seeking opinions on the wisdom of reducing DD's hours

[clueless]

Hi. I wonder if you wise parents and coaches can help me clearly figure out the pros and cons of reducing my DD's hours for a little while so that she can try increasing her time in another sport.
She'll be 6 at the end of the year so it's not like she's a star or anything. But she is in a program where a certain amount of commitment is kind of expected.
She's currently doing 2 hrs twice weekly and just loves it. Her coach has talked vaguely about transitioning her to a squad that trains 8 hours pw over 3 days. She didn't say a date but I think she was hinting at next year? (I didn't ask because I'm not quite ready for the answer).
DD adores gym and would love to do more. The doubt in my mind is that she loves lots of things and seems to have a pretty good knack for them all. (Sorry I feel really braggish saying that but I'm pretty sure it's not all parent bias).
So far she's been doing 2 days of gym and only 1 each of other things. In her dream world she'd like to do them all every day but obviously that'll never happen.
I'm thinking of asking to drop down to one day gym for one term (3 mths) so she can try doing 2 days of something else ... and see if she misses it, or if she loves something else as much/more if given more time to focus on it. Does that make sense? Before we say yes to another day. In case she'd rather more days at something else. Get her thinking about what she wants vs what she's offered, before she has to choose and give something up. So that's the 'pro'.
It's really the possible cons I'm wondering about. I'd hate for the gym to be upset. Partly because I wonder if she'd be dropped from the group, or just plain not do as well as the other girls because she's missed things. But also because her group seems to be subsidised by the club and I don't want to be ungrateful. (I don't pay much more for her than I do for her big brother who only goes 1 hr pw).
It's kind of bad timing because she's about to have her first competition (IDP 1) so I guess there will be more of those coming up. But the timing will only get worse as she continues so I feel a bit "now or never" to try it (we don't have a long summer hol like most of you so there's not really any other time in the future to try different things).
And I don't want to tell the gym why.
Sorry to be so long. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[MdGymMom01]

Considering that she is still 5, I would let her try the other sport(s). I think it is important for young kids to try other sports because being exposed to different things actually makes them a more well-rounded child. Especially for a kid like yours that has many different interests and talents--don't hold her back. Let her try anything and everything at this age.

To put it in perspective, my dd did all star cheerleading from ages 6-9 and then switched to gymnastics at the age of 9. She had NO PRIOR gymnastics exposure (beam, bars, vault) until she was 9 years old--relatively a late starter in the gymnastics world. She competed Level 4 as a 10 year old and had a great year--placing in most events at every meet and taking 2nd on Vault and 2nd on Bars at championships. She competed Level A (5) this past year at the age of 11 and did well also. So, if your dd has other interests, I would definitely pursue them now since she is still only 5 years old. If she decides she loves gymnastics the most, she can always do more days and hours of that when she is 7 or 8 years old.

Good luck and keep us posted!!!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

they should be exposed and experience other activities before age 9.

 

[Gymdad2]

I too would vote for letting her try other things. It does sound as though your dd has multiple talents and I think she should be encouraged to try them. It really should be your (and her) decision as to what she wants to do - not them gym's. My dd started at 3 in rec gym, (was on L5 team at 6) and also played soccer and did ballet. Soccer was dropped after 2 years and ballet after another year when she decided that gym was what she wanted. I am sure she benefited from having tried the others before she made that decision. Good luck to your and dd.

 

[Linsul]

I coach a group that sounds a lot like the one your DD is in, same level, age, time commitment. I've had one girl drop an hour for swimming over the summer. It was no problem. I saw you write that you don't want to tell the gym why you want to cut to back, but you may want to reconsider. A big part of being ok with the girl in my group cutting back was her participation in another sport, not just taking off. She'll continue to be active, and will get the benefits of participation in that sport to bring back with her during the hours she's in the gym.

Had it just been 'Hey Linsul, we're going to cut back, bye.' I'm not sure what I would have thought, but it wouldn't have been all positive. I talk to the HC every day, and he asks about the group. One thing he is looking at is who stays and who takes off for the summer. He's aware of burnout and the desire to try other sports and is very accommodating in those respects. I don't think he'd be thrilled with a sudden unexplained decision to pull out of half an invite only class with no explanation though. A parent has ultimate authority on what their child participates in, but HC rules the world as far as moving up at the gym is concerned. Openly communicating should be considered. We like sports, we don't like burning out kids, a compromise is possible here!!

 

[cher062]

I vote for doing other things too. if you look around you might see she could do both. There are alot of different schedules for lots of other activities out there that could work around the gym schedule so she wouldn't have to miss out on anything really.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

I guess it depends on weather you are at one of the institutes/HPC's or doing IDP1 at a club. I don't see the HPC's allowing a child to do that little and still be part of the program. If you are at a club, there is the flexibility to drop the hours, but I doubt she could remain doing IDP1.
I agree with the other posters, your DD should be able to try new things, unfortunately IDP programs have an elite focus.

 

[gymcoach34]

set up a meeting w/ the coach(es) and just talk to them, tell them what your plan is. Im sure they realize a few months at the age of 6 is not a big deal>

 

[sally]

my dd was in the same problem, she has just turned 6 a few weeks ago and she to is in idp1/idp2. She was a very good dancer and she loved her dancing, last year she did both, however due to hours of gymnastics she had to decide on what she wants to do, it was a hard choice for her and she went away for a day to think about it, she did choose gymnastics. However I still let her do swimming now once a week on top of her large amount of hours, but she loves it and gives her something other than gymnastics. The thing you might want to be careful if she is at the hpc they might not let her take 2 hrs of her gym training off, you would really need to speak to the coaches. I know with my dd she has to do the hours.

 

[Aussie_coach]

I take it you are in Australia if you are doing IDP, the IDP (International Development Program) is not like a regular gymnastics class. You will hear of others doing the "levels" but IDP is different. IDP is for those girls who are selected based on an outstanding level of talent to work towards elite gymnastics and possibly eventually international level competition.

It seems very young to be choosing the elite girls but that is how things are done in Australia, the girls are chosen young and then trained up from there. So obviously your daughter is highly talented.

IDP is a lot more demanding than a regular levels program and I highly doubt they will allow your daughter to train just 1 day a week and still remain in this program. In fact 4 hours a week is already a very low amount of hours for IDP. They will have her working her IDEAL skills soon as well as IDP 2 stuff and it will be things like a round off back handspring on floor, a front tuck salto on floor, kips on bars, press to handstands on beam. I don't know if you know what these things are but they are not things that can be learned on 1 day a week.

On the plus side she is still young for IDP 1. There are maximum age limits for the program, so if she chose not to continue this year it would not be too late for her to take it up again next year. However, some gyms won't allow this.

 

[sally]

I have to agree with aussie gym as my dd is doing 15hrs a week for idp1/2. She is learning at the moment cast to handstand on bars so there would be no way that she could be learning that in one day a week. Even idp 1 skills I find quite hard for the little ones. I would say let her do something else in lines with the 4 hrs a week, then when it gets to much with her gym she will need to choose, that is what my dd did.