to let my 5 yo do 5.5 hours of gymnastics a week

[princessparty]

plus daily conditioning at home.have had a lecture from my GPs who think I have brainwashed her into it.They say it is too much, she should be enjoying a wider range of interests and that it will ruin her little joints.
She has been doing it for 2 years and wants to do it more and more .She tries other activities and is soon bored with them

I don't think it's too much if she enjoys it.

5 year olds cannot make informed decisions on things like this.

SEEKER-I think it's very patronising to suggest a child doesn't know whether they enjoy something or not
I doubt very much she has what it takes to be a seriously good gymnast and i am not sure I would want her to be put under that pressure
Lots of people have talked about 'wasting time' doing it if she ends up dropping it or not being good.But if she is enjoying it 'in the moment' then what's the harm?Why is worse than spending an extra 5 hours running round the garden, or playing with lego or sat in front of TV or whatever.
I am really surprised that people think it is a bad thing to support a child's passion for something?

I don't for a moment think that a child can't decide whether they enjoy something or not.

But lots of things people like aren't good for them. And a 5 year old has no way of understanding the long term effects of something like this, or tthe things she might miss if she is committing so much of her time to one activity.

It has to be a decision for a groown up

Seeker is not suggesting that a child can't say that they are enjoying something. What she is saying is that a child of 5 cannot make an informed decision about whether that thing is the right thing to be doing, or good for them. I have to say, I agree with her.

Having seen the amount of haggard faced, overdrawn ((£150 a month)) would rather be home relaxing parents supporting their kids who loved their ten hours a week gym training, I think nobody should judge actually. If everybody was so negative, nobody would ever do anything!

Sorry - cross posted with you Seeker.

I realised last night a contributing factor to my POV and that is our children go to a welsh medium school and have been full time since they were three!

They were going half days as rising threes and wearing school clothes/uniform all this time and are very independent.

This would probably horrifying some of the parents on here who while away their days idling at the park with their children!

LOL My POV stems from DH & I valuing our own free time more highly than that of our kids.

I trained around 23hrs a week as a child (age 8 onwards) and am now a gymnastics coach and 4th year medical student.

For a start, people posting comments eg. ''A lot of gymasts end up bulimic because of how they have to watch their weight''.... are ridiculous. If anything gymnastics requires a very healthy attitude to food, and does not demand a skinny low bodyweight but a healthy strength:weight ratio to actually do anything. Most coaches etc are very vigilant of any issues with food, and even at the top level, there is awareness of eating disorders and they are now very very well prevented. usually eating disorders do not stem from wanting a low bodyweight, but are a way to manage anxiety; therefore any activity which put pressure on a child from chess to cricket can lead to an eating disorder.

1. ''too much exercise can cause massive problems in the stomach, peptic ulcers, internal tears.''.... really!? i don't think so. No scientific studies have concluded that these problems are linked to exercise... peptic ulcers are caused by H.Pylori bacteria. Internal tears!? what even is that!? If you are suggesting tears in organs/blood vessels.. this is fatal. If you are suggesting muscle tears... this can also be achieved by walking down the street and twisting an ankle, or repetitive pressing of games-consoles.

1. ''Get her interested in more fun activities not so exercise based.''.... exercise based activities can be extremely fun.... you have a very worrying attitude and poor general knowledge.

I have a group of gymnasts aiming for compulsory grades... this is the ''hardest route'' of gymnastics which eventually leads to British Champs. realistically, by age 7-8 they are training 5 days a week, 3.5 ish hrs per session. I have a girl in the group who was 5 and turned 6 a few weeks ago... she was training 3x a week for 3.5 hrs each session and absolutely loved it. I think gymnastics is a sport that no one can force you to do- you have to be intrinsically motivated and if you enjoy it, it can be so exciting and rewarding. no one forces the girls in the group to gym... they all simply just love it. it teaches them discipline, self-belief, time-management, teamwork, they have another circle of friends, nothing comes easy so they learn that hard work produces results they can be proud of, they learn how to perform under pressure which helped me greatly in exam situations in my adult life... there are countless positive ways in which gymnastics or any sport can shape your life.

if your 5 year old loves it, then thats great! even at that age, they know what they like/dont like... she could stick with the sport... or decide she likes somthing else but you should be guided by her enthusiasm.

i trained 5x a week.. 23hrs ish a week.. and was in a squad age 7. even so, i managed to learn piano, flute, do brownies, play in an orchestra so you can still be a competitive gymnast and well-rounded. i always managed to do my homework and did well in exams.

there are different pathways in gymnastics... club grades are a longer and less demanding route and you still compete. most gymnasts train 3x a week for 3.5hrs or so a session. Elite grades are harder but lead to national competitions by age 8, most gymnasts start training for these age 6ish to be comfortably ready and prepared for the skills.

