All around or T&T?

[Awstx]

My daughter (4yo, almost 5) is currently taking T&T and a pre team all around class (assuming this is the same as "artistic"). She competes t&t level 5 tramp and level 3 tumbling and dbl mini. She just made the all around team (I think level 3? 4?). It's just a pre competitive program I think but not really sure how it all works. I think doing both team classes is too much (likely 6 days a week, 1.5hrs a pop). She insists she wants to do both (loves to compete). I can probably drop one T&T class and get the classes down to 5 days a week but this still seems like a lot of training for such a little girl. I am thinking I should steer here in a direction but don't know which to do. Seems that all around is better training for now and she can always switch to T&T later but I think she likes T&T better. I also think the coaches in the all around team seem better trained than the T&T class and since she is so young, I don't even know if she will want to do this in a few years and my biggest concern is her safety. Both say she is talented but my husband thinks that's just to rope us in. I don't want her to get burnt out. On the other hand she has more energy than normal and it's nice that she has a physical outlet for it. She can tele you more about gymnastics than most folks, watches it on you tube when she can get my iPad and asked Santa Claus for a balance beam ( and, to put it in perspective, a unicorn) last year. Any advice appreciated. Also, is it the norm that older team girls teach a T&T class versus a "real coach"? These girls are super sweet and seem to know what they are doing, but again, I am only concerned with my kiddo's safety.

 

[CoachGoofy]

That's an awful lot of practice for a preteam. And even more for such a young kid.

Talk to your powers that be about consolidating her time. We've got kids who do both artistic and T&T competitively, & we adjust their practice schedules accordingly.

And lots of older team kids ARE "real coaches", & grow up to be very very GOOD real coaches. Who coaches what varies from gym to gym, but if they're doing a good job-and if she's doing level 5 skills safely, they probably are-then good for them for sharing gymnastics with the younger generation.