Is age 11 too late to take gymnastics seriousely?

DD's club has three levels of recreational gymnast. There is novice, intermediate and advanced. The advanced recreational gymnasts do two hours a week and do learn more complex moves, but they will never be olympicans. My impression is that the more advanced classes are less over subscribed than the novice classes.

It depends what you mean by 'seriously'.I would expect any child in a squad to be taking it seriously.
You need to take her to a sizeable competitive club, they will have a look at your DD and be able to assess her potential and advise what routes are available to her.Gymnastics is such a mainstream sport there are competitions for gymnasts of all ages/level/training hours and disciplines.
Once they join a squad there will be a lot more conditioning/stretching and really her attitude to this will be pivotal to how well she progresses.It can be boring and nearly always uncomfortable and having the self discipline to push herself is what really separates the 'girls from the women' so to speak.

Realistically at 11 the chances of reaching good competition standard are not high - but does that matter?

My daughter started at the local gym club at 10. She has no talent at all but she's stuck with it (2-4 hrs a week) and given her complete lack of aptitude has done all right. She even won a (very low level) competition . She's giving up now (13) to focus on other things but it did wonders for her coordination and strength.

My son started this year (11) - he won't ever be a great gymnast but he has some aptitude and he's a hard worker. He trains 6 hrs a week. After a year with the younger kids (his group is mostly 6-9s) he should be in the adolescent competition group next year. He won't ever be better than a decent club gymnast but that's fine as I'm a lazy parent who would prefer not to have to run around to competitions anyway ;) (plus he also competes in another sport).

Yes it's probably to late DD2 was about 9 and 2hrs recreational is the best thats on offer, despite her practicing for hours at home.

She's now 13 and has just started trampolining and thats totally different. They have competitions for all levels.

She's only one move off being able to do the squad level routine (stupidly she can do a harder open back somersault after endles back walkovers at home, but not tuck correctly).

In four years she's never been offered a gym comp.

The other thing one of her friends uses recreational gym to support is diving.

I don't know much about gymnastics by any means (although do understand that generally you need to start young) but just so you don't write her off, my friend started at 12, caught up to a reasonably high regional/national level, and competed right through to her 20s (certain competitions) She's still training now in her 30s, obviously not as much as when she was at school, but competes with Team Gym to a high level (so still using all her floor, vault etc skills) & coaches girls to national level part time. She's still learning/doing courses, judges some comps & her tumbling skills have even been useful for some dance productions she's been in! Gymnastics is very much part of her life, yes she was never going to be Elite level starting at 12, but she worked hard & got to a high level, & has a lot of enjoyment from it. It's not all about aiming for the Olympics!

Flissiecat- some of it is how the sport is set up in this country. Having an "elite track" from age 8 means girls are selected very early for high hours and specialist training. They have to meet certain goals and get the required score at a competition every year to continue on elite track. It's very regimented with progression per year.

Anyone finding the sport later, even if they are very talented, will simply struggle to find a coach willing to take them on- by 8 even children will have advanced skills, and it's too much of a long shot to spend time trying to catch a newbie up. Catching up becomes harder the later you start.

It is technically possible to start later or join the elite track at 11, but again, non-elites tend to do lower hours and are coached differently, so in reality it's all but impossible.

I don't agree with it, and think we miss a lot of talented kids that are late bloomers/starters, but it is what it is.

BTW, personally I think a home beam is not a good idea. Expensive for one, and it isn't safe to do anything beyond basic steps. A line of parcel tape on the floor is cheaper, safer, and just as effective :)

Does she love doing gymnastics or does she want to compete? I know the two aren't mutually exclusive, but, as others have said could her skills be channelled into something more performance related that is more about taking part - cheer leading? circus skills? modern/jazz dance?

