Parents Questions regarding new gym philosophy

[misshoneybee]

I am considering moving my daughter to another gym because I don't believe her current gym has a healthy program (meaning joint health) or a safe program.

Hence, I am looking for a healthy, safe and fun gymnastics program for her. She is not an Olympic caliber gymnast. She is a very good gymnast that just moved to L5 - she is 10.

I visited a gym last night and spoke with the girls USAG head coach. Here is what she said:

1. They focus on getting their gymnasts to L7 as quickly and safely as possible because that is where the real fun begins.
2. They only do 6 meets a year and they choose them carefully because she can't stand the fact that some gyms have L7 gymnasts doing L5 routines and getting super high scores.
3. They only go to State if more than 3 girls make it. She is not going to take one kid. It is too stressful on everyone and they want their kids to enjoy gymnastics.
4. They are not trying to develop olympic athletes.
5. She wants all of her girls scoring higher than 32 - that is what they should be striving for.
6. She wants her girls to set goals for themselves as to how far they want to go and be realistic about what it will take to get there (how many hours a week in the gym, can't play soccer, do gymnastics and get to L10 by the age of 14).
7. She wants the kids to have to fun
8. The coaches do not yell and scream

The gym is nice, clean, and has new equipment. They have about 30 girls L5 through L8 and one L10 gymnast. They have a lot of gymnasts in L5, 6 and 7 right now. They have 5 coaches and they do dance once a week.

What are your thoughts....?????

 

[10.0]

It *sounds* like a more laid back gym. Which can be great for some folks and not so great for others depending on what your dd's personal goals are. From what you said they seem to be geared more toward keeping kids interesting in gymnastics longer term and not over working them. Obviously it also sounds like they aren't going to be producing Olympic gymnasts, which is fine 99.999999% of gymnasts do not make it to that level anyways. In the end do what you think is best for your dd!

 

[misshoneybee]

thanks for your reply...my daughter is NOT in the top .10% who will become an olympic gymnast. I think your feedback is valuable because I am going to have another discussion with my dd to figure out if she would be ok with a l aid back gym - or does she want to do a ton of meets every season and deal with that stress? I will have to ask her. If she joins this gym she may be really happy with the laid back atmosphere but be miserable if she doesn't hit the podium....need to figure that one out. She has been moping around the house for days now due to her injuries and the stress of her meets. Maybe this is just what she needs.

 

[gym law mom]

How does this gym do at meets? You could check your state USAG site to see how they've been scoring at state meets. Not too keen on the idea that unless 3 qualify to state, nobody goes. Now, in reality all the girls may qualify or very few----did she mention how many from last year's L5 team went to states?

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

Sounds pretty laid back to me, which is certainly not a bad thing. My one concern would be whether or not they are spending enough time on basics. A level 7-calibur gymnast should be competing level 7 rather than level 5, I certainly have no qualms with that -- but it's even worse for a level 5-calibur gymnast to compete level 7.

I would watch a few practices. Do the girls look comfortable with the skills they are working? Do they appear proficient enough at the basics to be able to build safely and consistently on them?

As long as they don't appear to be moving kids up too far too fast, it sounds like it's probably a pretty good gym.

 

[10.0]

I don't know about the needing to have 3 to go to states being bad or good. Is it at every level or just compulsory? I know our gym will go to Nationals with one kid but that one kid would have to foot the entire bill for the coach as well as themselves.

I have no clue how large the gym is, but we have cranky parents over paying a $50 meet fee for local meets that all the kids attend. Even if it were in state but lets say far away it might require motel, food, gas, and a general coaching fee or the coaches wage that on top of your own expense would stop many folks from doing it. Then again maybe they don't see the worth in going with 1 or 2. If you are concerned about that I would ask if it is level dependant.

 

[Bajanswife]

Our gym is a lot like this, but not really by choice. We just don't have access to many meets, and because of our location it would be very difficult to be Olympic calibre (we've never had anyone from our country compete in Olympic gymnastics, ever). Due to these constraints, there is no point in being a tough gym - our owner and HC wants to make gym accessible to as many kids as possible, between rec and team, and wants kids to enjoy it and stay. She does feel that optionals are more fun for the gymnasts, so she tries to get them their as fast as possible, but of course when she feels they are ready. She doesn't like the kids to be stuck down in a low compulsory level for too long - she will move kids up before they are scoring really high. Because we don't have Nationals, it's no big deal for a gymnast to be training a level but not be competition-ready (i.e. still missing key skills) by the time a meet rolls around and therefore have to drop back and compete the old level (if they want to).

 

[misshoneybee]

You guys have given me some good insight thank you. I talked to one of the assistant coaches and they told me that if someone qualified for state and really wanted to go the parents could easily take one of the asst. coaches (of course pay for it). The program is very big and it is has grown rapidly over the last 3 years - they make gymnastics accessible to anyone who has a desire which includes children and teens with developmental issues. The head coach also owns the gym and I get the impression she is so busy with how fast the gym has grown. They are looking to expand into the space next to them and put the girls team there. I really want my dd to have the opportunity to go IF she wants to. If she starts getting really good scores - she will want to go. She did great in L4 and her AA scores averaged 37.5. I think with practice she could do very well at L5.

 

[lhmom]

It sounds like this gym will work really well for your daughter. Good luck!

 

[gym law mom]

I guess some of this comes down to what your dd thinks. Has she tried a practice there yet or just watched? Since she is 10(?), she should be able to give some pretty good feedbacl as to how she feels with the L4/5 girls and how comfortable she is with the coaches.
I would ask questions about cost(leos, warm ups etc), any fundraising/parent organization, practice schedule for summer and fall.

