Parents Finding the right gym for form/technique

[gymmutti]

You mentioned that your daughter taught herself a layout. Would she be happy if she entered a JO program but was not allowed to do skills at home including back tucks, back handsprings, or roundoffs? I have seen some girls make the transition into JO at older ages and it works out well but I have also seen it lead to a child leaving the sport altogether because they felt all the "fun" is gone. When coaches tell a child that skills that they are so proud of learning/ teaching themselves are not allowed and the go back to basics (working that roundoff over and over until the form is good), it can be disheartening for many kids.

That being said, if your daughter really wants this - keep looking. There are teams that will take older (can you believe 8 is old????) gymnasts. My oldest child is proof of that. I will say that our coaches don't look at skills as much when evaluating. Rather, they looked for a kids who listen and can take and apply corrections well. This is especially important when the coach is having to help a girl re-learn a skill with better form.

 

[blueberrygym]

DD was on preteam at another gym. Eval X 2 and both gyms said no to even preteam. Put her in adv rec and she started xcel a few weeks later. Switched to JO the next year. She is one of the highest scoring kids in her level at the gym. Dont get discouraged. Took my DD a while to really get it but she did!

Wow...good to know this. Thank you! A friend just recommended that I try advanced rec classes at my target gym too. I hadn't considered that, but may do it this summer.

 

[blueberrygym]

I wanted to provide a quick update. We officially moved gyms a couple of days ago. It's going to be a bit of a drive (30 minutes. vs. a 15-minute drive), but the new gym is excited to have my daughter on their team. They said she is talented, but has a lot of form/conditioning issues to address. Best of all, they said she is coachable and took direction well during the trial workout. Even though she is doing Xcel again, they are also open to switching her to JO if she shows that potential this year, so that's encouraging. The new gym has a track record with college level and higher level gymnastics (elite and national team), so I feel good about their coaching abilities for my DD at this stage in gymnastics. Thanks again to everyone who provided advice via this thread and PMs. It was all very helpful in navigating this process!

 

[John]

I thought I would lend my DD story. My DD did IGC for 5 years. We switched to JO program this year. The coach like her and she will be testing out of 4 and 5 on July 8 and competing Level 7 this year. The conditioning took some getting used too but she carves the corrections and knowledge she gets from her new coaches. She was behind on bars but with the right coaching and the correct dedication, these girls can do just about anything, it's actually very inspiring. Tell your DD work hard and be great.

 

[blueberrygym]

I thought I would lend my DD story. My DD did IGC for 5 years. We switched to JO program this year. The coach like her and she will be testing out of 4 and 5 on July 8 and competing Level 7 this year. The conditioning took some getting used too but she carves the corrections and knowledge she gets from her new coaches. She was behind on bars but with the right coaching and the correct dedication, these girls can do just about anything, it's actually very inspiring. Tell your DD work hard and be great.

Thanks for sharing your DD's story John! She's looking forward to joining the new gym. Most of all, I'm looking forward to seeing her learn the fundamentals. She will have to slow down now in order to move forward the right way. A good life skill to learn early!

 

[wallinbl]

You raise a GREAT point. I think my daughter is the type that just enjoys learning skills and probably isn't mature enough to endure the retraining. She taught herself many of the skills she has before her coaches taught them to her. She recently taught herself a layout on the trampoline which feels right to her, but I can see that it's not technically sound. With the right tweaks, I think she could do so well and I just wanted to do the right thing and give her a chance at a young age. But perhaps I'm underestimating the amount of work it takes to relearn the skills. The other gym did say they are worried that it would burn her out really fast.

When my daughter had to correct something in her round off, she did literally thousands of them, seemingly endlessly to change the habit (she had learned using the "wrong" foot first for her). Thousands.

You either love it, or it'll drive you away.

 

[blueberrygym]

When my daughter had to correct something in her round off, she did literally thousands of them, seemingly endlessly to change the habit (she had learned using the "wrong" foot first for her). Thousands.

You either love it, or it'll drive you away.

Uh oh. Thousands???? Yeah I can see that driving many girls away. We shall see!

 

[John]

I guess I forgot the most important part. My DD is 10 and was not considered too old. Good luck to every girl who finds herself in love with gymnastic, it harder than any sport I ever participated in.