Women Break and older L9/10's?

[Gymmamabear]

Do you all speculate after being out of the gym 6 weeks or more (that seems to be the minimum we will be out) it will be hard for a lot of the older (meaning high school age) L9/10's to come back? I already hear from so many they are loving the break. It has to be really hard to come back to these skills after so long off being high school size. There are so few L10's anyway, I wonder what percentage will just stop?

 

[Aussie_coach]

We’ve been told it may be 6 months before sports can reopen.

 

[duyetanh]

We’ve been told it may be 6 months before sports can reopen.

If it goes six months, as far as gymnastics go, most of not all of the gyms will close and other sports too will also disappear...I pray this doesn’t happen.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

I don't know about upper level optionals specifically, but I think next year we'll see a noticeable decrease in the number of gymnasts at all levels. I actually think there are a really large number of younger kids (12 and below? 10 and below?) who are doing it because it's all they've ever done or their parent wants them to or they're just sticking out one more year who might take this break to bow out, and then of course you will have the ones who can no longer afford it with the economic effects from all this.

Six weeks at a minimum. Right now we're one week into three total and I can't imagine 6 weeks even though I know it's a distinct possibility. Much less 6 months! I don't think that will happen here in the US.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Our situation here in Australia is very mild with COVID 19 right now, we have only had 7 deaths so far, and they have said that we should expect for the restrictions (which includes closing all sports) to be for 6 months. Things are much worse in the US, you guys may be closed even longer.

However, we are going into Winter and you guys are going out of it, so Summer may help you.

 

[gymnastmom05]

6 months? I would predict only the 1% would be able to afford gymnastics if this lasts 6 months.

 

[LJL07]

If it goes six months, as far as gymnastics go, most of not all of the gyms will close and other sports too will also disappear...I pray this doesn’t happen.

Oh my gosh. I really hope not. It is certainly possible though. And on this note: I would expect my level 9 will definitely be repeating. I wonder if that will be the case for many of the optional kids.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Your government may step in to help. Ours is providing unemployment benefits of $1100 per fortnight for casuals and those who have lost their jobs, and they are working on a plan to stop people from having to pay their rent and mortgages for that time.

 

[txgymfan]

Your government may step in to help. Ours is providing unemployment benefits of $1100 per fortnight for casuals and those who have lost their jobs, and they are working on a plan to stop people from having to pay their rent and mortgages for that time.

Please let’s not discuss what the US government is or is not doing or should or should not do. US Politics are incredibly divisive with extremely strong feelings on both sides.

 

[duyetanh]

Please let’s not discuss what the US government is or is not doing or should or should not do. US Politics are incredibly divisive with extremely strong feelings on both sides.

I don’t think Aussie coach meant any harm, but I do get it. It is very hard to even talk about this dang virus without getting into government stuff, it just kind of slips without people meaning to, because the timeframe all revolves around what the government will do....ugh....
....crawling back into my quarantine hole now...

 

[txgymfan]

I don’t think Aussie coach meant any harm, but I do get it. It is very hard to even talk about this dang virus without getting into government stuff, it just kind of slips without people meaning to, because the timeframe all revolves around what the government will do....ugh....
....crawling back into my quarantine hole now...

I completely agree. Aussie Coach brought up a valid point. You all are welcome to discuss what EVERY other country in the world is doing and how it helps gyms. I just don’t want to go down the rabbit hole of US policy.

The virus is horrible, people are dying, business will fold, no one will be satisfied with the US government response.

This is one of the longest weeks ever. I needed the weekend on Tuesday.

 

[Aussie_coach]

My apologies, I should know better than to bring up anything about government. Just the last week we pretty much haven’t been able to speak about anything else!

Not wanting to get into any debate, just hoping there is a light at the end of the tunnel for your gyms.

All gyms in Australia were forced to close midday Monday March 23rd, indefinitely.

 

[txgymfan]

You’re good. Talk about Australia or anywhere else. I have my own strong opinions about all of this. Currently I’m grateful to be able to still go to work every day. If I had to sit alone in my apartment through all of this I’d go insane.

Its going to be really hard for some optional gymnasts to get back to competition form with a minimum of a month off. I dread hearing about the gym closures but it will happen.

 

[gymbeam]

My daughter was out with illness for 5 weeks prior to her level 9 season. She didn’t condition or exercise at all during that time. The comeback was HARD and although she could have possibly moved on up with bare minimum routines and perhaps missing a skill or two, she did repeat.

Had she been able to stay in shape by exercising at home I think it would have made a world of difference so hopefully most are following their gym’s at-home workout plans.

