Parents Progress reports - Please share

[TexasRose]

My DD was actually just invited to the L3 team and will compete L3 this fall. Our season starts in September. She had been training on their pre-team since May when we switched gyms. ( Long story short- she took rec classes for a year, loves gym and wanted to train more, we actually had her in 4 hrs of rec a week. I talked with the coach about having her evaluated to see if she was ready to go to pre-team, they said they would take a look, 5 months later they still hadn't . So we switched gyms, to where she was taking dance, and they placed her on the advanced pre-team, where she's been since May.)
She has her bridge kick-over but can't seem to get her back-bend down. The coach says she has everything she needs on floor and vault to compete and that they're working on bars and beam. Honestly, I don't know all the skills required. She's been working on the cartwheel hand-stand dismount on beam and has it, it's just not very pretty, lol. Vault is her favorite and strongest area, probably because she's tiny. She's 6 1/2 and only weights 35lbs! My husband's family is very petite and I promise we feed her, lol. I guess it'll help her out in gym if she stays petite as she gets older. Very excited about entering the competitive gymnastics world!!!

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

Holy cow!! This summer has been so exciting!! Today at open gym Alex did 5 giants in a row on strap (channel) bar. She was so excited after that she straddled a little to soon to come down and hit her feet inside the channel! The best part was watching her face and seeing how happy she was!!

 

[UnoMas]

Older DD got her flyaway this week!

 

[htimcj]

That's funny about the feeding DD. Mine is almost 9 and only weighs 50 and I swear she eats! Good luck this year with L3. I am sure she'll do great!

 

[lovofu]

Big summer here too....after a gym switch mid may....DD *8* started level 6 at her new gym, did the tops testing and clinic beginning of July and switched to the optional group right after. Plan is to have to score out of 6 and compete 7 this year...she got her fhs on beam, bwo/bhs on beam and flyaway since the switch......Looking forward to a year of exciting things!!

 

[MdGymMom01]

Summer's been really busy! Not so much in the gym but in the other areas that dd is involved in. She's plugging away at gym--trying to get over her ROBHS nemesis and working on some new handstand holds and stuff on beam. There are a few requirement changes for Mason Dixon that don't really affect the Level B's but the C's have some stricter requirements on bars and beam.

DD's ballet training is going well--she got some very nice end of the year evaluations from her teachers and she is advancing a level (up to D) for the Fall. She is taking a few ballet classes this summer and started taking a jazz class which she loves!! Her and some of her ballet classmates and teacher are taking a day trip to NYC at the end of August and will be taking some dance classes at Broadway Dance Center in the heart of the Theatre district!! They are so excited for that!!! I plan to go along as well, but for the shopping of course!!

DD is also finishing up a 3 week drama camp for 6th grade through 12th grade where they are putting on the production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This is her first taste of musical theatre and really likes it! She is in the chorus and does all the dances. She has a "tumbling solo" (front walkovers) across the stage for the number "Go, Go Joseph" and is excited about that. See--gymnastics does come in handy in just about all areas of life LOL!

So, we have been having a very busy but fun summer!!

 

[MaryA]

DD is also finishing up a 3 week drama camp for 6th grade through 12th grade where they are putting on the production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. This is her first taste of musical theatre and really likes it! She is in the chorus and does all the dances. She has a "tumbling solo" (front walkovers) across the stage for the number "Go, Go Joseph" and is excited about that. See--gymnastics does come in handy in just about all areas of life LOL!

So, we have been having a very busy but fun summer!!

"Joseph" is one of my favorites! Now I'll have "Go, Go, Go Joseph" stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Thanks a lot!

Sounds like your DD is having a great summer!

 

[MdGymMom01]

"Joseph" is one of my favorites! Now I'll have "Go, Go, Go Joseph" stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Thanks a lot!

Sounds like your DD is having a great summer!

They gave all the kids a CD of the music so we have been listening in the car. I have had "Coat of Many Colors", "Any Dream Will Do" and "Go, Go, Go Joseph" in my head for the last 2 weeks!! LOL. We watched the one with Donny Osmond the other day on Youtube--it really is a fun production!!

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

My oldest DS played Pharoah in high school when they did Joseph! My fav song is Any Dream will Do!

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

WELL... since I last posted, DD got her clear hip to handstand a few times, got her BWO BHS on beam, got her giant giant layout dismount on bars, got her giants on the "real" bars (as opposed to the pit bar!), can't remember what else. She's doing a really cool move on beam, a full turn, followed immediately by another full turn.. pretty cool to watch.

B U T . . . everything was just going along TOO WELL, right? She was doing backtucks in a friend's basement a week ago and landed one wrong and bruised her heel VERY BADLY.... Still can't put her full weight on it!!! ARGH!!!! Her x-rays have been ready twice by a radiologist and there is no break of fracture.....

We are going on vacation Aug 13 for a week and then school starts. I sure hope she can pick up the pace w/her training after that!

