Parents Deciding if my daughter should compete

[CTMOM]

My YDD is 6 (turned 6 at the end of September) and competed 2 last year. She had a blast! It is low pressure, especially for the younger ones.

 

[GymDad9.9]

Level 2 is about learning things like marching in, paying attention to the judges, presenting, rembering to start when the music does, staying still and keeping quiet when it's not your turn. Remembering to do the level 2 stuff.

It should be low stress and fun. You get to wear your "party" Leo with your "party"hair.

They barely know it's a competition, it's just a gym party. Usually every kid gets at least a participation medal.

It's really not all that big of a thing and I would be leary of a gym that makes it so.

If my money was going towards marching in, paying attention to judges, remembering to start when the music, and keeping quiet in a line, THAT, is a huge waste of money. Ca-ching!

 

[amiandjim]

My DD competed level 2 last year at 6 and I wouldn't say it was low key and fun. I mean, sure, there wasn't a huge amount of pressure but the girls were definitely focused on scores and doing well. We saw 5 & 6 year-olds scoring 36-37 AA so it definitely wasn't about remembering the routines! Maybe it just depends on the area/region?

 

[mom2newgymnast]

My DD competed level 2 last year at 6 and I wouldn't say it was low key and fun. I mean, sure, there wasn't a huge amount of pressure but the girls were definitely focused on scores and doing well. We saw 5 & 6 year-olds scoring 36-37 AA so it definitely wasn't about remembering the routines! Maybe it just depends on the area/region?

I agree. It really must depend on the area. Also, someone mentioned only going to meets close by.. at dd's gym the level 2's compete at the same meets as all the other compulsory levels, with the same leotards, etc. All of the meets, except the one we host, are at least 2-3 hours away because that is where the competition is. If your dd is on the team, you are expected to attend all the meets. I don't know how it is where the OP lives though.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

If your dd is on the team, you are expected to attend all the meets. I don't know how it is where the OP lives though.

How many meets are really gym dependent.

And geography matters. Northeast is a lot more concentrated. Most of our meets are less then 2 hours away. Sometimes states are close, sometimes not. Last year, we could commute in a day. This year will require an overnight.

Even Regionals are within 4 hours usually, at least they have been for all the years we have been competing.

 

[Butterfly]

I looked up last year's schedule for the level 2's. All meets were within 45 minutes, except the 'championships' that were 1 hour 5 mins away. It looks like the level 3's longest was 2 hours away (at least last year). So I wouldn't expect any overnights. However, I'm still wrestling with this decision! I will talk with a coach on Thursday and see what they say. If they aren't recommending she compete this is a null point. If they are on the fence and kinda like, if you want to you can (I suspect this is how they will be since it's such a small gym), then I have no idea what to do!

 

[Lilou]

Hi- the level 2 in our area (or at least at our gym) are doing 5 meets, which I think is excessive at that level.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

If my money was going towards marching in, paying attention to judges, remembering to start when the music, and keeping quiet in a line, THAT, is a huge waste of money. Ca-ching!

I guess it depends on what you consider important.

And the fact that all things are relative.

Most of what you are paying is being paid whether competeing or not as in the coaching and practice. A couple of local meets in the scheme of things is not a big deal.

The difference between a local vs away meet is huge though meet for meet. In time and money.

Personally, I thought that earlier experience helped my kid (and the others in her group) a lot. By the time they got to 4, which is where it starts to kick up a bit, they were "veterans" of meets. Competeing is stressful enough, it helped that they didn't have the added stress of it being new. Also helped us parents too with expectations. Dealing with a gymmie. How to handle the physical and mental stuff. Knowing how the child deals with, distractions, stress, mistakes, not getting a medal for just showing up.

Again JMO (and probably a bit of USAG's as well since you are only required to actually start at and score out of L4). The early levels are supposed to be fun and lower stress, and the things I already mentioned. For me, as jmo, we would not have been at a gym that put huge pressure on a kids doing L2.

