Anon Coaches how good are you at predicting D1 potential early? And follow thru?

[Anonymous (8d54)]

Curious any coaches on here what your track record of predicting a young gymnast odds of going all the way to D1 gymnastics? And what your “batting average” so to speak is on being correct? Even if they don’t go all the way at your gym… under your coaching, have you been surprised more often by ones you didn’t think had what it takes, who make it? Or more surprised by those who you thought had what it took but fears, injuries or life just ended their path prematurely ?

 

[Anonymous (40e1)]

Curious any coaches on here what your track record of predicting a young gymnast odds of going all the way to D1 gymnastics? And what your “batting average” so to speak is on being correct? Even if they don’t go all the way at your gym… under your coaching, have you been surprised more often by ones you didn’t think had what it takes, who make it? Or more surprised by those who you thought had what it took but fears, injuries or life just ended their path prematurely ?

You can rule girls out at 5 or 6 if they aren’t particularly strong or they have very tall parents. That being said, there are 50 possible yesses for every girl who makes it. You can’t tell a child’s future tenacity, injury risk, fear, desire, work ethic, maturity, luck…

 

[Dahlialover]

The odds of a talented 6-year-old continuing in the sport through college is so low that it seems foolish to ever make such a prediction.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Goals that are that far out are a distraction; best to just coach the kids who are in front of you right now at whatever level they're at right now. Maybe they'll stick with it, maybe they won't. Maybe they'll reach the top levels, maybe they won't.

 

[Anonymous (3dd5)]

When my son was 6, the coach looked at him, me, my husband, and our other child and said that our son did not have the right body type to go very far in gymnastics. My daughter is 6'4" now, so maybe there was something to that, but my son is 5'7". He was (happily) mistaken.

(Oh and the 2 boys that started with my son, both very talented, excellent air awareness, no fear? They both quit by high school.)

I am not a coach, but there is no reason to try to predict that too early, imo