Another just for fun....

[flips123]

Would you rather have/be a gymnast who learns skills easily and quickly but has terrible form that you have to go back and fix or one that takes a long time to learn the skills but has them with perfect form?Personally i'd like to get the skills and then go back and correct form but maybe thats because im the second one in real life lol

 

[gymnut1]

perfect form every time

 

[GymWithoutEnd]

I've be a mom to a gymnast who learned incorrect technique and spent years trying to retrain her brain. What a nightmare. Now I see my 6yo learning correct form (better coaching) and she is also a little bit cautious. But when she gets a skill, it is very pretty. Form over speed for me!

 

[2gymmies]

Good form and proper technique will beat messy big tricks! I'll take good form everyday and twice on Thursday!

 

[cher062]

I think its better to take longer and have perfect form. If you have to go back and Re-learn the form then you really don't have it yet as you learned the trick wrong - form is part of learning the trick/skill. Thoses bad form items can be very hard to unlearn and relearn correctly. I would rather have my DD take a little longer and learn it right the first time. It can take years to fix bad form and "have" a sloppy skill. Also all your next skills depend on prior skills so they too will be sloppy and have poor form.

I bet if you actually timed it you would see that it probably takes longer to do the skill with bad form and then have to re-learn it with correct form than it does just to do it correctly right from the start. Gymnastics is a long marathon and it's suppose to take time to get your skills.

 

[gymmomtoo]

Definitely form! Takes way too long to go back and try to relearn good form when you just chuck skills at the beginning.

 

[MaryA]

My DD is definitely in the 2nd category. She is often among the last in her group to "get" a skill, but once she gets it, it looks very pretty. I know it has been frustrating to her when she sees her teammates get skills so quickly and easily, but ultimately I think it serves her well. I suppose those who get skills quickly AND with good form are the ones that go the farthest in this sport.

 

[All Chalked Up]

"Gymnastics is a marathon, not a sprint!"

 

[gymgurl]

I am definitely the first group, I am one of those gymnasts that gets given a skill and can do it almost always within a day of starting it (e.g. handspring front i got on first attempt on floor) but, my form is lacking and I blame this on by bad coaching when I was younger and the fact that I never learnt the basics correctly. I would love to have perfect form and take longer to get skills but then I don't think I would have made it half as far as I have. I never learn anything with awful form there are just little things. In an ideal world I would be a gymnast that could get skills quickly with perfect form