There is actually value in that. Much like Kindergarrten and the early grades is meant to get used to a school enviroment and be fun and lower stress so they enjoy learning.

And the adorable chaos of 6 yr old soccer and tee ball, is just getting them used to being on the field, learning the rules, listening to the coach, focusing and paying attention, rather then staring off into space as the ball goes sailing past you.

They value of that early experience and the chance to be little is priceless. Time is relative. The time to be new and young is short enough. It gets serious and real soon enough.

Gymnastics and sports is so very much more then competitions and winning. I pay for so much more then gymnastics and medals.

 

[GymDad9.9]

I guess it depends on what you consider important.

And the fact that all things are relative.

Most of what you are paying is being paid whether competeing or not as in the coaching and practice. A couple of local meets in the scheme of things is not a big deal.

The difference between a local vs away meet is huge though meet for meet. In time and money.

Personally, I thought that earlier experience helped my kid (and the others in her group) a lot. By the time they got to 4, which is where it starts to kick up a bit, they were "veterans" of meets. Competeing is stressful enough, it helped that they didn't have the added stress of it being new. Also helped us parents too with expectations. Dealing with a gymmie. How to handle the physical and mental stuff. Knowing how the child deals with, distractions, stress, mistakes, not getting a medal for just showing up.

Again JMO (and probably a bit of USAG's as well since you are only required to actually start at and score out of L4). The early levels are supposed to be fun and lower stress, and the things I already mentioned. For me, as jmo, we would not have been at a gym that put huge pressure on a kids doing L2.

There is actually value in that. Much like Kindergarrten and the early grades is meant to get used to a school enviroment and be fun and lower stress so they enjoy learning.

And the adorable chaos of 6 yr old soccer and tee ball, is just getting them used to being on the field, learning the rules, listening to the coach, focusing and paying attention, rather then staring off into space as the ball goes sailing past you.

They value of that early experience and the chance to be little is priceless. Time is relative. The time to be new and young is short enough. It gets serious and real soon enough.

Gymnastics and sports is so very much more then competitions and winning. I pay for so much more then gymnastics and medals.

The fact that my daughter is part of a competitive gym in a competitive state and in a gym that wishes to expose the girls to various regions of the country does not equate to caring only about competitions and winning. Not even close. But you seem determined to intimate these things and mock without having a shred of knowledge about me, my wife, my family, and my daughter. Par for the course.

First off, our long distance trips last year were morphed into family trips and vacations, not including the one long distance trip for States. The 1300 mile trip was where most of my family lives so I got to see them, my kids got to see their only living grandmother, my wife and I got to see relatives, old friends and colleagues, and my kids got to play in the snow and ride the subway. We are fortunate enough to be in an industry where we can stay at nice hotels relatively inexpensively. My wife and I don't throw our money away. Our 2300 mile trip this year is somewhere where my kids' grandmother would love to join us and we are thrilled. These trips on that alone have made them priceless.

As much as I abhor the idea of having to explain myself to you given your condescending ways, I will tell you this much. My wife and I never pushed my daughter into gymnastics. She started at 6 with no prior training. Her desire to train comes strictly from her. Her desire to excel comes strictly from her. Her desire to be coached comes strictly from her. Her desire to compete comes strictly from her. Her success and failures come strictly from her. Her growth as a shy timid fearful girl to a blossoming confident disciplined soon to be young woman has been marvelous and fantastic and we are all very proud of her efforts. Going into the gym with passion, joy, a desire to build upon what she has already created and a big smile on her face drive her, not the competitions and winning. Competitions and winning are the gravy to her hard work and dedication and commitment to something she desires. As parents, we are blessed to be able to provide that. You and no one else can take that away.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

The fact that my daughter is part of a competitive gym in a competitive state and in a gym that wishes to expose the girls to various regions of the country does not equate to caring only about competitions and winning. Not even close. But you seem determined to intimate these things and mock without having a shred of knowledge about me, my wife, my family, and my daughter. Par for the course.

