Parents Too many hours at the gym for a 3 year old?

[gasrgoose]

My daughter started gymnastics almost a year ago with a mommy and me class,then it snowballed into moving up several times and now right after she turned three years old she started training for TOPS. They do 20 hours a week. She enjoys gymnastics a lot, has big dreams and likes going but I am worried. She gets in trouble almost every day for not being focused the entire 4hours but I can't help but question how focused my daughter is supposed to be?? She doesn't run lose,she does almost everything that is asked of her but sometimes she will just sit down and watch what's going on around her,especially when the coach is working with the other girls (who are 2-3 years older than her) because she doesn't have the mind set her to train on her own and correct herself. I know nothing about gymnastics and I am not the kind of parent who pushes her child to be at the gym. She handles this all better than me. Are these hours normal for kids that age?? I love her gym and her coach is super nice and I want to trust the process so badly but lately I've been a nervous wreck about this.

At best the gym is ripping you off by charging you for 20 hours a week for play time. It's almost criminal, but then again you are taking her and allowing it. At worst, if she really is doing that much work (20 hours of TOPS training) at 3, they could be doing permanent damage to her developing body. As in back problems, growth plate issues, etc. It is beyond my imagination why anyone would need to ask if this is OK.

Sorry OP I don't mean this as a personal attack on you, just my thoughts.

 

[gymmomtotwo]

A talented child on the TOPS path at age 4/5 would do 6 hours per week with one hour of that devoted to TOPs at our gym. 3 year olds might do two 1 hour advanced preschool classes with most of it being games designed to create strength, coordination, and just overall fun.My 8 year old Level 6 doing 16 hours a week still plays games a lot of the time for warmups and to finish up practice on a fun note. For her future health and well being and longevity in the sport,find an age appropriate gym. No 3 year old should get in trouble for not focusing in the gym for more than a few minutes at a time, because it is not developmentally appropriate as any preschool teacher can tell you.

 

[Moxiegrl83]

I just dropped my 8 year old down from 20 hours a week to 16 for the rest of the summer. It was too much. If there is a 3 year old at the gym who shows potential, the coaches just kind of keep an eye on them until they advance to the prek-kindy class. Then they may get a preteam invite at 4-5, which meets 4 hours a week. If this post is for real, I am absolutely amazed that she can last a 4 hour practice without melting, but she shouldn't have to.

 

[wgymmom]

Um...wow. 3 years old and 20 hours a week. No way. My DD is 12 and hopefully doing L7 and she does 22 in the summer - not even 20 in the fall! We have L9's that don't hit 20 hours a week. I get that TOPS is intense, but I can't even wrap my head around those kinds of hours for such a young kid... practically still a baby! This has to be one of the craziest things I have ever seen on the internet.

 

[ZJsMom]

I've never heard of starting TOPs training at 3. That's insane. It's not necessary to start any training that young, let alone something that intense.

 

[wnl256]

Let me put this in perspective. My 11-year-old level 7 gymnast, who has been in the sport 6 years, was only doing 16 hours a week during the school year and 24 hours a week in the summer. Even when she was doing TOPs (ages 8 through 10) she wasn't up to 20 hours a week.

TOPs at age 3? 20 hours a week?

Yes, that is too many hours.

 

[raenndrops]

As others have said, your gym is crazy!
At 3, YG was doing 3 days a week @ 45 minutes a day classes (Preschool class... signed up for 3 of them because that was how many days sissy was at gym and she loved being at the gym). Thats 2.25 hours a week and I chose NOT to add an additional class 2 days a week (they offered 2 times 2 of the days and one time on the other day... she wanted all 5 classes for 3.75 hours when her 7 yr old sister on team was only doing 7.5 hours - no way).

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Utter madness, waiting for the Yikes @dunno

 

[motigymnasticsmom]

May I please add, that if your DD is that talented; them, she will still be talented at 4-5 years old. 20 hours now may burn her out also.

