Parents Coaches against gymnasts attending summer camps

[juststartingout]

More recently I've gotten to know our gym owner. During our conversation he brought up the fact that he did not like his gymnasts to go to summer camps. His reasoning is that he works all year to reinforce form and technique and then girls go to camp and come back with all that work destroyed. I've talked to the moms of older team girls and they said they still go but do not tell the owner. I guess they just tell him they went on vacation. Summer camp is just so fun for the girls so I don't understand why he doesn't set something up with a camp where he attends as a coach. Does anyone elses coaches discourage attending camps?

 

[GymMom67]

Our head coach/owner gave me a few suggestions when I asked about gymnastics camp. Our gym also sent whoever wanted to go from the level right above my DD to the Karolyi Camp this summer, and their coach went with them. My DD ended up going to our church's camp this summer, but will most likely do a gymnastics camp next summer.

 

[iwannacoach]

The coach side of me says no camp because there are too many unknowns and variables in a handful of areas like......

level placement
skills presented
equipment used as instructional aids
rest and nutrition
coaching staff

..... and it adds up to missing one week of training plus 1 week to restore the momentum once they return, and two weeks if somebody got them all charged up about the new skill they think they learned correctly while away at camp.

The parent side of me tosses all that out the window because they don't last as long as a team level gymnast if they can't have the few fun moments brought to them via their chosen sport.

The idea of going to camp with your kids to make sure they're properly coached......it doesn't work without messing up the entire camp experience for the coach, the kids, and the staff.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

DEPENDS ON THE CAMP !!!!

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

Our coaches are generally supportive of summer camp. While they don't coordinate a team going, several girls go to various camps with their approval. We mainly try to schedule it for a week during summer shutdown (3 weeks in July) so as not to miss a week of training, although this past summer DD desperately wanted to attend IGC when Aly Raisman was there, and the coaches and I agreed that the benefit of motivation she would receive from meeting her idol was enough to justify missing a week at gym.

But even as a parent I can see some of IWC's points - DD wasn't placed in a great group the first week she was there, so outside of the camp experience and meeting her idol, there was no benefit skill wise to that week. Her second week there she was placed more appropriately, but her beam is at a different level than the rest of her skills so she was more on her own working harder skills (and even trying new skills) that I suspect her coaches wouldn't have wanted.

So our view is this: go, have fun camp-wise. That they do gym is a bonus, but depending which camp you pick don't expect much in the way of improvement.

 

[Aussie_coach]

We don't have Summer camps here in Australia but I can understand the coaches concerns.

From what I have heard these summer camps focus on getting big skills, probably so the gymnasts will come back. It's quite probable that this is not done with perfect form as the coaches has these kids for a week and not all year.

 

[MaryA]

When DD was at the Y, I loved sending her to gym camp because it was awesome that she got to practice for a lot of hours, use the great equipment, etc. Now that she's at a private gym, I do feel like she gets more (from a gymnastics perspective) if she just stays home and works with the coaches who know her and actually have a stake in her gymnastics progression. Also, the last time she went, she ended up placed in a lower group than she should have been, and I think that gave her self confidence, which had been high coming out of being state beam champ, a real thrashing. Of course, she was going through a huge growth spurt so it's hard to put a finger on just what caused her issues, but she seemed to regress rather than progress after camp. That said, she loves it and always wants to go. It is one of her favorite places in the world. And HC grew up going to the same gym camp and loving it too, so she's not going to say "no." This summer DD missed camp due to a broken foot (beam), but I suspect she'll be back again next year. In a way, I might be glad of it if HC said "no gym camp" and maybe encouraged them to take a week off from gym to go to a different kind of camp over the summer (yeah, like that's going to happen). I remember, a few years ago, going to pick DD up at camp and her taking me to a tree on the edge of the parking lot to show me some sort of cool caterpillar she had discovered. I was thinking, "you know there are nature camps, right?"

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

The idea of going to camp with your kids to make sure they're properly coached......it doesn't work without messing up the entire camp experience for the coach, the kids, and the staff.

Except for Woodward which encourages coaches to attend with the team.

