WAG What keeps a girl in gymnastics?

[Nikki4]

Interesting topic...

Both of my daughters started gymnastics together. They both have very different personalities.

Daughter A is still going strong in gymnastics.
Daughter B has switched to competitive cheer a long time ago.

I think their personalities have a lot to do with their outcomes.

Daughter A- determined, stubborn, perfectionist, hard-working, introvert, competitive

Daughter B- out-going, fun-loving, easy-going, dramatic, funny, and a tad bit on the lazy side!

I couldn’t be happier with two totally different daughters. Both of whom keep me on my toes in different ways. I’m glad they both found something they love that suites their personalities. But I do think personality has a lot to do with kids sticking with gymnastics.

Daughter A is my kid! Lol
I think those personality traits and the fact that she loves gym is why she goes back every day! But then she's only 10.

 

[FlippinPrincess]

Ok I guess we will have to agree to disagree on that, as in my opinion whilst gymnastics has many skills to learn it takes many hours to perfect with lots of repetition, where as say in football even with limited skills kids start playing games from an early age they don’t have to master the skills in order to play a game.

With limited skills kids can do rec gymnastics. In order to progress and perfect those skills it takes practice and repetition. I think college level and pro football players would disagree that they don’t have skills to master in order to excel at football and take their game to the next level. As far as repetition, ask a soccer player how long they practiced dribbling a ball in order to take their game to the next level.

With any activity, anyone can start with limited skills but to get really good it will take practice and repetition. Ask anyone who plays an instrument or dances. Really, the list goes on and on.

 

[Jenny]

My DD now 17 started at 5. What keeps her in gym.

• she loves the feeling of movement in gymnastics moves.
• she loves to feel conditioned and flexible
• she loves her friends.
• she loves being able to do things no one else at school can
• she loves the challenge of achieving that it gives her
• she loves the independence it gives her
• she loves the knowledge it gives her about anatomy, about biomechanics, about gymnastics as a fan, about people relationships
• she loves her coaches and feels safe and valued by them
• she loves her gym and feels safe and valued when there
• she enjoys coaching
• she loves being able to express herself through her routines especially on floor.
• she loves to travel and watch large meets around the country and abroad with like minded people who share her interest
• she is not done yet! She just isn't ready to walk away.

 

[Taxidriver]

With limited skills kids can do rec gymnastics. In order to progress and perfect those skills it takes practice and repetition. I think college level and pro football players would disagree that they don’t have skills to master in order to excel at football and take their game to the next level. As far as repetition, ask a soccer player how long they practiced dribbling a ball in order to take their game to the next level.

With any activity, anyone can start with limited skills but to get really good it will take practice and repetition. Ask anyone who plays an instrument or dances. Really, the list goes on and on.

Of course any sport at a high level requires practice and repetition, but from my own personal experience gymnastics requires that reputation from much earlier on and a much younger age. I’m not talking about rec gym but team gymnastics versus playing for a local football team, the first day my son went to football training they had him ‘playing’ a game at the end of training, the first day my dd joined the gym team (both at a similar age around 5) was no where near being able to complete a routine on beam and she spent many months before they even put a routine together. The same can be said about every other sports any of my kids have participated in, maybe my experience haven’t been the norm.
I understand when someone who has played a sport for a while is willing to spend time to perfect their skills, but my experience is that starts at a very young age with gym before they’ve truly learned that hard work on the boring stuff pays off.
The reason I highlighted I thought gym was the most repetitive sport was someone said gym shouldn’t be repetitive but in my experience gym is the most repetitive sport at a young age. Most other sports in my experience don’t ramp up in hours like gym does at such a young age.
However all that said my dd tried several other sports before gym but none of them did she love like she does gym and I always wonder why did she fall in love with gym, but she did and that’s all that matters.