Gymnasts Are all level 10, elite and college gymnasts daredevils in general?

[GymDad00]

I'm curious if the majority of high level gymnasts are thrill seekers and daredevils in general life? Like do you all go on every rollercoaster at theme parks or be the first of your friends to try bungie jumping, rock climbing or sky diving?

My DD is a level 8 gymnast but definitely more on the cautious side when it comes to trying new skills. She also is also very fearful of most thrill rides or rollercoasters especially. I personally was never the athlete or had near the dedication to a sport that my DD has with gymnastics, but I was quite the thrill seeker and theme park ride lover when I was a kid and teen.

Is this unusual or something that will impede her progress in the upper levels of the sport?

 

[gym_dad32608]

I think kids are kids, some are going to be fearless in and out of the gym, others are fearless in the gym only. I just took a group of 12 L10/elite gymnasts to Busch Gardens and it was a variety of daredevils and ones crying through a ride. Doing skills in the gym is about coaching support and repetitions, it helps if they are a little fearless, but with support and repetition and gradual progression, most gymnasts dont really register a skill is "scary".

 

[RTT2]

When my daughter was younger, I'd say she was a daredevil outside the gym- loved going on all of the rides at an amusement park, always the first one down the steepest waterslide, always walking across the top of the monkey bars, etc., but in the gym, she was much more cautious and usually not the first one to get new skills. Now that she's older she is much less daring outside of the gym because she doesn't want to do something that would lead to injury and ruin her season. OTOH, she's worked through so many fears about skills over the years that she's developed mental techniques to work through those fears and keep getting more difficult skills.

 

[Ty’s Dad]

Nope, not my daughter (who’s an elite) is scared of everything. She will go on rollercoasters, but ski diving, Bungee jumping, motorcycles, fast cars, or anything like that she’s not doing it at all

 

[GymnastMomX2]

Nope, my 13 year old daughter will be a first year 10 this season and is TERRIFIED of rollercoasters, steep water slides or literally anything risky. I’m talking panic attack going on Pirates of the Carribean at Disneyland because she read there was a “drop”. She’s overly cautious to a fault. I have NO clue how she mentally does the skills she does.

 

[estamey21]

I think a lot of gymnasts are “thrill seekers” in the abstract sense. They might love the adrenaline rush of trying a new skill or performing in front of an audience or beating someone in a competition. But how they seek this adrenaline outside of gymnastics varies greatly from individual to individual. For example, when I retired from gymnastics and was trying out other sports, the first thing I learned about myself is that I prefer activities that are theoretically dangerous. Rock climbing was a good fit for me. But I’m a control freak, so rollercoasters are not fun for me because I am not in control of my own body.

The one personality trait that I think most gymnasts have is a competitive drive. Being competitive correlates with thrill seeking, but one doesn’t necessarily imply the other.

 

[AnotherGymDad]

She's a long long way from the top levels, but I'm always fascinated at how my 7yo is utterly fearless in the gym (especially on bars, which I find terrifying just watching) but won't even ride her bike down a slight incline as its "too scary".

 

[NutterButter]

She's a long long way from the top levels, but I'm always fascinated at how my 7yo is utterly fearless in the gym (especially on bars, which I find terrifying just watching) but won't even ride her bike down a slight incline as its "too scary".

The only reason why my DD learned to ride a bike is because her 4 yr old brother was about reach this milestone first. She's almost 22 and still won't ride a bike unless absolutely necessary.

 

[gympoppop]

I don’t think so. My oldest daughter is not a 10 but is getting there and is not a thrill seeker at all. It’s the long slow gymnastics progressions and drills that has allowed her to start doing some of those “crazy” skills. I always say that fear is healthy and is only overcome by developing skill.

 

[Katie]

Nowhere near the top levels, but I have a story. I was a first year Silver, never competed before, and we had a team kick off at a park. I saw some Golds (which I thought were shockingly good at the time, and they were older than me) daring each other to go down a slide and absolutely terrified. I had fun running past them and launching myself down the slide at full speed. Some of them hadn’t been the nicest to the Silvers and I enjoyed showing them up. I have always been a thrill seeker, but it took me 5 years to get a round off back handspring because of mental blocks.

 

[gymgal]

This is interesting because I always thought of my dd as cautious because that's how she was in the gym - very methodical, never a "chuck the skill" type of gymnast. But reading your post and the replies, she for sure would be considered a daredevil outside the gym. Rock climbing, thrill rides, no skydiving yet but wants to, cirque classes, biking, skating, etc.

 

[superNova08]

I was never high level, but definitely more daredevilish than my teammates. Even as Xcel Gold I was always going on the biggest rollercoasters, going the highest on the backyard swing, etc. I wanna go skydiving and bungee jumping. That being said, in the gym I was always super scared of everything. Scared of flyaways, never got my BHS because I was too scared of back tumbling.

 

[Dahlialover]

I performed in a circus. We’d get gymnasts who would try to switch over to circus but they were rarely successful because they were all hopeless weenies! They gutlessness of gymnasts was a circus joke. But of course we were absolutely insane, so it’s all relative!

 

[estamey21]

I performed in a circus. We’d get gymnasts who would try to switch over to circus but they were rarely successful because they were all hopeless weenies! They gutlessness of gymnasts was a circus joke. But of course we were absolutely insane, so it’s all relative!

This is hilarious and totally makes sense.

Gymnastics training is done in such a hyper-controlled environment. With the exception of the rings, our equipment doesn’t move. And there are definitely no other flying objects around us.

As @gym_dad32608 said, “doing skills in the gym is about coaching support and repetitions” so by the time a gymnast is trying a harder skill, the fear is manageable. In fact, most coaches discourage gymnasts from trying things they are not physically ready for, so being a daredevil doesn’t necessarily win you points.