Parents Form vs. Progression?

[Flipping Awesome]

Hi! I'm a first-time poster here. This is my daughter's first competitive season. She is 5 years old and competing Xcel Bronze.

In watching my daughter, I feel that her form is her strength... Beautiful pointed toes, straight legs, legs glued. (The arms can still use some work. ) However, she seems to lack the power of her teammates, and her skill progression seems a bit slower. Sometimes I wonder if her desire to have great form hinders her from really going for a skill for fear that it will be messy? I mostly see her lack of power and progression on vault and floor. Her attention to form seems to be an asset on bars and beam.

I guess my question is what is more desirable in a young gymnast? Proper form with slower progression, or chucking the skills and cleaning up the form later?

 

[Deleted member 18037]

She is 5 don't worry about it. All she should be doing noe is having fun.

 

[vbdb]

Welcome!

I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point. As a five year old she may decide she likes basketweaving next week and forget all about gym. Attention to form is usually the thing that little ones struggle with the most, don't be concerned if she isn't chucking back handsprings yet. And definitely don't get sucked into the "is my kid falling behind" vortex, it's not fun for you or your kid.

 

[cadybearsmommy]

A 5 year old with good form is a very good thing! It can take a lot longer to relearn skills with good form, better to take a little extra time to begin with learning them right!

 

[Sasha]

A 5 year old with good form is a very good thing!

Agree 100%! If form is her talent, then she is already ahead of the game. At 5, the only thing things that should concern you are...

1) Is she in a program with coaches who treat her with kindness and make gymnastics enjoyable?
2) Is she having fun doing gymnastics?

If Yes to the above, then sit back and enjoy the CUTE!!

 

[Flipping Awesome]

Agree 100%! If form is her talent, then she is already ahead of the game. At 5, the only thing things that should concern you are...

1) Is she in a program with coaches who treat her with kindness and make gymnastics enjoyable?
2) Is she having fun doing gymnastics?

If Yes to the above, then sit back and enjoy the CUTE!!

Yes, I am certainly enjoying the cute! She definitely loves gymnastics, and I am glad that they have let the little ones experience competition early to motivate them. At first the harder conditioning after moving up from rec classes was a little discouraging for her, but now that she has competed a couple of times, she has seen what all the hard work is for.

As far as getting caught up in that comparative vortex, I am trying my best not to. I try to remind myself that if she did not belong on the team that the coaches wouldn't have picked her for it. I also try to remind myself (and the other moms filling my ear about their fears that their own younger DDs aren't up to par) that each girl has a different area where she excels. But, at 5 and 6 years old, they definitely ALL excel at being cute!

I am proud of the progress she has made this season, and I can't wait to see what next season will bring!

 

[GymDad9.9]

Form. Count your blessings. Avoid other parents chatter about whether their children are up to par. It's kooky talk. Enjoy the journey.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

Form. Count your blessings.

This! ^^^My ten year would still rather chuck big fun skills than work on form..sigh...your "problem" is a good one to have! Lol Good luck! And welcome

 

[e'smum]

fun big skills with messy form will only get you deductions. lesser skills with clean form will get you no deductions. you can have 2 floor routines, one with bigger skills but messy form and one that is simple and clean. simple and clean will win.

she's 5. 5! that's young. don't worry!

my now 10 year old got the nerve to run full on at that vault after struggling with it all last year during level 4. i was lucky enough to be at an open gym where she said that she was going to try running faster and not slowing down before her jump onto the springboard. her vault changed. right there. more power. now in level 6, she got her highest score yesterday with one stuck landing (plus 2 other stuck landings at one other meet). and a master at being modest, she told me that today at practice she did her best vaults yet, better than yesterday, and that coach X had her try an upper level skill because her vaults were so good. haha. i would not have thought we would be here with vault this time last year. it was not progressing at all. but here we are and it's become her favorite event to practice at the gym now.

 

[Aussie_coach]

If you are genuinely concerned why not have a chat to her coach. We can give you advice but her coach sees her train each lesson and can probabaly out your mind at ease.

 

[LindyHopper]

Welcome. Your description of your daughter reminds me a bit of mine (Except mine will be 11 tomorrow) with the great form, best at beam, not a lot of power...

You are right, each of them is good at different things. My daughter's strength is beam. Her best friend on the team lives & breathes for vault. What is funny is that at our last meet my daughter had her best ever vault, and her friend had her best ever beam routine.

Someone once told me that there are two main types of gymnasts: Those who get new skills fairly quickly, but have lots of form issues that take time to clean up, and those who take FOREVER to get new skills, but the form is already there and needs very little polish (this would be where my daughter lives). The thing is, both types of gymnasts eventually (often around the same time) get those skills to the point where they are ready to be competed.

Just settle in, and enjoy watching her face shine with joy as she comes out of practice.

 

[klv8]

My daughter is also very focused on good form and maybe a little slower on skills. But because she's got good form, I worry a bit less about injury/landing wrong/etc. I've learned with my daughter that she may take a LOOOONNNNNGGGGG time to be willing to try something, but it's usually because she's thinking through the steps, and when she is finally willing to try, she does it confidently and well. In the end, it all seems to even out.

 

[CoachTodd]

It may take a little longer to learn the skill correctly than it takes to chuck it, but it takes 5x as log to fix a bad habit so I think she's going in the right direction. It will show up later on.
Since the form appears to come naturally, when technique is added to it, she will have plenty of power for larger skills. It just sounds to me like she hasn't gotten to that part of her development yet. It will come.

 

[CuriousCate]

my kiddo just turned 7 last month and is finishing out her level 3 meets season and I swear, she never friggin' points her toes for leaps or turns! like ever. EVER! so she loses a ton of points on beam and floor for form and never places despite having a gorgeous BWO and BHS and handstand (she only points her toes when upside down it seems).

Meanwhile, she crushes bars and vault because she there are fewer skills to deduct on and she frequently places.

Two of her teammates have now lost their BHS and one lost her beam dismount and the coaches filled them in with other stuff knowing they will lose points for missing required elements. BUT, they have GORGEOUS form all the time and they both always crush my DD on floor and beam score-wise. Form is hard to get - it just isn't natural for a lot of kids to care how they look throwing the big skills. Power will come with training. I'd count my lucky stars!