My DD was first introduced to elite gymnastics when she watched Nastia win gold. She has wanted that same thing ever since. Obviously being a little older now she knows how hard that would be and has even verbalized that she knows very few actually make the Olympics but she would like to be an elite and see where that takes her. My husband and I have always told her that we support her goals and dreams. Its easy to say that you support their goals and dreams when they are younger. What do I do now?
I don’t even know if this would be possible for her. I would say that she is moderately talented. She sometimes takes a little longer then her peers to learn new things. She is very strong. She actually has her own conditioning program separate from the other girls because the old one that everyone else does doesn’t fatigue her. She is very powerful. She is flexible too. She pushes herself daily in flexibility too. Some of the girls just do the requirement but she really pushes herself to go further. She sometimes ends up in tears after splits because she pushes so hard. She asks her coaches for extra shoulder stretches every day after practice too. What I think makes up for her moderate talent is her passion and hard working attitude. She gives 100% every day. She works till exhaustion most days. Her coaches sometimes tell her it time to quit because she won’t quit herself. Her coaches tell me constantly what a hard worker she is. I have watched her on beam and bars and she is constantly moving. She doesn’t talk to her peers much during gym because she says to wants to concentrate on what she has to do. She rarely chalks up so she avoids the social scene at the chalk bucket. When she is in line waiting for her turn on bars she will do drills on the floor in line. She probably does 2 or 3 times what everybody else does because she just keeps moving. She is like a machine on beam. When the beam assignment is to do a certain amount of each skill she finishes way ahead of everybody else and doesn’t understand why they may not finish their assignment that day. She gets up on the beam and just does skill after skill. Without wasting any time. This summer when she was learning her layout step out series on beam she was one of the last ones to get permission that is was good enough to work in on high beam. She told me that she was really frustrated that they were on high beam and she was on low beam. This really fueled her desire. Once she got permission she just attacked them on high beam because she told me she was anxious to catch up. She doesn’t seem to have that natural form that some of her teammates have. She sometimes struggles a little on the form of skills but she works real hard to clean them up.
When not at the gym she watches gymnastics on the internet and learns more about elites. She has read every biography about gymnasts that I think has ever been printed. She know so much about elite gymnastics in the US and about other elite in other countries that her coaches will ask her about gymnasts from Worlds or Olympics when they want to know more about them.
I am telling you all these details so that you can know more about her as a gymnast so you can help me figure some things out.
What do you do if you are limited by how far you can go based on your current gym? My DD is 11 years old and will be a second year level 8. The plan was for her to compete 9 this year but with some last minute injuries she is just not polished enough to do 9. I started looking around at some of the girls on her team and realize that most of them couldn’t make the leap in levels this year. Several were supposed to do 9 but will probably do 8 again and some were supposed to do 10 and will end up repeating level 9. This makes me wonder if her current gym pushes forward enough. I saw the same thing happen last year. We will have only one 10 this year. In the 4 years we have been at the gym the 9s and 10s have been a very small group. We graduated a very successful 10 two years ago who has a full ride to a top ten school so I know the coach is more then capable of teaching high skills. He is very technical and spends lots of time explaining the how and why of skills. The gym is great at basics. They spend a lot of time working on basics. When our girls have gone to clinics to other coaches have told our girls how good their basics are. He spends a lot of time on drills but he rarely spots on bars. I know that repeating the optional levels happens frequently so how do I know if her current gym is the best for her. She is at the best gym in our area and a better gym is over 200 miles away. My DD is so passionate about gymnastics that I would hate to see her not be able to pursue her dreams and full potential.
What do I do? As an 11 year old second year level 8 is now the right time to be thinking of making some major changes? My husband and I have discussed moving. It wouldn’t just be for gymnastics though. Hubby has thought about a more challenging job with bigger pay. However his field is somewhat limited and we can’t just pick a gym and find a job there. We would have to wait for a job to open up in an area that also has a great gym. Moving also presents some challenges. One of my children would be greatly impacted and really struggle with the loss of his grandparents. This is a big negative to moving. After reading the Gabby Douglas book she got for Christmas I asked her if she would be willing to leave her family and move in with another family to train. She jumped all over that more enthusiastically then I would have guessed. I know that this was more common in the 80’s and 90’s but not so common now. Obviously I assume she would have to be a national type caliber gymnast for a gym to be willing to work on this type of arrangement. I know its not a good choice now but I a looking down the line at options. Or we do nothing and keep letting her toil at her own gym. I feel really conflicted with this. Yes this is the best choice for our family but what about her needs. If she was an adult she would be able to go wherever she needed to be but as a child she is penalized in a sport that athletic choices have to be made so young. She hears lots of conversions from friends and family who are shocked at the time commitment and financial commitment that we as a family give this sport. When she hears this she gets a little stressed that one day we will decide that it is too much and tell her to quit (this happened to a teammate). I have always assured her that as long as she was passionate about it and works hard that we would do whatever we could to support her. I feel like she has kept up her end of the bargain but that I might be unable to keep mine up to do whatever I can.
