Any Gymnastics Mums (or Dads) Around...?

[mommathatwearspink]

Who can give me all the info on what it’s like having a DC doing gymnastics.

DD (4.5) has been asking for ages to join gymnastics. She currently does swimming and tennis. I took her to a stay and play at our local city gymnastics club today and she loved it. I don’t want to commit to something that might be too much for her as I’m not willing to drop either of her current activities. Is she too old to start now? Don’t most start at a very early age? I also got the impression from our session today that it’s highly competitive and there is a lot of effort involved.

My dd does gymnastics. She started age 5 (which is quite typical I think) and started doing competitions aged around 7 with our local club, but I think there are lots of different types of competition (some are more 'fun' and some are deadly serious!) We recently changed clubs and looking around it was obvious there is a lot of variation in degrees of seriousness/ focus. Some clubs are very much focussed on technique, very strict about any chatting, socialising, messing around....others are more about it being fun. My dd is quite a promising gymnast, but found one of the clubs she tried too strict and intimidating and has opted for a slightly less high flying but fun set up.
Most clubs will have 'recreational' classes and will invite the most promising kids into their competition squad. So there is a great variety, she is definitely not too old to start at 4.5, and if nothing else it's fun and good exercise so I would definitely recommend.

DD did rhythmic gymnastics for years. 4.5 is about the average age that girls start.

Good clubs will have a general gym training session for mixed abilities. "Squad training" for competitions is usually by invitation and is a separate session, where things are taken more seriously.

My daughter started in February age 5 and absolutely loves it, they said she has a lot of potential and was asked to join a pre-competition group in April, what ever that means. It's brilliant, made her more active and she has something to look forward to every week.

DD2 started at 9. Now aged 12 is in the federal B team for her local club (France). V v competitive but she likes it. It's good for them up to a point. Then it's really not.

My DD has been going since she was 4 or so. She isn't on the completion squad or anything and I don't think she wants to be either as she just enjoys an hour a week of hurling herself about.

The recreational gymnasts make up the bulk of the attendees, from them they pick the most promising to join the squads / development groups which attend more training sessions each week. Some clubs are more focused and competitive than others. My DD is just there for the fun and fitness.

I don’t have a dd but I did gymnastics from 4-15 and competed nationally a handful of times. If you’re going down the “serious” route it will get intense. Training 4-5 days a week at first, ramping up to training 2 times a day (before school and after). Then the competitions at the weekend. The weekends there wasn’t competitions it would be an extra training day, so not just a few hours it would be 9-5. I had no time for anything really, definitely no other extra curricular activities, which I think I would have benefited from. I stopped as I was bored with not having a life (and injuries and I just stopped traning as hard and my standard slipped.

The less serious route can be great, less pressure and time invested but the standard is lower (which isn’t a bad thing just something to consider).

Also my ankles are absolutely fucked and I’d do anything to have them be normal

Thank you everyone, your advice is really helpful I think I might call and enquire, although I’ve heard that many clubs have huge waiting lists. A friend told me that our City club has a waiting list of 500 and haven’t had any openings for around 5 years

You can join and do recreational or foundation and still manage other activities. My daughter is 8 and in the regional squad and was training 4 times a week. It became too much for her so she was able to drop a day. If she does get into to though, prepare for injuries! My daughter has only just grown her two front teeth back after knocking them out about two years ago!

My youngest is going to a rec class. He loves it, and it’s just for fun. I’m hoping it will help his concentration and give him an outlet for the seemingly unlimited reserves of energy he has.

My dd until recently, was an elite gymnast. She started quite late on at 7. Most of her peers had been going since 4/5.