Parents extra conditioning

[JumpingBean]

My 8 year old dd just joined a new gym and invited to pre-team a couple of months ago. Before that she was taking rec classes off and on and serious gymnastics was never the goal. Now she is part of a group of girls ages 6-8/9 and seems one of the oldest at almost 9. She is doing well and enjoying herself which is all I care about. She mentioned that during conditioning she is routinely asked to do more than the other girls: 10 more push ups, 10 more leg ups, more rope climbs. She says it's not done in a mean way and she doesn't seem bothered by it at all. She is a very strong kid and says she doesn't feel like she is behind. I am not bothered either, just curious. Is it because of age (but there are a couple other older girls), or that they feel she needs to catch up, but then she says the conditioning isn't too hard...

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I'm pretty sure that she's stronger than others. If that's the case, doing for example 10 push ups is too easy and doesn't make her muscles tire at all so basically that doesn't help her get stronger. When 10 push ups may be tiring for others and helping the other kids get stronger, it doesn't help her. She has to do more to get stronger, that's how it works. It's very common to have personalized conditioning plans for competitive gymnasts. In rec classes it doesn't really matter so everyone do the same numbers.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Gymnasts don't improve unless the load is above their current strength levels. If she is already stronger than the others, she needs to do higher reps to gain further strength.

 

[JumpingBean]

Thank you. That makes sense.