First off, our long distance trips last year were morphed into family trips and vacations, not including the one long distance trip for States. The 1300 mile trip was where most of my family lives so I got to see them, my kids got to see their only living grandmother, my wife and I got to see relatives, old friends and colleagues, and my kids got to play in the snow and ride the subway. We are fortunate enough to be in an industry where we can stay at nice hotels relatively inexpensively. My wife and I don't throw our money away. Our 2300 mile trip this year is somewhere where my kids' grandmother would love to join us and we are thrilled. These trips on that alone have made them priceless.

As much as I abhor the idea of having to explain myself to you given your condescending ways, I will tell you this much. My wife and I never pushed my daughter into gymnastics. She started at 6 with no prior training. Her desire to train comes strictly from her. Her desire to excel comes strictly from her. Her desire to be coached comes strictly from her. Her desire to compete comes strictly from her. Her success and failures come strictly from her. Her growth as a shy timid fearful girl to a blossoming confident disciplined soon to be young woman has been marvelous and fantastic and we are all very proud of her efforts. Going into the gym with passion, joy, a desire to build upon what she has already created and a big smile on her face drive her, not the competitions and winning. Competitions and winning are the gravy to her hard work and dedication and commitment to something she desires. As parents, we are blessed to be able to provide that. You and no one else can take that away.

I've read through this thread a couple of times and I really don't think anyone is trying to personally attack you and your family. It just seems that they are trying to point out that at a lot of gyms the lower level competitions are aimed to be more of a low stress learning experience than anything else. It sounds like your dd is thriving in a sport she loves and I don't think anyone would want to take away from that. Different gyms provide different early competition experiences and some are very competitive at Level 2, and others use it as more of a pathway to get ready for competing more seriously later on. Our gym has a group of Level 2's that are essentially the pre-team for our gym, they only compete one L2 meet and for the most part they are not competitive with the other Level 2's in the area that are doing full team hours, etc, but they learn a lot about competing from that first meet and it helps with the jitters later on. I wish my dd had been able to do something like that (she did pre team at another gym) and it probably took her a full year and a half to fully get over the competition nerves. For a long time, if she had one bad event, she would let it ruin the rest of her day, and would be very sad and down on herself but last year she finally adopted a more laid back attitude and if she had a mistake early on, she would just keep gong and doing her best and finish the meet. That was a huge accomplishment for her in itself. So I think the bottom line is that early level competition can be a good thing, whether is is the more laid back type or the more competitive type.

To the OP, it sounds like the meet schedule is very reasonable, most of the meets are close by, etc, and I personally think it would be a good way for your dd to get her feet wet so to speak, get used to competition, etc. I really do think the earlier they can do an actual competition, the early they get used to it, and this year of competing might help your dd from being nervous and having the jitters as she gets older like my dd did for so long. If her coaches recommend it I would go for it. I wouldn't put too much worry into scores, or placements at this level, but it's very possible she could learn a lot in the next few months and surprise you with her progress!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

well said

 

[GymDad9.9]

I've read through this thread a couple of times and I really don't think anyone is trying to personally attack you and your family. It just seems that they are trying to point out that at a lot of gyms the lower level competitions are aimed to be more of a low stress learning experience than anything else. It sounds like your dd is thriving in a sport she loves and I don't think anyone would want to take away from that. Different gyms provide different early competition experiences and some are very competitive at Level 2, and others use it as more of a pathway to get ready for competing more seriously later on. Our gym has a group of Level 2's that are essentially the pre-team for our gym, they only compete one L2 meet and for the most part they are not competitive with the other Level 2's in the area that are doing full team hours, etc, but they learn a lot about competing from that first meet and it helps with the jitters later on. I wish my dd had been able to do something like that (she did pre team at another gym) and it probably took her a full year and a half to fully get over the competition nerves. For a long time, if she had one bad event, she would let it ruin the rest of her day, and would be very sad and down on herself but last year she finally adopted a more laid back attitude and if she had a mistake early on, she would just keep gong and doing her best and finish the meet. That was a huge accomplishment for her in itself. So I think the bottom line is that early level competition can be a good thing, whether is is the more laid back type or the more competitive type.

