little 9 year olds that do well in compulsories and then their parents think they are the next Nastia? They suddenly know all about gymnastics, research everything they can about it, try to get their child moved up quickly through the levels, hope to skip levels, start talking about Hopes, Tops, Pre-elite, Elite, Olympics, etc. Change gyms hoping to find the magic solution that will make their child a star, spend $1000s on private lessons. Their child does ok, sometimes winning, sometimes just one in the middle of the pack. But, they press on in the same way while their child misses out on a lot of childhood all in the hopes that they will be that special one who wins the Olympics.

Ok, So what if tiny little Suzie makes it to Hopes, does well, becomes a Jr.elite (or whatever its called), and then suddenly they are 11 or 12 and their body rebels against all the dreams they've built up for themselves or others have built up for them, and that body grows 4, 6, or 8 inches? Now they can't do the things that they've been doing, and their body won't cooperate, and they start doing really poor gymnastics while they try to relearn how their body works. I've seen it with my own eyes. A beautiful gymnast at age 10, level 8 or 9, then had a growth spurt of 8 inches in one year--yikes! She never could recover, and eventually moved on. What does an Elite gymnast do that hits a growth spurt like that (maybe not that extreme, but something like it)? Do they stay Elite and keep training hoping to figure it out and get back to their old self? Or do they have to drop back to JO until their body cooperates with their brain? Do you understand what I'm asking?

I've seen a handful of over-zealous parents push their little girls to be optionals so that they can move on to (hopefully) become an elite, and the child hits a growth spurt or hits a mental block they can't overcome, or just burns out. Is the disappointment so great that the child feels like a failure? is it taken in stride? What do these girls do when they go from little level 2 pixies winning all the time (usually because there's no one else in their age group), to 5' 4" normal-sized girls who struggle to do the skills they once did easily? Am I rambling too much? I'm trying to put into words what I mean to ask, but it's hard. I know my daughter grew 3 inches in one year, and it took a toll on her skills and her body, and she had to work extra hard to get back to her old form. I can't imagine if she was already in the Elite program and had to work through her troubles.

 

[bookworm]

Yeah, interesting thread...my daughter did elite for a while when she was 12-13 and didn't really care for it ...could she have continued? Absolutely but I think she would have quit the sport if we had forced her to stay elite...her take on elite was "no matter what mommy, it's just never good enough".....she has been much happier staying Level 10..

 

[Billy]

So my question in all this is, what about the little 9 year olds that do well in compulsories and then their parents think they are the next Nastia? They suddenly know all about gymnastics, research everything they can about it, try to get their child moved up quickly through the levels, hope to skip levels, start talking about Hopes, Tops, Pre-elite, Elite, Olympics, etc. Change gyms hoping to find the magic solution that will make their child a star, spend $1000s on private lessons. Their child does ok, sometimes winning, sometimes just one in the middle of the pack. But, they press on in the same way while their child misses out on a lot of childhood all in the hopes that they will be that special one who wins the Olympics.

Ok, So what if tiny little Suzie makes it to Hopes, does well, becomes a Jr.elite (or whatever its called), and then suddenly they are 11 or 12 and their body rebels against all the dreams they've built up for themselves or others have built up for them, and that body grows 4, 6, or 8 inches? Now they can't do the things that they've been doing, and their body won't cooperate, and they start doing really poor gymnastics while they try to relearn how their body works. I've seen it with my own eyes. A beautiful gymnast at age 10, level 8 or 9, then had a growth spurt of 8 inches in one year--yikes! She never could recover, and eventually moved on. What does an Elite gymnast do that hits a growth spurt like that (maybe not that extreme, but something like it)? Do they stay Elite and keep training hoping to figure it out and get back to their old self? Or do they have to drop back to JO until their body cooperates with their brain? Do you understand what I'm asking?

I've seen a handful of over-zealous parents push their little girls to be optionals so that they can move on to (hopefully) become an elite, and the child hits a growth spurt or hits a mental block they can't overcome, or just burns out. Is the disappointment so great that the child feels like a failure? is it taken in stride? What do these girls do when they go from little level 2 pixies winning all the time (usually because there's no one else in their age group), to 5' 4" normal-sized girls who struggle to do the skills they once did easily? Am I rambling too much? I'm trying to put into words what I mean to ask, but it's hard. I know my daughter grew 3 inches in one year, and it took a toll on her skills and her body, and she had to work extra hard to get back to her old form. I can't imagine if she was already in the Elite program and had to work through her troubles.