It is going to be really hard regardless, but staying strong and flexible will be soooo important. Mine has retired now, but I’m wishing all your kids the best!

 

[LJL07]

My daughter was out with illness for 5 weeks prior to her level 9 season. She didn’t condition or exercise at all during that time. The comeback was HARD and although she could have possibly moved on up with bare minimum routines and perhaps missing a skill or two, she did repeat.

Had she been able to stay in shape by exercising at home I think it would have made a world of difference so hopefully most are following their gym’s at-home workout plans.

It is going to be really hard regardless, but staying strong and flexible will be soooo important. Mine has retired now, but I’m wishing all your kids the best!

Yes, my oldest daughter was out really almost a year with JRA and missed her level 8 season. But she did go into the gym and conditioned as much as she physically could. She kept at it and did level 9 this year although just as she was getting it together for states, COVID exploded. My youngest had a broken arm requiring surgery and was out three months a few years ago. I was very surprised by how fast she bounced back, but it was level 4 which makes a huge difference. I think the kids who don’t diligently condition will have a very hard time. I have to nag my kids to condition. They love skills but hate conditioning. My level 9 was missing bonus on bars and floor, so surely she will repeat. This is all very surreal and sad. I mean the whole situation all around.

 

[Gymmamabear]

This is my issue, my L10 hates to condition. We've been out for 2 weeks and she's done it maybe twice. If I tell her to she gets pissy at me. The vast majority of moms I talk to say their (older) teenagers are this way as well. This is why I wonder how many will go back and if and when they do if it will be so hard then they quit. OR their skills are subpar next year. Ugh. I mean I know they think they are invincible but no conditioning or mediocre then to go back to L10 is going to be HARD.

 

[Flipfloppy]

Based on my own injury history, I wouldn't allow a L9/10 who hasn't been doing conditioning during an extended break to return to the gym: that's not just a recipe for a disappointing season; that's a recipe for injury, and once injury due to lack of strength/conditioning starts, it compounds as athletes compensate for the physical weaknesses. Aren't L9/10s old enough to remember Gabby and Aly talking about how their coaches made them do nothing but conditioning for months (Aly I think almost a year?) before they were allowed to start training skills again?

 

[Gymmamabear]

Based on my own injury history, I wouldn't allow a L9/10 who hasn't been doing conditioning during an extended break to return to the gym: that's not just a recipe for a disappointing season; that's a recipe for injury, and once injury due to lack of strength/conditioning starts, it compounds as athletes compensate for the physical weaknesses. Aren't L9/10s old enough to remember Gabby and Aly talking about how their coaches made them do nothing but conditioning for months (Aly I think almost a year?) before they were allowed to start training skills again?

I will remind her of this! If she wants to be done with gymnastics that is fine, don't condition. But don't not condition then whine when you can't do your stuff next season!

 

[PeanutsMom]

You’re good. Talk about Australia or anywhere else. I have my own strong opinions about all of this. Currently I’m grateful to be able to still go to work every day. If I had to sit alone in my apartment through all of this I’d go insane.

Its going to be really hard for some optional gymnasts to get back to competition form with a minimum of a month off. I dread hearing about the gym closures but it will happen.

I am a teacher and currently cannot go into my building because we have had 2 staff members tested positive. We are "working" from home which is a difficult status considering this has never been done before. The governor has closed all schools until at LEAST April 24th with many speculating that the closure will continue throughout the rest of the school year (mid-June). We were allowed to go into the building to gather curriculum materials today, but couldn't congregate, stay and chat with our colleagues, and it was vacant of students. It was the first time this whole surreal experience really hit home.

Gym closure has been tough. There is certainly not a daily conditioning routine going on here, but we have had the airtrack out, doing tabata, doing some conditioning. My kiddo is only a level 6 and younger, so she has been processing this whole event in the way she needs to so I haven't been pushing gym. There are enough unknowns right now.

 

[JessSyd]

If any gym owners out there are looking for a way to keep an income trickling in, I just want to say I would so pay a weekly fee to have my daughter’s coach (or anyone from her gym) condition her and her squad over zoom or some other group conferencing platform. And I am not the only one.

We are lucky, our household has so far managed to keep one job despite the shutdown. Lost one income, but still feel lucky and want to pay it forward by continuing to pay folk who will struggle more.

She has been following the program the gym sent her, but today as a change she tuned in to the GymNSW workout live stream and the difference was amazing. Even though that was one way - we could see them but they could not see us - we could see that there were hundreds of other households participating, we could even see people we knew joining in, and their comments. And the feeling of connectedness made it feel so much more like gym and less like homework.

My daughter’s gym is trying to set up some sort of online thing. I hope they can make it work.