How much/what practice do you let them do at home?

[Faith]

Wasn't sure whether to put this in parenting, but I'd like coaches opinions too...

DD is coming up to 7 and just started to get excited about gymnastics, and do stuff at home. I have a set of press up bars, so I'm letting her practice handstands/press to handstand on so she doesn't stress her wrists. She has a chin up bar and does back circles up/kip drills. Plus the usual cartwheeling round the garden.

She know she's absolutely not allowed to do anything unless I'm present. She will play on the bar/press up bars/jumping off stuff all day if I let her- I stop her when she looks tired (legs are bending, arms etc). She's not flexible, but does work her kickovers, but she obviously finds it difficult. She wants a floor beam for christmas .

She only does once a week (3 hrs) at the gym, but she does a dance, swim and diving class (1 hr dance, 30 mins for the others). It's the school holidays at the minute, so she seems to be constantly in her leotard. Next summer I'm finding summer classes!

How much is too much? I don't want her injured, either through falling or overuse. I don't want her picking up bad technique either. But I don't want to discourage or hold her back, with her only doing one session a week. Plus although she needs to work her flexibility, I do worry she'll injure by pushing too far past her (fairly limited) range, even with the kickovers I can tell it's hard....

What's normal? What's the balance between helping and over training?

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

She ideally wouldn't be practicing at home at all, but you can encourage her to stretch since her flexibility needs work. Have her do running, jumping jacks to warm up and light stretching like they do to warm up in the gym. She can work straddles, bridges, splits and oversplits. As long as you're not physically pushing her down into her splits, she probably won't pull a muscle as long as she's warmed up. If she says it hurts, it's supposed to hurt.

 

[cher062]

The only time my DD "practices" at home is if she initiates it.
She does have a chin up bar and a practice balance beam that sits flat on the floor. The beam she does practice dance moves on.
When the gym is on vacation they get a conditioning schedule to do over the vacation time but otherwise she spends enough time at the gym. Our rule is I would prefer her to do her practicing at the gym with the professionals who know exactly how to spot and know exactly what THEY want for form for my DD.

Home is home and she does things any kid does and gym is where she does her gym

 

[gymgirl1129]

I remember I used to do things around my house all the time. I used a chin up bars for glides, tapswings, backhipcircles. And i used to put masking tape on the carpet as a beam until I got a floor beam (I think it was for Christmas). I also put all our pillows from the couch and mine from my room all together and practice bridge kickovers and that kind of stuff and I also asked my mom to help. My mom didn't make me do any of this I just really loved the sport and I was always flipping around of the couch too. I didn't condition or stretch at home just kinda fooled around and I still try to see how long I can hold handstands in my room(that's about all I can fit with hiting my legs on something or fallling and hurting myself. I do try to do some condtioning and stretching at home on vacations or when the gym is closed so I won't be too tired when I ge back but I usually don't because I find something else to do or I am busy doing other things but I am usually fine with that.

I think that as long as she is having fun doing gymnastics around the house let her but don't push her too hard or anything. It will be good when she is in classes because she will learn even more things to try at home.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Kids will do gymnastics outside of the gym, it doesn't matter if you tell them not to, they will. The bars at school will be swung on, the next door neighbors fence will become a balance beam. Many people try to keep their children safe by not letting them do gymnastics at home, but this does not keep them safe.

You keep them safe by teaching them to understand their own bodies, teach them to look out for the warning signs that their muscles are getting fatigued and the possible consequences by continuing after this point. Teach them to understand how skills feel when they know they have them as opposed to think they might have them. Teach them to make judgements about the difference between doing things on soft mats and hard floors.

At times they will get bumped and bruised and those bumps and bruises will teach them a valuable lesson.

 

[CoachGoofy]

I'd rather my athletes didn't do gym at home. I know that's never going to happen though!

If they want to stretch or condition, that is awesome and fantastic and I love it. I don't really want them tumbling, but I know they handstand and cartwheel around (which I can live with).

I don't want them 'teaching themselves' skills, especially not on trampolines, and I try to discourage doing, say, backhandsprings and back tucks in the grass at camp or school. And it's really important for what they do to be self initiated--I don't want it to be a chore.

 

[gymgal]

when dd was your dd's age, she did alot of the safe things. I think it's natural as they are just starting to get into the sport. Aftef dd started going 3 days a week, the home play started to die down a bit - and the coaches began to emphasize the importance of not practicing "big" skills at home. She 10 and equiv. to level 6-7. She mainly works the dance parts of her floor/beam routines, handstands, splits, and backwalkovers.

