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

 

[Anonymous (40e1)]

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

I hope he put it in a nicer way but it is really hard to do gymnastics with height. You need a lot of muscle to perform and also to not get hurt and if you are tall you end up weighing too much. The upside is your options for athletics are way greater for tall athletic people the short ones and if you child gets a good gymnastics base that will only help them. Start here, go anywhere.

 

[Anonymous (7546)]

Over the course of my long (I am old) coaching career I have seen enough aberrations to the general rule that gymnasts must be short (and come from short parents) to be successful that I have learned never to dismiss anyone's potential based on their height or their parent's height. We had a lovely level 10 gymnast years ago who came from tall people - mom 6 ft tall, dad 6'6", sisters all over 5'10" - she stalled out at 5'4". We have also had numerous kids hit 5'8" and more and have lots of success. So who knows? Sometimes my predictions are correct, sometimes they are not - I just coach the kids I have to the best of my ability and hope for success (defined by a variety of measures) for everyone.