Parents Level 4, 20 hours a week

[newbie504]

I'll start this off with, I'm just a preteam mom that knows nothing.

Isn't 20 hours a week a little much for level 4? Level 3 practices 12 hours. Is that normal? Would you look for a gym with less hours for your preteam child?

 

[deeia]

Whu…..??? I’d say level 3s should do 5hrs a week 4s do 9, 5s do 11 and 6s do 13. I don’t know about upper optional say my gym bcuz I’m not there yet, but I think our relaxed system is great. Most of the girls are at the average age for the levels.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

It's not unheard of, but it's definitely more than most gyms do and definitely more than I'd do if I were running a team program.

I'd probably have 3s come somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-9 hours/week, 4s roughly 9-12. 5 & 6 roughly 12-15, 7 & 8 roughly 15-18, and level 9 & 10 roughly 18-21. If feasible, I'd lean towards fewer hours during the school year and more during the summer.

 

[BusyMomof2]

Seems high to me - our gym does 16 hours in the summer // 14 hours in the school year for levels 4 and 5. Level 6 does 20 hours year round.

 

[Janneke]

Our level 4s do 9-12 hours per week

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Level 2-3 6 hours with an option to add 3.

Level 4-9 12 hours max

This was our old gym. New gym is comparable. But my kid is a L8/9/Diamond (she hasn’t decided yet). She will be 9-12 no matter the level. I dont know about 4 because it’s a new gym. But they would not be more then the upper levels.

My daughter didn’t do 12 hours until L7. Not a chance i would have had her do 20 hours at level 4.

To note. Summer has always been more hours if folks want because it’s also camp/daycare with school out. But they aren’t training The whole time. There is lunch, downtime (crafts) and games.

 

[newbie504]

Level 2-3 6 hours with an option to add 3.

Level 4-9 12 hours max

This was our old gym. New gym is comparable. But my kid is a L8/9/Diamond (she hasn’t decided yet). She will be 9-12 no matter the level. I dont know about 4 because it’s a new gym. But they would not be more then the upper levels.

My daughter didn’t do 12 hours until L7. Not a chance i would have had her do 20 hours at level 4.

To note. Summer has always been more hours if folks want because it’s also camp/daycare with school out. But they aren’t training The whole time. There is lunch, downtime (crafts) and games.

I'm not even talking about summer. In the summer level 4-10 are there 25 hours. I like the gym but i don't think i could commit to a level 4 doing 20 hours.

 

[Dahlialover]

Our level 3s are 8 hours and our level 4s are 12 hours. There is also 16-hour level 4 option this summer for older/advanced level 4s. Levels is 5-10 are 20 hours.

Our gym is super over-crowded and the kids spend a lot of time waiting in line. They really only get 3 hours of practice in for every 4 hour session. I think that 6 hours for level 3 and 9 hours for level 4 would be totally sufficient if coaches are being efficient with their time.

 

[Tmacs]

My d did 15 hours at L4, 16 at L5, 18 at L6 (optional extra day- 22.5 hours- but I said no). I think our gym is slightly high in hours but they also work in good breaks throughout the year.

 

[katrid11]

20 hrs for L4 sounds high. Even our elite gyms won't work a L4 that many hours - they no longer see a good return on hours spent on a 6 yr old working out 20 hrs.

Our current gym is: 9hrs L3, 12hrs L4, 16hrs L5, 20hrs L6-10. This is typical of all the higher performing gyms in our area with girls headed to college teams.

 

[WV Gym Mom]

That would be a no from me...way too many hours for L4.

 

[GymDadWA]

20 hours is a lot but some gyms use 4 as a holding level where they train them with the intent to move them straight to 7 once all the skills are there, so you can sort of think of it as training for 7 competing as a 4.

Additionally a lot of gyms train an extra day in the summer, so the school year training may be more like 16 hours.

 

[Anonymous 1234]

I'll start this off with, I'm just a preteam mom that knows nothing.

Isn't 20 hours a week a little much for level 4? Level 3 practices 12 hours. Is that normal? Would you look for a gym with less hours for your preteam child?

My kiddo competed level 4 last year at a gym that sounds similar…15-20 hours a week. This year we switched gyms (for an array of reasons) and she’s repeating the level…only 9 hours a week. The funny thing is that the quality of her training is far superior. Many of the older girls experienced injuries last season at the old gym. I understand the need for training hours, but there is something to be said about “training to standard and not to time.”

 

[Mom9024]

Our gym just trimmed hours across the board for the entire JO program. Last year, our L4/5 did ~13-15 hrs/week, and this upcoming season it'll be ~10-12 hrs.
The HC is saying they've been experimenting with more efficient practices, and she noticed the girls taking more turns/being more motivated with less hours rather than trying to conserve their energy for longer practices. So I'm open to seeing how it works out.
Training for L4 at 20 hrs/week seems high, but it depends on gym philosophy. I'd be worried about burnout, though.

 

[Xyredpoppy]

Our gym does 9 hours for level 3, they also ask the girls to do 2 years of level 3 most of the time.

 

[AGmama]

i would say it is a bit too much for Level 4

 

[4theLoveofGymnastics]

We were at a gym like that for 2 years and it was crazy! The 5-6yr olds in Level 2 practiced 12-16 hours per week. Level 3 was 16-20hrs and level 4 and up were all 24hrs a week and more with privates. Our new gym has level 2 practicing 3-6hrs, level 3 is around 9hrs, level 4 is around 12hrs a week. Optionals are around 15th a week and our level 10’s are getting scholarships to D1 schools. Our old gym had no level 9-10 because the kids would drop out before that point or move to xcel due to the insane practice schedules and injuries. I questioned the shorter practices myself at first but now see it’s really a quality of practice time rather than quantity of hours spent.

 

[gympoppop]

Completely agree with above post. My daughters just moved to one of the best gyms in our area and one thing I've noticed is that the efficiency and quality of practice time is much higher. My oldest cut 4 hours and my youngest cut 3 hours per week and they are picking skills up more quickly and will score better at the new gym. Better coaching, more reps and fewer hours.

 

[CuriousCate]

Our gym did 13 hours/wk for level 4, 16 hours/wk for level 5, 20-22.5 hrs/week for levels 7 and 8. 22.5-25 hrs/week for levels 9 and 10.

 

[A's Mom]

It's a lot. But it also depends on what your gym's plan for those level 4s is. Do the optionals also practice 20 hrs? Do 4s frequently skip to 6/7? Are all 4s also training TOPS/HOPES? Conversely, can you tell them you're worried about burnout and injury, and ask to not come one day a week?