Really Good Girls!!!!!GRRRR!! :)

[Gymgrl111]

There are some really good girls that my gym competes against{we are rookie1-2}. In my gym we train three days a week for two and a half hours{ which i think is fine for rookies} Well, these girl train five days a week, i don't know how my hours, AND under the russian system. They are really good, at states one girl got a 10.0 on BEAM!!!! And every meet they go to they win first at everything ,even team. So i think if they are going to train like that, should'nt they train to be like novices or some thing? Because I feel nobody else has a chance, even if we work reallly hard, to get first place at some things!!!!!!!! What do you all think??

 

[bogwoppit]

Unfortunately it is the case evrywhere, some gyms train more hours, some gym s prefer their girls to compete where they know they will be the best, some gyms push their kids ahead even though they know they might not win. SOme gyms have great coaches, some gyms have not so good coaches. SOme gymmies are really talented, some are not so much. Some girls are in small group s with two coaches, some in large groups with one coach.

YOu get where I am coming from, sadly there will never be a level playing field in gym, as I tell my girls "you have to do gym because you love to do it", if you let all the what if's creep in it will take the fun away. I encourage my girls to set goals for every meet, the goals have nothing to do with judges, medals or any other gymnast, the goals are all about them and what they can do. When they meet their goals they are thrilled with themselves, and if they don't it gives them a challenge. It is hard, but so much is learned by competing and losing too.

Being your best is the best, and a medal is nice but it doesn't make you, or them, better than anyone else.

 

[mariposa]

Bog said it perfectly. There will always be better gyms, better girls, etc. I try to get my daughter to set non score related goals, though it is hard when coaches push numbers. Just do your best and be proud of your accomplishments.

 

[Tams Mom]

That is the gym that my daughter goes to and the rookie 1 girls only practice 4 days a week for 2 hours a day. Only 8 hours. one night they might go 2.5 hours, so maybe they go 9 instead of 8. I cannot remember. This is only their 1st year competing, none have done compulsory yet. One of our coaches is Russian, and one is American. There is no "Russian System". It is just that our Russian coach is very good and correographs amazing floor routines.

My daughter has competed for their team for 8 years now and every year our girls do very well, I think it is because of great coaching not the # of hours they go. As you see the rookies only go 8 hours a week, the novice go 12 hours, compulsory and prep 1 15 hours and the optional team go 20 hours, this is really less than some gyms in the area.

 

[Blackie6]

Have to also agree with Bog. At my DD's L4 states meet there were girls she competed with that were uptrained about a L6 w/some L7 skills. My DD is happy in her gym with her hours and with her coach. She has competed two years now and already knows what gyms are more serious than ours and more competative. She is fine with it & because she did not always compete against the best ones during the season, managed to place often enough to be happy.

Although gymnastics is a team sport sometimes, it is also about you the individual and meeting your goals and expectations. Maybe focus on what you are doing in your amount of hours and bettering yourself. I find that looking at other girls and comparing them to my DD is just a waste of time, LOL

 

[Gymgrl111]

That is the gym that my daughter goes to and the rookie 1 girls only practice 4 days a week for 2 hours a day. Only 8 hours. one night they might go 2.5 hours, so maybe they go 9 instead of 8. I cannot remember. This is only their 1st year competing, none have done compulsory yet. One of our coaches is Russian, and one is American. There is no "Russian System". It is just that our Russian coach is very good and correographs amazing floor routines.

My daughter has competed for their team for 8 years now and every year our girls do very well, I think it is because of great coaching not the # of hours they go. As you see the rookies only go 8 hours a week, the novice go 12 hours, compulsory and prep 1 15 hours and the optional team go 20 hours, this is really less than some gyms in the area.

Ok. I hope I did not offend you in any way. That is what my coach told me, and that was told to her from another coach, who obviously did not know what they were talking about. Anyway the girls are really good, and it's not that I don't like them. It's just that I think they should be at a higher level since they are so talented.

 

[Tams Mom]

You didn't offend me, I just thought you were guessing about the hours. They never do more hours for the young ones, so they don't get burned out at an early age. They come in the afternoon, 4 days a week as most of them are very young and still in Elementary school. And about the coaching, Elena is from Russia, but has been here for a while. our other coach is a former football player who has been coaching gymnastics for 20 yrs. The compulsory coaches are both American too. so we are not regimented like people think Russian coaches have their teams. there is a large family of russian coaches in NC, I can think of 4 other gyms that have them and they all do very well in competition.

The girls cannot be at a higher level because it is their 1st year competing. prep op is just like compulsory, you have to do one level before you can move up to the next. Our gym always picks the most talented girls to invite to preteam, they practice there for 1 year, then move up to team, and if on the prep op team have another 6 months before their 1st competition. I really think that this is what helps. they get the basics down and have a long time before competing. this gets them ready and not rushed into doing skills they don't have perfect. The other thing is that our gym is big on conditioning, all the gymnasts are very strong, which I think helps.

 

[gymmomntc2e6]

You didn't offend me, I just thought you were guessing about the hours. They never do more hours for the young ones, so they don't get burned out at an early age. They come in the afternoon, 4 days a week as most of them are very young and still in Elementary school. And about the coaching, Elena is from Russia, but has been here for a while. our other coach is a former football player who has been coaching gymnastics for 20 yrs. The compulsory coaches are both American too. so we are not regimented like people think Russian coaches have their teams. there is a large family of russian coaches in NC, I can think of 4 other gyms that have them and they all do very well in competition.

The girls cannot be at a higher level because it is their 1st year competing. prep op is just like compulsory, you have to do one level before you can move up to the next. Our gym always picks the most talented girls to invite to preteam, they practice there for 1 year, then move up to team, and if on the prep op team have another 6 months before their 1st competition. I really think that this is what helps. they get the basics down and have a long time before competing. this gets them ready and not rushed into doing skills they don't have perfect. The other thing is that our gym is big on conditioning, all the gymnasts are very strong, which I think helps.

Thanks TamsMom - as my DD was also creamed by this team in Port City and at States !! They are very good and their form is beautiful. It is hard to explain to a little one when they have done their best and their score is high and they still do not place (DD had 9.375 on beam at state's and tied for 4th and had a 9.3 on floor @ Port City and placed 9th of 11) she just could not wrap her mind around that.

I am glad to hear they only train 8 hours as I had heard 14, which I felt was an awful lot for that age and level. Again, they are amazing - wish my DD could borrow their "form fairy" !!!