Anon TOPS fomo

[Anonymous (3362)]

Hey everyone. I have an almost 8 year old daughter who has always had some stand out abilities when it comes to her gymnastics and athleticism (self taught press handstands at 5, precocious power and strength, etc) and has progressed quickly and well throughout her 2.5 years on team. However we live in a gymnastics desert of sorts with very few gyms and the ones that are around do not compete compulsories or have TOPS programs, have never qualified any elites, and rarely send kids D1.

We are at a gym that is good for my kid as a person; a safe, healthy coaching environment but she trains low hours and a fairly low level considering skillset. The gym takes its time to get girls to optionals with frequent level repeating. As my daughter has varied interests and isn’t a kid who is absolutely obsessed with gymnastics (she likes it a lot but doesn’t eat, sleep, breathe it) I have felt like the slower paced environment is probably just fine for her so haven’t given it much more thought.

However, recently I’ve had several people much more knowledgeable in the gymnastics world see her or footage of her and be very confused by her current level and insist she needs a TOPS program. I’ve always written off TOPS as a conditioning torture program and told myself it is not necessary for high level success in the sport. Am I wrong? Is it necessary for D1 level gymnastics? We have no aspirations for elite and I know with her age she has likely passed the point of that even being an option anyway but I do want to make sure I don’t close doors for her for college, level 9-10 etc before she is old enough to really know what she wants from the sport. We would likely need to commute 1.5 hours each way to find a TOPS program so I’d love to hear from people who really know this world if it is absolutely necessary for her development should she choose to try to make it to those high levels.

Is she missing out on something crucial by not being in a gym with TOPS etc? Can we supplement strength work enough at home to make up the deficit if so? I know it’s a rigorous program she may not even like anyway so I feel sort of paralyzed as to how to proceed and worried I’m reading way too much into her ability anyway. Thanks for taking the time to read and I’d so value any advice.

 

[Anonymous (c587)]

My daughter was offered the chance to train for TOPS when she was 6. She was a Covid kid and it would have involved missing school once she’d finally gotten to go back in-person, so I said no. I didn’t fully understand TOPS back then and it was the old program. I think she would have really benefited from it. I don’t think she would have done well with new TOPS because she didn’t progress fast enough and she wouldn’t have had the skills.

I don’t think you should get too caught up in it. TOPS is big in our area but not all gyms do it. The girls at the gyms who didn’t do it who were young phenoms are perfectly competitive with the girls who had it. And as I look through rosters of girls who did TOPS training vs made TOPS camps, the program doesn’t do anything but emphasize girls who were already quite talented. It doesn’t take average gymnasts and turn them into phenoms. I felt better once I realized that- my daughter would have spent a lot of time on TOPS training but wouldn’t have made it to any national rankings and she would have still been a level-per-year kid.

You don’t even need TOPS for elite, let alone NCAA. Don’t move or commute 90 minutes for it!

 

[Anonymous (3362)]

My daughter was offered the chance to train for TOPS when she was 6. She was a Covid kid and it would have involved missing school once she’d finally gotten to go back in-person, so I said no. I didn’t fully understand TOPS back then and it was the old program. I think she would have really benefited from it. I don’t think she would have done well with new TOPS because she didn’t progress fast enough and she wouldn’t have had the skills.

I don’t think you should get too caught up in it. TOPS is big in our area but not all gyms do it. The girls at the gyms who didn’t do it who were young phenoms are perfectly competitive with the girls who had it. And as I look through rosters of girls who did TOPS training vs made TOPS camps, the program doesn’t do anything but emphasize girls who were already quite talented. It doesn’t take average gymnasts and turn them into phenoms. I felt better once I realized that- my daughter would have spent a lot of time on TOPS training but wouldn’t have made it to any national rankings and she would have still been a level-per-year kid.

You don’t even need TOPS for elite, let alone NCAA. Don’t move or commute 90 minutes for it!

That’s what my instinct has been telling me but it’s good to hear someone else say it. I really appreciate the feedback!

 

[Anonymous (32a9)]

Everyone has their own experience. TOPs is not needed to be successful BUT it absolutely makes a difference in establishing the best foundation and form for a gymnast. IF you go to a competent TOPs program (not just a program that does TOPs to generate additional revenue). If D1 is an eventual goal then TOPs will improve the probability of that happening, again nothing is guaranteed, but the numbers play out. Those 4 girls in that picture participated in the TOPs national training camp after qualifying, and were all top 5 recruits the past two years

If your daughter is just having fun, is not too enamored with gymnastics then there is no reason to invest that much into doing TOPs. Skip TOPs, wait another 2 years and assess if she has the gym bug to do college gym. If she does, then I would probably start looking for a better gym to accomplish that goal. But make no mistake, a gymnast who competed TOPs and was successful is going to have better form and foundational skills than one who hasnt.

 

[sun]

TOPs = tool for getting stronger, increase gymnastics ability imo
You can get stronger and increase gymnastics ability with all sorts of tools

 

[Anonymous (3362)]

View attachment 9374
Everyone has their own experience. TOPs is not needed to be successful BUT it absolutely makes a difference in establishing the best foundation and form for a gymnast. IF you go to a competent TOPs program (not just a program that does TOPs to generate additional revenue). If D1 is an eventual goal then TOPs will improve the probability of that happening, again nothing is guaranteed, but the numbers play out. Those 4 girls in that picture participated in the TOPs national training camp after qualifying, and were all top 5 recruits the past two years

If your daughter is just having fun, is not too enamored with gymnastics then there is no reason to invest that much into doing TOPs. Skip TOPs, wait another 2 years and assess if she has the gym bug to do college gym. If she does, then I would probably start looking for a better gym to accomplish that goal. But make no mistake, a gymnast who competed TOPs and was successful is going to have better form and foundational skills than one who hasnt.

Thanks. She loves gym more than any other activity she has ever done but she isn’t obsessive. She’ll be nearly out of TOPS age if we wait a couple years though but I do think she’ll likely need to switch gyms regardless just to be successful in optionals. I do wonder if like the previous response said if TOPS makes the gymnast or if the already extremely talented gymnasts are the ones we see in TOPS and they would have been so advanced and incredible regardless of TOPS?