These things happen to keep us humble, right?

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

my brain is fried & I don't remember if I already responded. If I did, ignore me this time ! DD is getting ready for L5, worriedabout forgetting her floor routine.

other than that, shewould spendevery practice on beam if allowed ! She hasher BWOBWO and is working BWOBHS. shedid herBWOBHS onthe high beam yesterday with a resi under, no spot. HC said she missedherback foot, getting there.

onfloor she is working ROBHSBLO. still a smidge piked. has her flyaway, so looks like she will be ready forL6 if shesurvives L5 !

 

[Deanna]

This is very interesting to read. I love seeing what everyones kiddos are up to.
Kadee is training L3. She was a little scared of the handstand dismount off beam in the begining..but now she is doing it on high beam...which makes her very happy. She is struggling with the mill circle a little. Seems like that is what they do towards the end of practice (bars), because when I show up to get her (about 15 mins before class is over) she is normaly over on bars. She gets it all the way around (leg still hooked) and gets it to the top, but falls backwards. Last time I picked her up and she was working on it..when she slipped backwards, i heard the coach say "Oh, baby..you keep forgetting to move your hands". Not positive what that means as I cant see her hands from where I stand. Im guessing that as she is coming to the top, the tops of her hands are still facing away from her vrs facing towards her body?(like, she lets them slide on the bar till her body gets upside down, then holds on too tight and her hands dont slide around anymore..Im probably really confusing people) I dunno
She is really excited and happy, she loves going to practice.
And she just cant wait for school to start. (Aug 15th) So she will be in 1st grade and be one of the "big" kids at school (K and 1st grades). So she can help the "little" kids..bahahahaha

 

[lilgymmie7]

I am still not sure what level DD will do this coming season. But she is uptraining quite a bit. Tuesday she landed a few LO halfs on floor. She also can do her kip front hip cast to handstand and jump to the high bar. She also got her fly-away on the regular bar. She is doing beautiful back walk overs and ff on beam, and today she was working on HS flip-flop and bwo flip flops on low beam.
She has most of the 6 skills but I havent seen the free hip on bars yet. She could very well repeat level 5 because her gym is all about perfecting skills and then moving up. As long as she continues to uptrain, I believe she will be happy! She said her next goal is a full on floor. All is well with this child!

 

[skschlag]

DS did his first strap bar giants today! He is training 5/6 not sure which way he will go. We are just so excited to see him go around the bar. Then he smacked the bar with his toes on his flyaway....LOL!

 

[LMV]

Our daughter hopes she is competing L10 in this winter. I believe that they have one meet in December [which everyone may not compete] and then the rest of their season is after the holidays.

Vault
In L9 she competed both a Tsuk layout and Yurchenko Pike. She loved the former and pouted just as much as she could get away with [at a level that I think even her coach thought it was cute not annoying] after the latter. She had been working on twisting out of the Tsuk since some time last winter and her coach kept telling us she was doing great with it. They do a lot of uphill work and a lot of soft protected landings in the post competition phase. Anyway, she has gotten to do the Tsuck Layout Full onto an actual surface a few times recently and has landed it with good form! She is so proud of herself which is great to see because the rest of her life has been a real struggle recently. She has also managed to land her Yurchenko full in the pit but still doesn’t like it because it still “doesn’t feel right”. Yes, she is still making top ten lists for her coach of why the Tsukahara is superior. Once again, I’m staying out of this and allowing her to navigate and negotiate through this with her coach.

Bars
Bars are her favorite! This is the event that she loves and it shows. In L9 she did a Pak Salto to the low bar with a clear hip out of it which she apparently does very well and at least in her coach’s opinion is unique and therefore something that can kind of be hers. I‘m mostly saying it is unique in L9/L10 [or maybe even just unique in L9/L10 in our region] I‘m sure that elite gymnasts do it all the time or something even harder and that‘s great too. Her L9 routine was basically built around this and the rest of the routine was basically back giants with turns into front giants and some stalders connected together as needed. Now that she doesn’t have the D restriction some of the connected skills and releases she has been training will make an appearance in her competition routine. She will definitely be doing a straddle back to handstand out of her front giant because it is so nice. That doesn’t scare me as much as some of the other releases that she has been working on for awhile and are now at a point where they might also be possible additions now that there aren‘t restrictions. She is happy about this and she has worked really hard on bars so I’m really trying to be happy about this even if I envision burying my head in her dad’s shoulder for much of the bar routine in a few years [or perhaps even this year if that Tkatchev goes in]. She may also switch to doing a front dismount she worked them a lot as progressions towards some of the harder releases and I guess the thought is they may be a better option for her in the long run. She did a double back dismount in L9 but I think they are trying for something new. I guess we’ll see.

