Recommended age for different skills?

[Canadian_gym_mom]

A thread in the Preschool area prompted me to post this. They were talking about seeing youtube videos of 2.5-4 year olds doing back handsprings. Someone else mentioned that they shouldn't even be doing bridges until they are 4!

So my question is about other skills as well. Is there recommended ages for learning other skills as well? Or is it pretty much after age 4 as long as they are learning the correct progressions and technique they can progress through all the skills?

I hope to hear from coaches on this, but also parents if they know of policies at your kids' gyms that dictate how old girls must be to perform certain skills.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yes, and the list is long. for example, double backs are the force equivalent of jumping down off a 2 story building and then landing correctly. the quantified component is not the power that it takes to generate a double back from the floor. it is the requisite strength of the lower body, and more specifically the ankles, that will determine a safe outcome. this is one of the things that inexperienced or undereducated coaches don't understand. the list is endless, really. and why kids get injured when they're young on skills or conditioning where their tender bodies are not able to handle those forces placed upom their anatomies.

and boys bodies are less mature. they have unique and time tested readiness also.

 

[Aussie_coach]

As dunno says there is a huge list. Australian guidelines for this age don't reccomend they go on trampolines or high beams at all.

But opinion varies. In Australia headstands are banned in gyms for all ages and its one of the first things they teach you in the first half hour of the coaches course, yet aren't they included in the US level 2 floor routines.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Really - thats interesting ! In our Rec badge system headstands, both with bent and extended legs are required moves

 

[JessLW]

I was reading, I think here on CB, that in the UK there are certain skills that are actually not allowed (in competition) before a certain age. Is that correct? Do any of the UK posters have some examples?

Even in the US we have the regulation that you have to be seven to compete level 5. That age wasn't just pulled out of thin air I'm sure. There's got to be some sound medical reasoning behind it.

 

[emorymom]

But opinion varies. In Australia headstands are banned in gyms for all ages and its one of the first things they teach you in the first half hour of the coaches course, yet aren't they included in the US level 2 floor routines.

Not AAU L2, but maybe girls' USAG L2. My son is competing USAG L4 and he has to do a headstand in his floor routine.

 

[AmandaLynn]

There is a headstand in USAG L2 floor. It comes right after the forward roll to straddle stand. I can.not.stand. headstands!

There was also a bridge in the current cycle's L1 floor, a backbend from the knees in L3, and (I believe) a back bend kickover in L3. The three bridging skills were changed to a Table (crabstand) in 1, a thigh lean in 2, and a Bridge kickover (with no backbend) in 3. I was told that the reasoning behind this was because of the age of most of the partcipants in these lower levels and the recommendation not to bridge children younger than 5.