MAG Excellent article on the decline of boys gymnastics

[BlairBob]

Cassie Rice has been pushing for xcel boys but it's a struggle. A gym I visited in STLouis actually had competirive and noncomp/less competitive tracks for their boys and more NAIGC mens clubs are starting and I think one in AZ actually competes against divI

 

[gymboymom]

I've been thinking about this a lot since it was posted. I think mens gymnastics could really benefit from a good pr or marketing person. I really like the idea of "start here, go anywhere". Marketing it like the beginning of extreme sports would be great. My ds is obsessed with American Ninja Warrior. That would be a great partnership for them. Ds would love to see some of the gymnasts try that course!
I also agree that compression shirts would be great for competition. We have a few gk ones, they would work just fine.
I do think the jo/je idea may help in the long run. But time is needed for gyms to use it properly.
I think there is already 2 tracks of sorts in mens gymnastics. Unfortunately it is by gym. Which makes it really difficult to switch tracks when there are so few mens programs. Our first gym practiced. Only 6-9 hours. They were competitive in the lower levels. Then they dropped like flies. We moved and I picked a gym with more hours. But I can see how as the boys get older if you aren't truely college gym bound the hours could be too much. Gym 1 wasn't thinking nationals, or college gym. Gym 2 definitely is.
As for the age groupings. Our new state splits the boys down much smaller. Old state strictly by age. And yes, I think it is a better way of doing it. After all 157 on pommels would still take a lot of hard work, but 10th sounds and feels a lot better.

 

[2G1B]

. My ds is obsessed with American Ninja Warrior. That would be a great partnership for them. Ds would love to see some of the gymnasts try that course!

My son's coach last year was on American Ninja Warrior. If you'd like, I can PM you his name so that your son can watch him on youtube (he has the ANJ video out there as well as some others) so that you can show your son a former gymnast who has gone in that direction. (I don't want to post it in the open because with that it would pretty much make who my kids are too easy to figure out.)

 

[skschlag]

Our boys wore compressions shirts for competition one year. It was a disaster. They wouldn't change from shorts to pommels for competition so they always had "diaper bum". Also, about 1/2 the time, the shirt would rise up during hb/rings, etc and we would get nice pictures of their bellies. We were all very happy to go back to singlets!

I will have to look for this American ninja warrior! D would love it!

 

[txgymfan]

There was a gym coach/owner on the episode last night. Several former female gymnasts were on the show as well including Olympian Terin Humphry.

 

[profmom]

GK doesn't even care enough to produce some knockoffs of the very cool singlets our men's team wore at the last Olympics. I really do not understand this breathtaking failure of capitalism.

Agreed that the ninja connection is a real opportunity!

 

[OwlGalLiz]

the ninja warrior thing is why we gave one of our level 4 teammates. He wants to so that more than he wants to compete in gymnastics. Granted he is only 5.5 ...

 

[OwlGalLiz]

GK doesn't even care enough to produce some knockoffs of the very cool singlets our men's team wore at the last Olympics. I really do not understand this breathtaking failure of capitalism.

Agreed that the ninja connection is a real opportunity!

My son would jump on the opportunity for some gear/clothing. It's so hard to find though.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

In the St louis area there is a non sanctioned stream for boys called Missouri Unsanctioned Gymnastics (MUG for short). My son competed a few of these meets last season and there were quite a few boys attending these meets. I am glad there are 2 streams for the boys here.

 

[profmom]

Not sure, but judging by what I saw last night, it looks like my kids' gym may have just started up a class on tricking/parkour. That's an obvious and natural connection. (The two very tough looking teenage boys could not hear us moms talking about how nice it was to see boys doing routines with floor music.)

 

[BlairBob]

Some may laugh at this and I think it's way more appropriate for the older guys but something I've talked about with a buddy of mine is having the guys go topless/shirtless.

No more leos riding up unless you get short cut leos.

Show off the chesticles and guns.

Many guys train topless in the gym toward that age anyways.

But I'd agree I don't want to see this in JO. No chubby, scrawny hairless pre pubescent boys. It's kinda funny when they are preteam muchkins but not on a center stage.

Try to make the sport more macho, especially here in the US.

 

[flippingtogether]

Was men's gymnastics more popular in the 80s on the US? By chance saw part of the original Footloose movie the other week - hadn't seem it in decades - and was shocked that Kevin Bacon's character was on his high school gymnastics team.
Seems like you wouldn't see that mainstream crossover today!

 

[2G1B]

I don't know how I'd feel about it at competitions; but my son and his friends regularly take their shirts off during practice. It always makes me laugh, they all like to show off their little 6 packs.

 

[2G1B]

even in the Footloose remake, the main character had been on the gymnastics team at his old school. But I guess they just took that from the original movie.

It is interesting to think about men's sports. You have the BIG ones - baseball, football and somewhat soccer - nearly every college has those sports. And then you have sports like wrestling, which are huge in high schools (at least in my area); but then there are hardly any colleges with teams. And then sports like gymnastics, which only people like us (who have kids in the sport) seem to even think about.

 

[gymboymom]

Dh asked what was up with the shirts off the one night. Then I watched podium training with the elite men. Seems to be how to practice for them. Funny enough I met a hs boy that knows one of our optionals. All he could talk about was his muscles. Funny for a teensge boy to be talking about boy like that. Definitely something needs to be done to market gymnastics that way.

 

[LilHawkMom]

I love the ideas about american ninja warrior/cross fit/muscles---those would make great ads and help better define boys gymnastics. I could see them showing all the different exercises they do when they do strength and conditioning and without shirts (that is how all of our boys from level 4 and up train) and showing the muscles in those both young and older boys as sort of a if you do this, you get this and show them doing the fun ninja skills I often see the boys doing. Oh so many cool commercials/ads I could think of to put boys gymnastics in a great light and marketing it to boys as a get strong program and do cool tricks. I think drawing boys and parents in like that is the way to go. The time is now to jump on the ninja warrior/cross fit since it is popular.

I don't like the compression shirt idea unless it is one piece. I saw some at meets and saw the riding up issue.

 

[skschlag]

Our boys can't take their shirts off until ther ar no girls in the gym. So it is very rare that they get to work out shirtless

 

[profmom]

Kind of hilarious how at my kids' gym, the older the girls get, the more they wear, and the older the guys get, the less they wear! All the optionals work out shirtless unless it's really cold in the gym.

(DS prefers working out in a singlet and has a couple of practice ones.)

 

[skschlag]

D has as lot of singlets/compression shirts. It is a good thing. 5-6 days a week thy start to stink! And trust m, if there are no girls in the gym, the shirts come off, singlets get pulled down. IT is funny!

 

[OwlGalLiz]

It's funny that even the little level 4 (6 in time for competitions) like to compare muscles and mini-six packs. My own little one is one who takes his shirt off sometimes. He prefers the sleeveless compression shirts, the shirt tends to come off when the older team boys -levels six and seven- are around or he is wearing a compression shirt with sleeves.