S
sportymom
Hello guys,
I am writing here from a friend's account, our younger daughters are in the same team. I have a pretty big problem and people adviced me to aks for some opinion here!
My oldest daughter started gymnastics pretty late at age 10. Within a year she was Level4 and after 2 she was Level 7. Now she is 15 and has all Level 8 skills nearly perfectly. She loves the sport and although she is in puberty, she will never ever let anything get between her and gymnastics.
I read many many posts on this forum, and a lot of times it is said that L8 may be the "hard" level, because to progress beyond takes so much. Falls on bars and beam, overuse injuries, ice packs, destroyed joints due to double backs, injuries on vault etc.
So this is our current situation:
Maddie is 15, a good Level 8 gymnast (does Full twist on floor, and Front Handspring Front Layout, working on adding a tuck, has a double tuck dismount and toe shoot on bars and working on overshoot) and loves nothing more than her sport. She is currently training 18 hours a week. Yesterday we talked about her future. She either wants to become a primary school teacher (has always been her goal) or a gym coach. She is already helping out with coaching sometimes and loves it. No matter what she will be doing, she wants to train gymnastics as long as possible.
But she doesn't know if she should work towards L9 and L10. Many people say they are their kids are stuck at L8 or 9 for years sometimes and that it gets sooo much harder after that.
Maddie would love to have her doubl backs or double fulls on floor or jaegers and front giants etc, but she is a little afraid that she might get injured and that if she is training it for the next 3 years, her body is ruined and she won't be able to do it any longer.
For her progressions from Level to Level were pretty easy. Once she did FH FH, FH FT is not that hard, then she just did a Layout instead of a tuck and so on. Progress was steady. But I talked to our HC and he also said that even if kids have a talent and pick up skills easy, going past L8 takes sooo much effort and the rate of making it or quitting due to injuries is usually 50/50!
We just both don't know what to do. She is very mature for her age and thinks about her options a lot.
She could increase training hours to 22 and work towards her L9 skills and later L10, but she can also try to get her L8 skills perfectly and then just stay at this Level, focus on prehab, enjoy her life and become a fit, healthy gym coach who can still do cool skills. I am proud of her no matter what she decides to do, but I want to help her making the right decision.
If progressions to L9 and L10 were as easy as before, then I would tell her to definitely go for it! But I don't know about that I and have too little experience and don't really know about all the skills required for L9 and L10!
I would appreciate everyone's opinion, no matter if parent, coach or gymnast
Thank you,
Peggy
I am writing here from a friend's account, our younger daughters are in the same team. I have a pretty big problem and people adviced me to aks for some opinion here!
My oldest daughter started gymnastics pretty late at age 10. Within a year she was Level4 and after 2 she was Level 7. Now she is 15 and has all Level 8 skills nearly perfectly. She loves the sport and although she is in puberty, she will never ever let anything get between her and gymnastics.
I read many many posts on this forum, and a lot of times it is said that L8 may be the "hard" level, because to progress beyond takes so much. Falls on bars and beam, overuse injuries, ice packs, destroyed joints due to double backs, injuries on vault etc.
So this is our current situation:
Maddie is 15, a good Level 8 gymnast (does Full twist on floor, and Front Handspring Front Layout, working on adding a tuck, has a double tuck dismount and toe shoot on bars and working on overshoot) and loves nothing more than her sport. She is currently training 18 hours a week. Yesterday we talked about her future. She either wants to become a primary school teacher (has always been her goal) or a gym coach. She is already helping out with coaching sometimes and loves it. No matter what she will be doing, she wants to train gymnastics as long as possible.
But she doesn't know if she should work towards L9 and L10. Many people say they are their kids are stuck at L8 or 9 for years sometimes and that it gets sooo much harder after that.
Maddie would love to have her doubl backs or double fulls on floor or jaegers and front giants etc, but she is a little afraid that she might get injured and that if she is training it for the next 3 years, her body is ruined and she won't be able to do it any longer.
For her progressions from Level to Level were pretty easy. Once she did FH FH, FH FT is not that hard, then she just did a Layout instead of a tuck and so on. Progress was steady. But I talked to our HC and he also said that even if kids have a talent and pick up skills easy, going past L8 takes sooo much effort and the rate of making it or quitting due to injuries is usually 50/50!
We just both don't know what to do. She is very mature for her age and thinks about her options a lot.
She could increase training hours to 22 and work towards her L9 skills and later L10, but she can also try to get her L8 skills perfectly and then just stay at this Level, focus on prehab, enjoy her life and become a fit, healthy gym coach who can still do cool skills. I am proud of her no matter what she decides to do, but I want to help her making the right decision.
If progressions to L9 and L10 were as easy as before, then I would tell her to definitely go for it! But I don't know about that I and have too little experience and don't really know about all the skills required for L9 and L10!
I would appreciate everyone's opinion, no matter if parent, coach or gymnast
Thank you,
Peggy
