Parents "Progressing way to fast" .. ?

[Gymmommy71]

Also doing a giant in any form is a big thing. But there is a huge difference between doing it alone on the pit bar. And getting it safely and cleanly into a bar routine.


A couple of the gymmies at our gym just including mine have started them in various states strap bar/pit/spotted. But they are no where ready to do them. Hopefully shortly before states they'll be ready.


Yes it doesn't seemed to have happened yet

Yeah - my daughter had giants alone on the pit bar for a good 6 months before she could do them in a routine - it may have been even longer. First you got to figure out how to do them between the bars w/o fear (very hard unless you are extremely tiny) and then there's a significant amount of stamina involved in connecting the entire routine and doing giants at the end.

Many who've never been gymnasts underestimate how tiring a bar routine is - (these girls make things look so easy, but they are aren't) - just having a skill by itself vs. having to do it after 5 other skllls is a huge difference.

 

[Nikki4]

Yeah - my daughter had giants alone on the pit bar for a good 6 months before she could do them in a routine - it may have been even longer. First you got to figure out how to do them between the bars w/o fear (very hard unless you are extremely tiny) and then there's a significant amount of stamina involved in connecting the entire routine and doing giants at the end.

Many who've never been gymnasts underestimate how tiring a bar routine is - (these girls make things look so easy, but they are aren't) - just having a skill by itself vs. having to do it after 5 other skllls is a huge difference.

Ya know I've never really thought about it like that. Thank you

 

[gymbeam]

So weird.

 

[txgymfan]

I would clarify with the coach. It doesn't make sense not to let her continue to train skills she is progressing on.

 

[Jenn's Jam]

I wonder what kind of gym you are at? Xcel only, JO and Xcel, or another type?
That could affect the coach's plan for her.
Sometimes, older girls do progress faster and pick up skills quicker - especially if they come into it with core strength and excellent body awareness and limited fear.
If it was my child, I would want her to compete Platinum (assuming she has competed Gold already).
The height of the vault actually has nothing to do with level - it is more about power and angles. Now, at Platinum, a FHS vault does not have a 10.0 SV, so she would need a 1/2 on - 1/2 off or something like that. It might be better for her to vault on 105 at least at first for that.
She could, as Platinum, compete some of her harder skills and some of the easier skills she has (assuming she has all the needed skills on bars).
The coach may be trying to slow her down because they aren't equipped (coaching skillwise or training level wise) to go much higher and they hope to be able to later???

I would NOT push for Diamond since she only currently has a FHS vault.
The goal for a lot of gymnasts like your daughter, if she sticks with gymnastics, would be to compete Diamond by 13 or 14 and, if she and your family were on board, petition into L6/7 when she is a freshman.

The gym were at is not at all only xcel- we had the best gym in the state for L10 or something like that.. (I didn't look into it very much) So I don't think that's a problem nor the coaching.

 

[Jenn's Jam]

I do see a reason to not push to compete the most difficult skills. But some of the other stuff makes me confused. Why was the coach teaching her all those skills if he was concerned about it being too much to soon? The vault height thing also makes no sense to me. Unless her technique is better at the lower setting? The goal is not just to do skills but to learn proper technique so future skills are able to build easily on that technique.

I am not sure about why they let her do the skills but what I think happened is since the Head Coach of Xcel (The one who talked to me) they split up gold in different groups each practice and some go on floor/vault then they rotate and so on.. Head coach is usually on Vault and Beam, I dont think he had a problem with BHS, BHS though I could be wrong.

Her coach said that her form is fine and is the best in the class in some skills and form didn't have anything to do with it when I asked.

 

[Jenn's Jam]

That's pretty awesome that she got all those skills in such a short time! Is/was the plan for your DD to compete JO? Or is she on an Xcel path with no plan to move to JO. I can see if there are problems with her form that slowing down progression may be best, especially if she might move to JO at some point. You said there is nothing wrong with her form...is that your observation or did that come from the coach? Doing a BHS-BHS on beam is one thing, doing it and not getting deducted on the connection is another thing. Some kids pick up skills pretty quickly but then need time to perfect the form. In Xcel, form doesn't need to be as perfect as it is in JO so if there are plans for your DD to move to JO anyways, then it could be why the coach wants to slow her progression.

