Parents Daughter wants to quit

[lhmom]

I just wanted to send best wishes to your daughter. We had a girl at our gym who went through something similar. She was a very talented gymnast who lost her spark after a rough season and decided to quit. She's now involved (and thriving) in tennis, dance and school (student council). Her parents were upset at first but her mom acknowledge that leaving the sport has been good for her daughter. I hope that whatever your daughter decides, she will find that spark again whether it's gymnastics or some other pursuit. She's shown that she has the drive to succeed!

 

[gymjourneymom]

It's so difficult letting our teens find there own place in this world. Giving them wings & then standing back to watch them soar...it's what I'm finding difficult about parenting teens. I am finding that letting them soar & being there as their safety net, is best thing I can do for them as a parent. They need to learn what is right for them. Try out different choices. Discover who they are as a person, not just as a gymnast. It is their life & they need to learn to make big decisions to be successful in life. As long as they are not rash decisions & all aspects have been carefully considered. I think this is her life & she ultimately has to do what makes her happy.

High level gymnastics is such a MAJOR committment physically, mentally & socially. If her heart isn't in it, it's not worth giving up so much to continue on. (((hugs))) to you both as you sort through this difficult time of decisions. Wishing your DD joy & happiness in whatever roads she wanders down on her journey. You both already have MUCH to be proud of! I'm sure you DD's future will be very bright following any path she chooses! As hunde2 says, maybe another path to a scholarship is your DD's destiny. I here gymnast do very well with pole vaulting & there are scholarships to be found there too. Good luck & (((hugs)))!

 

[Tuduri]

We had our intra-squad meet this weekend along with the team of another small club. Jamy was the only level ten. She scratched on the vault. which is, at this stage in the year, a Yurchenko lay out full. I've seen her do it in the gym, but her coach did not want to risk her injuring her ankle by landing awkwardly due to her favoring her sore elbow. She got a 9.050 on the bars, but this will feature several additional skills as the year progresses, including a full-in dismount. Jamy had a stupendous beam, I thought, but she was given an 8.350.! She seemed to stick everything, including a 11/2 on the dismount. But I was told that she missed several connections......? I don't know all that technical stuff. But Jamy had an assume series with a front aerial and a layout stepout without any hesitation. Jamy then, got a nine on the floor. She did not do her full-in and some other skills which will come later in the season. But she had a double back, 11/2 puch full and something else. Sorry, I don't know all the Xs amd Os, as they say in football/

Jamy seemed excited. I hope this will continue.

Tomorrow we get the MRI and Tuesday the orthopedist will tell us if the glass is empty, half empty or waiting to be filled.

Please send good mojo our way.

Julio Garcia,

Jamy's dad

 

[bpatient]

Julio, you wrote: “[Jamy] is said to have ‘Little Leaguer's Syndrome’ from overuse … I am praying that she can re-hab the elbow without sitting out for ten weeks as the first orthopedist advised.â€￾ Then you indicated that two days later she competed in her team’s practice meet—while awaiting an MRI for her elbow injury.

Honestly, it certainly seems that taking it easy while she is suffering from an overuse injury would be a reasonable idea; in fact that’s the general medical advice for overuse injuries, and the critical aspect of treatment—and it was, you wrote, the medical advice that she was given by a qualified orthopedic surgeon. In addition, while it does seem that you disliked the advice given you by the first surgeon (“sitting out for ten weeksâ€￾), how can you possibly evaluate the quality of the medical advice you receive from two different physicians except to choose to accept the decision that best reflects your wishes? Jamy may be at an age when it will be important for her to make decisions about her future, but she may not be mature enough at this point to be given permission to completely ignore medical advice (competing is really not very much like ‘sitting out for ten weeks) and risk not only further injury but her future in the sport in order to continue practicing and competing while she shops for medical advice that she'll like better.

 

[bookworm]

Julio, you wrote: “[Jamy] is said to have ‘Little Leaguer's Syndrome’ from overuse … I am praying that she can re-hab the elbow without sitting out for ten weeks as the first orthopedist advised.â€￾ Then you indicated that two days later she competed in her team’s practice meet—while awaiting an MRI for her elbow injury.

Honestly, it certainly seems that taking it easy while she is suffering from an overuse injury would be a reasonable idea; in fact that’s the general medical advice for overuse injuries, and the critical aspect of treatment—and it was, you wrote, the medical advice that she was given by a qualified orthopedic surgeon. In addition, while it does seem that you disliked the advice given you by the first surgeon (“sitting out for ten weeksâ€￾), how can you possibly evaluate the quality of the medical advice you receive from two different physicians except to choose to accept the decision that best reflects your wishes? Jamy may be at an age when it will be important for her to make decisions about her future, but she may not be mature enough at this point to be given permission to completely ignore medical advice (competing is really not very much like ‘sitting out for ten weeks) and risk not only further injury but her future in the sport in order to continue practicing and competing while she shops for medical advice that she'll like better.

Yeah rbw, I was confused by this as well...there's an overuse injury and they're getting an MRI and they don't want her to "sit out 10 weeks" but in the next installment, she's competing in a meet! Before she blows out her elbow, she needs to rest it at a minimum and maybe need surgery down the road, regardless of her "fire" for the sport.

