WAG how old is the youngest female L10 gymnast?

[Flyaway]

My 4th grader has been taking Spanish for 2 years and she loves it. Will she become fluent? Eh, who knows? I mean, if you're going to argue the value of taking a foreign language due to the fact that it's difficult to become fluent and the few opportunities to use it, then I think we also have to argue the value of having our kids in gymnastics. The point being - we all get to decide what we value and how that influences the decisions we make for our kids. There is no one size fits all or only one right answer.

This thread has become a little attacky over personal choices and beliefs. I'll admit it hurt my music degree heart to hear some parents talk about their kids really only needing core classes... but I find arguments over this to be much less interesting than discussing the over-arching culture that puts parents in a position where they feel like they have to make those decisions and others like it. Peace and love ya'll. We all want the best for our kiddos or we wouldn't be here.

 

[TumbleTimes4]

All I can say is ugh. Ugh about your attitude towards having understanding or curiosity about the rest of the world. You know elite gymnasts from the US do occasionally travel to other countries and how cool would it be to attempt to communicate with them. Enjoy your xenophobia.

This comment is uncalled for in my opinion and I think an apology should be issued. Calling someone xenophobic is a very serious charge and a lazy way out of a disagreement. Casually throwing out names like this and directing them at people that we disagree with is part of what’s wrong in our society. Just because this person does not agree that students should have more than two years of foreign language in school does not make them in any way shape or form xenophobic.

 

[gymgal]

I'm suggesting that having knowledge of a foreign language is a really amazing way to experience the world and that we can all benefit from it. I am throwing on the lens if international assignments so that people who eat, breathe, and sleep gymnastics and think their child is going elite can understand it's value. Of course I know how few gymnasts will ever get international assignments. I am just trying to speak the language of the obsessed who value gymnastics training over a "proper" education. And by the way, those same kids that are wasting all their time studying foreign language and net being quite fluent (because only native speakers are truly fluent) are also taking AP stats freshman year and BC Calculus junior year. And art, oh heavens art.

My post was directed to Freddy's Fred, not you, unless you are the same, so I am a little confused here. I agree with you about exposure to other cultures but since college bound high schoolers are already required to take at least 2 years of a foreign language, that is solved. As for the highlighted, you are making assumptions based on these ideas and experiences as to what a "proper education" is and all I am saying is that a proper education can take many forms, including deferring some parts of education until a student is older so they have more time to focus on their passions when they are young. That is not going to affect the overall goal of preparing them to be be independent and productive adults.

 

[mommyof1]

I'll admit it hurt my music degree heart to hear some parents talk about their kids really only needing core classes... but I find arguments over this to be much less interesting than discussing the over-arching culture that puts parents in a position where they feel like they have to make those decisions and others like it. Peace and love ya'll. We all want the best for our kiddos or we wouldn't be here.

Agree with you 100%. The ultimate goal should be to build happy, healthy, successful adults, at all levels of the sport.

Also, whether or not you believe that kids need social studies, science, art, music, PE, and other "extras," our family's experience has been that those subjects are taught very poorly in elementary school and not very well in middle school, especially in sixth grade. (FWIW, math and English instruction in public middle school have been surprisingly solid. Science, history, and foreign language have also become somewhat more substantive in seventh grade. I am holding out hope for high school.) This may contribute to the perception that those subjects are not essential. It's not that the subjects themselves are a waste, it's just that instruction in those subjects in the early grades is so superficial that the courses may not be a worthwhile investment of time.

 

[bookworm]

[QUOTE="Flyaway, post: 579861, member:
I'll admit it hurt my music degree heart to hear some parents talk about their kids really only needing core classes... but I find arguments over this to be much less interesting than discussing the over-arching culture that puts parents in a position where they feel like they have to make those decisions and others like it. Peace and love ya'll. We all want the best for our kiddos or we wouldn't be here.
[/QUOTE]

I didn't mean to hurt your feelings or imply that my girls only took or needed the core courses...to the contrary, while they took their cores in the morning, in the afternoon (they stayed until 1:30 every day vs 3:15 pm) , they did take music (the dreaded recorder oh yes), art, and PE. Foreign language and social studies were part of their mornings so they took those as well.

My youngest loved art so much that she minors in it in college, and I attribute that to an early quality exposure to the subject in elementary school.

 

[Flyaway]

[QUOTE="Flyaway, post: 579861, member:
I'll admit it hurt my music degree heart to hear some parents talk about their kids really only needing core classes... but I find arguments over this to be much less interesting than discussing the over-arching culture that puts parents in a position where they feel like they have to make those decisions and others like it. Peace and love ya'll. We all want the best for our kiddos or we wouldn't be here.

didn't mean to hurt your feelings or imply that my girls only took or needed the core courses...to the contrary, while they took their cores in the morning, in the afternoon (they stayed until 1:30 every day vs 3:15 pm) , they did take music (the dreaded recorder oh yes), art, and PE. Foreign language and social studies were part of their mornings so they took those as well.