Not really sure.. At the time I am not planning to head to JO til after a meet season or 2 of diamond, due to at this time I am not financially stable to put her in JO. (I heard its very-very pricey at our gym) Like I said in a previous reply, DD's coach said that Her form is good and is the best in her class on some skills, and form didn't have anything to do with it when I asked.

 

[Jenn's Jam]

When you progress skills too fast, there's also a huge risk of mental blocks and fears.

There's a big difference between doing a higher skill in a gym and having to compete that skill - so if the skill is something that came quickly, and one practice she has a weird fall and suddenly becomes affriad of it, the fear becomes 100 times worse if it's a skill that needs to be done at a meet...

Her coach could also feel that the higher skills aren't ready technique-wise.

Good point, this could be it not sure though.

 

[Jenn's Jam]

Has she even scored out of 4 & 5 yet???

No, she is going to compete at least a meet of silver before she competes gold is what her coach said.

 

[Jenn's Jam]

Also doing a giant in any form is a big thing. But there is a huge difference between doing it alone on the pit bar. And getting it safely and cleanly into a bar routine.


A couple of the gymmies at our gym just including mine have started them in various states strap bar/pit/spotted. But they are no where ready to do them. Hopefully shortly before states they'll be ready.


Yes it doesn't seemed to have happened yet

Well my kid learns skills super fast so getting bigger skills from pit bar - comp bar has never really been a problem for her. She basically did it by herself on comp bar a few times and that's when her coach glanced over and decided he didn't want her doing them and once again he said it wasn't because of form.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Well my kid learns skills super fast so getting bigger skills from pit bar - comp bar has never really been a problem for her. She basically did it by herself on comp bar a few times and that's when her coach glanced over and decided he didn't want her doing them and once again he said it wasn't because of form.

Really its awesome your kid gets stuff so fast.

But self taught unsupervised giants. From a coaches perspective, at least at our gym. Would not "fly". Does she know how to bail out safely? What to do when things don't go as planned?

And what was she supposed to be doing when she was working these unsupervised, uncoached giants? Does you gym let them go off and do whatever? Our gym doesn't. Our kids aren't allow to just flat out ignore the coaches. Makes our coaches cranky. And rightly so. They would be in trouble for not doing what they were supposed to be doing. So perhaps that is part of the problem. Part of the process is doing and working what you are supposed to. Maybe that is what they want her working on first.

 

[gymbeam]

From the 'Bars at Home' thread it sounds like you coached your daughter in learning a lot of skills in the backyard and on tramp and that Open Gyms gave her chances to learn new stuff as well.

This makes more sense to me now. Perhaps. Its great you can safely spot her. My daughter would love that! But the process is a process and surely your coach has a system in place for progressing girls. And it's not all about the big skills per level. There are many other pieces to the puzzle that make a kid ready for moving up such as strength and flexibility to name a few.

Plus, she has never competed before. That is huge. Competing also take practice. That alone is a great reason to start her in a level where she will do well and gain confidence, in my opinion.

As far as stopping working on higher skills. That's pretty typical. All summer girls get to uptrain, uptrain and then as meet season begins that uptraining dwindles down to only a small portion of training time. That's the way the cycle goes. The coaches know when it's an appropriate time to work what skills to prepare for the next season.

Try to trust the coaches and whatever you do don't feed your daughter with any of these thoughts. Help her see the positive in where she is and help her feel proud of what she's doing.

 

[profmom]

Boys start late more often than girls, so I've seen this sort of thing before. What tends to happen on the boys' side is that the kid starts off and does a year at L4 or L5 (low level compulsories) and then makes the jump to the top compulsory level, Junior Development, or JO optionals. A competition year of nailing down the fundamentals and getting the hang of competing sets them up to move fast afterward. We have a guy in our gym now who's a year or two younger than your daughter and competed L4 last year coming out of a month or so of rec. He has back saltos on floor, giants on the real bar without straps, and is working on a hand front. I think doing L4 last year was definitely an asset, as the new skills he's acquiring this year look very good. Same thing happened with one of DS's teammates a few years ago.

