WAG Working splits... Is this too much?

[rsm]

Thanks everyone for the comments. DD trains 8 hours per week, but will move up to 15 hrs for the next level in the summer. I will ask the HC about a flexibility routine every day vs manual stretching. I don't mind reminding her about it at home, but if that is the expectation form the coaches, then perhaps someone should have said something. When DDs coach said her way was the only way, it raised some red flags since DD is really not that inflexible, she just needs to keep working at it.

 

[Gymmom495]

I'm not sure if you originally posted that she only went 8 hours a week. To me that makes a huge difference, especially if her coaches are not working on flexibility. I know what I said before about being on team but I was under the assumption that she went more hours than that. My daughter at that level was already putting in 16-20 hours a week. They worked on flexibility and her coach stretched all of them at the end of every practice.
If she's only going 8 hours and they are not working on stretching her then this coach comes in and tries to stretch her like a seasoned gymnast who's crazy flexible that's wrong, especially when that coach is saying its the ONLY way to do it. So my mistake for mis-understanding your situation.
If I were you I would have your daughter stretch at home, every day!!!! I stretch with my daughter for 1 hour outside of gym everyday. I know it sounds crazy but when I go into her room in the morning to check on her I sometimes find her sleeping in her right or left splits. I don't know why she does that, I asked her and she told me its comfortable for her. We call her our little "freak of nature" because we think it's strange and funny. Ask a coach you trust or one of the coaches on here for a stretching routine and just stick with it everyday. I guarantee if you do that outside of gym her flexibility will get better and better.
Good luck and stand by your daughter. Do what feels right

 

[Quadqueen]

I'm not sure if you originally posted that she only went 8 hours a week. To me that makes a huge difference, especially if her coaches are not working on flexibility. I know what I said before about being on team but I was under the assumption that she went more hours than that. My daughter at that level was already putting in 16-20 hours a week. They worked on flexibility and her coach stretched all of them at the end of every practice.

I agree with you that it's crazy for the coaches to stretch her to the extreme if they don't work splits regularly, but just wanted the OP to know that "only going 8 hours" at L4 is more the norm than 16-20 hours, and your DD does not need to go that many hours to be able to do splits....nor does it necessarily mean she needs to do them a ton at home. They need to do them at practice, each and every practice. My DD was going a little less than 8 hours a week at L4 and they still did splits every practice.

 

[Gymmom495]

I by no means want the OP or any other person to think that the amount of hours my daughter went was the norm. Or that to be flexible you must go the same amount of hours that she went. I was only using our situation as an example. I was letting her know what we do for stretching and what works for us, I never want anyone to think that what is right for my daughter is right for any other child, every child is different and needs to be treated as such. This however is what has worked for us and this was our story that's all. There are thousands of stories with thousands of outcomes. Hopefully the OP can find something that works for her

 

[gymmommy123]

My daughter isn't naturally as flexible as some, so we did sticker charts, and rewards, for doing stretching at home. We'd do 1 minute each leg, and 1 minute middle splits every single night before bed. She loved earning her rewards, and her splits improved, to the point she could do all 3 within a couple months. She's now at a gym that does stretching at the beginning and end of every practice, and it shows. She's improved flexibility. They push every girl down, but do it slowly and steadily, and although she complains sometimes, she doesn't cry. Now we don't have to do stretches every night, but when we do, we work 3 minutes each leg, and she doesn't complain. Maybe you can just simply ask if they can push not quite so hard for a bit, and you will have her work on her splits at home as well. I think the coaches pushing down really does help, so long as it's done the right way.

