WAG How is your gym's practice structured at low compulsory level?

[mouey77]

I can honestly say that from seeing your various posts on this, I couldn't deal with the "one size fits all" philosophy, and the requirements for a year a level. I can sympathize with the situation you find yourself in. Clearly you have committed - not sure when competition/team season ends, but I would suggest you look for a gym where the philosophy is in keeping with yours, and which has a pit

Thank you. I am trying so hard not to say anything in front of DD. Just stewing silently. It's going to be a lonnnng year. On the bright side, our current gym DOES have a pit.

 

[Quadqueen]

Mouey, it sounds like, from this post and your previous posts, that you are not happy with this gym. Have you started looking at other gyms? If you are coming here to ask for advice on whether this gym is a good fit, I think you know already you want to look elsewhere.

 

[Fliptwisttumble]

Thank you. I am trying so hard not to say anything in front of DD. Just stewing silently. It's going to be a lonnnng year. On the bright side, our current gym DOES have a pit.

Do you actually compete all year long? My goodness...... if not, could you not consider switching once competitions are over?

 

[mouey77]

Mouey, it sounds like, from this post and your previous posts, that you are not happy with this gym. Have you started looking at other gyms? If you are coming here to ask for advice on whether this gym is a good fit, I think you know already you want to look elsewhere.

I'm not, but I really wish I were. The coach is really nice, and we like the other girls. I was hoping there was something I could do or say to make this work or to at least determine if things at this gym are really as rigid as they appear. I have looked. I know where we will move her. Just stinks to be stuck for a while.

 

[mouey77]

Do you actually compete all year long? My goodness...... if not, could you not consider switching once competitions are over?

Til mid-late April. States might be before that though.

 

[Aussie_coach]

That training schedule sounds very, very boring, especially for 6 year olds. I am surprised kids even stick with it and continue on to the higher levels.

Here in Australia kids compete from level 1, this does compel most gyms to compete all the girls from level 1 and spend at least a year on each level. If all the other kids start competing at level 1 and then you have kids who start at level 4 they will be at a disadvantage competitively as their competition already has several years of experience under their belt and they don't.

But the average kids fits this model, not every kid. You will have kids who have the talent to enter at a higher level.

Unless training sessions are very short it is not nesessary to spend every minute on routines. Some sort of skill training needs to be happening also, even if to not uptraining.

The term uptraining is also negative in my eyes. In Australia you almost never hear therm but everyone trains up. Uptraining implies that the gymnast is working on higher level skills than their own level. But in reality this is just training, the aim of gymnastics is to continuously improve. Kids should not be learning skills a their competitive level, they should already be able to do the very well, it should be just about perfecting them. They should be mastering the skills one level above and learning the skills for two levels above, and be doing drills to train the body movements for skills three levels above.

The aim of competition is not to compete skills you learned yesterday.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

That training schedule sounds very, very boring, especially for 6 year olds. I am surprised kids even stick with it and continue on to the higher levels.

^^^^This.... BORING came to mind reading the original post.

Our gymnasts have a routine day, routines are only worked at that training session. Every other training session is working on skills progressions and physical preparation.

 

[mobeans]

My DD (7) is a level 2, training 7 hours a week. She does have all the L3 skills, but just recently got them so not sure she'd be ready to compete L3. This is how her gym's L2 is structured:

10-15 minutes: warm-up and stretching. They'll jog, do various burpee-type jumps while moving forward, leg stretches, splits, backbends, etc.

They rotate all four events each practice. The usually spend 40-45 min on each event.

At the very end, they stretch out again/do conditioning.

Once a week, before her regular 3-hour practice on Fridays, everyone from the level was invited to join the uptraining for L3. They solely work on L3 skills. I really really like this format because during their regular practices they are conditioning and perfecting their current level routines, yet they have the opportunity to work on the next level skills as well.

I also do not like the one-size-fits-all philosophy of moving up. My DD is one of the younger ones on her team and would def. be the youngest if she were moved to L3. She'd be bored out of her mind in no time. She'd surely want to quit gym for cheer then

 

[mouey77]

Just wanted to update since all of you were nice enough to respond: I finally talked to the gym owner. He says DD is great at picking up "harder skills" quickly and has a lot of "raw talent" but her form hasn't caught up to her skills. He doesn't believe in moving the kids up until the skills are good enough to earn very high scores (9's), so that's why she's on new level 1. But more discouraging than that, he says her attention span/lack of focus is a problem and he almost didn't want to put her on team at all this year until she matured behaviorally. She is ADHD, so I don't know what we can do about this. I still think the waiting in line for long periods of time is hard for the young kids, esp the ADHD kids. Maybe another gym wouldn't be helpful.

 

[IreneKa]

I think it's a normal behavior for a 6 year old. My DD is almost 9, and I still get these complains from her coaches from time to time. And I know she is not ADHD, my older daughter is, so I know what it's like. Still she is not always focused, doesn't always follow directions, likes to chat with her friends, etc. I remind her before practice to try and stay focused. As long as she is making progress, I wouldn't worry too much about lack of focus at this age.

