WAG An interesting article on what it takes to make the national team

[dancingimmie]

This thread has me thinking about gymnastics and competition, which I have been doing anyway the last few days. Becoming an elite is a wonderful achievement, but does it get recognized as such, does anyone outside of gymnastics know the scarifice the athlete has made? Representing your country and yourself in the Olympics is also an amazing accomplishment, but what about the individuals that also possess that same goal but are never able to achieve it?

Making the national team or elite is just a smaller piece of the same larger question for me.
What is the purpose of intense gymnastics and competing?
How does competing effect the children participating ?
What are the benefits of competing?
What are the deterrents of competing?

I think the world is a harsh place. I think competing is the norm when we are adults, sometimes life feels like life is a competition. I know watching my daughter learn a new skill makes her happy, it is all over her face, but how does competing make her feel? When she wins she is happy when she does not win how do you turn that into a learning moment?

In my opinion whatever it is that each gymnasts decides to pursue as the mature into adulthood can be helped by what they learn in gymnastics if the training environment can stay positive and healthy. This is why I let her participate, I would love her to train and save the competitions for her teen years but I have not found a gym that agrees.

Yes! My daughter would love to just train and not compete until she’s ready for level 10+. But that’s not an option.

 

[BachFlyer]

I thtink if a child (or anyone for that matter) has the drive and passion for something, and they have the resources and support to follow the dream, then they should go for it. If “well rounded” (in the sense of trying a bunch of things just to try them) is the “best practice” then why does anyone try to excel at anything? Lots of kids throw themselves to the pursuit of music so that someday they might join a professional Orchestra, or acting, or other sports, or even school so that someday they get into Harvard. There is nothing wrong with loving something and wanting to be the best at it. I think it takes guts and some kids have more in their big toe than I have in my whole body. More power to them!