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Original poster

To find watching the gymnastics utterly depressing?

207 replies

GandalfsWrinklyHat · 09/08/2016 21:53

Watching the olympics - gymnastics on right now. Think it's the team competition bit. I know nothing about gymnastics at all, and am in awe of all those girls doing what they're doing, but they are SO YOUNG. And I cannot imagine that they could have had much of a childhood at all. I just find it so depressng. And they must surely know pain? You cannot train to do what they're doing and not experience a lot of pain. Somebody set me straight. I actually feel quite guilty for watching... Am I wrong?

OP posts:
Felascloak · 10/08/2016 11:07

jen I think many of the men would be too tall to be competitive on A bars as they wouldn't be able to do the giant swings and fit between the bars! I also reckon beam would be very very difficult for most men because they are bigger.
My DD does gym and is obsessed as are her class mates. (Not elite but competitive) She spends her whole time tumbling round our living room and garden and never cries during stretching. She has amazing fitness as a result and so now does loads of school sport too because she can run faster than most other kids.
I think gym is awesome, most people will never come close to elite but being able to do tumbling is so much fun.
The more I read this thread the more shocked I am by it! Why is it ever bad for people to take up a sport that will introduce them to fitness and hopefully set up good habits for the rest of their life?

TaraCarter · 10/08/2016 11:11

RedorDread

I can't remember getting help stretching, I'm naturally quite supple, I can see it in ds too, maybe this helps. Are some of us naturally more supple or am I talking bollocks? It just seemed to come quite easy for me, the flexibility that is.

Completely and utterly not bollocks.

I am so naturally flexible I taught myself to do the box splits at home at 16 (so quite late, really) without any professional coaching or gymnastics experience, just through stretching every day. Just because I was jealous of some girls who did gymnastics and I wanted to be able to kick people in the head like Bruce Lee. I have a hobby that occasionally demonstrates my flexibility (no splits any more, sadly, because I didn't keep doing it) and people often assume I did gymnastics or ballet as a child.

If you have those genes, no torture is going to be necessary for stretching, but if you don't have those genes, I think it must be easy to assume that gymnastics requires prior torture for everyone.

Orangetoffee · 10/08/2016 11:14

I enjoy watching the gymnastics, I think the majority of the gymnasts actually look like the young women they are rather than young girls. I don't find it depressing at all.

JenLindley · 10/08/2016 11:25

Thanks felas that makes sense.

I was one of the ones last night saying I had doubts about sending my DCs to gymnastics but I've been reassured by further posts. Also I don't think they would let me deregister them! They are both very active kids anyway with cross country running, Gaelic, Irish dancing and jujitsu between the two of them so are used to having to stretch and push themselves and DS2 in particular is constantly flipping himself of walls and swing frames and giving me a heart attack. He can't walk anywhere. Everywhere is an assault course to him.

Felascloak · 10/08/2016 11:30

I think it's much safer for children to learn how to do moves correctly with coaches and to learn their physical limits in a gym with crash mats etc than it is for them to be out doing somersaults on a Trampoline in their garden with no coaching at all!
Your son's will love it and hopefully it'll be a good outlet for that crazy energy!
Someone up thread mentioned that Claudia Fragapane got into gym because she was bouncing off furniture, I think I've read the same was true of Louis Smith Grin

JenLindley · 10/08/2016 11:34

Yes that's what my motivation is, that he'll learn how to do what clearly comes naturally to him, safely and properly!

PuckyMup · 10/08/2016 11:36

The thing I noticed was the coaches hugging them after routines. For most of them, it looked very false and just for the cameras for me

Ireallydontseewhy · 10/08/2016 11:43

Can you become too tall to be a female gymnast? Is being shorter than average an advantage in this sport (unlike the vast majority of sports!)? I did read somewhere that you can become too tall to dive as well,

Felascloak · 10/08/2016 11:58

Yes it is an advantage to be short in sports with somersaults as you can spin quicker. I think in gym smaller girls will find it easier to stay on the beam too - lower centre of gravity and smaller feet@
I can't see any reason why you could be too tall for diving unless you just can't be competitive with the small guys doing front 4 1/2!

hellokittymania · 10/08/2016 11:59

I'm visually impaired and actually lost the remaining vision in one eye after accidently being kicked in the eye at gymnastics. I loved it though and can still do tumbling in my 30s!

