Gymnastics - so if you're not in the squad, it's basically a waste of time?

Thank you confirming that 7 is the latest for elite which is what I've said but some clubs won't look at girls that old as elite grades start the year you turn 8. You can compete at national level at elite or national grades - they are different. I wish in the UK there wasn't such pressure to start so young as it puts so many girls off and loads of squad gymnasts give up. I also wish there were more competitions for recreational gymnasts like the US. Most gyms in the UK are packed with large waiting lists, demand is outstripping supply but that does mean that some gyms are not providing a good standard of gym for rec.

dd's gymnastics coach started gym at 7 and completes in national competitions. I am not sure if she counts an elite gymnast though. She did a lot of ballet and competitive swimming before she took up gym though.

I think that top gymnasts who start after the age of seven have done something else to build up the sheer strength and subtleness required.

sixlive What are you hoping your child to achieve and how much are you prepared to sacrifice? China produces some of the best gymnasts in the world, but they are prepared to abuse their children in a way that we would think is unthinkable to achieve their goal of a gold medal.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/9441823/Children-as-young-as-four-undergo-gymnastics-and-swimming-training-in-China.html

Paula Thomas didn't start until she was 7 either and she competed for GB in the Sydney Olympics.

"Really tired name me one british female gymnast that started later than 7 years old"

Beth Tweddle didn't start gymnastics until she was 7. She's GB's greatest gymnast of all time.

My daughter is 5 and that seems be the age they start encourage more participation leading to squads.

I dont particularly want her doing lots of hours every week at a young age though!!

Six live - I thought Beth Tweddle was the example of someone who didn't start until they were 7 but I could be wrong.
I know of a girl who didn't step foot in a gym until she was 7 who passed her compulsory 2 in age.
Although they are exceptions rather than the rule.
But there is a middle ground - rec's got its place in the system and makes it accessible for all. Floor and vault comps give the chance for competiting and challenge. I think it can be enjoyable at all levels. It doesn't have to be about making to the top.

Really tired name me one british female gymnast that started later than 7 years old. My DD at 6 was considered too old by one club but was taken on by another and has caught up training 15+hours a week in the holidays. If you do gym at the elite level with 15-20+ hours a week you have no time for any sport. I wish I had known this a year ago.

I think that for developing strength you need to look for other sports. For example many of Britain's top gymnasts did not specialise in gymnastics at a young age. Often other sports like swimming, football, karate, dance, running about the part build strength. Many olympicans excelled at lots of sports when they were young before they made the decision to specialise.

Just spotted this thread (well Picture pointed me here)

I just started a thread about gymnastics over here - could anyone help either there or here?

Sorry for the hiJack

Change clubs. I really wish BG would work more on gymnastics for all rather than the very few. You aren't going to learn much doing one rec class a week. 7 is too late for 4 piece squad barring a few noticeable exceptions, but some clubs have team gym, trampolining and acrobatics. Cartwheels, handstands, bridges need to be practised at home, technique shown in the gym.

Seeing where you are Tolworth is the obvious choice.

On the subject of gymnastics does anyone know of a club in the Staffs/Cheshire area that would take an older girl (12) on a temporary basis in the school holidays, perhaps for private coaching to work on very simple tricks such as how to cartwheel?

Dynamo in Southampton is brilliant. I know them well.

If you are Surrey you could look at www.gymnasticsfactory.co.uk/
run by Olympian Kelly Hackman and her family. Kelly is lovely and certainly worth talking to to see whether a club change might be beneficial in your circumstances. I have known her for years and obviously she has been at the top having competed in Sydney and won a Commonwealth silver medal but she also wants gymnastics to be fun.

I'd also say look at another club.

My DD (7) has recently moved from artistic to rhythmic squad, and so given up artistic squad and moved back into rec class for artistic.

The skills she's working on in rec are not that dissimilar to squad - they just progress at a slower rate because they do less conditioning and don't have the hours. Also, it's not expected at the same standard. So, in rec at the moment the children are learning the routine my daughter competed at regional grade 14 last year. She gets to go on bars and beam every session.

Here, children do rec until quite old, and can learn flicks etc - it just takes longer to get there!

The thing with developing strength in recreational classes is they only go once a week, so can they really develop that much strength?
I have 2 daughters that have been going for just over 2yrs - oldest was 7 when she started, now 9. Youngest was 4, now 6.
The 9 yr old is in a floor & vault squad - so she does 3hrs/wk and seems to do more new skills than when she was in the rec squad. It's a step up from rec, I don't know if its where she'll stay but it's a nice place to be, it has a few competitions a year, it's not a huge commitment and she's really happy.
The 6 yr old looks like she's been doing the same thing week in, week out for 2 years. She can do a few things and they work on the skills youve mentioned - she can do a handstand-bridge-kick over,, they've tried to teach her cartwheels but she has no form! She loves the bars, hates beam. I think once she figures out what she's meant to look like she might be ok, but for now she just goes and smiles & laughs for 1.5hr a week and loves it. She can't wait for gymnastics day. Which is what it's about for me. It's the only activity DD2 goes to without having a protest as we leave the house.
In your position I would look at other clubs as it doesn't sound great. Our club structure is the rec groups make up about 95% of members of the club, 5% squad.

Ours is bg and 5 year old does a bridge everyweek, goes on most of the apparatus each week too.

Its a very good club with a very long waiting list.

Only squad have to wear uniform. My daughter wears sparkly zone one (ebay)

I'm more concerned she doesnt overdo ot when young so she sticks at it when older.

Schultz - no, our club is not bg, but gym mark accredited (whatever that is; have googled it). Does that make a difference?

Watching with interest as DD aged 7 loves gymnastics. She's very strong and flexible and can do lots of "tricks" (cartwheel, one handed cartwheel, walkover, round off, splits) despite never really having done any training. She's just learnt it all in the playground and seems to spend most of her time upside down.

A few weeks ago she started at a gymnastics group at a local leisure centre and whilst she's enjoying the chance to walk on the beam, try volting and bars, she's a bit frustrated that she doesn't have the opportunity to show the coaches what else she can do.

Have you looked on the British Gymnastics website. There seems to be quite a few clubs in your area, but I suppose it depends on how far you are prepared to travel.

www.british-gymnastics.org/find-a-club

I don't know what these clubs are like, but there are clubs in Tolworth, New Malden, twickenham, Walton. Waiting lists do move and ofcourse you can try out many of the clubs with a summer course.

DD3's likely far too tall for them to want her for squad. She's in year R and taller than some of the Y1 kids.

Plus, in the novice festival last week she came last in her age group overall because by the time she got to the beam she decided that everyone was getting a bit too serious, so slithered over to the beam, deliberately fell off several times and then collapsed in a heap for her dismount . It's fine, she's 4, but when she did a perfect walk along the edge of the raised flower bed with a beautiful dismount in her reception playground the next morning I treated her to a face and suggested she may have been better to do that the day before .

No uniform, all the girls have leotards, but a real mixture.

DDs is a full price zone one, but only because DD1 had a heap of water sports kit and it seemed fair DD2 got a present too.

DD3 always does bridges as part of warm-up and the coaches walk around correcting position and helping them extend/increase the arch.

DD is very strong, born that way, she could do the big kids monkey bars from very small, plus hours of trampolining and flexible because she did ballet.

She does stretches all the time. You can't walk round our house without getting DDs toes in your face.

She's just started trampolining, as I wanted her to do something that is easier to keep up post 16.

Recreational gymnastics is brilliant if you have a club who are happy as hers is to give time to older children who won't ever be competition standard, but they aren't easy to find.

(We aren't in the SE so no help to the OP)