My daughter (now 13.5) started at 11. I was a JO gymnast from 1979-1988 and I didn’t realize Xcel existed so when she said she wanted to compete I sadly told her “that ship has sailed.” But she found out otherwise from her friend who did Xcel and I searched for a gym with a program for older girls starting late. after 1 year in rec classes competing on their “in house league” she was invite to Xcel silver age at 12. Sadly this April she was diagnosed w a stress fracture in her spine. She’s just now slowly returning to gymnastics.
Here are top skills she had pre injury — she’s been fearless and worked really really hard. At home (strength) and in the gym. Maybe too hard for her teen body.
Floor: round off bhs, back tuck. Front tuck, running and standing Aeriel cartwheels .
Bars (her weakest) pull over, back hip circle, squat on’s, sole circles, tap swings o a tiled fly away, she can also do a mill circle but doesn’t compete it
Vault: 1/4 on, 3/4 off
Beam, cartwheel, handstands full turns, split jumps and Brandi dismounts.
She competed Xcel silver and mastered gold level skills by spring but her coaches are having her repeat silver this fall due to her injury. If she regains everything she may be in gold in January.
Her goal is to compete through high school. Her coaches are aware of this and very supportive. She’s older than all of the silvers but the same age as many golds and she’s training with the “silvers training gold.”
I’ve told her many many times there is no behind or too old. She is where she is.
We allow non flight at home (cartwheels and handstands mostly) and trampoline and beam
Lots of strength but good form only. Bad form on conditioning caused part of my daughters injury when she outgrew her strength and used her back instead of her core and hip flexors. That’s what I meant by she may have pushed too hard too fast.
I was a choreographer so I’ve always been strict on posture and form when doing any type of stretching and conditioning.
In addition to no back bends, id avoid arching core work like arch ups. A good old fashioned plank forward or sideways with the right form can be more powerful than a push up done poorly.
For a pull up bar, we bought chin up straps at the suggestion of her PT. Her arms have always been weak and after she couldn’t hang from the bar for 3 months, it was much worse. Plus this forces you to not use your back but start in a dead hang. She’s finally back to 3 assisted pull ups and does pull-ups on non gymnastics
Days
The rules should be “if something is painful stop immediately”. Help her Learn the difference between aching muscles and pain - this was my daughter’s biggest issue.
And enjoy the ride — it’s been amazing to watch my daughter glow and flourish and love her sport after every learned skill and every meet.
I just realized this is from a few months ago and I wrote a book! Lol sorry to drone on.
. She’s been doing a lot of hollow-body and plank type things, and she just learned to do 40 push-ups in under a minute! Now she’s gunning for 50. She still can’t do a pull-up though, but she’s working on it.