 

[Sasha]

My daughter started gymnastics almost a year ago with a mommy and me class,then it snowballed into moving up several times and now right after she turned three years old she started training for TOPS. They do 20 hours a week. She enjoys gymnastics a lot, has big dreams and likes going but I am worried. She gets in trouble almost every day for not being focused the entire 4hours but I can't help but question how focused my daughter is supposed to be?? She doesn't run lose,she does almost everything that is asked of her but sometimes she will just sit down and watch what's going on around her,especially when the coach is working with the other girls (who are 2-3 years older than her) because she doesn't have the mind set her to train on her own and correct herself. I know nothing about gymnastics and I am not the kind of parent who pushes her child to be at the gym. She handles this all better than me. Are these hours normal for kids that age?? I love her gym and her coach is super nice and I want to trust the process so badly but lately I've been a nervous wreck about this.

For the record, I agree with all other previous comments that even the most mature, talented 3 year old in the world is not physically ready for that much training. Period. Bad idea all around.

Out of curiosity, though, is your 3 year old one of those kids who for all practical purposes looks and acts like a 5 or 6 year old? Is exceptionally tall, strong, verbally mature and focused, and 'fits in' with 5-6 year old TOPs/pre-TOPs kids?

I only ask because my DD was like this, and though she was never in anything nearly this extreme, at 3 she was put into classes (not gymnastics - we hadn't tried that yet) with much older kids, and teachers/coaches would often literally forget she was 3. I can see if I had walked her into a gym when she was 3 (and the size of an average 5 year old, shorter 6 year old, with a better vocabulary and focus than many) that they might think she best fit in with serious 5/6 year olds. There are gyms near us where 5/6 year olds TOPs kids train similarly high hours (not ours). But that doesn't mean my DD was really the same as a 6 year old, and I would never have agreed to more than a few hours even if offered, and even as 'flattering' as that might sound to a parent of a pre-schooler. Just a thought as I put myself in your shoes.

 

[NEgymmum]

Yikes, I thought my 4 year preschooler doing 4 hours was a lot!

 

[l.c.o]

Oh my goodness.

I agree with all of the others, if this is serious, then it's ... crazy!

When my son was 6 and invited to team the first time, we declined the spot because practices were held for three hours, twice per week, I thought THAT was insanity.

How is that even productive? I can't imagine that her attention span, even if advanced for her age, is conducive to those hours. At that age my son had trouble with a 45 minute toddler class.

That is so much wear and tear on a little developing body. And the most hours any girl does on DD's gym are level 10s doing like 21 hours per week.

 

[Bess]

No way, no how would I have a 3 year old in anything for 20 hours a week...I mean geesh, most preschools are less time than this at this age. What kind of TOPS training can a 3 year old do? Little Bit is 6 and training TOPS and the only thing she does now that she could have done at 3 is the sprint...and even then she probably would've tripped over her feet a few times. That accounts for 10 seconds of the 4 hours a day...what do they do the rest of the time? IMO maybe a couple of 30-45 minute kiddo classes is more than enough at this age. I would hit the road to the gym down the street.

 

[gymbeam]

how many hours was she doing before she jumped to 20?

 

[mobeans]

Wow. My very successful 8 yo L4 isn't even at 20 hrs a week. At 3 I think she did 45 min 1 x a week!

 

[tooootsie]

I thought this post was a joke honestly... maybe it is? What on earth can a 3 year old do for 4 hours straight other than sleep?

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

If your 3-year-old is training 20 hours/week in something being called a "TOPS program," I am led to suspect that at least one of the following must be true:
1) The amount and intensity she's training is absurdly far beyond any level that is desirable or healthy for a 3-year-old.
2) Her "training" is actually a glorified day care program, and they are calling it TOPS training in an attempt to snow you into thinking they are turning your 3-year-old into a future Olympian.
3) The details as presented are innaccurate.

Whatever the case, I request that everybody remain polite and respectful in this thread.

 

[Anna's_Mom]

I'm confused -- did they put her into this class/program without your permission? That, in and of itself, would make me want to find a new gym. Unless you didn't understand what they were asking and said yes without realizing what you were agreeing to? Before every change our gym has always explained exactly what was required, why they thought this was a good thing, and what we could expect in the upcoming months in terms of extra costs and scheduling. I would expect any gym to provide this information before such a drastic change. I'm with everyone else -- this is crazy and if they knowingly put a 3 YO in this position then you need to find a new gym!

 

[Flyaway]

There's not much left to add. It's obviously crazy and over the top. Get out while your baby is still in one piece.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

My 9 yo goes 9 hrs a week. No, the answer is no way, no how.