So what do we do? How do we know if she even has the potential to make it as an elite? Do you think staying at her gym long term or even the next few years will negatively effect her ability to pursue elite? What do you think of her gyms inability to make leaps in level in the higher optionals. How do we handle her passion and drive if we are in a situation that she will probably be unable to achieve it?
I don’t even know if this would be possible for her. I would say that she is moderately talented. She sometimes takes a little longer then her peers to learn new things. She is very strong. She actually has her own conditioning program separate from the other girls because the old one that everyone else does doesn’t fatigue her. She is very powerful. She is flexible too. She pushes herself daily in flexibility too. Some of the girls just do the requirement but she really pushes herself to go further. She sometimes ends up in tears after splits because she pushes so hard. She asks her coaches for extra shoulder stretches every day after practice too. What I think makes up for her moderate talent is her passion and hard working attitude. She gives 100% every day. She works till exhaustion most days. Her coaches sometimes tell her it time to quit because she won’t quit herself. Her coaches tell me constantly what a hard worker she is. I have watched her on beam and bars and she is constantly moving. She doesn’t talk to her peers much during gym because she says to wants to concentrate on what she has to do. She rarely chalks up so she avoids the social scene at the chalk bucket. When she is in line waiting for her turn on bars she will do drills on the floor in line. She probably does 2 or 3 times what everybody else does because she just keeps moving. She is like a machine on beam. When the beam assignment is to do a certain amount of each skill she finishes way ahead of everybody else and doesn’t understand why they may not finish their assignment that day. She gets up on the beam and just does skill after skill. Without wasting any time. This summer when she was learning her layout step out series on beam she was one of the last ones to get permission that is was good enough to work in on high beam. She told me that she was really frustrated that they were on high beam and she was on low beam. This really fueled her desire. Once she got permission she just attacked them on high beam because she told me she was anxious to catch up. She doesn’t seem to have that natural form that some of her teammates have. She sometimes struggles a little on the form of skills but she works real hard to clean them up.
When not at the gym she watches gymnastics on the internet and learns more about elites. She has read every biography about gymnasts that I think has ever been printed. She know so much about elite gymnastics in the US and about other elite in other countries that her coaches will ask her about gymnasts from Worlds or Olympics when they want to know more about them.
I am telling you all these details so that you can know more about her as a gymnast so you can help me figure some things out.
What do you do if you are limited by how far you can go based on your current gym? My DD is 11 years old and will be a second year level 8. The plan was for her to compete 9 this year but with some last minute injuries she is just not polished enough to do 9. I started looking around at some of the girls on her team and realize that most of them couldn’t make the leap in levels this year. Several were supposed to do 9 but will probably do 8 again and some were supposed to do 10 and will end up repeating level 9. This makes me wonder if her current gym pushes forward enough. I saw the same thing happen last year. We will have only one 10 this year. In the 4 years we have been at the gym the 9s and 10s have been a very small group. We graduated a very successful 10 two years ago who has a full ride to a top ten school so I know the coach is more then capable of teaching high skills. He is very technical and spends lots of time explaining the how and why of skills. The gym is great at basics. They spend a lot of time working on basics. When our girls have gone to clinics to other coaches have told our girls how good their basics are. He spends a lot of time on drills but he rarely spots on bars. I know that repeating the optional levels happens frequently so how do I know if her current gym is the best for her. She is at the best gym in our area and a better gym is over 200 miles away. My DD is so passionate about gymnastics that I would hate to see her not be able to pursue her dreams and full potential.
What do I do? As an 11 year old second year level 8 is now the right time to be thinking of making some major changes? My husband and I have discussed moving. It wouldn’t just be for gymnastics though. Hubby has thought about a more challenging job with bigger pay. However his field is somewhat limited and we can’t just pick a gym and find a job there. We would have to wait for a job to open up in an area that also has a great gym. Moving also presents some challenges. One of my children would be greatly impacted and really struggle with the loss of his grandparents. This is a big negative to moving. After reading the Gabby Douglas book she got for Christmas I asked her if she would be willing to leave her family and move in with another family to train. She jumped all over that more enthusiastically then I would have guessed. I know that this was more common in the 80’s and 90’s but not so common now. Obviously I assume she would have to be a national type caliber gymnast for a gym to be willing to work on this type of arrangement. I know its not a good choice now but I a looking down the line at options. Or we do nothing and keep letting her toil at her own gym. I feel really conflicted with this. Yes this is the best choice for our family but what about her needs. If she was an adult she would be able to go wherever she needed to be but as a child she is penalized in a sport that athletic choices have to be made so young. She hears lots of conversions from friends and family who are shocked at the time commitment and financial commitment that we as a family give this sport. When she hears this she gets a little stressed that one day we will decide that it is too much and tell her to quit (this happened to a teammate). I have always assured her that as long as she was passionate about it and works hard that we would do whatever we could to support her. I feel like she has kept up her end of the bargain but that I might be unable to keep mine up to do whatever I can.
So what do we do? How do we know if she even has the potential to make it as an elite? Do you think staying at her gym long term or even the next few years will negatively effect her ability to pursue elite? What do you think of her gyms inability to make leaps in level in the higher optionals. How do we handle her passion and drive if we are in a situation that she will probably be unable to achieve it?