Parents Back to gym, but where's the team?

[mommyof1]

After 15 months out, Tinker Bell is scheduled to go back to the gym this afternoon. Annnnnnd she just found out via text that the entire (small) girls' optional/Platinum team has just quit. They were all in around 8th or 9th grade and hitting the age of attrition. Sigh. I guess we'll see what happens when I go to drop her off.

 

[katrid11]

Oh no. Did you drop her off yet? Are there other girls on the team that are moving up?

 

[mommyof1]

There are maybe 3-4 others left at L5/L6, all at least a couple of years younger. Tinker Bell has lost a lot of ground and has a long comeback ahead of her so skill level mismatch is not a big issue, but it’s going to be hard to be a tenth-grader spending so much time with sixth- and seventh-graders. Xcel is not a solution, as there is not a separate Xcel group at an appropriate level. All parties have agreed to try it for the summer and see where it goes from there.

 

[Amanda]

So sorry! That happened to my daughter during virtual training during Covid. The entire optional team (with the exception of her) also quit. Most of them were on their way out (similar age) and the team work ethic wasn't great. Over the past year, a couple new girls have joined and it's actually much better! Now it looks like my daughter is likely wrapping up her gym career but we were thankful she hung in there this past year as this season will have given her some good closure. I hope your daughter still has a good practice and some new teammates join soon!

 

[mommyof1]

Week 1 update: so far so good? Tinker Bell is getting along well with the 12-year-olds and is coming home every day with a smile on her face, despite the fact that she has a lot of work to do to regain strength, flexibility, and skills. Her personal goals are to get back on track to eventually compete L6 and never to compete the FHS vault again.

 

[Learning Parent GB]

The next oldest gymnast in my daughter's squad is 3 school years below her. She really appreciates when the one girl older than her is there, but there are lots of bonuses to having friends of all ages.