Yes, it's always been like that. I started when I was 7 almost 30 years ago. Before that I did ballet since 3yo, so it's not like I started from nothing. I was really flexible (still am) and good at it, basically the only thing I've ever been REALLY talented for (to the point of achieving a lot without putting much effort in), which also helped. I basically left around the age your DD is now. It was time to make the decision whether to make it my 'career' or not and I didn't see myself doing it for the rest of my working life.
It's a great sport on whatever level your DD ends up doing it.

I do think it's bonkers that you usually need to start so young in these sports, and some dance, to be able to do very well. Has it always been the case I was wondering the other day, that even 7 year old children can often be written off as too old.

You can buy those floor level beams can't you, atticus, but they are pricey I expect.

My nearly 8 year old dd now does competitive gymnastics, but she's had to do extra work to catch up as she was considered a late starter starting at 6! I could see the differences, certainly. Luckily she has some natural talent (and all the extra work)

I think it would be very difficult for somebody much older to reach competition standard. Very difficult indeed. But you've had some good advice.

By beam I meant floor level practice beam of course. This will be helpful to her in terms of precision and control even if she's not doing much beam work at the club.

Dd started gymnastics at 8. She is far behind many of her peers (who started at around 4) and now, simply does not have enough hours available to her to catch up no matter how flexible she is. However, she loves it and competes at a fairly low level and is very, very happy with it. It's great for her.

I'm not trying to downplay what she can do at all and its great that she enjoys it, I'm just saying that the skills on the list are really very basic and so if as you say, she wants to compete, she will need to work very hard and be very keen because she'll possibly be in groups with mainly six year olds (or other new starters).

I think all you can do is ring around and see which clubs have new starter groups where she can maybe slot in with a class that's been running for a while and are at the same level. Otherwise I'd probably stick with where she is and just let her enjoy it and progress naturally. Its not all about the competing and once she's tumbling (flips and somersaults) she'll suddenly seem to have taken a massive step forwards (or actually backwards! )

Can you make her a beam for the garden so that she can practice cartwheels, handstands and walkovers on the beam? Mine (ok many many years ago - in fact more than 30 years ago eeek!) was a plank of wood covered in flotex left over from the kitchen!). She will also need to be exercising and practicing splits, bridges and strengthening exercises every day.

In terms of competing there is unlikely to be anything just for floor and so if she wants to go on and train to a standard where she can compete she would need to join proper gymnastics club. If she's never done any equipment work it will take a lot of effort for her. Is she tumbling at all or is she doing the things set out by micah?

I'm a qualified gymnastics coach. I think it depends on what you mean by taking it seriously. The standard she's at is not very high but if she's keen and willing to work hard she will be able to go on compete at a level that will keep her interested and enable her to have fun. She will be the oldest in many of the groups though which might put her off.

If you're talking competing at a high level then unless she's willing to put in a massive amount of time and comes on very quickly she is likely to struggle.

"Elite. No chance really. The kids here are picked at 6 or 7 and train 18-20 hours a week from then. By 11 they are looking at international competition and 30 odd hours a week. You'd have to be some sort of freak to catch up…"

Yes, this is what I was thinking of. The club does sometimes take older children, but they're usually very talented in a related field (e.g. somebody was taken into acro team who did 20 hrs + in ballet to high level)

I'd think yes. Very very difficult, but not impossible.

You say she's in a club? I think if they thought she had potential for competing they'd have moved her into the squad/comp team years before now?

Late to be starting ballet too

British gymnastics main website you can search for clubs in your area.

Whereabouts in Gloucstershire are you? I live there, but my daughter trains over the border in Wiltshire.

The main clubs we see from Gloucstershire on the circuit are the Gym Centre (Cheltenham) and Forest of Dean (Colesford way?) DD went to a comp there a few years back, but can't exactly remember now.

There are a few more in south gloucestershire close to Bristol, such as fromeside, which I believe is also good, but otherwise that's all I know.

Baskervilles are in Bath, if you live that side of Gloucstershire. If you're north of the county, then I'm afraid I don't know any clubs that side.