Parents Not sure what to do.

[loriell]

This year was my 6 year old son's first year in rec gymnastics. At the end of the year (about 2 weeks ago) he got a letter inviting him to participate with the preteam group. After talking to the owners of the club the mens coach actually wants him to train with the level 4 boys, but not compete this year. For being only 6, my son is very active and also plays soccer and baseball which he wants to continue. We aren't sure just what to do and he can't decide on 1 sport. Do boys really have to start young so they don't miss out competitively or can they start at an older age? What have other people's experiences with their sons been?

 

[bogwoppit]

He can continue to participate any way you want him to. SOme parents want to commit to one sport young, but there is really no reason if he is enjoying his current life.

There will be no end of competitive opportunities if he "commits" later.

My kids have always done two or three sports at the same time, I found it worked great for them. We kept the hours down in them all so they could still have friends and parties and a family life.

 

[gymmomof1]

You can do both at this juncture IMHO. It seems to be even a little easier for boys at the younger age since their development is different and the sport gets more intense for them when they are much older than for girls. Just compare the usag boys and girls national team lol. He is little and probably needs many outlets for his energy lol.

 

[mumoftwogymnasts]

My DS is ten years old, started gym at 8.5 years old, he is currently on the gym team (training 9 hours per week), plays soccer, water polo, football in the school team, swims in the summer and still has energy to burn. It is a juggle fitting it all in, but honestly I think I am more exhausted than him

In my opinion there is no need to choose just one sport now. How many hours would he be required to train?

 

[3stars]

From what the owners of our gym told me, boys are able to train less hours earlier and often compete in other sports at the same time. I think several of the boys on our preteam take a day off a week to play another sport and it is ok because they develop later than girls. I know in comparison that our boys teams train nowhere near as much as our girls teams. I think the boys team train between 4-6 hours a week and my daughter on the level 4 team is currently going 15 hours for the summer (will be 11 hours in the fall).

 

[Deleted member D3987]

then do what the other boys do. gymnastics is a process. you must go consistently. not a lot.

 

[sportyspice]

Welcome to the Chalbucket Lorielle! My son started gymnastics at 6 years old and just finished at the end of last year (aged 13) after his level 7 season. As Dunno commented, gymnastics is a process and a lot of hours is not necessary at his age, there is not a time pressure to be at a certain level as is the case in WAG. As long as he is in a program where there is incremental progress being maintained, he should be able to do other sports and still have a competitive gymnastic career in his future. The strength training and flexibility that he develops now in gymnastics will help him tremendously in the other sports he does (especially baseball).

I know of two male gymnasts in my country who have recently qualified for World Championships and both started competitive gymnastics relatively late (12 and 13). What training hours are they suggesting?

 

[emorymom]

Welcome. I'm not sure what I'd do. My 6-yo son just plays baseball in the backyard. He does 2 sports seriously, swimming and gym. But he has multiple practice time options for swim team per day and many days of possible practice per week so he generally makes 4 swim team workouts a week, which is considered a very good show-up, and all his gym practices. Baseball we save for the backyard.

I think he could do *some kind* of baseball and *some kind* of soccer but not the typical power-leagues a lot of the serious kids play in, because the schedules would conflict, and not knowing when the games were going to be would drive me crazy. We will already have that with gym, waiting to find out your session.

From what I've heard, some gyms like to start the boys on team young (6-7) and some don't care.

Also it seem possible in some programs to go along training 3-4 hours a week and enter at L5.

 

[MyBoysFlip]

My boys did a year of training team (1.5 hours twice a week) last year. They were still able to wrestle, play baseball, and do piano lessons. This year - my 7 year old has opted out but my 6 year old is doing Level 4 Team which is 2 mandatory 3 hours practices a week. Over the summer there are other options so he's going about 10-12 hours, but only because he wants to and he's not too tired out from it. We have a flexible practice schedule with 4 practices to choose from so we can still fit everything in. We still plan on wrestling this year - both league and tournaments. They both have gained lots of strength and flexibility from gym!

 

[emorymom]

I think a lot more boys would be in gym if they had a flexible schedule program! But I understand why it would be hard for the gyms to swing that financially.

 

[MyBoysFlip]

Level 4's have to go 2x a week or 8x a month. We don't like late nights do we usually so S (10-1) & W(9-12) instead of the 5:30 - 8:30 practices. Plus that allows us to do bball. With vacation coming up we will probably "bank" some evenings! He also goes to 1 of the 2 event clinics a week for extra practice. That gets him three days of practice a week which makes him happy! My favorite thing is conditioning bootcamps which are usually 1 hour before or after practice. He's usually the only boy & one of the smallest but he keeps up. If he goes to 20 over the summer he gets a T-shirt & to be in the picture - that's his goal!