- Feb 23, 2013
- 15
- 8
Okay coaches, moms and everyone else... Need advice. My 6 year old is not competing yet but is working L4 training as part of a developmental group. She is not the best and not the worst, but the biggest issue I notice (in school as well as in the gym) is that she tends to hold back what she can do. In other words its everything from allowing other kids to cut her in line (and often she misses an entire turn) to not showing off what she can do during practice. She is a great student and definitely can do better gymnastics on her home practice equipment than in the gym. The other thing on my mind is that after this year I believe she will start competing and our commitment to gymnastics will increase tremendously. I will support what makes her happy, but my worry is that she really hasn't had a chance for multiple reasons, to try other sports. This summer instead of day camp, I'm thinking of giving her an intro to many activities. She is not a soccer kind of kid... just not her thing. She has shown an interest in Ballet, so I will get her a ballet class once a week over the summer and a swim class at our Y, possibly an ice skating class locally too since she had an interest in doing that recreationally at least. My hubby was a black belt in the Martial Art of Kempo. My DD is definitely not a Kempo kind of kid. In fact she claims that karate is boring because 2 years ago at day camp the did a sample class and she has been to a birthday party or 2 at a karate school. She is a lover, not a fighter and has no interest in sparing or weapon use... but she also does need to develop an awareness of her surroundings - big time! I don't want to scare her with stranger danger but she and my other DD need to learn how to defend themselves and at least have an awareness. I think that if we can find a more "acrobatic" form of Martial arts where she can use some of her tumbling and learn to be a bit more assertive, it would help her tremendously. I would love thoughts on what forms of martial arts and activities in general might bring a shy-er gymnast out of her shell. Reality is also, now is the time to make sure that the gymnastics road she may be invited to take next year is the right choice. I would hate for her to feel that gymnastics was her sport by default because she never tried anything else. On the other hand I know a few cases where a cheerleader's back handspring didn't always cut it when they came over to gymnastics... so I want to be careful that any tumbling that could come from another activity is in line with gymnastics if that's possible.
