Parents Optionals gym hours? How long are yours?

[Flicfliclay]

Good Morning everyone!
I am asking this question out of curiosity and just seeing how other gyms operate.
How many hours and days of week do your children spend in the gym? I am most curious about optionals training. My daughters hours changed this summer to 20 hours a week/ 4days / 5hrs a day. For their first hour they stretch and do several different warm ups each day... the next 3 hours are used to rotate to the other events, some days differ on length depending on what event, the last hour is strength. Now I ask, because prior to this change they were in the gym 16 hours a week, warm up was maybe 30 minutes and they did strength during workout of perhaps the last 20 minutes of their workout. It seems to me that when they were only there 16 hours prior they got a lot more done, and now that the skills are a lot harder it seems like they have a lot less "training" time. Does this seem normal or off base? I know this training schedule to be true from the owner of the gym.

 

[Seeker]

My daughter is at the gym 5 days a week for a total of 25 hours (on paper). They don't always get out in time though, so it's probably closer to 27 or so. They also spend about the first 45-60 mins on some sort of stretching or conditioning and then about 45 - 60 mins on each event. More stretching and conditioning at the end.

 

[1canadiangymmom]

Level 7's and 8's 4 days per week, 4.5 hours per day. 30 minute warm up/stretching, 30 minute rotations which are each regular event, tramp, tumbling and conditioning, plus 1 of the rotations doubled.

 

[cbifoja]

5 days a week for a total of 20 hours. They start with a one hour warm up/generation conditioning before going to 45 minute rotations. There can be strength training on events somedays. They end with about 30 minutes of conditioning/flexibility.

 

[raenndrops]

Good Morning everyone!
I am asking this question out of curiosity and just seeing how other gyms operate.
How many hours and days of week do your children spend in the gym? I am most curious about optionals training. My daughters hours changed this summer to 20 hours a week/ 4days / 5hrs a day. For their first hour they stretch and do several different warm ups each day... the next 3 hours are used to rotate to the other events, some days differ on length depending on what event, the last hour is strength. Now I ask, because prior to this change they were in the gym 16 hours a week, warm up was maybe 30 minutes and they did strength during workout of perhaps the last 20 minutes of their workout. It seems to me that when they were only there 16 hours prior they got a lot more done, and now that the skills are a lot harder it seems like they have a lot less "training" time. Does this seem normal or off base? I know this training schedule to be true from the owner of the gym.

Could it be that the coaches think increasing their strength, conditioning, and flexibility will help them with skill development? I ask because I know that at our low hours gym, if the coaches notice something lacking, they spend more time on that… recently, it was tightness and control. With our hours, we can't devote time to it specifically every practice, but one practice… a half hour focusing on tightness / control helped… and it carried over into their event work.
And 3 hours x 4 days on the 4 events is about 3 hours per event a week (more or less depending on event). It seems to me that the extra hour they added per day is specifically for stretching, warm up, and strength training.

 

[Aussie_coach]

20 hours per week seems to be the average around here for optional levels. Usually 4 hours per day, 5 days a week. Although a few gyms will mix it up with a couple of 2 hour morning training sessions each week, instead of one of the afternoons. This can be advantageous as in the morning all the equipment is available a S they don't have to share with the rest of the gym.

The reality is, that what is most important is not the number of hours a week but what is done during that time that ultimately determines success.

 

[Sara]

I wish I had more time with my gymnasts to work on body positions, conditioning, and strength. As the gymnasts move up they need more cardio for endurance, strength for harder skills, and always room to correct shapes. The gym I work at has the girls level 6-10 go 16 hours. We get a lot done because we have smaller teams and the girls are always moving, but I can always hope more lol.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

12 hours, 3h x 4d. More in summer.

 

[gymdoc]

20 hours for our optionals, and they definitely do more conditioning than other levels. ODD says they need to be stronger in order to learn bigger skills
I think as they get older they need to put more effort into stretching and conditioning to prevent injuries on their changing bodies

 

[cadybearsmommy]

Our optionals go 13 hours a week right now (one hour of that is dance.) It is four days a week. There is no extra time in the summer either. I personally wish they had more hours (and dd is always begging to go more hours lol). It's going to be hard for our girls going up against gyms that do 20 plus hours. The lack of time means they don't get as much conditioning in during meet season, and I think that leads to difficulty in getting newer more difficult skills. At the same time they seem to have a lower injury rate than other high hour gyms in the area, not sure if that is coincidental or a result of less wear and tear on their bodies at an early age.