 

[kayjaybe]

Our gym goes to Woodward for a week. You aren't required to go, but about 1/2 of the girls do. We take several coaches and they work the girls HARD. We get our money's worth out of that camp and the girls still have time to have fun.

BUT....our gym does not want you going there or to any other camp w/o the team. I think a lot of it is because it can be a bit of a waste of money. For example, Woodward has one 2.5 hour mandatory practice and then some optional open gym time. If your gymmie is only doing the required practice, you are spending a TON of money for them to swim, hang out and goof around. While that relaxation/fun time is important, if that is what I'm focusing on for camp, I can find MUCH cheaper options.

This year with our team, we had the mandatory Woodward practice, another mandatory 3-hour team practice and then optional open gym for 3 hours....which was frequently encouraged. My dd came back EXHAUSTED but so happy from doing 6-8 hours of gym/day...and she still had plenty of time for fun & friends.

 

[vagymmomma]

DEPENDS ON THE CAMP !!!!

So coaches - what are your favorite camps for gymnasts to attend?

 

[MaryA]

While that relaxation/fun time is important, if that is what I'm focusing on for camp, I can find MUCH cheaper options.

YMCA camps or church camps maybe, but it wasn't until I started trying to find a camp for my other DD that I realized just how expensive camps can be. Plus it's hard to find camps that have one-week sessions. For most it seems that the shortest sessions are 2-3 weeks and there are some where your only choices are half the summer or the whole summer! The 1-week camp I ended up sending my other daughter to this past summer was pretty much the same price as Woodward, and it was one of the cheaper ones I found. She still didn't love it, so I guess I'm back to the drawing board. I am thinking that she may be a kid who is not really wired for sleep-away camp, yet is completely convinced that she must go to sleep-away camp. Ironically, I suspect she would love Woodward (good balance of structured time and free time, flexibility in what to eat which is important to an extremely picky eater, etc.), except that she doesn't do gymnastics, cheer, or any of the "extreme" sports. If there is a Woodward for ballet (or maybe art or baking or creative writing) out there anywhere, I would love to find it.

 

[maryRS]

Well it's summer and it's camp. My daughter does a week at IGC. She loves it, it's become a tradition. She does a lot of gym, it is different than the gym she does at home, but she has so much fun. I just can't see one week in making a whole lot of difference. She is still being active.

 

[2G1B]

Our gym sends at least 2 coaches to FF the week that our team goes. We were new to the team last year, so had already signed up for a different week and they didn't seem to have any problem with that; but they do encourage the kids to go the week that most of the gym goes. I get the impression that this is largely for the team building that happens, though I guess it could be somewhat for them also having their coaches there that week.

 

[JoyAvenueMom]

So our view is this: go, have fun camp-wise. That they do gym is a bonus, but depending which camp you pick don't expect much in the way of improvement.

When I asked the owner of our new gym about the college camp we had already scheduled, she responded that the she thought that type experience would be fun and motivating for the gymnast. I think that perfectly describes the experience dd had...it was fun and really fired her up to come back and work hard. Although she said later that she had just as much fun at our gym's internal "camp". (for a fraction of the cost!!!!)

 

[Deleted member 14190]

A tops/hopes/pre elite camp is great.

 

[Flipflopz]

Dd did a univ camp and looooved it. She was in the approp group and uptrained. Her coach was cool with it.

 

[kitkat]

My daughter has been to Woodward with her previous club two times. They had an awesome time. Our old club was totally ok with going to camp and would arrange every two years a group of girls. I liked it because her friends were there as well as some of her coaches. But I strongly encouraged my daughter to go to different coaching to get a different perspective on things that she maybe was having issues "getting"
The thing I didn't like about going with your club - was that there was a ton of people there and most of them were not there for the gym experience but the other experience and being away from home. In future my daughter has decided that she will go with one or two girls that train with the same gym ethics as her.
Now in our new club. As much as they said they are all for gym. I don't think they really are. Just some comments they have made in passing tells me it might just be lip service.

We will continue to send our daughter to camp as long as she would like to. This year she went to Chicago Style at CGI because they had a release component to it and her passion is bars. She thought it was very good.