My youngest loved art so much that she minors in it in college, and I attribute that to an early quality exposure to the subject in elementary school.

No harm bookworm! My feelings weren't actually hurt, just a little tongue in cheek to demonstrate my love for music. And oh goodness, my 4th grader just had her recorder concert. Believe me, THAT I could do without!!

 

[SMH]

No harm bookworm! My feelings weren't actually hurt, just a little tongue in cheek to demonstrate my love for music. And oh goodness, my 4th grader just had her recorder concert. Believe me, THAT I could do without!!

Recorder concert!? Oh my!!! Why would they do that to parents! Haha.

 

[CuriousCate]

I think the bother comes with feeling like we are complicit in a sport that may be taking advantage of children. Even though gymnastics doesn't have the catastrophic injury level of football, it has a crazy amount of repetitive stress injuries. I struggle with allowing my children to compete in a sport that asks so much of them. I know I don't get to call the shots in other people's lives, but in a sense we are all in this together. If there were rules that put caps on how many hours children could train, it might save them from the life-changing injuries that they are sustaining.

I couldn't agree more!

 

[3girlsmom]

I still think if there wasn't a way to score out of L4 AND L5 AND jump straight to L7 at the age of 7, it would help.
If USAG changed the minimum ages to:
L1 - 4
L2 - 5
L3 - 6
L4 - 7
L5 and L6 - 8 (so you can still "go back and forth" once you score a 32 at L5 or score out of L5 and compete L6 that season)
L7 - 9
L8 - 10
L9 - 11
L10 - 12
Hopes could have 11-12 and 13-14 age groups.

For Xcel (and I have added 2 new levels - one lower than Bronze and one above Diamond):
Iron - 5 ... an introductory level where NO flight acro is allowed except a Roundoff on floor. This would be for TRUE beginners with no JO experience or girls who hadn't competed above L1.
Bronze - 6 ... introductory through having had competed L1 or L2.
Silver - 7 ... introductory through having had competed L1 or L2 or L3 and meet the age requirement. First Required level for introductory gymnasts.
Gold - 8 ... for gymnasts who score out of Silver or have competed L3 or L4 and meet the age requirement.
Platinum - 9 ... for gymnasts who score out of Gold and meet the age requirement or have competed L5 or L6.
Diamond - 10 ... for gymnasts who score out of Platinum or have competed L6 or L7 or L8 and meet the age requirement.
Titanium - 11 ... this is where the L9/L10 girls who want to go the Xcel Route should be. 4 A and 4 B skills per event required, with ALL C and D skills allowed and 1 E skill per event allowed, but no bonus for the harder skills (except college coaches may look at you). It would also be for those scoring out of Diamond or have competed L8 and meet the age requirement.

With the trend of upward aging in the Olympics and the transition period USAG is in, I think it would be the perfect time to start adjusting the ages ... of course, gymnasts competing a level currently (as of the time the changes are implemented) would be grandfathered in and not have to drop back a level.
This adjustment in the ages would also lead to less early recruiting from colleges by as much as 1-2 years.

This is brilliant!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Even though gymnastics doesn't have the catastrophic injury level of football, it has a crazy amount of repetitive stress injuries. I struggle with allowing my children to compete in a sport that asks so much of them. I know I don't get to call the shots in other people's lives, but in a sense we are all in this together. If there were rules that put caps on how many hours children could train, it might save them from the life-changing injuries that they are sustaining.

I’m not sure what you consider catastrophic but in our school district the sport with the highest head injury (concussion protocol type ) is..........................

Cheer.

I would think taking all injuries into account gymnastics might be higher then football.

 

[reluctant]

I’m not sure what you consider catastrophic but in our school district the sport with the highest head injury (concussion protocol type ) is..........................

Cheer.

I would think taking all injuries into account gymnastics might be higher then football.

The thing that makes cheer so dangerous is that so much of it takes place on hard surfaces. I consider catastrophic injuries to be head and neck injuries.

• 10% of all contact-sport athletes sustain concussions yearly
• Football injuries associated with the brain occur at a rate of one in every 5.5 games
• 5% of soccer players sustain brain injuries
• The head is involved in more baseball injuries than any other body part; almost half of injuries involve a child's head, face, mouth or eyes
• An athlete who sustains concussion is 4-6 times more likely to sustain a second concussion

Concussions - National Safety Council

Being struck by another person or object is the leading cause of unintentional injury for teens and young adults and sports-related concussions are a significant contributor.

www.nsc.org

 

[Deleted member 18037]

The thing that makes cheer so dangerous is that so much of it takes place on hard surfaces. I consider catastrophic injuries to be head and neck injuries.