LemonRedwood · 10/08/2016 12:07

Some men do uneven bars Grin

Just trying to lighten the mood! Grin

LemonRedwood · 10/08/2016 12:08

And beam

WanderingNotLost · 10/08/2016 12:14

I'm another one who finds the ridiculous twirly dancing annoying. The guys are allowed to just get on with it! And they can wear shorts, whereas the girls have half their bums hanging out...

ParadiseCity · 10/08/2016 12:23

I do think it is sexist that the women are expected to include pretty dances in what they do, and the men aren't. Both my DC commented on it.

ParadiseCity · 10/08/2016 12:24

Oh yes, that reminds me DD also mentioned she'd rather not have to see the womens' butt cheeks.

ladyformation · 10/08/2016 12:29

Can't help but find it weird that some people think that being committed to a sport means that someone has a less real or proper childhood. From age 7 upwards I was training (in a completely unrelated sporting field) all weekend every weekend (Friday night to Sunday night) and all holiday every holiday. From 13 upwards this became hours every day until I went to university. I never went on holiday for more than a week, and not for longer than one weekend between 13 and university. There was, obviously, a lot of stuff I didn't do. But I ADORED it. I look back and wouldn't change a single second. I definitely don't think that my parents, by facilitating it, somehow deprived me of a proper childhood Hmm

I love watching the gymnastics - the dedication and talent is incredible.

Ireallydontseewhy · 10/08/2016 12:33

Thanks fela! I suppose with diving perhaps it's because again you can do more somersaults more quickly if you're not 6 foot 4!

YelloDraw · 10/08/2016 12:45

You don't achieve greatness without sacrifice.

Prettylittlepointeshoe · 10/08/2016 12:51

I think they're incredible, especially Simone Biles and Lauren Hernandez. I think theyre excellent role models for what you can achieve with dedication and focus (and a love for your particular sport obviously!) [Smile]

ssd · 10/08/2016 13:12

Simone Biles is incredible I could watch her all day

cardibach · 10/08/2016 14:03

Yes it's really depressing watching obviously committed, talented and dedicated Young men and wine do amazing things Confused
As others have said, anyone achieving at this level has done hours and hours of training and not lived a 'normal' life - but I heard an athlete on one of the o bits saying 'it's normal for us' about this. I don't think gymnastics is any different from other sports.
I also didn't think the hugs looked false! What would that even look like? I did smile at the Chinese shaking hands with their coach though - cultural differences!

cardibach · 10/08/2016 14:04

Men and women, not wine. The wine was in my house.

IceBeing · 10/08/2016 14:08

I think they're excellent role models for what you can achieve with dedication and focus (and a love for your particular sport obviously!)

I think this is total BS. They are role models for what you can achieve when you happen to have been born with the correct genetic make up (probably a 1 in a million chance right there), to parents who are both willing and able to indulge totally obsessive behaviour.

My DD is currently obsessed with rubik's cubes, but I suspect if I were to allow her to spend 5 hours a day playing with them and put her at risk of the RSI type injuries cubers get, while cutting further into her school time by shipping her back and forth to contests all over the planet, then people would question my parenting. Vigorously. And yet if rubik's cube solving was an olympic sport somehow that obsessive behaviour, practising endlessly a skill of no practical use in the real world, would suddenly become not only acceptable but 'an inspiration' to others. Total BS all the way.

And don't tell me that rubik's cube solving is different due to the lack of fitness required, because you don't have to have any fitness to do the various rifle categories either.

Obsessive behaviour is not healthy and certainly isn't something to aspire to, or to be glorified.

snowy508601 · 10/08/2016 15:49

The men's is still called artistic gymnastics but there's no music and no dancing.

The BA do have 'dance' between tumbling passes to move into the corners.

snowy508601 · 10/08/2016 15:57

The advantage of being small is not so much speed of rotation in somis, It is to with levers.If you lift a heavy item, it is much easier close to your body than at arms length , in the same way it I much easier to lift parts of your body when it is not so long.