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What to expect from a development squad trial

8 replies

Pipsqueak16 · 29/10/2015 21:49

I'm wondering if this would be standard practice from a development squad from those with more experience in the world of gymnastics.
My child was invited for a trial period in development squad. He started gymnastics as a complete newbie age 7 years in June this year. He was in grade 6 so not a lot of basics taught yet but had a pretty decent self taught cartwheel, lots of confidence and appeared to standard out in his group at recreational level. Within 2 months of starting he took part in a recreational competitor in his club and came first in his grade.
Roll on a further 3 months and he came home saying that somebody had asked to see him do a cartwheel during his recreational class. A week later the invitation came through for development squad.
He has been attending for 4 weeks(the trial period)Today he came out brandishing another letter proudly telling me he was staying. I opened the letter and it basically said he needed to go back to recreational gymnastics. No prior warning give that he might not be making the grade.
Cue much tears and disappointment. He is absolutely gutted. He loves gymnastics and has spent the last few weeks doing nothing but practising round offs in the garden etc.
I went to ask the coach and was given along the lines of he can't do headstands, backwards rolls well enough. The problemis nobody has ever taught the boy how to do these skills either in development or recreational.
My main issue isn't that he was rejected, but sort of I think he has been set up to fail. If you need to be able to do basics like headstands/ backwards rolls to be in development squad then surely this should be a pre-requisite to an invitation or remedial catch up work provided.
Secondly, if things weren't going so well it would have been helpful to have some prior warning/ feedback in advance.
For the record attendance was 100%.
Is gymnastics world really this harsh at this level or is this par for the course?

OP posts:
LanyardAhoy · 29/10/2015 22:24

Par for the course in my experience. Same happened to my 6 year old DS. He was in a development squad for 6 months and then asked to leave. He was crushed for months. He loved gym, loved seeing his friends, and he was able to do all the things he was asked. Apparently though, he didn't have enough 'finesse' and they could see his flexibility was going to limit him competitively in the long run.

I wished there was a middle ground though, because he couldn't then go back to rec gym, as he was too good and the rec gym class were doing such basic things. So, that was the end of gym for him, and a huge blow to his self confidence too.

I can see why gyms need to select, and be realistic, but I wish they handled it better and made some provision for 'better than rec' but not 'doing 12 hours a week' gymnasts.

My suggestion would be to try another sport entirely. Diving? Climbing? Athletics? All are good alternatives for ex-gymnasts, or maybe another less competitive gym club that do, say, tumbling?

Hope your DS is ok though. I remember gong through it with my DS. I wanted to shout at the gym coaches lol!

Brioche201 · 30/10/2015 19:13

I am a level 3 womens artistic coach.The squad trial is to assess POTENTIAL not which skills he can do.With girls we would be looking at natural flexibility strength, springiness and tightness in performing the movesAlso very important is focus and attitude especially to what is often uncomfortable and tedious conditioning.Learning new skills is the fun part , mostly it is perfecting what you can already do by countless repititions.
many clubs have advanced rec classes which compete in general gymnastics and train maybe 4-6 hours a week.
I am sorry you feel your ds has been set up to fail, but the clue is in teh word 'trial' .The rec coaches teach rec.They are often not able to assess whether your child is what they are looking for in squadgymnasts.

Brioche201 · 30/10/2015 19:20

Also a good headstand comes from good core strength, rather than taught technique.I am not sure what type of bwd rolls they were doing but if it were say bwd roll to front support they would need a degree of shoulder and core strength.

Pipsqueak16 · 31/10/2015 12:53

Brioche, thanks your reply is really helpful.
I think you are right, he does not yet have enough core strength for some of these key moves although all round he is generally very strong and muscular. He also simply doesn't have the technique for backward rolls in place... He doesn't use his hands and rolls over on his shoulders which is clearly not right. It is not so much the physical attributes... He has some of the better splits of the boys in the Dev squad from what I have seen. The boys generally seem to be much less flexible than the girls but DS is not far off a split. He also has lots of strength in his arms and legs but not so much yet in his core. He also has the determination... He couldn't do a round-off at the beginning and spent literally hours in the garden doing them oVer and over and over again so now he has something that looks the part to a non-gymnast.
I think the difficulty is he has only been doing gymnastics such a very short time that he hasn't established the basics. He was picked out from rec by the Dev coach and the other coaches coach both sessions.
Overall I think if kids need these skills for Dev squad and are only having a very short trial they should be included in the criteria for selection for trial.
Also during the trial there should be ongoing feedback to the gymnast and perhaps the parent particularly if it looks like things are not going to well, firstly to prepare them for not being able to continue and secondly to allow them to correct themselves. Finally a letter is not the best way of managing a let down. The coaches need to be prepared to have the conversation with the child to help manage the disappointment which is inevitable in that situational and also to provide the child with advice as to how they can continue to improve their skills.
The coaches are clearly the experts in what is required and I am not questioning their judgement, just the process.
DS will definitely want to continue. He already, does a bit of Athletics/ running, and is also at dancing on Saturdays.

OP posts:
Brioche201 · 31/10/2015 19:13

The whole thing does sound badly handled and badly communicated.
Your boy is still very young and only been doing gymnastics a few months.If he just sticks with it I think by next year it will be a different story indeed.He will certainly still benefit from rec class til he gets some more strength and these basics under his belt.

Mistigri · 01/11/2015 09:47

I wonder if it would be worth shopping around for a different club?

I think a trial period is very unreasonable at this age; if it comes down to something as simple as core strength and flexibility that is something that could be assessed briefly in the recreational group. Four weeks isn't enough to make a significant difference to either of these things, but that does not mean that they can't be acquired.

My DS's club had a pre-competition group for the boys who were too advanced for the rec group but not yet at comp standard. Although the club is a good one I don't think the boys pre-comp group had a particularly high standard (since my DS was in it and he's not that good).

I would say that unless you are dead set him doing gymnastics seriously you might want to avoid clubs with a very elite attitude, as there will not be much in the way of quality provision for able children who are not quite good enough to be elite gymnasts.

ReallyTired · 04/11/2015 09:20

I think that the OP little boy has been very badly treated. Such an experience is likely to put off a child from gymnastics. Even if he does not become a competitive gymnast, doing gymnastics is good for supporting other sports or dance.

My daughter wanted to do competitive swimming, but she isn't ready yet. She has excellent technique, but lacks muscle. She is tiny. The senior coaches of the club were very kind to her as they want her to not to give up swimming. She was told that she needed to grow a bit and develop strength. Competitive swimming doesn't really start until eight years old and my daughter is only six.
It seems that competitive swimming has more of a growth mindset than gymnastics.

Bogburglar99 · 04/11/2015 12:08

Sorry to hear he's so gutted. My 7 year old DD has just tried out for the competition squad for artistic gymnastics and didn't quite make it either. There does seem to be not a lot between 'have fun for an hour a week' and 'train intensively for serious competition' in the sport, which I think is a pity.

I agree with pps that it sounds like he should continue with Rec classes, and next year it might be a different story. They have encouraged that for DD.

I would also suggest looking at a variety of progression options, either at his present club or a different one. The bigger or more specialist clubs offer acro and tumbling as well as artistic, and the skills and capabilities required are different.

DD is, I suspect, never going to have the arm strength to do well on bars or vault. However, she's trialled for and got into a development class for acro, and seems to be really enjoying it. Don't know how far she will go, but it's giving her that little bit extra compared to rec classes.

And do congratulate your son on doing so well - it's a big achievement to be asked to try out after so few months!

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