I don't like fat gymnasts

[CoachGoofy]

I have to add to this...

At our home meet this year, another mom from our gym was sitting at the judges table entering scores. Apparently one of the judges called a girl a "cow" and joked to the other judges that they should give her a 5. This mom has a DD who is overweight (she is the same height as my DD but weighs 30 lbs more -but is still a good gymnast), and it really hurt the mom's feelings. I told her she should tell the meet director in private what was said, because that was disrespectful to that girl. I don't think the mom ever said anything...

That is absolutely horrible. I don't even understand why someone would joke like that.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

that's what christy heinrich said ^^^

 

[Esoteric]

I have to add to this...

At our home meet this year, another mom from our gym was sitting at the judges table entering scores. Apparently one of the judges called a girl a "cow" and joked to the other judges that they should give her a 5. This mom has a DD who is overweight (she is the same height as my DD but weighs 30 lbs more -but is still a good gymnast), and it really hurt the mom's feelings. I told her she should tell the meet director in private what was said, because that was disrespectful to that girl. I don't think the mom ever said anything...

I was sitting with floor judges at a home meet inputting the scores and during warm ups of a particular flight the judge rang the bell indicating the gymnasts had to clear the floor. A couple of the girls sat right in front of the judging table and one of them proceeded to tell the other that the girl walking onto the floor, (who happened to be one of her own teammates,) was fat. I heard this, but said nothing as the music was just beginning- and I had forgotten about it briefly until, when after the girl that made the comment finished her routine, the judges discussed the appropriate deduction to take for "unsportsman like behavior." I am pretty sure it was either .3 or .5 I have no idea if that deduction was communicated to the coaches, but I had to input the deduction separately after the score average. It is too bad that those comments are said by anyone, but I am actually grateful that the judges caught it and did something about it.

 

[jsfofec]

At my DD gym, they have a simple policy, if you don't eat, you don't train. They get a 15-20 minute lunch break during every practice and all the girls are require to eat during this time. If they don't eat, they are not allowed back on the floor. This also applies at the beginning of practice. The coach will ask them if they have eaten anything when they arrive at practice, if the coach finds out they haven't eaten, they are not allowed to start warming up until they ate. This policy really works because the girls also police themselves. They all make sure each of them have enough to eat and if somebody doesn't have anything or is still hungry, the girls share their food. They are not allowed to eat candy or drink sodas during their breaks or before practice.

 

[BlairBob]

Generally if the gym I work at, has a fridge, I stock simple stuff for myself and the kids to snack on. Fruit, veggies, cheese, and milk. Maybe trail mix but that stuff gets expensive. Best fun thing to have was juice ice cubes (because CA summers can suck).

Sometimes, I like to tease the kids after they get something they will have to do pushups to pay it off. Heheh, their faces are priceless. Only works once until they figure out I don't really care.

I just got sick of kids forgetting to eat lunch and coming to the gym not having eaten since breakfast. That got old way fast when they crashed right after WU and basics.

Most of our kids were pretty good about sharing snacks.

Actually, the best part of it was when the parents in the stands used to watch at my kids sometimes during snack.

It was also a pretty sneaky way of myself to monitor what they snacked on. No soda or candy, period...or coffee drinks.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

BlairBob, I WISH my gym were so nice. They don't talk about food at all so we can eat whatever we like, but I wish food were available at the gym to purchase or something. A lot of days I don't have time for lunch (we only have 20 min at school and the lines are crazy long) so I do tend to crash. Apparently we used to have granola and fruit and crackers and such for sale but for some reason they cut it out.

 

[gymgurl]

Personally, I think that coaches should encourage healthy eating but nothing to do with a set weight or anything of that variety. People are of different builds and coaches who only appreciate the tiny frames of six year olds are going to miss out on a lot of very talented gymnasts. If I look at my team and the most talented gymnasts you get them of all shapes and sizes, My friend who is amazing at vault and was state champion wasn't your typical vaulter with stocky powerful legs but lean and more of a nastia frame whilst my friend who is very naturally talented at bars is more your typical vaulters shape. What I am trying to get across is that shape doesn't matter. How much effort and determination matters a whole lot more than body shape.

We don't get any breaks at gym as our trainings go for a max of 4hrs so our coaches really have no idea what we eat. If they notice someone is losing a lot of weight they will pull them aside and ask if they are eating properly and make sure its nothing serious. They also make an effort to promote high self-esteem.

Another thing, the personality traits that are often seen in a gymnast are also those seen in anoretics. Perfectionists, type A determined and strong willed are all characteristics seen in both. The last thing someone who already has the classic traits of an anorectic is for someone especially a coach to tell them that they don't like fat gymnasts. Gymnasts will often go to extremes to please their coaches and some coaches need to realise that.

