MAG Blackjack/Winter Cup

[Madden3]

Ok thanks! My son has practice 19 hours spread over 6 days. His L6 brother does 15... I do not know exactly what the higher level optionals do, but it is not that much more. I never would have thought of those as high hours, and we are in no way a power gym, but I guess if some gyms are doing 12-15 for optionals then those are pretty high....

It is hard to say if my son has stress injuries...he did have patellar tendonitis 2 years ago and that was rough for several months, but it cleared up completely as far as we could tell. What is going on the last several months is he keeps having some actual thing happen to his knees at practice. But maybe that would still fall under stress-related as it is all soft tissue that basically just needs rest to heal, he has not as yet broken or torn anything (knock wood...) ??

 

[txgymfan]

It's so odd that the boys have two more events and tend to do lower hours. When you read threads about upper optional girls, they are almost always above 20 hours.

 

[profmom]

It's so odd that the boys have two more events and tend to do lower hours. When you read threads about upper optional girls, they are almost always above 20 hours.

As the owner and operator of a L9 guy who has not yet reached puberty, I now understand this completely. I had heard it before, but now my son is living it. He has a decent number of skills now and he is working on cleaning them up. More hours would certainly help on floor, and if his wrists could tolerate it, pommels. Maybe he'd pick up some more turning skills and in bars on high bar. But the skills that are really going to move him forward in the gym world are, right now, out on the edge of his capabilities because he simply does not yet have the strength to do them. He can only make the basic bigger skills particularly on pbars and rings (giants) if he does them with very good form and relies entirely on swing. He can't yet do much to fulfill an entire element group on rings. And on pommels, he just does not yet have the juice to make it through a basic routine that hits all the requirements and make the swing handstand dismount unless he does the entire routine with very good form and expends as little energy as possible. He has a vault catch on high bar, but he really doesn't have the strength yet to get a bigger release skill that would be a C or D. His coach keeps telling him that all of these things will get easier when he finally gets some testosterone, but right now it's a real struggle for him to move forward.

I know there are exceptions you can find on Youtube -- little guys who haven't reached puberty yet and can do Diamadovs and perfect ring and pbar giants, etc. -- but that just is not my kid.

 

[jenjean70]

I am curious what is meant by lower hours and lower reps, more specifically? What are the actual numbers/hours? Older DS (13, Level 8) keeps having knee trouble and I am getting worried. Of course he does not want to miss one second of practice, but he keeps getting hurt and then he has to miss days and even weeks at a time. I would not think our gym is high hours, but then I do not have anything to compare it to. Certainly training hours have always increased as gymnasts move up levels.

Our gym does 20- 22 hours for level 6 and up and the home school kids go 30-33 hours level 6 and up.

 

[Madden3]

So hours are all over the map it appears? I guess girls are the same?
We homeschool and I cannot imagine 30+ hours gym time even so- if you know, what time of day are they in gym and how is that broken up? Just curious.

 

[jenjean70]

So hours are all over the map it appears? I guess girls are the same?
We homeschool and I cannot imagine 30+ hours gym time even so- if you know, what time of day are they in gym and how is that broken up? Just curious.

They go to gym from 12-5 for home school. My son does NOT want to home school because he doesn't want to go to gym that many hours. 20 hours is enough for him!

 

[skschlag]

Our gym does 20- 22 hours for level 6 and up and the home school kids go 30-33 hours level 6 and up.

WOW! That is alot! I just cannot imagine this many hours...

 

[Madden3]

Thanks! I am always curious about these gyms that have homeschool schedules. I agree with your son, that is too many hours for gym practice. But from a homeschooling perspective that schedule would work better for me than a practice first thing in the morning schedule, because most of our "school" gets done in the morning and no way would I want to try to teach my kid anything after practice. Ugh! Still- noon? that does not give much time, really. It would make it really hard to have any social life with other homeschoolers, time to play outdoors, homeschool classes, field trips etc. Hard to get all that done plus lunch before noon. It would feel stressful to me, and one thing I love about homeschooling is how much it has reduced the constant rush rush stress. On the other hand it would be nice to have a normal family evening and rational bedtime though. I think my perfect practice schedule would be something like 3-6.

 

[jenjean70]

Thanks! I am always curious about these gyms that have homeschool schedules. I agree with your son, that is too many hours for gym practice. But from a homeschooling perspective that schedule would work better for me than a practice first thing in the morning schedule, because most of our "school" gets done in the morning and no way would I want to try to teach my kid anything after practice. Ugh! Still- noon? that does not give much time, really. It would make it really hard to have any social life with other homeschoolers, time to play outdoors, homeschool classes, field trips etc. Hard to get all that done plus lunch before noon. It would feel stressful to me, and one thing I love about homeschooling is how much it has reduced the constant rush rush stress. On the other hand it would be nice to have a normal family evening and rational bedtime though. I think my perfect practice schedule would be something like 3-6.