To the OP, it sounds like the meet schedule is very reasonable, most of the meets are close by, etc, and I personally think it would be a good way for your dd to get her feet wet so to speak, get used to competition, etc. I really do think the earlier they can do an actual competition, the early they get used to it, and this year of competing might help your dd from being nervous and having the jitters as she gets older like my dd did for so long. If her coaches recommend it I would go for it. I wouldn't put too much worry into scores, or placements at this level, but it's very possible she could learn a lot in the next few months and surprise you with her progress!

If you read this thread it should have been obvious my comments were directed to one person and one person only.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

If you read this thread it should have been obvious my comments were directed to one person and one person only.

My apologies, I just thought that since you quoted more than one person, that you were directing comments at more than one person, and the first person you quoted ,you made a remark in response about how you must be a bad/abusive parent since your family enjoyed the away meets, that you were feeling on the defensive about your family's choices and I really don't think by reading that anyone intended to personally call out your family's choices, just saying that a lot of gyms have a different philosophy about early competitions than others. Your daughter is obviously thriving in the current environment she is in and that you and your family don't mind the more demanding schedule, etc, and I don't think anyone (myself included) was saying that was a bad thing, just saying that the OP's gym seems to take a more laid back approach from what she has said and she could probably expect a fun and low stress experience while competing Level 2. I apologize if I misconstrued something because I tried to read through several times before I commented, but I didn't want you to feel like you and your family's personal choices were being attacked b/c I truly don't see where that was anyone's intention.

 

[GymDad9.9]

My apologies, I just thought that since you quoted more than one person, that you were directing comments at more than one person, and the first person you quoted ,you made a remark in response about how you must be a bad/abusive parent since your family enjoyed the away meets, that you were feeling on the defensive about your family's choices and I really don't think by reading that anyone intended to personally call out your family's choices, just saying that a lot of gyms have a different philosophy about early competitions than others. Your daughter is obviously thriving in the current environment she is in and that you and your family don't mind the more demanding schedule, etc, and I don't think anyone (myself included) was saying that was a bad thing, just saying that the OP's gym seems to take a more laid back approach from what she has said and she could probably expect a fun and low stress experience while competing Level 2. I apologize if I misconstrued something because I tried to read through several times before I commented, but I didn't want you to feel like you and your family's personal choices were being attacked b/c I truly don't see where that was anyone's intention.

Thanks. I appreciate that.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

If you read this thread it should have been obvious my comments were directed to one person and one person only.

the first person you quoted ,you made a remark in response about how you must be a bad/abusive parent since your family enjoyed the away meets, that you were feeling on the defensive about your family's choices and I really don't think by reading that anyone intended to personally call out your family's choices, just saying that a lot of gyms have a different philosophy about early competitions than others. Your daughter is obviously thriving in the current environment she is in and that you and your family don't mind the more demanding schedule, etc, and I don't think anyone (myself included) was saying that was a bad thing, just saying that the OP's gym seems to take a more laid back approach from what she has said and she could probably expect a fun and low stress experience while competing Level 2. I apologize if I misconstrued something because I tried to read through several times before I commented, but I didn't want you to feel like you and your family's personal choices were being attacked b/c I truly don't see where that was anyone's intention.

Actually cadybearsmommy you read it correctly. I really don't care how people spend whatever money they have. Nor do I care if their kids live in a gym. Every childs journey is different and they all are on their own path.

My point was the child is 6 and it is Level 2. It should be fun. It should not be a major expense yet. A child should not be all consumed with gymnastics at 6.

