My kid is a perfect example of why you do not need to worry anytime soon
It's long, but please just bare with me....I promise it has a point ;-)
We were living in Alabama, I had been told my daughter was talented and shrugged it off since she was 2. I mean, she's in Texarkana(2-4yrs), then Alabama(4-6y), how much does "talented" really mean? It's a pretty small pool(sounds similar to your situation), I also didnt realize the significance of college gymnastics, so the fact that her AL coach was sending several girls to college programs every year-meant nothing, that he wasnt good enough to send them to world/olympics-lol(im not kidding, this was my mentality). It was in the back of my mind that "some day" we may have to move for her training-or split the family-or do SOMETHING. But ultimately, I have 5 kids(all homeschooled, btw), so it was something I would dive into later....I wasn't even on chalkbucket at the time-nor did i go in the gym much(and I still dont).
Well, when she was 6 my husband was transferred to California. We ended up having the move from HECK!! It literally ended up taking almost a year to move-the date was pushed back twice, then our house was packed & the contents moved to storage 6mos ahead of our actual move, our house ended up selling 2mos before we left. Since the move was scheduled and our lives in turmoil, we did not go back for fall gym-would have been first year of teams for her.
Then, to make matters worse, we arrived in CA 2/27/2020. Just in time to meet the pandemic!! With no gym set up-due to the constant change in arrival date(plus i just didnt think much of it), she was off almost another year.
So the move had my daughter off from gymnastics for almost 2yrs(21/22mos). Now at this point you would think that's it, I'm a horrible parent and my daughter(now 8-1/2) has lost her opportunity, right?
Nope. She was accepted to an amazing gymnastics program-our first choice(they have produced Olympians, are former olympians, but most of all-they love the sport and the girls they train), she loves her coaches and teammates as her second family-which is a darn good thing since she trains ~30hrs/wk(L4, L6 this spring, but successfully doing L8/9 & some L10 skills in the gym...like she can do a yurchenko full & yurchenko single back vault in the gym-she can successfully perform bar releases, has several cool beam mounts, etc...didnt realize ANY of it was a big deal before coming here to CB-lol-i am TRULY the definition of clueless gymmom, i just know practice is more fun to watch then competition)...and she is on an elite track....as a 'favorite'-we are told often how far she will go in the sport-and we try hard not to let it go to our heads-for all we know, she will want to quit next year(doubtful-she remembers life without gym for an extended period of time & didnt like it)-or be injured, missing her opportunity, so we dont stress about it much beyond her happiness. Her coaches talk of her being the hardest working & most talented gymnast they've worked with(she's mildly autistic, so she doesn't fall into the 'traps' most kids her age do...because of her early training, she thinks of conditioning as a 5th apparatus-which I guess changes the game somewhat...but mostly, she just won the genetic lottery for gymnastics-shes naturally short(she had a great grandmother that was literally 3'11" and a grandmother on the other side that barely made 5'(after 50 she was under 5', that type of barely)...so despite my 5'7" self, she has been predicted to be under 5' long before gymnastics...yet has big, long hands for bars(i can palm a basketball with ease)-she needed custom grips, but small feet-for beam), naturally flexible/hypermobile(great grandfather that could & would sit with feet behind his head at 92yo), and autistic so no fear with crazy body control-like corrections are only ever given once type control-I still cant figure that one out-but regardless, new skills come fast because of it...as an idea of how she is, she was recently learning to do a back layout combo, she was working on tumble track, her coach & i were texting & she told me she realized just how different she was when EVERY coach in the gym(5 of them)were all frustrated with her because it had been 12days(the day she got it), yet because of how she is with most skills, those 12days seemed so long & uncharacteristic for her-enough for all of them to be frustrated-but that is how skills come for her and I guess that isnt exactly normal-i dont know, this is the only gymnast i have-so to me, this is the only way it is).
So you see, if it is meant to be, it will be. I have been quite a lackadaisical gymmom, we were not focused on it AT ALL, yet here we are...the same 30+hr week as anyone else her age, with the same aspirations. She will never have the pleasure of being a multi-year L10, but she also didnt have years of pushing to face burnout, so she will forge her own path and be ok.
Basically, if your kid has the talent, it will find its way-and so will you. If it is meant to be, it will be.
With my lackadaisical attitude comes my desire to take vacation time...we take 2days with every out of town competition(with natural days off, this gives us 5-6days, 3-4x/yr), 2-3 weeks in the summer(1 at a time), last year we even took 1wk at Thanksgiving and then 2-1/2wks at Christmas. So I guess I STILL don't take it as seriously as many other parents-yet here we are.
She also has coaches who caution us on burnout & are VERY careful about it. My kid would have daily privates if they would let her, but her coaches won't let her-yet(they tell her she will be doing that in 2yrs). She wants to come 6d/wk, again, her coaches won't let her. So between me and them, she takes more breaks and has more time off than most.
Good luck on your journey!! In & out of the gym!!
P.S. what I WOULD caution you on, bad habits!! From what I am told, coaches here are grateful that my daughter never really learned many skills at her previous gym because she didnt come with bad habits(she conditioned ALOT-and different conditioning to protect the hypermobile aspects of her-i was told once she joined the team, the skills would come fast, but base muscles were most important, so in AL she spent most of her time conditioning-then again her coach was a TOPs guy, so my understanding is that is likely normal since TOPs focuses so much on conditioning, dunno). According to her coaches, they can work YEARS to get rid of bad habits vs weeks/months to teach a new skill properly.
So just make sure that your daughter's gym isn't teaching bad habits and the rest will work itself out