 

[GetaGrip]

When I was younger I pretty much could never get enough of gym! I would do handstands around the house, back handsprings on our couch, and splits everywhere. However, my parents never made me do any gym at home. Everything I did was because I wanted to do it. Also, I made sure not to do skills I didn't know how to do or wasn't very solid at yet. (I still follow the same rules on my trampoline at home).

I really don't see any harm in her playing around at home so long as it's skills she knows very well that could almost be considered "warm-up". I don't think she could hurt herself stretching her splits (most people won't go very far into the hurting zone), and doing so might be a good opportunity for her to bring them down a bit more than she would at home. So basically, so long as she is safe and being watched (while avoiding the furniture) I think she's good!

 

[DC_dad]

None. To be honest our apartment isn't very big, good old rent inside the beltway. She'll do splits while she's doing her homework and walk on her hands on the way to the table. My rule is no gymnastics inside and from everything I've read and heard that would be the rule regardless of our housing situation. When my sister is around (she's the gymnast/coach in training) DD will ask her for all sorts of help on things she's doing in gym and she's told just to practice stretching, abs and other strength things so she can do well when she's actually in the gym. I wouldn't be surprised if she cartwheels in the hall at school sometimes but that's beyond my control ;-)

 

[Faith]

Thank you for all your advice

Tbh I'd rather she didn't too, but as I posted on another thread she's only training once a week, and I don't think that's enough if she wants to improve her flexibility (which is her weak point- she's all strength and fast twitch). She's reluctant to only do stretching understandably, there's no fun in that . If and when she ups her hours I'll be more than happy to knock of the home gym. I think when she goes back to school it'll stop a bit too.

I actually have been really proud of her this last week- she's worked hard and suddenly "got" backbend into bridge, and has increased her flexibility noticeably- she now looks as though splits are achievable given time

I found some fun drills here and on the net in general so have been encouraging her to do those rather than full skills. Although she's now discovered YouTube herself and can search for bar routines, then show me the stuff she wants to do

CoachGoofy- my own personal bugbear is home trampolines. As a tramp coach I think they're an accident waiting to happen, plus they're not usually bouncy enough to practice anything with good technique. As for the round ones- impossible to spot on those!

Thanks again

 

[bogwoppit]

Do be careful allowing her to do backbends, you say she is inflexible and backbends without suffiecient flexibility in the shoulders can lead to stress fractures and low back pain. I know my DD just had surgery for this. please be very careful with this.

 

[Faith]

Do be careful allowing her to do backbends, you say she is inflexible and backbends without suffiecient flexibility in the shoulders can lead to stress fractures and low back pain. I know my DD just had surgery for this. please be very careful with this.

Thanks This was one of my reasons for starting this thread- I don't want to over do it, or push too much and put her off. I've been very careful with the back/shoulder flexibility- mainly been doing kickovers with raised legs (off the sofa ) and focussing on the bridge and pushing through the shoulders to avoid lower back strain. Something I read on here . When I say she's inflexible I suppose it's relative, the limit on her range is a straight leg bridge with shoulders in line with the hands. We were working on backbend to bridge onto a raised cushion (as she does at gym) when you could see her "get" it. She did it onto a lower cushion, then I had her stop working on it for the day.

It is lovely to see her achieving things, it would be nice if she could get more gym time but I don't think that's going to happen for a while yet.

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

Thanks This was one of my reasons for starting this thread- I don't want to over do it, or push too much and put her off. I've been very careful with the back/shoulder flexibility- mainly been doing kickovers with raised legs (off the sofa ) and focussing on the bridge and pushing through the shoulders to avoid lower back strain. Something I read on here . When I say she's inflexible I suppose it's relative, the limit on her range is a straight leg bridge with shoulders in line with the hands. We were working on backbend to bridge onto a raised cushion (as she does at gym) when you could see her "get" it. She did it onto a lower cushion, then I had her stop working on it for the day.

It is lovely to see her achieving things, it would be nice if she could get more gym time but I don't think that's going to happen for a while yet.

My DD has been on a competitive team for 6 years now.... she used to want to do gymnastics everywhere, but once the hours started increasing, she didn't bounce around the house so much!!! She HAS suffered her share of injuries from doing gymnastics OUTSIDE of the gym!!! So with that being said, just keep an eye on her and do not allow tumbling anywhere but the gym.

I agree with Bog on the backbends at home. My DD also had a back injury for several month last year. Fortunately, it ended up just being strained muscles as opposed to anything to do w/the spine, but I think we dodged a bullet there!

I would definitely prefer DD to be WANTING MORE gym instead becoming burnt out by it. Just remind her that she'll get there with her hard work IN the gym, not outside of gym.