Interesting point. I read somewhere that Shawn Johnson grew something like 6 inches after she stopped training after the Olympics. I'd be curious to know how that's affecting her comeback now.

 

[Blackie6]

So my question in all this is, what about the little 9 year olds that do well in compulsories and then their parents think they are the next Nastia? They suddenly know all about gymnastics, research everything they can about it, try to get their child moved up quickly through the levels, hope to skip levels, start talking about Hopes, Tops, Pre-elite, Elite, Olympics, etc. Change gyms hoping to find the magic solution that will make their child a star, spend $1000s on private lessons. Their child does ok, sometimes winning, sometimes just one in the middle of the pack. But, they press on in the same way while their child misses out on a lot of childhood all in the hopes that they will be that special one who wins the Olympics.

Ok, So what if tiny little Suzie makes it to Hopes, does well, becomes a Jr.elite (or whatever its called), and then suddenly they are 11 or 12 and their body rebels against all the dreams they've built up for themselves or others have built up for them, and that body grows 4, 6, or 8 inches? Now they can't do the things that they've been doing, and their body won't cooperate, and they start doing really poor gymnastics while they try to relearn how their body works. I've seen it with my own eyes. A beautiful gymnast at age 10, level 8 or 9, then had a growth spurt of 8 inches in one year--yikes! She never could recover, and eventually moved on. What does an Elite gymnast do that hits a growth spurt like that (maybe not that extreme, but something like it)? Do they stay Elite and keep training hoping to figure it out and get back to their old self? Or do they have to drop back to JO until their body cooperates with their brain? Do you understand what I'm asking?

I've seen a handful of over-zealous parents push their little girls to be optionals so that they can move on to (hopefully) become an elite, and the child hits a growth spurt or hits a mental block they can't overcome, or just burns out. Is the disappointment so great that the child feels like a failure? is it taken in stride? What do these girls do when they go from little level 2 pixies winning all the time (usually because there's no one else in their age group), to 5' 4" normal-sized girls who struggle to do the skills they once did easily? Am I rambling too much? I'm trying to put into words what I mean to ask, but it's hard. I know my daughter grew 3 inches in one year, and it took a toll on her skills and her body, and she had to work extra hard to get back to her old form. I can't imagine if she was already in the Elite program and had to work through her troubles.

Great post! Sadly, the "overzealous" parents read posts like these all the time here and NEVER see themselves, they probably think "not me" in this situation... but to the rest of us, it is like watching a train crash.

 

[monkeysmom]

there is a common thread amount all sports here

This thread reminds me of a conversation I had recently with a friend. Her son's dream is to ski in the Olympics, he is 15 and progressing toward that goal. It's already involved a great deal of sacrifice by the child and the family, not to mention huge amounts of money. Her perspective is that it has to be about loving the experience that is happening right now, and helping teaching her child that that today's/this month's/this year's experience is fantastic. That Olympic goal can be one starting starting gate away from an injury that ends that dream, or he just might not make the cut, and while that would be tough they are trying hard to teach him that it's all about loving the experience, wherever that takes him. If he gets to the Olympics that will be fantastic, but it is all about the journey and enjoying it along the way. Reality is that elite athletes need the support of family and coaches to chase their dreams, and helping provide those opportunities works for some families and not for others, and that's totally OK. It's a rare kid that has the inner drive, talent, luck, and opportunities to chase the dream of being an elite athlete. Parents of young kids do what they need to to provide the opportunity to get kids into a gym and then into a program with decent coaching and gym hours (or ice if it's hocky etc) so at that age there is a great deal of parental involvement in the "decision" for a kid to be involved in gymnastics or some other sport. At a certain point though once you get them in a program with plenty of hours in the gym and good coaching, well, then it's up to the child. There's nothing wrong with chasing a dream as long as it's the child's dream, and it's about their journey wherever it takes them. Almost every elite athlete chasing a dream has a major sacrifice and usually financial committment from the parents, that's just reality. I have heard that the child and parents of a level 10 gymnast at some point need to consider a decision whether to bump the hours (and exponentially increase risk of injury) or to go for a college scholarship with say 20-25 hours in the gym rather than 40. But then again, my daughter is still trying to get on JO team so what the heck do I know, other than I wish she would quit sneaking cartwheels and walkovers in my living room and tipping over my candleholders again. I also can't say that I ever expected my young daughter's favorite thing in her room to to be a chinup bar at this age, but as long as her Snoopy still gets lots of hugs and she still draws me lots of pictures, I guess she's probably still OK and not off the deep end on this gymnastics thing.. PS, I decided last night that if she can do pullups and toe ups, she is strong enough to load the dishwasher and fold laundry, so I added those to the bottom of the chart she drew and put up in her room to track her new "world records" on pullups and toe ups. A gold star for every load. : )

