I'm wondering how many hours of gym do other children do. My 7 year old dd currently trains 5 days a week (14 hours) and she will be competing uk regional level 5 next year
It's a bit how long is a piece of string- it will depend on your DD's aims and expectations, and the club.
My own opinion is if she's doing Level 5 next year, with a view to doing elite track levels "in age" (so 5 the year she turns 8, level 4 at 9 years, level 3 at 10 years etc...) 14 hours is on the high side, for level 5 they can probably manage on 9-12 hours, with an increase to 18-21 by the time they are training Level 4 and level 3, and 25 hrs+ for level 2 and above - by which time you're usually looking at being in one of the High performance clubs like Liverpool, Notts or Heathrow.
For regional level kids I don't see the value in quite so many hours. We've just left our club, as fantastic as it was DD was regional level 5 at 9 years old, and probably isn't going to score into level 4 next year. They wanted to up her hours to 20 a week, which left her no time for any other hobbies or activities, or life balance. I've been chatting to a coach of another club and they compete in the same region on 6-12 hours a week, and podium regularly. Ok they're not as conditioned and maybe the form isn't quite as perfect, but they progress through the skills well enough. Dd is averagely talented, and works very hard, but she's been scouted as talented for other sports too. If she's going to make the commitment for training 20 hours a week she wanted to know she had a good shot at elite, otherwise if she wants to continue with gym we find a club that can offer lower hours so she can explore her other talents.
I think probably the main thing to look at is how they spend the time- 14 hours at 7 years old there needs to be a balance between conditioning and skills. Yes they should be learning skills, but there needs to be a lot of time spent on basics, form, and getting things right before progressing to more difficult stuff. Also look at how they utilise the time- how much of that 14 hours is actually spent working vs. spent waiting in line for example.