Anybody Else Start Late?

[iamagymbabe]

i started when i was 14 at a very small gym where i was the oldest one there. i moved to my current gym about a year later and it is so much better! i've only been doing gym for about 2 years though, i started pretty late!

 

[peace♥gymnastics]

I started at 11. I'm on pre - team now. the best skill i can do is a front tuck/flip. & only into the pit or on a trampoline. my friend joined with me too though & there is this other girl who is 11, and one who is 13, in pre team with me!

 

[GymDot2x]

I started last fall, less than a year ago. :| I love it sooo much though. I wanted to start about two years ago, but didn't for a long time. I really regret that. But, at least I finally did! I only took one class a week this past year though, and we only did one event a week; nowhere near enough to get many skills.
It was a rec class, which was a 10+ beginner/intermediate class. However, I'm doing tons of camps this summer to get a lot more skills, and hopefully be able to compete next year! I wouldn't do USAG though, since I'd be with little kids. There's a program where I live that allows any age and level to compete. So, its perfect for late starters. I mean, you need stuff like a ROBH, ideally a BT, but its not required. Front handspring vault, handstand and RO dismount on beam, and just the lower level stuff on bars. So, hopefully I'll reach all my goals in time!

 

[d0nut_l0ver]

I started at 11. I'm on pre - team now. the best skill i can do is a front tuck/flip. & only into the pit or on a trampoline. my friend joined with me too though & there is this other girl who is 11, and one who is 13, in pre team with me!

Cool, sounds pretty much just like me! Except I started 2 years earlier. And at a bad gym. (If I started at the gym I go to now, I'd be in level 7, not level 4!!! Okay well I still need a ROBH to be in level 4 but I have everything else and I almost have some level 5 skills on bars and beam!!!) And yeah, that's about my best skill too. I can sometimes land it the way I'm supposed to but usually I land in a complete crouch and then I fall over. XD But... yeah. And I have a friend with me too!!

 

[gymjean]

I started really really late! I started when i was 11 and im 12 now. But I love love gym!
And I wish I started earlier as well... uhwell. I guess its ok! Im learning heaps!

 

[d0nut_l0ver]

Awesome!! I technically started at 11 because I learned absolutely nothing in my first 2 years of gymnastics. Well, okay, I'm REALLY good a handstand forward rolls because we did those for like 30 minutes every class at my old gym. But they didn't make us do splits, so I didn't even know what they are, and that's why I'm so bad at them, for doing gymnastics for 4 years!!

I'm currently doing a gymnastics camp in which we are there from 9 am to 6 pm. (9 hours!!) And we do conditioning, dance (we perform a dance for our parents on the last day,) vault, bars, beam, and floor for 45 minutes each with breaks in between and lunch, of course. This has really helped me catch up; 2 years ago I did a front handspring off vault for the first time ever there, and just today I got my cartwheel on high beam. Plus, I'm learning other skills, such as aerials, punch fronts, ROBH (I still don't have it! GAH!!), and on bars, kips and front hip circles. But the reason I'm getting so much better is because I am determined. I love gymnastics and as long as I feel this way I become less and less nervous to do new skills. Just push yourself and you can move up quickly!!

And 11 isn't really really late! Some people start at 13, 14, 15, even 30!! And it doesn't matter when you start, it's all about how much you love the sport and how much faith you have in yourself. I know someone who started when she was three, and she's 18 now and in just got into level 9. Even though she started early, it took her 15 years to get to level 9. But she loves the sport and that's what matters.

Lol that was long, but I felt like giving an encouraging speech. XD Okay, so... yeah! That's it. The end!

 

[beautifuldisaster]

I started when I was 10... at a non-competitive gym... after a year there I wanted to get into competing, so I switched gyms... I was in advanced recreational there for about 5 months, and then was put on Level 4 team, skipping right over pre-team! It was definitely a huge change and I remember crying a lot the first practice lol but I improved from there and I was a level 6/7 when i quit at age 13. I regret quitting all the time, but i've been able to stay in the sport via coaching and was a part of the NAIGC gymnastics team in college, which was a lot of fun! It's never too late to start!

 

[henrik541]

i started when i was 14 at a very small gym where i was the oldest one there. i moved to my current gym about a year later and it is so much better! i've only been doing gym for about 2 years though, i started pretty late!

Well, I could just copy your reply!
I do acro. I started at 14, at a very small gym, where I was one of the oldest. I never moved gyms, but I'm planning to, when I go to Uni. I've been doing gym for two years and, though I started pretty late, I worked very hard, progressed a lot and now I'm on of the best gymnasts of my club!