 

[bpatient]

Yeah, bookworm, my concern is less directly related to this particular case than to the general idea that any gymnast would continue to train and to compete when advised by an orthopedic surgeon to take ten weeks off. Jamy will probably be fine—the MRI may well show that she can do whatever she wants whenever she wants—I certainly hope so, but she chose to compete at a time when she just couldn't know that.

As far as I know, “Little Leaguer’s elbow” is a catch-all term that encompasses the most common elbow problem in female gymnast of Jamy's age: osteochondritis dissecans. The typical initial treatment seems to be rest (usually six months of rest); half the kids recover within six months, but for the 50% of kids who do not recover with rest, apparently the usual option is surgery. (Because I don’t know anything about this subject, I checked a recent review: Elbow pain in pediatrics). Since the orthopedist recommended only ten weeks rather than six months of rest, it seems that Jamy may be lucky (e.g., she might have a completely different problem or be early in the course of osteochondritis with no loose body in the joint—in line with the short duration of the suggested rest), but the long-term chances that a 14 year-old gymnast with elbow problems would ever return to the sport at a high level (and, more to the point, the possibility that continued training would exacerbate the injury) were very much on my mind when I made my previous post. I hope Jamy does well.

 

[bookworm]

As for the elbow, "Little League Elbow" ( or to use the technical term osteochondritis dessicans) is no small injury...my daughter had that and it had to be surgically repaired and she was out for a season in order for it to heal properly. There have been a couple of girls in our gym with the same injury who have tried the "rest it" route but when they get back to the workouts like they are used to it flares upagain and they eventually needed the surgery. Girls who came back early in the recovery process to"condition" (read: train anyway when you shouldn't) have not regained full mobility of the affected limb and one needed a redo of the surgery so take all the time needed to recover....

Yeah, bookworm, my concern is less directly related to this particular case than to the general idea that any gymnast would continue to train and to compete when advised by an orthopedic surgeon to take ten weeks off. Jamy will probably be fine—the MRI may well show that she can do whatever she wants whenever she wants—I certainly hope so, but she chose to compete at a time when she just couldn't know that.

As far as I know, “Little Leaguer’s elbowâ€￾ is a catch-all term that encompasses the most common elbow problem in female gymnast of Jamy's age: osteochondritis dissecans. The typical initial treatment seems to be rest (usually six months of rest); half the kids recover within six months, but for the 50% of kids who do not recover with rest, apparently the usual option is surgery. (Because I don’t know anything about this subject, I checked a recent review: Elbow pain in pediatrics). Since the orthopedist recommended only ten weeks rather than six months of rest, it seems that Jamy may be lucky (e.g., she might have a completely different problem or be early in the course of osteochondritis with no loose body in the joint—in line with the short duration of the suggested rest), but the long-term chances that a 14 year-old gymnast with elbow problems would ever return to the sport at a high level (and, more to the point, the possibility that continued training would exacerbate the injury) were very much on my mind when I made my previous post. I hope Jamy does well.

Yeah rbw, I don't know if you saw my original post in this thread by my daughter DID have the Little League Elbow and it was to the point that resting it would not help if she wanted to return to high level gymnastics so she had the surgery and had to take the season off if she hoped to rectify the problem...fast forward, she took the 7 months off and came back better than ever but I get where you're coming from in that a lot of people think their daughter can't take time off just because their coach doesn't want them to when it's advised by a medical professional...my daughter's coaches thought i was out of my mind but I said "sorry, she needs the arm for a lifetime, see you in 6-9 months" ....and I would do the same thing again in a heartbeat.

 

[bpatient]

Sorry, bookworm, I forgot about your earlier response. Your story does illustrate that it’s possible to return to high-level gymnastics after an elbow injury and that taking time off may be both wise and necessary.

As it happens, my daughter's friend just suffered a season-ending injury before the start of her first NCAA season, but the girl expects to return to compete for one of the country’s top teams despite taking off (what I’m guessing will be) about six months following her surgery.

 

[Pickle's Mom]

You didn’t mention your daughter’s grade, but at 14 I’m assuming she’s a freshman. If this is true, it’s possible that she could find something else that she really is passionate about to help out with college. For example, maybe diving or fencing or certain track events. One of the gymnasts who used to train at my daughter’s gym quit in HS when she had a growth spurt (she ended up at 5’ 8â€￾) and became an NCAA champion pole vaulter. She's also a model (guess she figured she'd use the height to her advantage).

I guess I see things differently because Pickle (who is still just in third grade) will almost certainly not be in contention for a college scholarship and I just see all the things she doesn’t get to try because she is so busy with gymnastics. She loves it so we support her, but if she were to quit I’d be excited about some of the other things she might get to try.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

I hope Jamy is able to recover and get better and continues to be happy doing gymnastics. This sport really seems so frustating at times my daughter is only 10 and level6 and she has already had is overuse injury to her wrist. It seems like it is almost luck if they have the talent and drive, they also need to dodge injuries. Maybe her reason she wants to quit is because of her frustration from her injury. I wish her luck.