The conditioning and skills the 5 and 6 year olds do, should genuinely not result in arthritis etc.... the skills improve balance, co-ordination, core-strength, agility and confidence. By the time a gymnast reaches a stage where their health needs to be kept an eye on... i.e. gymnasts competing at the top of their field, they are supported by physios etc. in this day and age, a lot is known about what exercises to do/not do/how many to do... to keep children healthy.

Its wonderful for a child of 5 to passionately enjoy a sport, and the hours seem completely fine as long as she enjoys it. At her age there should be no pressure to let her decide, just go with the flow, train the hours and see what's right for your child, as all children are different.

No wonder the country is fat, all the negativity about sport! Y

Some children are super active, love physical activity and thrive in individual types of sport like gymnastics.

I bet no one was looking at the British divers, runners, tripe jumpers etc and thinking "what bloody neglectful and CRUEL parents they must have had" as I guarantee those same people would have been doing a lot of sport from an early age.

I bet if the OP had a boy who was playing football for 5h a week, and constantly in the garden or park practicing skills you wouldn't think it was bad, just that individual sports have a bad rep for pushy parents. Remember you do need someone there for you when you're not part of a team.

I loved structured activities (in fact I still do!) and in primary school I had a drama class for 2 hours after school a Tuesday, swimming class after school one other night, 1hour riding lesson at 8.30am on a Saturday (my mum actually liked this as she could get a nice walk in!) then a 2h art class before lunch! So although different that is a lot of organised activities for a little one but I absolutely loved it. I was the kind of kid who adored multi-sport holiday camps or a week long art camp or whatever.

I really wanted to do gymnastics, I wanted to be Olga Korbut.

I never had a gymnastic lesson, ice skating, dance, ballet or any other class that need serious stretching and movement.

At 26 I was diagnosed with arthritis, I'm now disabled.

Injuries can and do happen, but they also happen in the play ground.

When does she fit school work in? DS1 is the same age and does karate on a Saturday morning and starting beavers this month but he has an hours homework 4 days a week. By the time he's played with friends, visited family etc there's no way he would have the time to do a sport for 6+hrs a week

I did gymnastics for approx 1 hour a week, very low key, at school for about 5 years between 7 and 12. I also did ballet, again, an hour a week, and horse riding an hour a week. My joints have been fucked since the age of 18, and it has nothing to do with the activities I did or didn't do, and everything to do with the fact that I am hyper mobile as are all the women in my family, and the fact that most of us have early onset arthritis.
Talent needs to be nurtured in order to succeed. If kids spend their whole childhood feeding the ducks and running around in the park playground, no one will discover this talent until its too late. If we want to succeed at a sport then generally people need to hit the top when they are at their physical peak which is between 18 and 22 years old, and to hit the top requires years of training and dedication, so if we want to have Olympic athletes, then the talent scouting and training has to begin at an early age. My daughter goes to gymnastics 1.5 hours a week, horse riding, and will be starting dance club at school in September, I'm quite sure that that combined with the tree climbing, bannister climbing(in fact anything that can be climbed and several things that you wouldn't believe that she could climb) amounts to far more than 5.5 hours of strenuous exercise. She will never be more than a competent gymnast, although she can climb the ropes like a rat up a drainpipe, as she enjoys it but isn't committed to it.
My son on the other hand is shaping up to be a very good footballer. He has played football every waking moment he can since he was about 3 years old. I think he will succeed because its what he loves doing, and he's very good at it. Quite simply if you asked him if he would like to go play in the park with his friends or go to football training, he would pick football every time, and that's fine, because its what he enjoys doing and he also has friends at training who he plays with on the sidelines when they are subbed off for part of a match.

Zombie thread alert!

If you're concerned about her not wanting to do other things, then perhaps suggest to her that other activities could help with her conditioning for gymnastics? For example swimming is great for conditioning so perhaps do that one day instead of the conditioning at home? Then she might just start to be interested in other things if she thinks they're all contributing towards her favourite activity. Tbh 5 hrs a week sounds a lot but if she's going to a proper club and you are confident in their training, physio etc then fine, but do make sure you share any concerns or ask questions of the club too.