Minimal training hours

[justanothergymmom]

With talk about excessive training hours, I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on what the ideal number of hours per week or length of workout that an optional level gymnast should train. What is the least number of hours that a gymnast could train and still gain skills and also fit in enough conditioning? I was wondering because my girls train in a facility that trains fewer hours a week than many surrounding gyms (no where near 32+ hours!!!!).

 

[Deleted member D3987]

8-10= 16 to 24 hours a week. plenty. gets you to 10 nationals, etc;

 

[tflipz]

I think 25 hours is good, do an hour of condititoning/stretching during the practice and 3 hours of practice. 5 hours on saturdays. you never want to over train you need your body to heal so that you can make progress throughout the week.

 

[justanothergymmom]

Thanks! My daughters' gym's hours are just below the low end of your range dunno. Several parents have wondered whether they are doing enough hours to safely train skills on all 4 events AND ALSO get in the conditioning/strength/flexibility training that is so important. No need to worry about nationals yet...she's 1st year L9...we have time...

 

[nationalchampion97]

The gym team at my gym trains 12 hours a week for levels 4-8...

 

[Aussie_coach]

Gymnastics Australia recommends a minimum of 14 hours a week to train level 7-10 safely and affectively. USA Level 7-10 is very similar skill wise, so I would say the hour limit would work for you as well. Of course this is unlikely to win you any national titles or college scholarships, but that is not everyones goal in gymnastics.

 

[B&M's mom]

I think that it also depends somewhat on the child. Some children will do better with more hours and some with fewer. My daughter is a Level 8 who only practices 12.5 hours but does extremely well, usually places at least top 5.

Could she use some more practice time to perfect her routines? Yes but her gym limits the hours. So for her the minimal time would be where she's at. Other girls at her gym could use more time to work on their skills so their minimal time would be higher.

 

[LMV]

I think that it also depends somewhat on the child. Some children will do better with more hours and some with fewer. My daughter is a Level 8 who only practices 12.5 hours but does extremely well, usually places at least top 5.

Could she use some more practice time to perfect her routines? Yes but her gym limits the hours. So for her the minimal time would be where she's at. Other girls at her gym could use more time to work on their skills so their minimal time would be higher.

Our daughter is in a similar situation. She does 12-15 hours a week and is trying to be a level 8. Her gym would like her to train a little more [around 20 hours] and would like her to compete level 9. When we originally negotiated into this the HC basically said there is a certain amount of time needed for conditioning and strength work and that isn't really modifiable so what would suffer would be running routines and that sounded very reasonable. Now we're getting a lot of pushback to let her compete L9 [which I guess will be resolved in some fashion this afternoon after the parents/owner/HC pow-wow] and to up the hours [which is non-negotiable currently due to health concerns].