 

[wallinbl]

Generally if the gym I work at, has a fridge, I stock simple stuff for myself and the kids to snack on. Fruit, veggies, cheese, and milk. Maybe trail mix but that stuff gets expensive. Best fun thing to have was juice ice cubes (because CA summers can suck).

But doesn't that interfere with the sales of Skittles and candy bars in the "pro shop"?

 

[BlairBob]

But doesn't that interfere with the sales of Skittles and candy bars in the "pro shop"?

Probably. I used to catch our girls at the candy machine all the time. My boys never did it though because they know what a fascist I am. There would be hell to pay if they did.

At one gym I was at, they sort of had a snack bar that had the usual stuff like cup of noodles, celery or carrot sticks, apples, etc. That is sort of where I got the idea from besides the fact that I like to snack as well. Around 6 or so, all the teams stopped and snacked together on benches.

At another gym, where the girls did not have an alotted snack time, they were allowed to go to their locker periodically during practice to nibble on their snack. I used to see them eat lots of skittles, M&M's, gummies, etc. Ridiculous. Actually my friend did tell me once jellybeans might not be so bad as they are just sugar which ends up getting used for glycogen. He also said raisins or grapes would be nature's jellybeans.

Mainly I got sick of having kids peter out before snacktime in the gym. That means, in effect, they were wasting my time and irking me fierce, one or two days out of the week. So I got in the habit of asking them what they ate for lunch or a snack after school when they walked into the gym. If they didn't have a snack, I told them to go eat out of my stash in the fridge pronto before practice started. Too late in my opinion to be optimal, but better than nothing.

At my last gym there was a snack shop but it was often closed by snacktime. Sometimes they had granola bars and a fridge full of juices or what not. I generally kept a HUGE bag of raisins and bag of granola bars or bags of granola or nuts I kept in the cubbies since the optionals used to ask me a lot. Especially our best girl was who rail thin and always hungry. Either that or I'd tell her where the Head Coach kept the granola bars were so she could gank some. Heheh.

It is kind of touchy to talk to parents and talk about what is ideal to eat. It's right there with religion and personal choice, freedom, etc.

We lost one of our really talented kids last spring basically because she wasn't a big eater so she couldn't recover between workouts and her immune system went to crud. Dumb, IMO. You have to eat to play.

 

[wallinbl]

We lost one of our really talented kids last spring basically because she wasn't a big eater so she couldn't recover between workouts and her immune system went to crud. Dumb, IMO. You have to eat to play.

I still have problems with my knees and ankles from soccer 20 years ago. I used to blame the low quality field we practiced on, but over time, I've become more apt to blame it on the combination of the hard workouts and my terrible diet. We've largely gotten DD convinced that she has to eat well (quality) or we won't let her practice. For as much as they workout, there's no way around a quality diet.

 

[BlairBob]

Yeah, I had to get some parents to bargain with their kids of no eating, no video games (boys). They chose to use that device (not myself or bargaining idea).

 

[jsfofec]

We have "snack shop" at our gym. So if the kids don't bring food with them to eat during their breaks, they can get something there. They have things you can heat up in the microwave, like pizzas, burritos, chicken nuggets and things like that. They also have better things like lean cuisine. Since the kids don't always have money on them, it's set up so the parents can buy a "tab", so that when the kids want something, they just mark it off their "tab". It works very well.

 

[gymdog]

Bargaining and consequences over food? That makes it a bigger issue than it has to be, which creates the kind of control issues that are known to lead to eating disorders. I would not recommend this approach. The recommended approach is that the parent provides healthy foods and appropriately spaced meal times/snacks, and the child decides how much to eat. If there is a really extreme problem, maybe you would have to do something about workouts. I am not opposed to a coach providing healthy food, since generally the issue is the "appropriately spaced meal times and snacks" - not that an average child under a certain age won't eat when hungry, assuming they don't have a total aversion to the provided food.

Information from an internationally recognized dietician and therapist: Link Removed

 

[BlairBob]

Jsfofec, where do you think I got the idea from? Hah, shh. I just woulda liked to have even healthier stuff, but it probably costs more and ya never if it'll actually be popular.

I mainly do it SO I CAN HAVE A SNACK (pretty necessary since I used to train after coaching) and will only have healthy-ish stuff around the gym and just in case they forget theirs. It happens. Sometimes a parent can run home or go pick something up, but it's not always a possibility. Sometimes a kid forgets it at home or carpools. It also saved me from having to try to figure what in the snack machine wasn't just junk should I decide to get them something. And of course, I got really sick of wasted practice time because they were out of fuel.

