WAG What level are you going to be this year and how many hours do you train?

[Flipomaniak]

I do 5 hours Monday, 6.5 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday, 5 on Thursday, 5.5 Friday and 4 on Saturday. I am cyber schooled so that allows a lot of flexibility. Sometimes I do no work, sometimes I do a lot on weekends and I work on holiday breaks.

 

[gymnastSTB]

Level 5, and I train 6 1/2 hours a week

 

[Moxiegrl83]

Our L3's: 6 hours
L4's: around 10
L5's: 14
L6+: 18

They really can't train too much more then that. Our middle school's don't get out until after 4pm, so they all come straight from school, and practice is over at 8.

 

[GymBeeMom]

My DD is a rising level 7 and goes 29 hours a week, but she is homeschooled and is part of TOPS training/elite track in our gym. I think the night time 7s go 20 hours...

 

[iwannacoach]

It's not how many hours you're at practice, but what you're doing in those hours.

That's so true, and it creates an ethic of jumping right in to solve problems or completing a task.

From Canada competing P4, equivalent to L8-L9 skills, and training 12-15 hours a week.

Level 9 and 13.5 hours

Yikes, ours seems pretty low. Our L8-10 are only 16 hours/week, but they do very well!

I've seen a lot of great things accomplished in a "short schedule", and think it really boils down to being determined to make every minute and effort count for something. There have been times I've seen a child make the same mistake repeatedly because they are only thinking about the correction rather than making their body move differently.....changes right or wrong, as long as they're experienced safely, will lead to successes to build on.

So if your worried about your short schedule, resolve to make it work. Try to set reasonable goals for repetitions on skills you work on by yourself. Here's a good example of how much you can get done in a short time.......I once had a group of 7 kids who had been "slacking off" leading up to an away meet that they all wanted to participate in. After watching empty eqipment for five minutes I told them we would be starting with full routines in two minutes and that they each had 20 minutes to get fifteen routines done or the trip would be cancelled.....Whoops, probably too much I thought, but to my relief they all were up to 13 routines, many done well, in just under 15 minutes......

That moment "set the tone" for the entire rest of the year, and the group went on to a daily schedule of 15 minutes to warm up and get 8 routines done. The "moment" convinced them that their routines were far easier than they had thought, and they continued after their routines to use their time just as efficiently.....I was in iwannacoach dream land. We were able to get more done and cut our 50 minute bar workouts down to forty, and use the savings on an event you can never get enough time on......beam.

I love the idea of more time in the gym as long as it's well spent, but unless a child is on an "elite track" I see no overall benifit in a schedule that exceeds 20 hrs per week, especially if it's split into a Monday-Tuesday......Thursday-Friday format. The Wednesday off is great for recharging mentally and resting up after two "full tilt" practices.

So get out there and get it done!