 

[ascarter1]

Good Morning everyone!
I am asking this question out of curiosity and just seeing how other gyms operate.
How many hours and days of week do your children spend in the gym? I am most curious about optionals training. My daughters hours changed this summer to 20 hours a week/ 4days / 5hrs a day. For their first hour they stretch and do several different warm ups each day... the next 3 hours are used to rotate to the other events, some days differ on length depending on what event, the last hour is strength. Now I ask, because prior to this change they were in the gym 16 hours a week, warm up was maybe 30 minutes and they did strength during workout of perhaps the last 20 minutes of their workout. It seems to me that when they were only there 16 hours prior they got a lot more done, and now that the skills are a lot harder it seems like they have a lot less "training" time. Does this seem normal or off base? I know this training schedule to be true from the owner of the gym.

Lv 6-7 are 16 hours (4 days/4 hours)
Lv 8-10 are 20 hours (5 days/4 hours)

 

[ascarter1]

Our optionals go 13 hours a week right now (one hour of that is dance.) It is four days a week. There is no extra time in the summer either. I personally wish they had more hours (and dd is always begging to go more hours lol). It's going to be hard for our girls going up against gyms that do 20 plus hours. The lack of time means they don't get as much conditioning in during meet season, and I think that leads to difficulty in getting newer more difficult skills. At the same time they seem to have a lower injury rate than other high hour gyms in the area, not sure if that is coincidental or a result of less wear and tear on their bodies at an early age.

I agree, but there is something to say about recovery time too! We see an increase of injuries when gymnasts make the jump from 4 days/4 hours/16 total to lv 8+ 5 days/4 hours/20 total. (Of course it isn't only the day/hour increase...harder skills play a major role) So maybe it will balance out!

 

[Flicfliclay]

I certainly know they increased conditioning in order to be stronger for the harder skills. My daughter has a dang 12 pack! Ha ha! I was just curious to see the different training patterns other gyms do. I was also thinking that I'm not sure my daughter could do more than 20 a week! School from 7:30-12:30 then to gym 1-6 m/t/t/f ... I miss her!

 

[duyetanh]

Long! lol

 

[mom2newgymnast]

Dd is not an optional yet, but I know that they practice 20 hours a week (5 hours x 4 days), except for level 10's who practice a little more. The compulsories spend at least the first hour to hour and a half doing warm-up, conditioning/cardio, strength, etc. Sometimes that includes strength/conditioning on bars, beams, etc and sometimes it's all floor. I am fairly certain that the optionals do the same.

 

[3gymgirlsmom]

my level 8 daughter practices 16 hours a week 4 hour practices 4 times a week , my Level 4 girl goes 9 hours a week 3 hour practices 3 times a week. ( add 4 hours forTops on top of that)

 

[GymMom4]

Ours went 20 hours over the summer and go 18 now. Five days a week. 3 1/2 hour practices during the week and 4 on Saturday morning.

 

[gymbeam]

there are a few different training groups within our optionals so hours can vary even within the same level.
Level 7s train either 20 or 24
Level 8s train either 20, 24 or 29
Level 9s train either 24 or 30
Level 10s train from 24 to 32

ETA: Forgot to state that the big difference between the lower and higher hour groups is indeed conditioning.

 

[e'smum]

my lvl 6 is m,t,w,f and s.
m&w 5-8:30
t 3-5 and 5:30-8
f 5-8
s 11-3

summer for all optionals is 9-2 m-thurs and 9-12 on friday.
exception being a mini-camp at the beginning of july and a full camp the end of august. that has fun stuff thrown in too though. they do an overnight one of those days during the full camp.

we've had some special workouts though that our gym has set up. we had an extra day a couple of sundays ago for 3 hours of tumbling with a specialist coach from another gym that came in. our lvl 3 and 4's went to a special day of training that had several gyms and their coaches working together with the girls. tried to get in for a weekend set up like that with the optional girls but it filled up in seconds. now that meet season has started, no more of that.