Parents Multiple repeat level 3s who train 16 hours per week

[ChalkFullOfLove]

Are the girls in level 3 coming out of level 2, out of pre-team, or straight out of rec? It could be that the gym is not very selective about who they invite to join team and that many of the first-year level 3s would still be in preteam or rec at another gym. It’s possible that they are using the first season of level 3 as a substitute for preteam with the expectation that most of the gymnasts will stay there for 2 years. If the gym’s business plan is based on achieving a certain gymnast to coach ratio, it can be financially advantageous to move kids up prematurely to fill up a training group. What are the Coach: gymnastics ratios like? If it’s more than 12:1 then that could be the cause. The only thing that doesn’t jive is the 16 hours per week decision. It’s possible that the people making the decisions about training hours are imagining a team full of future D1 gymnasts when the reality is that the kids coming up through the program are the kind of kids who are likely to top out at level 4/Xcel Gold. Those kinds of disconnects do happen but it is not a good sign. If my child entered level 3 with a solid preteam foundation and could not get a kip and a double back handspring in a year training 16 hours per week, I’d move to xcel or to a new gym. 16 hours is too much for novice level gymnasts.

Hi! The girls are coming out of pre-team and there are about 10 gymnasts per coach. I agree that 16 hours per week is too much for novice level gymnasts and I wonder if they are trying to make up for ineffective coaching by adding more hours instead of changing their approach and maybe investing in training their coaches. Unfortunately unless we move to Xcel, there isn't a gym option within reasonable driving distance for us that has their novice gymnasts training less than 16 hours.

 

[ChalkFullOfLove]

I’m going to slightly disagree a bit on it being so crazy that a kid could not get a kip training 16 hours per week.

One of my daughters had to repeat level 3 because she had no kip after her first year of 3. She almost had to repeat level 3 a 3rd year because she still didn’t have her kip. She barely got it just in time to do level 4 and would still miss it at meets. It was a long 2 years waiting for that skill! It was just so hard for her!

She retired as a 12 year old level 9 so I don’t want anyone to think your gymnast can’t be successful if they struggle early on with a skill.

That's amazing. It's always inspiring to hear about gymnasts who go far even with a bump or bumps in the road early on.

 

[ChalkFullOfLove]

I think it's reasonable to expect one or two in each cohort to need to repeat depending on factors such as when the child started gymnastics and how much uptraining is done. In many gyms upper level optionals train no more than 20 hours/week. More hours in the gym is not always better.

Yes! I agree that more hours in the gym is not always better. I wish their training hours were less. I also agree it's reasonable to expect one or two in each cohort to need to repeat. I'm more concerned with the fact that so many seem to need to repeat.

 

[ChalkFullOfLove]

It sounds insane to train 16 hours for level 3 and only score 35-36. Our level 6s train 12 and it is plenty. There is definitely something not adding up with the coaching/space. A lot of that 16 hours could just be standing around and aimless trying

Yes, I thought they'd score better with that amount of training hours too. I think there is a lot of standing around during practice. I wish we were near a gym with more reasonable hours.