 

[rsm]

I'm not sure if you originally posted that she only went 8 hours a week. To me that makes a huge difference, especially if her coaches are not working on flexibility. I know what I said before about being on team but I was under the assumption that she went more hours than that. My daughter at that level was already putting in 16-20 hours a week. They worked on flexibility and her coach stretched all of them at the end of every practice.
If she's only going 8 hours and they are not working on stretching her then this coach comes in and tries to stretch her like a seasoned gymnast who's crazy flexible that's wrong, especially when that coach is saying its the ONLY way to do it. So my mistake for mis-understanding your situation.
If I were you I would have your daughter stretch at home, every day!!!! I stretch with my daughter for 1 hour outside of gym everyday. I know it sounds crazy but when I go into her room in the morning to check on her I sometimes find her sleeping in her right or left splits. I don't know why she does that, I asked her and she told me its comfortable for her. We call her our little "freak of nature" because we think it's strange and funny. Ask a coach you trust or one of the coaches on here for a stretching routine and just stick with it everyday. I guarantee if you do that outside of gym her flexibility will get better and better.
Good luck and stand by your daughter. Do what feels right

Thanks for this post. I was actually going to respond to your previous post this morning because, really, I didn't think this was what we signed up for. As I said, I can certainly understand if they had been working splits consistently and decided these girls really needed the extra help, then I can understand. But to me, inflicting excessive pain on kids when there are other means to try to get the same results, is pretty close to abuse. This should be a last resort. Since I know nothing about gymnastics that I haven't read on CB, my post was just to check my common sense assumption that there are indeed other ways to approach this before doing something this drastic. I will ask about a stretching routine. We have done some stretching at home when her previous coach asked her to do some at home for a few weeks and it did help. Her current coaches have never asked her to do this, and my thought was that they would address in their gym time, and expectations would be based on what what they were training even if they weren't doing flexibility as much. I am very interested in hearing back from the HCs and what their opinion is on this situation.

 

[rsm]

My daughter isn't naturally as flexible as some, so we did sticker charts, and rewards, for doing stretching at home. We'd do 1 minute each leg, and 1 minute middle splits every single night before bed. She loved earning her rewards, and her splits improved, to the point she could do all 3 within a couple months. She's now at a gym that does stretching at the beginning and end of every practice, and it shows. She's improved flexibility. They push every girl down, but do it slowly and steadily, and although she complains sometimes, she doesn't cry. Now we don't have to do stretches every night, but when we do, we work 3 minutes each leg, and she doesn't complain. Maybe you can just simply ask if they can push not quite so hard for a bit, and you will have her work on her splits at home as well. I think the coaches pushing down really does help, so long as it's done the right way.

Thank you! I've been debating rewards/sticker charts which we did the last time we went through this with the previous coach. I know it will work to get her to do it. But I've been questioning whether or not we've reached the point that she really needs to want to do this herself instead of me providing the motivation. This is a wake up call for her too. If she doesn't get to the next level, it will be only because of splits. She says she wants to get there, and she knows how to get her splits, I want her to take the initiative now. She hates to do splits, so this will be a challenge for her. I will help and even stretch with her, but I really want this to be something she wants. But, I also want world peace

 

[coachmolly]

I agree that it needs to be something she wants. It would be great for her to work stretching at home, especially if it's not a priority in the gym and is an area where she needs work, but I don't think it's really worth forcing the issue. As long as it's clear that flexibility is what could potentially hold her back from moving up and she is aware that stretching at home is an option, I would leave the ball in her court. You could have the coaches recommend stretches or offer to stretch with her/help out where needed, but otherwise I would leave the ball in her court. But I could see how some kind of chart showing her progress would be helpful. Let her work splits on her own accord and record her progress, that way she can see that even though it isn't the most fun thing to work she is getting better at it.
The girls I coach are only in the gym 12ish hours a week, with time at the start/end of practice to set up equipment and we make time to get splits in each practice. The only time I really "help" stretch the kids is if they ask, to correct positions, or if they are especially proficient at resisting stretches on their own. I just feel like in many situations it's just not necessary and I can get the same effects with oversplits, letting gravity do the work for me (like what empowered showed), or just encouraging them to do the work themselves- though my girls are a bit older.

 

[teksquad]

If the coach is reputable, I would not worry about them causing injury to your child, most coaches worth their weight know how to properly stretch gymnasts.

I hope this is true of all coaches who do manual stretching. They have to learn so much in their training- my hat is off to the coaches.