 

[mouey77]

We know for sure that she is ADHD, but she's not a bad kid--just distractible and hyper. I think some of it is being 6 too, but what the heck do I know? I do know that if I were waiting in a line of 10 kids for vaulting passes right next to an enticing trampoline tumble track, I would want to get on it and jump too!

 

[gymdog]

We know for sure that she is ADHD, but she's not a bad kid--just distractible and hyper. I think some of it is being 6 too, but what the heck do I know? I do know that if I were waiting in a line of 10 kids for vaulting passes right next to an enticing trampoline tumble track, I would want to get on it and jump too!

Is there something else we can give her to do during this time to distract herself more acceptably? Maybe she can go up and down on her toes and try to do 500 each rotation while waiting, or she could try to balance on her toes in straight legs and see how high she can count each time.

 

[gymmommy123]

My DD's gym is similar in their workout structure, lots and lots and lots of routines and only a very small amount of time on higher level skills. And yes, for my daughter, there are times it gets boring. She isn't ADHD, but she is a very active 6 yr old and has been in gymnastics 3 1/2 yrs, most of that on the developmental track. And for me as a mom, I get frustrated because I NEVER get to see her practice anything new. I finally learned to step back and stay out of the gym more. I come and watch the last 30 minutes of the 3 hr practice, and it's kept me from worrying over everything. I will say, DD competed recently, and she did have nice routines and placed top 5 in almost everything so I guess it did pay off on that front. We have been talking about her responsibilities more, that if SHE wants to move up, SHE needs to work her very hardest in practice and at the meets. My hope, is that if she can score high at the meets, and do great in practice, they will have no choice but to move her along next season. There is not nearly enough time spent on training the next level, IMHO, however, her form really has improved, and after watching gyms that aren't focusing on that at the lower levels, and how poorly they score, I can see the point her gym has. All those little toe points, legs together, arms straight, etc., add up to a lot of deductions. I saw plenty of girls from other gyms throwing routines that were so sloppy, they scored in the 6's and 7's. Since my DD's gym has a large optionals program, and many of those girls started at level 2 or 3, they must have uptrained somewhere, so I'm trying to just learn to trust them (hard for me to do sometimes!) Good luck!

 

[marie83]

Argh!!!!

Gosh I would really be seriously switching or at least trialling at another gym to see how dd feels (you would need to be open with current gym about it though as the gym world is small and coaches have big egos!)

6 year olds should not be stood in line waiting for a turn, not regularly anyway. Once in a while to practice for a meet is fine. Our 6 yr olds work circuits. We try to ensure their form is good on the circuit activities but as long as they are moving and doing some form of gymnastics we are happy.

I used to coach a gymnast with ADHD. She was a challenge but we found a way to keep her occupied as much as possible and she got on really well in the end! Sa

Just wanted to update since all of you were nice enough to respond: I finally talked to the gym owner. He says DD is great at picking up "harder skills" quickly and has a lot of "raw talent" but her form hasn't caught up to her skills. He doesn't believe in moving the kids up until the skills are good enough to earn very high scores (9's), so that's why she's on new level 1. But more discouraging than that, he says her attention span/lack of focus is a problem and he almost didn't want to put her on team at all this year until she matured behaviorally. She is ADHD, so I don't know what we can do about this. I still think the waiting in line for long periods of time is hard for the young kids, esp the ADHD kids. Maybe another gym wouldn't be helpful.

 

[mouey77]

My DD's gym is similar in their workout structure, lots and lots and lots of routines and only a very small amount of time on higher level skills. And yes, for my daughter, there are times it gets boring. She isn't ADHD, but she is a very active 6 yr old and has been in gymnastics 3 1/2 yrs, most of that on the developmental track. And for me as a mom, I get frustrated because I NEVER get to see her practice anything new. I finally learned to step back and stay out of the gym more. I come and watch the last 30 minutes of the 3 hr practice, and it's kept me from worrying over everything. I will say, DD competed recently, and she did have nice routines and placed top 5 in almost everything so I guess it did pay off on that front. We have been talking about her responsibilities more, that if SHE wants to move up, SHE needs to work her very hardest in practice and at the meets. My hope, is that if she can score high at the meets, and do great in practice, they will have no choice but to move her along next season. There is not nearly enough time spent on training the next level, IMHO, however, her form really has improved, and after watching gyms that aren't focusing on that at the lower levels, and how poorly they score, I can see the point her gym has. All those little toe points, legs together, arms straight, etc., add up to a lot of deductions. I saw plenty of girls from other gyms throwing routines that were so sloppy, they scored in the 6's and 7's. Since my DD's gym has a large optionals program, and many of those girls started at level 2 or 3, they must have uptrained somewhere, so I'm trying to just learn to trust them (hard for me to do sometimes!) Good luck!

Yes, this sounds just like our gym. I do try to drop off and go which definitely helps! My 3 yr old also takes classes though, and when she's there, I'm not comfortable leaving and that's when I do most of my watching. From everything I've heard, our gym's girls do score very high at the meets at these low compulsory levels, but there are very few optional level gymnasts at our gym. I may be confused, but from what I have read on CB, these low levels aren't that important as far as scoring? Maybe I'm misunderstanding. I have come to find out that several of the girls are taking privates in addition to our 8 hours of practice for level 1. Furthermore, the coach told me DD is at a disadvantage bc she is the absolute youngest in her age group for our first meet.

