Parents Fast tracking gymnasts

[ReluctantGymMom]

One thing to note about "no fear" kids.

While many times there are no signs of issues in the gym and they are fully able to push themselves though fear with seemingly no issues to the coach... sometimes the issues manifest themselves in other parts of their life... or they just hold it all in until one day they just suddenly quit.

I do agree that "no fear" is definitely something that coaches look for though.

Yes, exactly.

While my daughter had zero fears at the gym, she has always had massive anxiety everywhere else. She thrived in the gym structure, and needed things in an organized manner even as a preschooler - but in the outside world? Where things are not in her control? It's a hard no.

So because she could be pushed, was fearless, completely unemotional, and learned big skills fast - they bumped her up several levels.

I wonder if she would have remained fearless if she had a better foundation, and probably wouldn't have fallen in the same ways that triggered the fear.

There's another girl at our gym who started in level 4, and her old gym jumped her to level 8 - she's been in level 8 for 3 years now, but odds are she'll never make it to 9 because the intensity of her fear on every event is wild, and she's only turned 12. In level 4 she was fearless and picked up skills fast, and well... that's what you get.

 

[FlippinLilysMom]

My DD was fast tracked and will be a 7 year level 10 when she graduates in 2024. She was training/competing elite for awhile but decided to focus on level 10 a few years ago. When she was moved up to level 10 at 10 years old we heard all the comments (she's too young, why the rush, etc..) but we also knew if she stayed at level 8 or 9 we would be accused of holding her back or "sandbagging" to win. We literally felt like whatever choice was made we'd get questioned about it. She's been lucky to be in a gym that doesn't practice a crazy amount of hours (20 per week) and has allowed her to remain in public school (even when she was doing elite). Luckily for us and her it seems to have worked out. The one thing I would do differently if given the chance is to not have had her compete level 5 and 7 in the same season. That was too much (she agrees).

 

[FlippinLilysMom]

Probably to a gym that can get you qualified elite.

Not every gymnast wants to train or compete elite. There's nothing wrong with staying at level 10 for multiple years, no matter how high you are scoring.

 

[JBS]

But 7-8 years seems like a really long time. I do know that there are upgrades happening and trying to get bonuses with 10.1 start values and all that.

Part of the issue was the Level 9 rules. Now that they are allowing more skills at Level 9... some of that will slowly start to be fixed.

 

[JBS]

An 11 year old L10 scoring 38+ AA at a more or less run of mill gym is a unicorn who should drop everything to make a run at the next Olympics. Because they’re out scoring some of the best American women of all time at a similar age.

I would 100% agree with this statement.

It's an exact example of how fast tracking should really work. More or less... when the gym struggles to keep up with the athlete... that's a true fast track scenario.

 

[gymjunkie]

I’m curious what criteria does a gym use to fast track a group of gymnasts and those that aren’t fast tracked are placed in a different level with ( different training) I’m confused by this rationale can anyone explain? Why not call in TOPs or a different program.

I'm not sure what you mean by your last sentence, but I will say that the child's ability determines what track they are on. Sometimes a child appears to be on the "fast track," but they end up not moving along as quickly as expected so they need to be reassigned to a more appropriate group. Sometimes the coaches in charge of picking the fast track group are just not very good at it, so kids are more often reassigned than not. I worked at a gym where being selected for TOPS made you more likely to end up in xcel than kids in the "regular" compulsory group (no exaggeration). This was a gym with a few national team members and one olympian, but the coaches who chose the TOPS group were just not that good at predicting future success stories out of the 4-year-old group.