WAG Long Term Athlete Development in Gymnastics

[Aussie_coach]

However, in Australia we have a much less competitive gymnastics environment. There are no college scholarships or Olympic gold medals.

But there is also not a lot of longevity for most gymnasts.

In your current highly competitive system you have a FAR greater percentage of
Your athletes stick with the sport, make it to optionalS and make it to Level 10 than we do.

Lofty, and overly ambitious goals are powerful motivators.

 

[TheXcelMom]

I love that Xcel is a gentler pace. I also think (IMHO) we push girls too far, too fast. Of course there are outliers who really could make a go of gymnastics, but for most young athletes, the goal should be love of the sport and body awareness (again...opinion).

About competing; my daughter loves it. She would have quit if it wasn't for the fun of competitions. The travel, the friends, the dinners, and the performance of it, she loves.
We do try to not focus so much on winning and more on having fun and making friends (but she does like to win)
This is our first year with this gym, so we will see how they respond to the scores.

 

[JPC13]

However, in Australia we have a much less competitive gymnastics environment. There are no college scholarships or Olympic gold medals.

But there is also not a lot of longevity for most gymnasts.

In your current highly competitive system you have a FAR greater percentage of
Your athletes stick with the sport, make it to optionalS and make it to Level 10 than we do.

Lofty, and overly ambitious goals are powerful motivators.

On the other hand, wasn’t there a poster on here from Australia who was in college, still training at her club, and hoping to make elite at some point in her 20s?

That’s not the norm here and it’s the downside of this system — they run kids hard and most are used up by 22 with little ability/desire to progress due to all the hours.

Canada has an older gymnast hoping to make the Olympics. I’m really interested to see what someone in the 24-26 range can do.

 

[GymnastPotterhead]

I’m really interested to see what someone in the 24-26 range can do.

Simone was around 24-25 and doing crazy things...
Chusovitina competing in her 40s...
Ellie Black (Canada) is 27 iirc, and was in the world cups (i forgot where she won a medal except team but pretty sure she did). Also has a skill named after her
So yeah gymnasts can be amazing at older than traditional ages with the right training...but will be interesting to see as more shift to older ages..

(PS: Rebeca Andrade is 23...and just won the world cup aa. She is not done yet!)

 

[QuayLight]

Been trying to figure out how to describe this... so here goes...

There is a very aggressive drive to win at L3. Each year more and more clubs are pushing their scoring standards up at the lower levels. Winning is very mentally demanding for a young athlete. Winning at L3 is not required to be an upper level gymnast... L3 is not required to be an upper level gymnast.

We are developing our own system to use at our club... but it is very similar to the Canadian "Sport for Life" model...

View attachment 7285

Many people look at this model and say... "The ages don't work for gymnastics." I would say... "Are you sure the ages don't work... for the average athlete?" Check out the website... http://sportforlife.ca/qualitysport/long-term-athlete-development/

Now how about that crazy 9 year old that can rock toe blind to Jaeger on bars... are they really mentally beyond "yellow"... or are they just super physically talented? Just because they are a 10 year old L9 doesn't mean that they are mentally ready to handle the same demands as a 15 year old L9. Physically... maybe... mentally... be careful.

It works the other way too... what if you have a 15 year overclocked to L10 (meaning they really should be a L9)? Now you have them prepared to fail if you are telling them "purple". Now if it's a learning year and you are still telling them "light blue" or "green"... ok... that might work.

It does not mean that athletes can't win until "purple". Most athletes actually do much better when the focus in not just winning.

Much of this just depends on how you define each stage. The important part is the concept. Like I said... we are developing our own model. That is due to the fact that some of this model doesn't quite work for us... but it's very close.

Replace orange... yellow... green... and light blue with "Train to Win" and you can see how that would get exhausting. Some crazy parents/coaches even replace "red" with "Train to Win".

I cannot like this post enough. The mental resilience of an 8-9 year old is very different to a 11-12 year old. I only wish that gyms would consider the athlete in a holistic manner - skill capacity as well as mental resilience/capacity.

 

[Aussie_coach]

On the other hand, wasn’t there a poster on here from Australia who was in college, still training at her club, and hoping to make elite at some point in her 20s?

That’s not the norm here and it’s the downside of this system — they run kids hard and most are used up by 22 with little ability/desire to progress due to all the hours.

Canada has an older gymnast hoping to make the Olympics. I’m really interested to see what someone in the 24-26 range can do.

I have many years of coaching experience and I do believe, that if done correctly a WAG gymnast in her 20’s would have an advantage over a gymnast in her mid to late teens.

I also believe it’s very realistic that a well trained WAG gymnast should be able to compete elite right through her 30’s.

But the training regime causes injuries and weaknesses, their bodies don’t last. It’s often not age, it’s doing an intense sport too long.

It’s also the number of hours required, as a school kid parents can pay for this. When you get older at some point there is the desire for an education, a job, a family, a relationship. And you need to make a living.

Of course burn out is an issue too. An elite gymnast does not get a life outside of being an elite gymnast, at some stage they are just done.

Another issue is the need to get as many acrobatic elements as possible prior to puberty, it’s harder to teach most of these after puberty. So it pushes everything to a younger age. At the other end of this it means years and years of intense training as an elite because they have to start elite skills so young.