Men Talented but bored kiddo

[erynq]

My son (just turned 10) started gymnastics about 1.5 years ago and within a month moved from bronze to silver to pre-team. He loves to flip and do big moves and learn new things. He switched gyms recently and is now in a more traditional team setting, working on Level 4 skills. He is frustrated that he doesn't get to do things he can do - like roundoff back tuck, or flyaway from bars - because they're not at his level. Basically, he is at a certain level on floor/bars, but not at that level on p-bars/pommel. He's bored and not feeling challenged, but also is not ready to move up because of his (age- and size-appropriate) lack of skills in certain areas. I guess I'm looking for advice on how to keep him engaged and excited in the parts that he loves without getting bored and burned out on the other things. His options for this next year are basically: 1) join team full time at Level 4; 2) go back to the old gym where there is no team and no real structure to the classes; he gets to learn big things but will not progress on the things he needs to work on to compete.

 

[Planched]

I would say it depends on his goals. I think that team can be really fun but it is very different from rec classes. If he wants to do big skills and be like the "big kids", then team can be really fun for him and he can make very good friends, but if he just wants to play and learn cool tricks and whatnot then rec could be very good for him. Again it depends on what he wants to gain from gymnastics.