Camp Question

[mom2mini]

What age have your girls gone away to out of state or week long camp? Or maybe the question should not be age so much as what level do you think it is beneficial to go to a camp like Flip Fest?

 

[bogwoppit]

Mine both went the year they turned 8 and loved it. The camp they went to had all levels from rec to elite and they evaluated the girls and put them in age appropriate groups at their level.

More important to me is whether a child has slept away from home for a few nights already, and I don't mean at Grandma's. They need to be independant enough to take care of their own needs and feel comfortable not having mom or dad about. A bit of homesickness is normal, but my girls have gone to camps where girls were clearly not ready to be there and it makes a long week for everyone.

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

More important to me is whether a child has slept away from home for a few nights already, and I don't mean at Grandma's. They need to be independant enough to take care of their own needs and feel comfortable not having mom or dad about. A bit of homesickness is normal, but my girls have gone to camps where girls were clearly not ready to be there and it makes a long week for everyone.

I couldn't agree more!!!! Camps provide instruction and entertainment for ALL levels, but the child has to be ready to be away from mom and dad or else it's a bum deal for everyone involved!!! My own DD wasn't ready to do any of these camps until she was 11 (she was a mommy's girl back then!)... but as Bog said, some of the girls at camp were NOT ready to be there... lots of tears and homesickness that lasted the entire week.

 

[Gymnasticgrandkids]

I'm thinking maybe not until they are out of compulsories, altho my DGD truly enjoyed camp last year and she was a Level 5...just not so sure she got much out of the gymnastics part as the skills at that level don't need much tweeking...the camp part itself though was probably well worth the money as she made lots of friends and has a blast.

 

[MaryA]

My DD went to Woodward last year as a 9-year-old. Knew nobody, had never been there before, and had a great time. That said, I'm not sure that she came home a markedly better gymnast (she was just starting to train level 5). I think that to get the most out of the gymnastics side of things, you have to be confident enough to speak up to the coaches, to say "This group is too easy. Will you move me up?" or, at open gym, to tell the coaches what you need to be working on rather than just doing the things that you're comfortable doing. I came to visit once and watched my DD in open gym. She seemed to wander from one event to the next, doing only the skills that she already knew how to do rather than saying to the coaches (who are standing there waiting to help) "I'm going to work on my front handspring. Will you spot me?" or whatever.

This year she'll be there with 6 teammates, all roughly the same level (training 5, 6, and beginning prep op), and their team coaches will be visiting on at least 2 different days during open gym. The coaches have also given them a chart showing which skills that they need to be working on and told them to bring that to camp and take it with them to open gym. So hopefully this, combined with her being a 2nd year camper and her just being a year older, will give her the confidence she needs to make some progress.

Of course, first priority is having a great experience, but for the cost of the camp, I'd be lying if I said I don't care if she comes home at least little closer to her level 6 skills than she was before she went.

 

[Bella's Mom]

My daughter is going to Flip Fest as a 7YO who will compete L4 this upcoming year. I chose FlipFest because she wanted a "sleep away" camp where she will get to sleep in a cabin. Obviously, she loves gymnastics just like all the little girls represented here. It's a reasonable distance from our hometown.

I don't have any big expectations skill-wise from her week down there. I want her to have fun, meet some new people, and test her wings a bit. If she picks up a new skill then great but I won't consider it a wash if she doesn't. I don't know that it will help her with the upcoming comp season but that wasn't a motivating factor in deciding to let her go.

 

[gymmom14]

Ok, I may be on a rant here. You don't go to summer camp to become a better gymnast and learn new skills. You go to have a fun camp experience while doing a sport you LOVE! Why do you think your child would be able to learn a million new skills at camp, if they cannot learn them in the gym with coaches who KNOW their ins and outs the other 51 weeks a year. I will say that at camp my dd came home saying she did X skill. But it was spotted and she never did the skill again for a long time since it was not something for her level. Camp is cool. You make new friends, experience life on your own in a safe environment and take part in all of the fun non-gym activities they offer, while doing a sport you love!

 

[Bajanswife]

If the camp is easy to get to and easily affordable, I say anytime! Sleepaway camp can be a fun and rewarding experience for a kid.

But for us, having to take an expensive international flight just to get her there and back, I would not give her that opportunity until there were tangible gymnastics benefits. I know there are some camps that are more skills focused, and that really benefit gymnasts working on optional skills, and if DD gets to that point and her HC thinks a particular camp would be beneficial, we will try to make it happen for her. But we cannot manage the recreational type of camp right now, that's for sure.

 

[bogwoppit]

Isn't it fun to rant??? I totally agree my kids love camp and BBB will go to a totally different kind of camp this year, no gym, but she is looking forward to it for all the same reasons, new friends and fun stuff. My girls loved camp, my son did not.

 

[my4buffaloes]

It all depends on the kid! I was cabin mom last year and I had a 10 year old who cried the entire week. She didn't learn much gymnastics, but hopefully by the end she learned that she would be ok anywhere regardless of the situation because even with all those tears I kept pointing out to her that she was ok there.

My daughter was 9 and I went with her. She is the type of kid that could have handled it on her own (I think) but she has food allergies and I felt that I needed to be there to supervise the food issues. yes I went to summer camp for the food.

 

[lhmom]

Even though several of my daughter's teammates are going to Flip Fest this summer, we decided not to let her go. We didn't feel like she was ready for the schedule (especially the late bedtime-she really doesn't do well unless she gets enough sleep). Of course,she is still not happy with us about that! But some girls on her team who are a year older aren't going either. It's mainly the girls who are 10 and older who are going. I agree though that every child is different. Good luck!

