Parents HELP- ten year old possible elite path

[gymmum]

Hi all, i'm so lost and hope someone can help with some info. My daughter has just turned ten. She has been training at a recreational gym but has been invited into what I think is a higher level competitive squad in North London. She started gymnastics at around 4 years old but wasn't being taught properly at all and we discovered this a year ago. Since then we have been on an intense gymnastics mission to get her skills up. We have trained in all our holidays around Europe. She's learned a huge amount in that time (eg double back handspring to layout, front handspring to front tuck on floor etc). She's getting good but been in only one recreational comp at level 5 (whatever that is!). Now i'm trying to find out what her possible future path is. I can't work out which reachable gyms actually participate in high level comps (eg regionals). The message generally seems to be ten is too old to get anywhere serious. But I don't know whether to believe this or believe she can do it with the right coaching. Eg I have been looking at forums and seen reference to this girl who was rocking the scene aged 8 and 9 but now I can find no reference to what happened to her since 2012. . We have spent time with the Romanian national 10 year old champions. They are amazing gymnasts and train 26 hours per week... but i wonder how many of them will have left the sport by age 15 with burnout. I wonder how their feet will be in a few years as they walk around with their toes bent under their feat supporting their full body weight. I want to mention the gym my daughter has been invited to, to ask if anyone has any experience but that seems like it's not the done thing? Any advice would be much appreciated. I've tried calling British gymnastics but they can't tell me anything

 

[gymmum]

I should have made clear we are in London UK!

 

[Jenny]

The skills you mention are not high level for a 10 year old. What skills does she have on bars. I'm a judge and a coach in the UK. 10 is not too old to to be in a squad and do competitions and grades. What may hold her back is having to relearn skills learned incorrectly in rec. It's much harder to relearn rather than learn initially.
At this point in the year grades are nearly apon us so you would be looking for a club to train to compete in levels in the Autumn. Probably starting with zinc or copper. Then finding a suitable grades path next spring.
What she can compete will depend likely on her bar skills. But there are competitions at all levels so definitely something suitable.
It is possible to reach an elite level (ie the British Championships and FIG) through working your way up through zinc, copper, bronze, silver and gold levels and then qualifying through a regional and then national competition at FIG. You can do this at any age.

If you private message me I can tell you more details about what you are looking for.

 

[HopefulGymnast]

I'm not much in the elite gym scene, so others can tell you more about that and the possibiltiies in that. I can tell you a bit about this:

. I wonder how their feet will be in a few years as they walk around with their toes bent under their feat supporting their full body weight.

Soo, I actually have spent my entire life walking on my toes and it does cause problems. I'm in my twenties now, and it's not caused huge issues except it may have affected my feet. (among others they are super wide at the front and my Achilles tendon a tad short.) That being said, I see lots of gymnasts who train many hours and don't have that. Where I walk around my whole day on tip toe, they only walk tip toe when on floor or beam or during ceremonies maybe. The walking around at the gym, at home, etc. is usually not on tip toe, so I think that's fine. There are some issues that can occur from gymnastics, but good coaching and prep work (and if need be a fysio) should be able to prevent most issues. (e.g. arched lower back can occur, but proper core strength and upper back mobility work can prevent that)

As for if its too late for Elite, I can say this: there will always be people who say its too late, or you're too tall, etc. when you're not a standard case. Sometimes there are amazing stories, a rare elite that only went out of rec at age 12, a gymnast who is very tall, etc. The only way we get these stories is because these people did not listen to the nay-sayers. I don't know how it is in england, but elite can be hard, and expensive, for the whole family. If the gym has invited her, they clearly thing she has a shot, even if it is a long shot. It's a bit unclear for me wether it's an elite gym that invited her, but I would trust the coaches and personally I'd err on the side of "don't know if you don't try". However, if the odds are not in your favour (others can tell you more about that), then keep that in mind if it ever comes to making sacrifices for her gymnastisc.

 

[gymmum]

The skills you mention are not high level for a 10 year old. What skills does she have on bars. I'm a judge and a coach in the UK. 10 is not too old to to be in a squad and do competitions and grades. What may hold her back is having to relearn skills learned incorrectly in rec. It's much harder to relearn rather than learn initially.
At this point in the year grades are nearly apon us so you would be looking for a club to train to compete in levels in the Autumn. Probably starting with zinc or copper. Then finding a suitable grades path next spring.
What she can compete will depend likely on her bar skills. But there are competitions at all levels so definitely something suitable.
It is possible to reach an elite level (ie the British Championships and FIG) through working your way up through zinc, copper, bronze, silver and gold levels and then qualifying through a regional and then national competition at FIG. You can do this at any age.

If you private message me I can tell you more details about what you are looking for.

Thank you so much Kate! I'll also send a private message. She's doing giants and upstarts on bars but not perfectly yet. The problem was she really only just started doing bars in the last months as they didn't have the right set-up in the old club. Can you tell me what skills she should be aiming for on floor at this age? Yes it's true she had to unlearn a lot but we have been working on doing things correctly when going abroad (Romania, Croatia etc) and she's come on a long way with correct technique

 

[gymmum]

guys, sorry but how do i send a private reply on here. Duh!

 

[HopefulGymnast]

Thank you so much Kate! I'll also send a private message. She's doing giants and upstarts on bars but not perfectly yet. The problem was she really only just started doing bars in the last months as they didn't have the right set-up in the old club. Can you tell me what skills she should be aiming for on floor at this age? Yes it's true she had to unlearn a lot but we have been working on doing things correctly when going abroad (Romania, Croatia etc) and she's come on a long way with correct technique

Just so you know, the message was sent to you by Jenny (see to the left of the post, at least if you're on a computer), and the message was "liked" by coach kate.
I think you press her name, then you're on her page. When on her page, there's the option "start conversation". I expect that's what you want.

Good luck

 

[gymmum]

I'm not much in the elite gym scene, so others can tell you more about that and the possibiltiies in that. I can tell you a bit about this:

Soo, I actually have spent my entire life walking on my toes and it does cause problems. I'm in my twenties now, and it's not caused huge issues except it may have affected my feet. (among others they are super wide at the front and my Achilles tendon a tad short.) That being said, I see lots of gymnasts who train many hours and don't have that. Where I walk around my whole day on tip toe, they only walk tip toe when on floor or beam or during ceremonies maybe. The walking around at the gym, at home, etc. is usually not on tip toe, so I think that's fine. There are some issues that can occur from gymnastics, but good coaching and prep work (and if need be a fysio) should be able to prevent most issues. (e.g. arched lower back can occur, but proper core strength and upper back mobility work can prevent that)

As for if its too late for Elite, I can say this: there will always be people who say its too late, or you're too tall, etc. when you're not a standard case. Sometimes there are amazing stories, a rare elite that only went out of rec at age 12, a gymnast who is very tall, etc. The only way we get these stories is because these people did not listen to the nay-sayers. I don't know how it is in england, but elite can be hard, and expensive, for the whole family. If the gym has invited her, they clearly thing she has a shot, even if it is a long shot. It's a bit unclear for me wether it's an elite gym that invited her, but I would trust the coaches and personally I'd err on the side of "don't know if you don't try". However, if the odds are not in your favour (others can tell you more about that), then keep that in mind if it ever comes to making sacrifices for her gymnastisc.

thank you so much for taking the time to answer me. Yes my daughter has a sway back! it's taking a lot to correct it. Regarding the toe walking, i don't mean on tip-toes, I mean with toes totally bent under the feet and walking with full body weight like that. It looks brutal to be doing that other than for short periods!