Most of the girls go to the gym and do their classwork while the boys I know do their work on the computer at home alone. The only positive I see is that they get to be home in the evening. My son gets up at 7 am every morning, gets ready for school, gets home from school around 3:30- is home for 5 minutes to an hour every day (practice schedules vary slightly) then goes to practice and doesn't get home until 9 pm. He eats dinner, finishes homework, gets ready for bed and is in bed by 10 pm every night. He is in 5th grade this year. Next year, in middle school, he will do off campus PE so he will still get out about the same time as the elementary school kids.

 

[Sasha]

Our gym does 20- 22 hours for level 6 and up and the home school kids go 30-33 hours level 6 and up.

Definitely in the "Very High Hours" category! Especially down at L6 (even the 20-22). But the homeschool hours, Yikes. I can see maybe for L9/10 who has a shot at national team or college and is making a skills push and many of the hours are little tweaks with more down time watching video performance, consulting with coach, taking longer breaks or whatever, but for a typical L6-L8, that sure seems pretty insane.

 

[MILgymFAM]

My DD did homeschool gym for about 8 months. They did gym 11-3:15 M-Th. They did not do any schoolwork at gym. Friday was night practice and Saturday was 8:30 start. It was a total of 25 hours per week

My DD actually found she worked better- more focused- after gym. She isn't a morning person though, and the gym was about a 70 minute commute in the morning, so it's not really surprising she preferred school after. She was always done her school work by 6. She also did one subject (Spanish) in the car every day, along with her readings for her English class. When she started taking college classes is when homeschool gym hours stopped working for her.

 

[jenjean70]

Definitely in the "Very High Hours" category! Especially down at L6 (even the 20-22). But the homeschool hours, Yikes. I can see maybe for L9/10 who has a shot at national team or college and is making a skills push and many of the hours are little tweaks with more down time watching video performance, consulting with coach, taking longer breaks or whatever, but for a typical L6-L8, that sure seems pretty insane.

Our gym is modeling their home school hours after WOGA.

 

[txgymfan]

Jenjean, what does that mean? I'm not familiar with WOGA homeschool hours.

 

[jenjean70]

Jenjean, what does that mean? I'm not familiar with WOGA homeschool hours.

WOGA is the awesome gym in the Dallas area- World Olympic Gymnastics Academy....but even Cypress ( the awesome gym in Cypress in Houston) does 22 hours for level 8 and up....for my son 30+ hours is too much but he has gotten used to the 21 hours (23 on the weeks we do our Sunday private lesson) per week that our gym does. Our gym is also flexible if the boys need to miss a day for school or other activities.

 

[sce]

Jenjean, what does that mean? I'm not familiar with WOGA homeschool hours.

I too am curious, what are some of the various gyms homeschool structure? Is it just day time practice or two practices a day with school work in between ...?

 

[txgymfan]

Yes, I know what WOGA is and Cypress. I don't understand what you mean when you say your gym models their homeschool program after WOGA.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I too am curious, what are some of the various gyms homeschool structure? Is it just day time practice or two practices a day with school work in between ...?

At my DDs last gym the homeschool program revolved from a morning group to a twice a day. There were about 6 girls when it was morning group. They now switched and it's called the elite group. They do a shorter morning, leave and do schoolwork, and then practice with the rest of the team in the evenings too. I believe that group has two girls in it. They are the ones the hc identified as having elite potential. They do about 36 hours a week, which is about the craziest thing I've ever heard.

 

[Madden3]

Ok well my son corrected me, he actually practices 20.75 hours per week (he is very precise) not 19. So I guess that is on the higher end. And he is injured again and will miss his last meet before State, we are hoping he does not also miss State! So I started worrying it is too many hours...

But then I realized something. He has basically had the season from hell, out of the gym or on reduced practice time several times due to injuries or illness. Twice it was injuries to his knee that happened during practice, but he also injured his thumb really badly playing dodge ball in the dark and also was out a whole week (and missed a meet) due to having the flu. So if anything he practiced much less over the last 3-4 months than he normally would have. So maybe I am being unfair assuming the issue is too much gym time, maybe it is just a run of really bad luck.

 

[jenjean70]

Yes, I know what WOGA is and Cypress. I don't understand what you mean when you say your gym models their homeschool program after WOGA.

Oh- Our coaches said WOGA's homeschool kids do 40 hours of gym per week so they started our homeschool kids out at 30 hours....I think WOGA does 2 a day practices. Not sure though.

 

[jenjean70]

At my DDs last gym the homeschool program revolved from a morning group to a twice a day. There were about 6 girls when it was morning group. They now switched and it's called the elite group. They do a shorter morning, leave and do schoolwork, and then practice with the rest of the team in the evenings too. I believe that group has two girls in it. They are the ones the hc identified as having elite potential. They do about 36 hours a week, which is about the craziest thing I've ever heard.

It's kind of sad because the homeschool kids only practice with the rest of the team on Saturdays. Nate misses a lot of his friends who have gone to homeschool gym.