 

[jdf]

You said she is stressed by meets, but will she get bored if there are not as many meets? I'd be curious about how many girls qualify for states- and if the majority don't qualify, that would be a red flag for me. What do you need, a 32 to qualify? If the girls are doing level 7 for fun and hanging down below 32, they may not be ready.
Also, I have always heard that learning the fundamentals and not skipping throught the levels is important.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

You said she is stressed by meets, but will she get bored if there are not as many meets? I'd be curious about how many girls qualify for states- and if the majority don't qualify, that would be a red flag for me. What do you need, a 32 to qualify? If the girls are doing level 7 for fun and hanging down below 32, they may not be ready.
Also, I have always heard that learning the fundamentals and not skipping throught the levels is important.

that ^^^ is precisely correct.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

I feel for your daughter and can relate my daughter is also going through a rough time with chronic growth injuries and lower scores this year. From a parents perspective the gym's philosphy sounds very positve. I do not agree with the state thing I think if you qualify you should go regardless of others qualifying. I do not agree with skipping levels but at the same time I do not believe kids should be forced to repeat level because there scores are not super high. I do think the compulasary levels get boring once they get older. The gym has a level 10 so they must be doing something right. I also like the fact that the head coach is the owner so they have a vested interest.
Bottom line you need to talk to your daughter and find out what she wants. When my daughter was her 1st year competing 7 level 4 she was unhappy at her gym she did not qualify for states (she was not that prepared to compete and had a different coach things are a lot more different at her gym now). She tried out another gym that other teammates went to similar to the one you described more laid back. After a week she begged to go back to her old gym she missed the 4 hour workouts and the higher expectations you do not move on until your complete something at the laidback gym if you ccould not do something it was alright you did not have to. You may also want to check out other gyms before making a decision it could not hurt.
As far as her being stressed at the meets try to focus on other things besides scores like where are we going to eat after the meet have her set small goals such as making a skill or improving something. Also I would let the coaches know that she is upset and have them talk to her. I believe these things have helped my daughter get through this year and eventhough her scores are still low not only did she qualify for states but she still enjoys the meets even if she does not come home with any medals and she still likes going to practice to improve skills and learn new ones. This is despite of having. Heel pain. I hope things work out and she can be happy about the sport again and have fun.

 

[3rd_time_around]

thanks for your reply...my daughter is NOT in the top .10% who will become an olympic gymnast. I think your feedback is valuable because I am going to have another discussion with my dd to figure out if she would be ok with a l aid back gym - or does she want to do a ton of meets every season and deal with that stress? I will have to ask her. If she joins this gym she may be really happy with the laid back atmosphere but be miserable if she doesn't hit the podium....need to figure that one out. She has been moping around the house for days now due to her injuries and the stress of her meets. Maybe this is just what she needs.

Go with your gut, it always works out best that way. Just wanted to mention, our gym is more high intensity, hoping to produce more quality level 10s and elites, and we only do 6 meets a year plus state. Optionals only do 5 meets a year plus state (then regionals and nationals if it applies). So less meets doesn't always mean more laid back. It just costs so much and involves so much time, that that's all we do. We spend 8 months getting ready for the next competition season.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

and 4 minutes competing the actual routines...LOL... gotta love this gymnastics.

 

[mumoftwogymnasts]

thanks for your reply...my daughter is NOT in the top .10% who will become an olympic gymnast. I think your feedback is valuable because I am going to have another discussion with my dd to figure out if she would be ok with a l aid back gym - or does she want to do a ton of meets every season and deal with that stress? I will have to ask her. If she joins this gym she may be really happy with the laid back atmosphere but be miserable if she doesn't hit the podium....need to figure that one out. She has been moping around the house for days now due to her injuries and the stress of her meets. Maybe this is just what she needs.

I would have a conversation with your daughter about what she is hoping to achieve with her gymnastics. Is she doing gym for the fun, fitness and the friendship, is it to achieve the highest level in gymnastics that she can, or is it to be the best that she technically can be? In my opinion at 10 years she will have some idea of why she is doing gymnastics and what her goals are... knowing what her goals are is important in picking the gym that is the "right" fit. I recently had this conversation with my 10 yr old gymnast and the answers were not at all what I was expecting! Good luck.

 

[Aussie_coach]

They all sound like excellent policies to me, sounds like you have a great gym there.

Doing less competitions is a positive in many ways. 6 is plenty and you will find many gyms do less than this. The more time the girls spend competing and working towards competitions and high scores the more time they must spend on routines and repetition and perfection. If they compete less there is more time for strength and skill development and the kids can learn the harder skills faster and better.

Not going to states with less than three girls is very reasonable. A gym does not exist purely to make a childs life happy, it is a business and it needs to be successful as a business. If it is not successful then the coaches can't be coaches they need other jobs and the gym can't run and there is no gym for anyone. Taking a team to states is expensive they need to pay the coaches fees, there is the coaches time, accommodation, travel and so on if it is not local to you. Then often the coach can't do their regular classes and they must also pay someone to replace them. I'm surprised even three girls covers the costs. Many gyms won't go unless they have a much larger team.

It sounds best of all that the coaches don't yell or scream. This does not bring the best out in any athlete. An athlete who does the work because she is scared will do what she needs to do to avoid this trouble. But an athlete who works hard because she is enjoying training, wants to succeed and wants to please her coaches will work much harder.