• 10% of all contact-sport athletes sustain concussions yearly
• Football injuries associated with the brain occur at a rate of one in every 5.5 games
• 5% of soccer players sustain brain injuries
• The head is involved in more baseball injuries than any other body part; almost half of injuries involve a child's head, face, mouth or eyes
• An athlete who sustains concussion is 4-6 times more likely to sustain a second concussion

Concussions - National Safety Council

Being struck by another person or object is the leading cause of unintentional injury for teens and young adults and sports-related concussions are a significant contributor.

www.nsc.org

Thanks for clarifying.

A lifetime of back, knee, wrist and ankle problems while not as serious as head injuries are still problematic.

 

[reluctant]

Thanks for clarifying.

A lifetime of back, knee, wrist and ankle problems while not as serious as head injuries are still problematic.

No kidding. Honestly, I am encouraging my older/higher level child to leave the sport for something with less pounding, twisting and hard landings.

 

[raenndrops]

The thing that makes cheer so dangerous is that so much of it takes place on hard surfaces. I consider catastrophic injuries to be head and neck injuries.

• 10% of all contact-sport athletes sustain concussions yearly
• Football injuries associated with the brain occur at a rate of one in every 5.5 games
• 5% of soccer players sustain brain injuries
• The head is involved in more baseball injuries than any other body part; almost half of injuries involve a child's head, face, mouth or eyes
• An athlete who sustains concussion is 4-6 times more likely to sustain a second concussion

Concussions - National Safety Council

Being struck by another person or object is the leading cause of unintentional injury for teens and young adults and sports-related concussions are a significant contributor.

www.nsc.org

And once you have had several concussions, your doctor wants to wrap you in bubble wrap, lol ... but said as someone who has had 22 concussions in her lifetime, beginning at age 5-1/2 (baseball between the eyes the weekend before school picture day).

Concussion protocol is so much more serious now that they KNOW the long term effects than it was back when I was growing up.

 

[reluctant]

And once you have had several concussions, your doctor wants to wrap you in bubble wrap, lol ... but said as someone who has had 22 concussions in her lifetime, beginning at age 5-1/2 (baseball between the eyes the weekend before school picture day).

Concussion protocol is so much more serious now that they KNOW the long term effects than it was back when I was growing up.

I was floored by the recent suicide of Olympic cyclist Kelly Catlin (23 years old) and then I read that she was recovering from a concussion. CTE isn't just for football players. So sad.

 

[sce]

And once you have had several concussions, your doctor wants to wrap you in bubble wrap, lol ... but said as someone who has had 22 concussions in her lifetime, beginning at age 5-1/2 (baseball between the eyes the weekend before school picture day).

Concussion protocol is so much more serious now that they KNOW the long term effects than it was back when I was growing up.

22?!? Wow.

Yes, concussion protocol is way better than it once was.

 

[3rd_time_around]

All I can say is ugh. Ugh about your attitude towards having understanding or curiosity about the rest of the world. You know elite gymnasts from the US do occasionally travel to other countries and how cool would it be to attempt to communicate with them. Enjoy your xenophobia.

Not being interested in a foreign language does not mean you are afraid of things foreign or have irrational fears about learning a foreign language or of other cultures. Labels like this are counterproductive to communicating.

 

[Peachy88]

I would love for my extremely active and gifted academically daughter to be able to gymnastics and gym school, but it won’t be in the cards for her. I wouldn’t even care if she did elite or anything, just that is how her body and mind work. Then our nights could be spent doing normal family stuff and she wouldn’t have to be doing busy work all day at school. We’re working on getting her the accommodations she needs in school. She went to a special Saturday school and got stuck in a French class that she didn’t want to be in and hated it, she however loves Spanish at school so there is not necessarily a correlation. I also want to note that her parents are music and theatre professors and have literally no interest in sports aside from personal fitness. We know we can provide the cultural, arts, and world prospectives in other ways. All this being said, I want to trust that those parents are all making the best choices for their children and their families even if they are different than I would make. I am sure they were not made lightly.

 

[Peachy88]

I would love for my extremely active and gifted academically daughter to be able to gymnastics and gym school, but it won’t be in the cards for her. I wouldn’t even care if she did elite or anything, just that is how her body and mind work. Then our nights could be spent doing normal family stuff and she wouldn’t have to be doing busy work all day at school. We’re working on getting her the accommodations she needs in school. She went to a special Saturday school and got stuck in a French class that she didn’t want to be in and hated it, she however loves Spanish at school so there is not necessarily a correlation. I also want to note that her parents are music and theatre professors and have literally no interest in sports aside from personal fitness. We know we can provide the cultural, arts, and world prospectives in other ways. All this being said, I want to trust that those parents are all making the best choices for their children and their families even if they are different than I would make. I am sure they were not made lightly.

Perspective. Typo.