Learning to manually stretch is a skill in itself, from my own experience in health care. I am wondering if USAG (and other gymnastics associations around the world) covers the basics of stretching, (manual, and self-stretching techniques) as a standard part of their coach training?


Learning to manually stretch someone is a skill that certain healthcare professionals have to be trained to do, in order to stretch effectively, and not induce an injury. A basic knowledge of the anatomy of the area being stretched, and what is happening physiologically to muscle fibers, is part of this training.


If coaches are going to manually stretch their gymnasts, I think it would be wise to include this topic in training sessions, if it isn't already in place. If it is not covered, (or if a coach hasn't yet received the training) perhaps it is best to allow the gymnasts to self-stretch only. (and still have training on how to direct this, body placement, etc)

 

[Flossyduck]

I have to comment that this sounds bonkers to me! I have never come across a gym class at any level, which didn't work splits as a matter of course in every session. Every class in our gym and our previous one starts with warm up and stretch, including splits, even the basic one hour beginner rec classes. My dd's class stretch after warm up, they work stretches for specific pieces (eg. if doing split handstands, split beam mounts etc.) and they overstretch with both legs or front then back leg raised at the end. Every session. They don't leave class until they have stretched out. That said, they do manually stretch some of the girls who can take it or who need a bit of assistance and yes sometimes that hurts. But that is in the context of muscles used to being stretched that way on a regular basis. Why would you not work splits regularly and then start trying to push them - just why??

 

[rsm]

I agree that it needs to be something she wants. It would be great for her to work stretching at home, especially if it's not a priority in the gym and is an area where she needs work, but I don't think it's really worth forcing the issue. As long as it's clear that flexibility is what could potentially hold her back from moving up and she is aware that stretching at home is an option, I would leave the ball in her court. You could have the coaches recommend stretches or offer to stretch with her/help out where needed, but otherwise I would leave the ball in her court. But I could see how some kind of chart showing her progress would be helpful. Let her work splits on her own accord and record her progress, that way she can see that even though it isn't the most fun thing to work she is getting better at it.
The girls I coach are only in the gym 12ish hours a week, with time at the start/end of practice to set up equipment and we make time to get splits in each practice. The only time I really "help" stretch the kids is if they ask, to correct positions, or if they are especially proficient at resisting stretches on their own. I just feel like in many situations it's just not necessary and I can get the same effects with oversplits, letting gravity do the work for me (like what empowered showed), or just encouraging them to do the work themselves- though my girls are a bit older.

Thank you! I think the chart will be very helpful even without the rewards. She loves stuff like that. Although, she will probably spend more time making the chart than actually doing the splits But it's certainly worth trying.

 

[GymCoachR2]

I really felt a strong compulsion to write this post after reading and rereading this thread. I feel like a lot of this has been said here already. But...my 2 cents (again).

Rules That Can

 

[2G1B]

I know I'm late to this post; but I just wanted to share my kids' experience. My son... he isn't good about stretching at home. I need to encourage him on that a little more.

For my girls - I offered $10 in their camp account (they are going to flip fest) for each split that they have for the entire last week of May. (I offered this to DS too; but he isn't getting into it like the girls.) I had to say for an entire week because they have both been known to go on stretching "binges", get close, then stop stretching. They do stretch at every practice; but that is only twice per week for my younger DD and 3 times for my older one.

They both started off with their "good leg split" already. We started this mid last week. As of today (Monday) they both have both of their front back splits and are so much closer to their middles. This is just with them doing over splits and stretching while watching TV. I'm trying to make a point of encouraging the stretching; but I'm not forcing them to do it.

So... in my experience, it is totally possible for a kid to get there on their own without what you described by that coach!

 

[munchkin3]

Flexibility should be worked every day.....no one will become flexible after one or two days of intense stretching...This sounds very painful!!
My sons gym stretches for 20-30 minutes every workout. My daughters gym stretched 5 minutes every workout....You can guess who has consistent splits....