 

[NGL780309]

I have to agree with the poster that commented about you shouldn't expect your child to get better at gymnastics while at camp. Sure maybe they might hear something in a different way that helps them do something a bit better, but you shouldn't expect kids to pick up skills. Here's a camp story from a coaches perspective.

When my ex was coaching L10 a bunch of his girls went to a camp which he wasn't really happy about. He looked at it as an interruption in their training schedule. He would have preferred they go on a real vacation that didn't involve gym at all. He had been working on a release move with a girl for awhile already and her parents were so excited to come back from camp and report that she had caught her release move while there! They were so excited, he was mad without even seeing her "new" skill because he wasn't at the point with her where he wanted her catching it. He was teaching a particular action and now after a week of camp she came back with a release move with her behind barely clearing the bar and he felt like he had to unteach this accomplishment her parents were so excited about. And then how do you explain to her parents that yes she caught it at camp and now I'd like her to go back to not catching it or even trying to catch it? They only look at it as a step backward.

I'm not trying to say camps aren't a good experience or that the coaches are bad at these camps. He now coaches at many of these camps, but skills take a long time to learn. You don't learn them in a week.

I'd like to hear other coaches on here comment about camps. Do you feel the same way he does about your gymnasts learning "new'' skills at camp?

 

[NGL780309]

Just wanted to add that I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad about camp. My own DD is going to a camp and will have a blast I'm sure.

 

[MaryA]

My good parent side agrees that camp should be for fun (and to make new friends and to become more independant and all of those good things), and they go to gymnastics camp because to them gymnastics is fun. Period.

The paying-$850 side of me wants her to come back... not necessarily with a new skill... but having progressed in gymnastics in some way. (this is the side of me that I'm less proud of, but heck, I feel like you people at CB know me well enough that I can admit to my "dark side") I certainly understand the frustration of a coach who has to "unteach" something they learned at camp. I'm glad that our team coaches are coming twice during the week (nice to have a gymnastics camp practically in your own back yard) to work with the girls on the team during open gym times.

Last year when I visited Woodward, Kathy took me to one of the small trees that border the parking lot to show me a particular type of bug that lived on that tree, and I thought "Maybe she'd be better off at a nature camp off in the woods somewhere!" Not that I was thinking "Why is she looking at bugs when she should be doing gymnastics???" but more "If she wants to look at bugs, there are probably better camps for that! And they probably cost less than $850!" But no, she's dying to go back to Woodward!

Her camp mom from last year at Woodward posts on here and will attest to Kathy's love of bugs. I believe Kathy operated a "live catch and release" program for all bugs discovered in the cabin. And she probably named them before she let them go.

 

[NGL780309]

I get what you mean MaryA about the money spent and wanting to get some gymnastics out of it. I think the change of scenary is good. They are in the same gym with the same people everyday and it's nice to go and work-out with different people in a different enviroment. I know girls who go to the same camp every summer and look forward to it all year. I just think people should have reasonable expectations of what camp is. DD's old gym hosted a camp last summer and on the last day they were doing an awards ceremony thing while DD was waiting to start her work-out. They gave out an award for the most new skills in those 4 days and the winner got "9 new skills" in 4 days. I had to laugh at that.

 

[MaryA]

They gave out an award for the most new skills in those 4 days and the winner got "9 new skills" in 4 days. I had to laugh at that.

Yes, I agree that's unreasonable (not even my "dark side" expects that! ).

I suppose that, because our gym is so limited in terms of hours and equiptment, I hope that camp will be (among other things) a place for her to get a "leg up" on some of her new skills. She can tumble or fly-away into a pit, practice on a trampoline, and put in more hours in the gym than she'd get in three weeks at home (and that's with only going to one open gym a day, not both).

 

[bogwoppit]

WHen my oldest first went to gym camp she was just thrilled that she didn't have to put up and take down the whole gym at the beginning and end of each practice!!! SHe had helped with that for years and continued to for a further three years. Sometimes going to gym camp is just about change, because change can be as good as a rest. New people, from neat places and sometimes they came back with a new passion for gym and that was always cool to see.

 

[MaryA]

WHen my oldest first went to gym camp she was just thrilled that she didn't have to put up and take down the whole gym at the beginning and end of each practice!!! SHe had helped with that for years and continued to for a further three years. Sometimes going to gym camp is just about change, because change can be as good as a rest. New people, from neat places and sometimes they came back with a new passion for gym and that was always cool to see.

Sigh... that's my idea of heaven... not having to tear down the gym every night! Maybe someday...

 

[bogwoppit]

Sigh... that's my idea of heaven... not having to tear down the gym every night! Maybe someday...

But you know when I stopped doing it four times a week I really missed the workout and the company whilst doing it. I used to put the bars up with the HC and we would shoot the breeze at the same time, I could put up five beams in no time with the help of a few tinies to pull away the wheels. Now the HC owns her own gym it is stricly drop off and run as it is too tiny to stay. Spending all that time together really got parents involved and we all knew every gymnast.

 

[GymGirl's Mom]

DD is 7 and we opted for her to NOT go to sleepaway camp this summer. A big group of boys and girls and coaches from her gym are going ranging in age from 7 through 14. I have many reasons for this but mainly I think she is too young- socially and emotionally to be more than a 10-15 minute drive away from me for a week and not with family. She would probably be fine and is a pretty independant kid with a good head on her shoulders- but to me and my husband 7 is too young. We told her if she stays with gymnastics and continues to enjoy it we will think about it for next year.

I think it's a personal choice and decision- some kids are ready-- some are not. It's up to the parents to decide when the right time is.