Anon Small gym woes

[Anonymous Post]

DD is an optional gymnast at a small gym. We love the gym and the coaches, but the groups are very small. This year will be the first year that she is the only gymnast competing at her level. Up until now she has had typically at least two or three other girls competing with her in the same level. Regionals is the only meet where she has been alone in the past. We have no desire to switch gyms as DD is happy there and there really aren't any other close options for us. I am just a little sad for her (and myself)that she will not have any teammates at meets. Any tips from others in this situation? We did just get the meet schedule for the first meet in January and it looks like in the group she rotates with there are a couple of other gymnasts competing by themselves. I am really hoping that they rotate together!

 

[Anonymous Post]

When we had to move gyms, my son was the only one at his level for 2 years. It was hard, but he ended up making great friends with other gymnasts from other teams. They all cheered each other on at meets when they were rotating together, and even when they were not. He is still great friends with all of them!

 

[Anonymous Post]

We had a season like this. At every single meet, she was "adopted" by someone. Sometimes it was by other girls who were alone, but twice, entire other teams were cheering for her by name. Hopefully your daughter has a similiar experience.

 

[Anonymous Post]

When we had to move gyms, my son was the only one at his level for 2 years. It was hard, but he ended up making great friends with other gymnasts from other teams. They all cheered each other on at meets when they were rotating together, and even when they were not. He is still great friends with all of them!

That is great to hear! Hopefully my shy girl can meet some new friends too. We do travel out of state for most of our meets, but tend to go to some of the bigger meets that a lot of the same teams go to, so the chances of seeing the same girls might be pretty good.

 

[Anonymous Post]

We had a season like this. At every single meet, she was "adopted" by someone. Sometimes it was by other girls who were alone, but twice, entire other teams were cheering for her by name. Hopefully your daughter has a similiar experience.

I love that! Thanks for sharing

 

[Anonymous Post]

My daughter has been a team of one for 2 years now. Honestly it can be tough especially at meets where there are large teams all cheering for each other. there is something to be said about the ability of teammates to help with performance at a meet, to help distract when stressed out or to help cheer up after a mistake. At level 10 there are many who compete alone and at meets other teams have been very gracious and supportive but honestly it is just not the same as having your own teammates. My daughter really misses it but it is what it is

 

[Anonymous Post]

Beyond the lower levels, dd only had 1-3 teammates for each level. She often competed alone due to teammate injuries. Not going to lie - it was tough on pre-meet jitters, getting mentally prepared and all. It was nice to have full coach attention but sometimes that backfires with more stress. Like others have said, the other teams were always so great about cheering for her and thankfully her gym was fairly close-knit and other gymnasts would attend her sessions to cheer her on from the sidelines too. At a lot of the bigger meets, the individuals and small teams usually end up together so that's always helpful too.

 

[Anonymous Post]

My daughter’s gym has the opposite problem now (way too big a team imo), but at most meets she’s attended, there are a couple of gyms with only 1 or 2 girls that rotate with them. From what I can tell, they are usually treated very well.. cheered on and encouraged by the bigger teams. Hopefully that will be your daughters experience!

 

[Anonymous Post]

Last year my daughter rotated alone at state meet. She was very nervous as she is new to competing, but one of the team's adopted her and cheered her on. It was such a heart warming experience and such a good example of sportsmanship. We've used it as a learning opportunity and it's a very sweet memory.

 

[Anonymous Post]

Because we live in a small town our teams are very small as well, but our region also is small and at many meets they do several levels together so my daughter has been able to mostly rotate with at least a couple of others on the team. Her team has adopted the one or two others they are often bundled with for rotations and she's made a couple of fast friends from that experience. Now that she's in an upper level we rabidly cheer for those we know, if they are our club or not. Most people in our region are pretty reserved and so some think it is a bit odd, but we'd love to see more enthusiasm and joy in watching our children compete.

 

[Anonymous Post]

I have never competed entirely alone other than for state when they do competition by age group. That being said, my team always cheers for gymnasts competing alone. We had one with us on rotation at our last meet! We all became great friends.

 

[Anonymous Post]

UPDATE-- My daughter had a great experience at her competition last weekend. The team and coaches she rotated with were so kind. Other than wearing a different leotard color, they looked like they could have been teammates. I also found another mom to chat with whose daughter was the only gymnast from her gym! The icing on the cake was that she had a great competition as well!

 

[Anonymous Post]

UPDATE-- My daughter had a great experience at her competition last weekend. The team and coaches she rotated with were so kind. Other than wearing a different leotard color, they looked like they could have been teammates. I also found another mom to chat with whose daughter was the only gymnast from her gym! The icing on the cake was that she had a great competition as well!

Yay!!

 

[Anonymous (14e0)]

I am also really glad to hear you had a great experience! We are in the same boat, first year competing and the only other girl in her level is leaving the gym. I had really hoped for her to be part of a team, so I am so pleased to hear about the positive side of being an “only”!