Anyways, yes, we need to go elsewhere after the season it seems there isn't much confidence in DD. If he's serious about not wanting to put her on the level 1 team, that is just absurd. The gym offers nothing in between preschool and team, and there is no way she would have stayed in the preschool group. I cannot believe I am so worried about this, but I am in mom protective mode, plus I am annoyed at myself for not trusting my gut last year.

Yes, they could give them something to do while they wait. There are usually about 3 of them wandering off to jump on the trampoline and play on the mats. It's usually the 6 yr olds. Go figure. There was one practice where she had them practice holding something on the beam and it helped tremendously, but my guess is that they are too busy at practice to be proactive about keeping them occupied.

 

[LizzieLac]

I think there should be a combination of working routines and learning new skills, but I think the concept of "polish" is a hard on for parents. Often it can seem a lot of time is spent on polish (straight legs, pointed toes, tight arms), but the reality is it isn't polish for performance sake. It is what is required to do the skill well (and safely) so that more can be added on to it. For example, a child with a sloppy BHS really has no business adding on a 2nd BHS until the arms are straight, the legs are together and tight and they have a good rebound out of the first BHS.

Gymnastics by its nature can be a boring and repetitive sport. My DD is competing level 5 and 6 this year and has most of her level 7 skills. But this summer they had one practice PER WEEK dedicated to drills (no real flipping, big skills or routines) and just focusing on the BHS. When we talk about boring I think that is what we think of...

 

[Amusibus]

Wow, I have a lot in common with you it seems! My daughter is 7, also competing level one, also going 8 hours a week, also has ADHD (and Aspergers), and also tells me they work on routines all the time and not new skills. According to her coach, Monday is routines day and Wednesday is new skills day (the practices are 4 hours), but my daughter is telling me all they ever do is routines. The coach said the mill circle is keeping her out of level 2 - again, my daughter says she gets to try it once per practice, spotted. She came home a few weeks ago excited to finally do her back walkover all by herself - has she worked in it once since then? No. I am assuming all this is because their first comp is in 2 weeks. So I am not upset, but keeping an eye on things. I'd be upset if it remains this way throughout the entire year. My daughter is medicated for the ADHD, which helps tremendously but does not cure. They hardly ever wait in line, from what I have seen (I try to catch the last hour if practice at least once a week). I have talked to the coaches about the ADHD, and one of the strategies they use with her is when doing rotations, don't just tell her go do xxx skill, but give her a specific number if reps to do. She will still need some prompting, but this has helped. She us now able to tell the coaches towards the end of practice "my pill is wearing off", which helps them understand and be more patient with her. An extra year of maturity has also helped - it seemed to me that there is a big difference between 6 and 7 maturity-wise.

 

[momofthreegirls]

Our gym's lowest compulsory level is the new L3/old L4. We don't compete the lowest compulsory levels. Girls as young as age 4 who show potential ability and high interest level are placed on the L3 training team. They stay there until they are ready/old enough to compete new L3.

Our gym owner's philosophy is to spend time gaining strength, flexibility, power, and strong basic skills rather than learning and perfecting routines in the early levels.

I would not like the original poster's gym's policy of placing all 6 year olds at L1, and only allowing one level per year. It seems awfully restrictive and could lead to boredom. Not all kids are cut from the same cloth, and having a blanket policy like that seems strange... JMHO, though.

 

[mouey77]

Thanks for all of this great information! The practices continue to be frustrating for DD. Yesterday, she got lots of feedback about being "too loose" on bars and beam. She is genuinely frustrated because I don't think she understands the feedback. DH was there watching for an hour, and he says they aren't showing her how to correct the mistakes as much as they are telling her what to do. Her coaches are very young (maybe 19 or 20-ish), so could it be they don't understand that the young kids need more concrete, specific guidance? I am regretting putting her on a competition team esp after that meeting last week. I think we would have even been better off placing her in an advanced developmental class or preteam somewhere else this year.

In the gym's defense, they have been around since the 1980s, so the owner must know what he's doing or figures this system works somehow. I can't really say they have had any elite level gymnasts, but they have had a few college level gymnasts over the years.

 

[gymmiemom]

Thanks for all of this great information! The practices continue to be frustrating for DD. Yesterday, she got lots of feedback about being "too loose" on bars and beam. She is genuinely frustrated because I don't think she understands the feedback.



When my DD started team at 6 years old there was a period of her really struggling to learn the lingo. One day at practice she stopped and put her hands on her hips and said, "Miss XXXXX, I don't know what tight even means!" It was hilarious, but a good wake up call for her coach. My DD is the youngest on team by 3 years so sometimes the coach would forget that she needed to be more specific for her. Her coach took the time to show her that tight meant keeping her muscles hard. "this is a soft tummy. Now flex, that is a tight tummy." Now a year later DD sometimes says things that make me scratch my head

I'd encourage your DD to speak up and respectfully ask if she doesn't understand something. I hope it gets better for your little one!