 

[gymgirl:)]

I started late too! I started classes when I was 9, and then competed my first year as a level 3 gymnast when I was 12. Now I'm 15 and in prep op gold. It's discouraging sometimes at meets when I'm the only one or two girls in my age group, but I still love gymnastics and I've stuck with it for this long

 

[gymnast4life94]

I started gym when i was 3 but if you count it i am a really late starter with T&T at 17 lol i know alot of people who start late and they are amazing after a year to 2 years of gymnastics

 

[GetaGrip]

I first started gym at 3, but I quit at 7 and came back at 9 with absolutely NO skills or splits remembered! I could get into level 2 only because I could still do a handstand, lol. My family moved a lot then, so I went to quite a few different gyms and learned a lot of different things. I started competing level 4 at 11 and did level 5 at the same gym. Since then I've been at my current gym since level 6 and I just finished competing level 8. I am 14 turning 15 this fall!

Even though I was a late starter, I love gymnastics and if I can think of the skill I want to do it! There is nothing wrong with starting late. In fact, most older gymnasts appreciate the sport more and decide where they want to go with it. It's generally the younger gymnasts who are sadly forced to compete in a sport they hate.

 

[hcsgymnast]

Well I started when I was 5, but I wasn't as 'into it' as I am now. Then I restarted when I was 8/9. mainly because I watched my younger sis do gymnastics and I wanted to too. When I was 11 I was in level four team. now I am I level seven at 13. at my new gym you do like half of a year of level six if possible and if you get a 32.0 or higher you move on to level seven.

 

[GymnastInParadise]

I started when I was 6 but we moved two years later and I didn't get back into it until I was 10. We found a really good gym and I went straight to the intermediate rec class (level 3/4) because I still remembered some of my skills. Now I am 13 and in the advanced rec program (level 5 and up).
I really regret quitting, of course, but I'm also kind of glad to. Yeah I lost two years of doing what I love but I also really appreciate gym more now. I know what it is like to quit and do not want to repeat the experience. I am glad that I am not one of those girls who do it because they feel like they have to even thought they don't like it or they have been doing it since they were 3 and don't know they can do anything else.

 

[Gymnasticlover78]

I started late too. I started a year ago when I was 14 and now I'm 15. I was just in recreational gymnastics and then my coach talked to me about joining Pre- op about 5 months, so I joined and now I LOVE it !

 

[gymstreet123]

I started gymnastics at the age 10.. im now almost 13! i did classes for about half a year.. i competed a few meets L5 then competed 1 L6 then quit for 2 months and now i am finished with my level 7 season... level 8 soon i hope!

 

[bogwoppit]

I started gymnastics at the age 10.. im now almost 13! i did classes for about half a year.. i competed a few meets L5 then competed 1 L6 then quit for 2 months and now i am finished with my level 7 season... level 8 soon i hope!

SO you will understand when I ban you for being underage? You do remember when you joined that you had to say your age and that under 13 was ot an option. Come back when you have your birthday. You can look forward to it, like a special teenage gift!

 

[bl1ndd]

I started late too. When i was 12 I went to this place called: (name of the city) Dance and Gymnastics, thinking I would learn something.. but their gymnastics was just a hardwood floor with some panel mats laid out. of course, I hated that, so I went to open gym EVERY saturday for months. I got the courage to try a BHS on my mattress (on the floor) for the first time.. I watched youtube videos and stuff.

This last competitive season, I started competing Prep Op, as a novice. (level 5 skills, just missing some... DARN KIP! but i have some 6+7 skills too.) but I'm 14 now, and according to USAG if I have level 7 skills and I'm 14/a freshman in high school, I can petition onto the Level 7 team. So.. guess who's working her butt off in order to make it? THIS GIRL.

 

[BlairBob]

Started at 21 or 22. Been over a decade so I'd have to look at my transcripts to see when I took my first tumbling class. Had a bit of rudimentary gymnastics in Polevault my last 2 years in HS. Like lever to candlestick, PB drills, pullovers.

So a pretty late start. In HS during karate we often did L-holds, frogstand to HS, rope climb and I think I started working Wall HS. I remembering doing a pretty good cartwheel in HS as a dare. I think it was my first one ever.

 

[flips123]

I started exactly 4 years ago! I was on a really competitive soccer team and my team wanted to go to the national level which was a huge commitment little did i know that gym was an even bigger one! I decided to take a few rec classes over the summer but after my first class they put me on level 4 team. I competed fun meet level 4 and then sanction level 4 and then level 5. I was supposed to do xcel gold for a few meets and then try level 7 but this year i was plagued by injuries and i havent been injury free for over a year now so this past year i wouldn't really count in my gymnastics career lol. I always do feel way old because i didnt start gym until i was almost 12, but you all make me feel alot better because we all started around the same age!

 

[Purpleplatypus]

I started when iI was about 9 doing classes for half a year then I moved to another gym for level 4/preteam. That gym closed down when I was 10 then I moved to another gym when I turned 11 and started competing and started out as level 5. I have been moving up a level each year ever since and am inmy second year level 10