 

[Jenn's Jam]

Really its awesome your kid gets stuff so fast.

But self taught unsupervised giants. From a coaches perspective, at least at our gym. Would not "fly". Does she know how to bail out safely? What to do when things don't go as planned?

And what was she supposed to be doing when she was working these unsupervised, uncoached giants? Does you gym let them go off and do whatever? Our gym doesn't. Our kids aren't allowed to just flat out ignore the coaches. Makes our coaches cranky. And rightly so. They would be in trouble for not doing what they were supposed to be doing. So perhaps that is part of the problem. Part of the process is doing and working what you are supposed to. Maybe that is what they want her working on first.

Well the golds get split up every practice in new groups one group goes to the floor then the other goes to the vault and they rotate and so on... Usually the head of the
Xcel coach (the one who spoke to me) usually does beam while the other coaches do bars... The other coaches taught her the giants and stuff so it's not like she was doing it without the coaches permission... But apparently, the head coach didn't know that she was doing them and that usually isn't a big deal so no one told him

 

[gymmom11]

Is it possible that her form isn't great, and the coach thinks it best to reset a bit and rebuild some of them from foundations? Sometimes, it's harder to undo bad habits than it is to take a break and not let them become muscle memory.

This is what I'm thinking... she's progressing too quickly to learn proper body form and technique. The coach sees this and does not want her to be injured.

 

[bogwoppit]

If you are coaching her yourself it would totally explain why the coach put the brakes on the big skills. They need to be learned in the gyms style, and with their technique. No coach wants a kid out at a meet with skills learned at home. It is about reputation.

You may think they are perfect, but I bet a million $$$$ that the coach thinks otherwise.

 

[GymLife]

That is awesome that she has progressed so quickly.
We had a girl with amazing skills and she was able to get stuff so quickly, but she was missing so many little things. She has her giants, but her clear hips were not where they needed to be and she could be extremely inconsistent on both bars and floor. Our coach wanted to hold her back even with having a decent level 8 season. Her mom ended up pulling her and taking her to another gym in another state with an amazing program.
They also held her back. She spent almost all summer with level 4's because while her skills and technique were good, she lacked basic skills that she needed (most were strong core skills)
Long story short her new coach told her she has amazing potential, but she didn't earn it. It was natural for her to not be scared. It was easy for her to try new skills.
Maybe the coach just wants to make sure she runs through xcel before putting her JO. Xcel is great to work on your strengths while fixing your weaknesses. Maybe your gym thinks she's too old for JO and could be better suited for xcel.

You said it wasn't her teqnique or her skills, but maybe there is something you are missing about the type of gymnast she is. Skills mean nothing in these upper levels if you don't have great form and that takes time. The amount of injury potential is scary. We spend 2 hours a week on learning bail properly in higher level bar and floor skills.

 

[Jenn's Jam]

If you are coaching her yourself it would totally explain why the coach put the brakes on the big skills. They need to be learned in the gyms style, and with their technique. No coach wants a kid out at a meet with skills learned at home. It is about reputation.

You may think they are perfect, but I bet a million $$$$ that the coach thinks otherwise.

Like I said in a previous reply, the coach said the form wasn't the problem. I'm not against at home training, but I don't push any hard skills at home, just basic conditioning I push haha

 

[bogwoppit]

Like I said in a previous reply, the coach said the form wasn't the problem. I'm not against at home training, but I don't push any hard skills at home, just basic conditioning I push haha

Why are you pushing anything?

 

[MILgymFAM]

Like I said in a previous reply, the coach said the form wasn't the problem. I'm not against at home training, but I don't push any hard skills at home, just basic conditioning I push haha

Just because the coach didn't say it doesn't mean it wasn't a factor. If the coach knows about the home training and your approval of it, they may not want to open that can of worms.