Bare in mind, I will admit, I did sometimes get them frozen treats. We used to go get push-pops or popsicles during the summer every once in awhile or those frozen squeezee things. So I'm not a food nazi, all the time, lol. Sac summers suck and my guys would bring cups of ice near event to suck on. Melons were also appreciated.

Have you ever tried to get picky kids to eat sometimes? It can be ridiculous so parents do what they can. My little brothers were a complete pain and I thought I was picky.

 

[jsfofec]

We do the same thing on those hot summer days, sometimes the girls get otter pops or these italian ice things. We have about 4 or 5 parents (including me) who keep an eye on the girls and always have extra food available in case one of the girls come up a little short in the food department.

 

[gymdog]

Have you ever tried to get picky kids to eat sometimes? It can be ridiculous so parents do what they can. My little brothers were a complete pain and I thought I was picky.

I understand, and I cared for a small child on a daily basis who literally refused to eat for a period (likely related to traumatic/big life change at the time - can't say for sure) so I'm not trying to be flippant. But barring extreme problems and medical issues, children rarely starve themselves. I can relate that that isn't much comfort though and the worrying can dominate everything, especially when the child is such a young age that they have very little communication skills. But in my experience that only reinforces the cycle of food being a means of control. And a child at the age of competitive gymnastics eligibility has some ability to communicate things clearly.

I'm just adding another opinion, from personal experience and research into what is considered the most effective form of providing children food. Their control in the matter is how much they eat. Presumably they will eat when they are hungry. The parents provides the food and when. To me being picky is not a problem unless the child refuses to eat everything in a certain necessary category of food (example: they will not eat ANY fruit and ANY vegetable, nothing highly nutritious, etc). If they only eat fruit and not most vegetables, well fruit is nutritious. More variety would be desirable but if the intake is adequate probably way more nutritious than over half the world population gets by on. I do not think children need to eat if they aren't hungry. I was forced to eat and it was a major driving factor in why I STOPPED EATING. It is just about as bad in my opinion as encouraging a child to diet. You don't want to make food an issue in either direction, because the focus on food as anything but to stop hunger leads to unhealthy behaviors.

There should never be a punishment for not eating. Food should just be offered at regular mealtimes and snack times, and they will eat it at the next meal or snack if they get hungry. I don't think they should be forced to eat something they have true aversions either...not that they need their favorites catered to every time, but if they didn't eat anything at one meal, I wouldn't continue serving it at the next one to "make" them eventually eat it - I'd offer a different variety of foods at the next one.

 

[CoachTodd]

I know when I took kids to camp, I kept apples and other foods in my "Mary Poppins" bag. I have a small Fila bag that I carry around that always has everything you need in it when at camp . It would also produce things like baby carrots and beef jerky. The coach gets hungry too . Kids at camp don't realize they need to eat more than they normally would. By the end of the week, they were asking me if I had any food .

 

[mommyof1]

I wish coaches would stop handing out popsicles and candy. It's nice to give the kids a treat, but those things are packed with artificial coloring. I never believed the stories about food color making kids nuts until I had a kid of my own and she ate her first Tootsie Pop. It's hard enough to get a kid to go to bed after gymnastics, but after gymnastics AND a red Otter Pop? Forget it! And woe to the mother who tries to take the popsicle away from the kid ...

 

[wallinbl]

I wish coaches would stop handing out popsicles and candy. It's nice to give the kids a treat, but those things are packed with artificial coloring. I never believed the stories about food color making kids nuts until I had a kid of my own and she ate her first Tootsie Pop. It's hard enough to get a kid to go to bed after gymnastics, but after gymnastics AND a red Otter Pop? Forget it! And woe to the mother who tries to take the popsicle away from the kid ...

We have had success in talking to our kids about the contents of food and treats. We've explained to them the benefits of eating healthy food (no preservatives, food dyes, etc) and they've bought into it. They'll actually read labels when someone gives them something and then tell them that they're not going to eat it. The girls are 7 and 8 years old, so I'm fairly impressed with their willingness to commit to it. We do accommodate certain things like Valentine's Day parties at school. They know that if they bring us their candy, we'll trade them for some chocolate.

Even if the effects are entirely placebo, school and gymnastics have both seen much improved focus to the point that teachers and other parents have asked about it.

 

[mommyof1]

We have had success in talking to our kids about the contents of food and treats. We've explained to them the benefits of eating healthy food (no preservatives, food dyes, etc) and they've bought into it. They'll actually read labels when someone gives them something and then tell them that they're not going to eat it. The girls are 7 and 8 years old, so I'm fairly impressed with their willingness to commit to it.

That's very impressive at that age! We are still working on it. It is pretty tough for a 5-year-old to resist some of the treats, especially when all of her friends are eating them.