 

[momof5]

I don't think that evey girl that travels down the elite path feels like a failure if they don't succeed. If the focus is right( the journey and not the destination) what do they have to be disappointed in. They took it as far as they could and they should be able to take pride that they are better or got closer to their goal then 95% ofthe population. They should also be able to look back and all the wonderful things that they were able to do while being involved in their sport. My husband was an "elite" athelte in his sport(not gymnastics) and he had big dreams or himself. He didn't make it as far as he wanted but by no means feels like a failure because he didn't achieve his goal by not qualifing for the Olympics. I think if your childs goal is to be an elite athlete its important that they don't put all their thoughts into that and also focus on smaller shorter terms goals so that at the end of their journey whether they achieve their elite goals or no they can look back on the process with a sense of pride and accomplishment for all they have been able to do. I want my child to dream of all the wonderful things she can do with her life. I want to let her make discoveries on her own and not her parents telling her that it is unrealistic. I also think that having hope and being allowed to pursue your dreams with parental support makes a wonderful childhood.

 

[gymjourneymom]

Yeah, interesting thread...my daughter did elite for a while when she was 12-13 and didn't really care for it ...could she have continued? Absolutely but I think she would have quit the sport if we had forced her to stay elite...her take on elite was "no matter what mommy, it's just never good enough".....she has been much happier staying Level 10..

I applaud 1st of all your DD for her obvious talent & skill & especially for her maturity to make a choice that kept her HAPPY & enjoying her sport! And I applaud you as her parent for letting her make that choice!

People talk about getting to elite like it is the holy grail the end all & be all of this sport. But if & when a gymnast finally gets there, then she has a whole pool of elites to not only keep up with skill & talent wise...but she is expected to beat in competetion. I imagine that pressure is overwhelming & never ending!!!! Thanks for sharing your DD's quote! It says everything to me right there! She has lived it & made her OWN choices that are right for HER. She has MUCH to be proud of!

Not that elite was ever even a dream for my DD. But I would NEVER want my DD to think her best wasn't a good enough goal for herself or that she was somehow disapointing me if she didn't make it "all the way". The sport is hard enough without adding all of that to it!!!

Good luck to your DD!!! I'm sure she is an awesome gymnast & obviously very smart young lady too!!!

 

[gymdog]

I don't think that evey girl that travels down the elite path feels like a failure if they don't succeed. If the focus is right( the journey and not the destination) what do they have to be disappointed in. They took it as far as they could and they should be able to take pride that they are better or got closer to their goal then 95% ofthe population. They should also be able to look back and all the wonderful things that they were able to do while being involved in their sport. My husband was an "elite" athelte in his sport(not gymnastics) and he had big dreams or himself. He didn't make it as far as he wanted but by no means feels like a failure because he didn't achieve his goal by not qualifing for the Olympics. I think if your childs goal is to be an elite athlete its important that they don't put all their thoughts into that and also focus on smaller shorter terms goals so that at the end of their journey whether they achieve their elite goals or no they can look back on the process with a sense of pride and accomplishment for all they have been able to do. I want my child to dream of all the wonderful things she can do with her life. I want to let her make discoveries on her own and not her parents telling her that it is unrealistic. I also think that having hope and being allowed to pursue your dreams with parental support makes a wonderful childhood.

Well, of course it depends on the gym and program. Unfortunately, there are some less than ideal ones if you ask me (but maybe some would say to each their own). So I guess I would amend my answer, if my kid's only option for elite was with someone absurd and incapable of acceptable behavior, then no, not going to happen. I don't believe that he means justify the end, and the potential for damage can be staggering. Too much to leave to chance in that case.