MAcastsalot
Proud Parent
- Apr 22, 2014
- 355
- 199
DD 5 has been in rec gym since 15 months. She's always been very strong. At her most recent rec gym (which has Excel but only for older girls), her coaches would call other coaches over to watch her outshine all the other girls on strength challenges, strangers comment on how strong she is when they see her at the playground (or climb traffic signs!), and even in preschool her teachers were always commenting on how amazing her muscle definition was. I know that her strength has helped her to excel in bars and vault, and has helped her to have one amazing handstand that she can hold for days as well as a pretty powerful roundoff.
BUT she is not naturally flexible. I'm not sure if she just developed strength so much by always being an active, rock climbing kid, but the additional strength combined with the lack of coaching in any sort of flexibility or stretching beyond the very basics has made it more difficult for her to do some skills. She has a decent bridge, but can't get her kick over yet. She has been attempting splits on her own (never taught at gym) and I can see decent progress, and she walks her hands down the wall into a bridge, which is getting better. I have just seen the other girls in her class that seem to be so flexible, but they are also very floppy and need significant help with pullovers, handstands, etc.
She starts at a new gym next week on their level 2 team, and when they did the eval I thought she'd be placed on preteam due to lack of flexibility. The coach said that it needs work, but since she is so strong they can work with her. I guess I am just nervous that by sending her to a JO program that I am setting her up for failure if her body is just not flexible.
Has anyone else dealt with this? Does she have a chance to advance? I'm not talking about NCAA or Olympics here, just maybe out of compulsories at least!
BUT she is not naturally flexible. I'm not sure if she just developed strength so much by always being an active, rock climbing kid, but the additional strength combined with the lack of coaching in any sort of flexibility or stretching beyond the very basics has made it more difficult for her to do some skills. She has a decent bridge, but can't get her kick over yet. She has been attempting splits on her own (never taught at gym) and I can see decent progress, and she walks her hands down the wall into a bridge, which is getting better. I have just seen the other girls in her class that seem to be so flexible, but they are also very floppy and need significant help with pullovers, handstands, etc.
She starts at a new gym next week on their level 2 team, and when they did the eval I thought she'd be placed on preteam due to lack of flexibility. The coach said that it needs work, but since she is so strong they can work with her. I guess I am just nervous that by sending her to a JO program that I am setting her up for failure if her body is just not flexible.
Has anyone else dealt with this? Does she have a chance to advance? I'm not talking about NCAA or Olympics here, just maybe out of compulsories at least!