The fact is further travel to meets incurs more expense and time that is not judgement that is a fact. Talk of "wasting money" is rather judgemental. As was the implication that learning things like how to behave at a meet and presenting are not worth spending money on, but then that wasn't my post.

I was trying to give the OP a different view for balance. Because quite honestly there are many who chime in that how intense it is. And while that maybe for some it doesn't have to be. And quite honestly to insist it has to be all huge hours and all consuming is a bit judgy too.

And my opinions are just that opinions. Funny thing about opinions you take what you like and leave the rest.

And as it takes 2 people to have an argument I am out. Because there has been enough side tracking that hasn't added to the conversation.

OP, as my daughter says its just gymnastics, not world war.

 

[GymDad9.9]

Actually cadybearsmommy you read it correctly. I really don't care how people spend whatever money they have. Nor do I care if their kids live in a gym. Every childs journey is different and they all are on their own path.

My point was the child is 6 and it is Level 2. It should be fun. It should not be a major expense yet. A child should not be all consumed with gymnastics at 6.

The fact is further travel to meets incurs more expense and time that is not judgement that is a fact. Talk of "wasting money" is rather judgemental. As was the implication that learning things like how to behave at a meet and presenting are not worth spending money on, but then that wasn't my post.

I was trying to give the OP a different view for balance. Because quite honestly there are many who chime in that how intense it is. And while that maybe for some it doesn't have to be. And quite honestly to insist it has to be all huge hours and all consuming is a bit judgy too.

And my opinions are just that opinions. Funny thing about opinions you take what you like and leave the rest.

And as it takes 2 people to have an argument I am out. Because there has been enough side tracking that hasn't added to the conversation.

OP, as my daughter says its just gymnastics, not world war.

Ciao, Gavrilo Princip....

 

[LindyHopper]

Ciao, Gavrilo Princip....

Certainly hoping this doesn't become a Battle of the Somme...

 

[3rd_time_around]

Butterfly, it's hard to answer this because each gym and area is different. The skills you're describing she has (or doesn't have) probably wouldn't even get her on level 1 at my dd's gym. Levels 1 and 2 are pretty serious in our state--the state meet was 2 days long. You may have to do a little more research like looking up scores for the meets last year for your state and gym, etc. In some places, those lower levels are more like a rec team, and in others it's more intense and like all the other competitive levels. I don't think her going to kindergarten will have that much effect on her gymnastics, but you never know. You'll just have to maybe ask some more questions, then decide what will be best for the family and for your daughter.

 

[munchkin3]

My point about only traveling 2 hours away was solely upon my geography, and my experience......many have already said this so I'm echoing some very good points...........having gone through many stages of gymnastics behavior, I decided with my last gymmie to do it this way, and I found it liberating.........the expense was given to older gymmie who needed to travel more because he was much higher up the chain.......what I found is is that since Traveling incurs expense, it ultimately WILL add stress to the athlete. Even if you make it as much as possible NOT about gymnastics......my daughter benefitted tremendously at the lower levels and never felt guilty about her sport. My son did. If I could have known this the first time around maybe we might have done it a bit differently, I don't know......but I was very wrapped up in older gymmies gymnastics then.
However I had the luxury of having closer meets which many others don't...and we did have a tremendous amount of fun at some of these competitions so I would not change it In retrospect.

Flash forward, I don't have the choice anymore.....we have to travel far again this year.....we need to go to meets where college recruiters are and unfortunately, my geography does not have many of these meets.....
It is a huge stress, and big expense and now our family has to split up because we can't take 5 family members from coast to coast 3 times.
Now I look back with fondness at our little meets where my DD was free to suck, without ANY pressure or judgment........I think it's part of what has made her so good NOW.

OP Was concerned about the costs in gymnastics at the lower levels....one way to mitigate costs is to find close meets where you can go up and back in one day....no hotel, no plane.....just a fun day dedicated to gymmie.....