A
Anonymous (694e)
Hey everyone I’m a relatively new gym parent with this being my daughter’s first competitive season. Her gym competes xcel bronze-gold to bypass compulsories.
My dd started gymnastics at 3.5 and has received a fair amount of attention from parents and coaches from pretty early on. She is built like a tiny body builder and is exceptionally strong and pretty coordinated for her age. This led to her being moved up and put in special classes etc until she officially started team at 5. I’ve always thought she has the makings of a good athlete with her strength and general athletic ability- when she jumps, she jumps high, etc and noticed an aptitude for gymnastics although she has never been astoundingly ahead of the curve with gaining skills. She gets them on the early side but not amazingly early; for instance she just turned six and is likely still a few months from her ROBHS etc.
We are now a few meets into the season and my eyes were a little opened and I’m wondering if maybe a lot of the attention she has received is from LOOKING like a gymnast and not actually due to ability. She has yet to break the 36 AA mark- first meet was very rough (which I expected) and since it’s been mid-high 35s with event medals but no podium as of yet.
I’ve realized it’s the details that are causing such deductions. I’d never noticed her legs not together on bars or vault and not sticking dismounts etc until watching her in this new competition setting. Now I realize that’s her norm. I told myself it’s just her age and having to concentrate on the skills makes it hard to remember the finer points but there are girls in her age division making high 36s-high 37s so we can’t just chalk it up to age.
Her coaches haven’t seemed concerned in the slightest with her scores and continue to allude to their lofty predictions for her future in this sport and are even offering her special opportunities for higher level skills practice etc. I’m confused by all this since she’s emerging as a pretty middle of the pack bronze gymnast. Are scores pretty insignificant for evaluating a gymnast’s long term potential as it turns out? Do I need to just not read anything into them? I’m finding this competitive gymnastics world way more complicated than I would have anticipated! I’d love insight into early levels scoring. Thanks everyone.
My dd started gymnastics at 3.5 and has received a fair amount of attention from parents and coaches from pretty early on. She is built like a tiny body builder and is exceptionally strong and pretty coordinated for her age. This led to her being moved up and put in special classes etc until she officially started team at 5. I’ve always thought she has the makings of a good athlete with her strength and general athletic ability- when she jumps, she jumps high, etc and noticed an aptitude for gymnastics although she has never been astoundingly ahead of the curve with gaining skills. She gets them on the early side but not amazingly early; for instance she just turned six and is likely still a few months from her ROBHS etc.
We are now a few meets into the season and my eyes were a little opened and I’m wondering if maybe a lot of the attention she has received is from LOOKING like a gymnast and not actually due to ability. She has yet to break the 36 AA mark- first meet was very rough (which I expected) and since it’s been mid-high 35s with event medals but no podium as of yet.
I’ve realized it’s the details that are causing such deductions. I’d never noticed her legs not together on bars or vault and not sticking dismounts etc until watching her in this new competition setting. Now I realize that’s her norm. I told myself it’s just her age and having to concentrate on the skills makes it hard to remember the finer points but there are girls in her age division making high 36s-high 37s so we can’t just chalk it up to age.
Her coaches haven’t seemed concerned in the slightest with her scores and continue to allude to their lofty predictions for her future in this sport and are even offering her special opportunities for higher level skills practice etc. I’m confused by all this since she’s emerging as a pretty middle of the pack bronze gymnast. Are scores pretty insignificant for evaluating a gymnast’s long term potential as it turns out? Do I need to just not read anything into them? I’m finding this competitive gymnastics world way more complicated than I would have anticipated! I’d love insight into early levels scoring. Thanks everyone.