WAG Talent/Maturity Question

[Raquel]

My daughter just turned 8. She is the strongest and most flexible girl on her team. BUT, her scores tend to be mediocre - averaging about 8.5. She tends to lose a lot of points for things like bent knees. Her coaches always tell her to straighten her knees and physically her legs can straighten, but there is some disconnect between her brain and her body where she doesn't remember to straighten them. She LOVES gymnastics, but I notice that she doesn't "attack" the routines with the "eye of the tiger" (if you will) like some of the other girls do. She is a little more tentative. Do you think these are things that will improve with age? Or is this not her sport? Not sure how much time to give this. Has anyone here had a daughter with similar issues early on but then things clicked for them as they got older? Any stories or advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

 

[GymMomXcel]

8.5 is not bad. She's 8, flexible, strong, and LOVES gymnastics. I'd say it IS her sport. As long as she's happy, active..don't worry about the scores! besides, the straight legs will eventually click, I'm sure. Relax and enjoy the sport with her. It's hard, I know. I always want my DD to do well, too.

 

[GymMomXcel]

Also.. My DD started at 9. She's 11 now and things are straighter than they used to be.

 

[Raquel]

8.5 is not bad. She's 8, flexible, strong, and LOVES gymnastics. I'd say it IS her sport. As long as she's happy, active..don't worry about the scores! besides, the straight legs will eventually click, I'm sure. Relax and enjoy the sport with her. It's hard, I know. I always want my DD to do well, too.

That is encouraging. Thanks so much!

 

[Deleted member D3987]

My daughter just turned 8. She is the strongest and most flexible girl on her team. BUT, her scores tend to be mediocre - averaging about 8.5. She tends to lose a lot of points for things like bent knees. Her coaches always tell her to straighten her knees and physically her legs can straighten, but there is some disconnect between her brain and her body where she doesn't remember to straighten them. She LOVES gymnastics, but I notice that she doesn't "attack" the routines with the "eye of the tiger" (if you will) like some of the other girls do. She is a little more tentative. Do you think these are things that will improve with age? Or is this not her sport? Not sure how much time to give this. Has anyone here had a daughter with similar issues early on but then things clicked for them as they got older? Any stories or advice you have would be greatly appreciated.

she's 8. come back and ask me in 4 years.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

What Dunno said.

 

[Dka]

My dd was a level 4 with the same issues at 8 years old... Now she just turned 11 and is level 8.... It just happens...

 

[Faith]

If she's enjoying it, and you can cope with the time/financial commitment, then it's all good.

Some kids "their" sport is not necessarily the one they will reach the olympics at. It's the one they love doing and turn up every session willing to work at. Give her as much time as she wants- it may click, it may not. It may not click until she's 12, but if you pull her out now it never will.

Even if gymnastics turns out to not be her sport, it will give her a sound basis in flexibility, strength, discipline, spatial awareness, time management….etc etc when she does find her sport.

 

[iwannacoach]

What Dunno said.

Same here. Take a moment to reflect on what you were like at that age, and then compare those thought to yourself at age 10, and again at 12.

If your question is driven by observing other children her age that seem to "get it" then consider what they don't get that your dear daughter gets.... easily.

 

[wallinbl]

If she enjoys it, there isn't much else to worry about. 8 year olds excel at being really happy most of the time, but not much else.

 

[cbifoja]

Sent you a PM so as not to bore the rest of the group with my same old complaints.

 

[balancedmom]

My daughter is same way-- about to turn 9, doing L5 and has been getting low 8s at best (finally got a 9 this weekend). She seems to have trouble with form and falters at meets (much better in gym). But, she loves the sport, and I am just hoping that with time, she can build up those skills and do better (or not-- as long as she loves it). When I first joined this forum, I saw all sorts of posts with overall scores of 35, 36, 37, but since posting about my low scorer (but awesome daughter), a whole bunch of parents with lower scoring gymnasts came out to voice support. Not every kid at every age and every level will be at the top. they are still young kids, and really the end goal for most of these kids is to have fun today not to make it somewhere.

 

[Muddlethru]

Every single team member my daughter has had improved in form. Some kids are just born with great form. But I don't think it means they will be great gymnasts either. I've seem some tremendous looking compulsory gymnast teeter out once they get to optionals, and vice versa. Good, consistent coaching is also a big factor.

 

[Bajanswife]

DD's form was awful when she was 8, but she's slowly improving with time (she's 10, going on 11 now). She knows what she has to do, but hollow body and straight legs don't come naturally to her so she has to think too much about them still. I find that towards the end of a season her form is great because her routines have become so ingrained that she can use more of her brain to concentrate on form - early in the season she's still trying to remember her routines and fix skills, there's no room in the brain to worry about form!

 

[gymgymgymnast08]

When I was 8 my form was so terrible that one of the coaches made me get checked by a doctor to see if my arms and legs physically straightened. They did but I just couldn't concentrate on them. I was a terrible compulsory (I was literally last place at level 5 states). One of the coaches wanted me to stay in level 5 for a third year to improve my form even though I had all the skills. Another coach convinced him that my form wouldn't get any better with the same skills so I went to level 6 and was still pretty bad. I had all the skills and I had them safely but they were just really ugly. When I hit optionals I was like 12 or 13 and something finally clicked. Of course my form was never amazing (I never got compared to Nastia Liukin) but it was so much better. I began to place pretty well at meets and even won some events at states. I did get to level 9 and would have competed d3 college gymnastics if not for an injury. Sorry for the long post but yes form can improve greatly. I did surprise my coaches though because they never thought I would get as far as I did because of my earlier form issues.

 

[deca817]

This doesn't have anything to do with it, but I'm new to chalk bucket. What does dd mean?

 

[billise]

DD means dear/darling daughter. DS would be dear/darling son.

 

[txgymfan]

DD = Darling Daughter or Dear Daughter ( or depending on a parents mood Darn Daughter). DH ( dear husband) DS ( dear son) occasionally you see reverences to OD ( older daughter) YD ( younger daughter) or to DGD ( dear Grand daughter) and variations on the above for various boys/girls and/or older/ younger.

 

[billise]

My DD just finished her first season competing (level 3). She was 6 years old for all but one competition and she was almost always in last place AA (she really didn't care too much as our compulsories compete AAU so she always got an AA medal and usually medaled in at least one event). She had all of her skills but her form is just not very good. Her high score was 32.35. Her coaches say she's just young and form will come

 

[deca817]

Ok thank you. I'm just getting started with this so I'm pretty clueless.