Beam
In L9 she eventually did BHS-BLO-BLO as her series [she did BHS-BHS-BLO the first meet] which from what her coach says will somehow earn more bonus in L10 than it did in L9 so that will probably be her series. She had gotten a nice front tuck on beam at some point last winter but they really didn’t do much with it because she was already doing a 2-footed back layout and couldn’t have another D. Now she has managed to connect her aerial to her front tuck so I think she will have that as her second acro series. She did just the aerial last year in L9 when she remembered her beam routine when she didn’t she added in a few front handsprings for good measure [or to make sure she had enough elements]. She has also been working on back tuck/front tuck connections so that might be other option. I really won’t know exactly what is in her routine until they have their routine retreat which is coming up in another week.

Floor
This is not her best event and it is probably the best reason to consider repeating L9 although I’m not sure that she would do better if she did. She has the tumbling to be successful she competed a double back as the anchor to a three salto pass in L9. Her other pass had a front layout full in it so she didn’t need a third pass but they put one in because the routine was awkward without it. Perhaps this was because the routine was really her L8 routine that they just swapped out the tumbling and the L8 routine had three passes [but she didn’t need that third pass to meet the L8 requirements either and I sense it got added because she looks so much more at ease tumbling than doing anything else]. She has been working on progressions with her tumbling and progressive twisting and they seem to be going well. Ultimately she wants to get her double back in layout position which she pretty much has and she wants a second twist after her front layout full which her coach has intentionally been holding her back on a little because she is growing [which she swears makes her bars so much better but makes twisting feel different, the latter makes more sense to me than the former if I think about mechanics but what do I know?] so I think the plan is to just compete a laid out double back and the front layout full and save the second twist for next year or possibly late season this year depending on everything else.

Unfortunately her artistry and presentation issues are not any closer to being resolved. If I didn’t think that they all stemmed from the fact that her self esteem in general is next to negligible I could accept this. Unfortunately I think they do so we’re working on that but it is a very slow process. It’s probably also another post and I may start my own thread regarding this issue specifically.

 

[txgymfan]

Wow LMV! She sounds like she is doing amazing. Double layouts on floor are so impressive. You have now crossed into gym language where I know elements look great but don't know their names. I understand your need for privacy but would love to see her routines.

As for how her growth affects bars, if she thinks it helps then great, growing helps. Once again, it is so nice to hear how her coach is working with her. Challenging him on vault can only help her self esteem. She will remember that "fight" for ever. I had a three year running "fight" with another volunteer at the children's hospital. We did the same project but I was on the cancer floor and he was on the cystic fibrosis floor. We both claim we had the BEST kids. He was wrong of course, his were only second best. Hee Hee. I have many fond memories of the project but that is one of the most enduring.

Anyway, keep us updated. The artistry will come, I don't see how her confidence won't catch up with all of your love and support.

 

[Mom2Gymgirls]

I missed this post earlier in the summer, but then again, I have't been on here much until lately. Sound's like everyone's kids have been busy this summer! My dd is at camp this week, so hopefully I'll get surprised by something when I pick her up on Friday. The big thing for dd this summer has been learning her floor routine. She's so excited about that. She has to do a L6 meet in November, but then it's on to prep-op. What's been funny about floor is that she's suddenly shy to shake it. Floor was always her best, and she loved showing off, but I guess it's different learning and practicing your own routine instead of practicing the same routine as everyone else. I think she'll do great though with more practice. She likes her music (Floor Express - Right Now), and it's finally starting to come together. She will have 3 tumbling passes in her routine: 1. RO, BHS, layout, 2. FHS, FT and 3. RO, BHS, BT along with a 1.5 turn, and we don't know about the leap pass yet. Right now the coach has her doing the L6 leap pass, but she's been working on a switch leap, sissone, so maybe if she can get a decent switch leap, that will change.

Not much else to report on the other events. Vault is the same as last year, and on bars, she's working mostly the L6 bar routine plus cast to HS. She's been working BHS on the beam and can do it beautifully on a high beam with a pad on it, but she gets scared once you take the pad away. Her goal for camp this week was to work on the BHS without a pad, but we'll see. She's also been working on FWO's on beam on her own at open gym. I really have no clue what will be in her beam routine, and I don't know when they will start on those. Not too much longer now. Our season usually starts in November.

 

[mpkbt]

Woohoo! Dd got her Blind full to tkatchev on the set! When she competes it, she will have a 10.2 start value. I wish they could judge it from that!

 

[momofagymmie]

Congrats on the blind full tkatchev! That's super.

My dd is in her last year of competitive club gymnastics. I can't believe it. She's a senior in high school and competing L10. She drives herself to the gym so I never really get to see what progress she's made until I see her compete. I'm getting all nostalgic. I remember her learning the cartwheels, remember how difficult L5 seemed. Then how cool when she got her own routines at L7. Then terrified at the moves she started to learn. She's hated it some but loved it most of the time.

 

[LMV]

Woohoo! Dd got her Blind full to tkatchev on the set! When she competes it, she will have a 10.2 start value. I wish they could judge it from that!

Yay! I think you're a better sport about that Tkatchev in the routine that I am.