About gymnastics training hours for 6 year old

[Helpel]

This is quite specific and not strictly AIBU so sorry posting a bit for traffic...
My DD is in year 2 but is not 7 until the summer. She is part of a gymnastics development squad and currently trains twice a week for a total of 5.5 hours. I've just had an email from the coach to say from June this is increasing to 3 times a week for a total of 9 hours. Twice a week the sessions finish at 8.30pm which would mean a 9.30pm bedtime before we are home and settled.
AIBU to think this is too much for a 6 year old? I am tempted to ask if we can stick with the current pattern until she starts yr 3 in September but don't want it to affect my daughter's chances at competing if that's what she eventually wants to do. They start competing in May next year - I am thinking it wouldn't affect her that much to delay increased training by a few months...
My DD enjoys gymnastics and loves being good at it, but sometimes she grumbles about going to the training sessions as it is. Do we just give it a go and see if her passion increases? I think the logistical and late night issue would be easier to swallow if she became absolutely dedicated to it!
Has anyone been in this position? It would be great to hear from other parents of development squad gymnasts!

For balance - my daughter is part of a development squad. She's done national
comps and won lots of medals.

She started at 4 and is now 12 and over the years has progressed to training 12 hours a week. Her club don't offer more hours than that and are very child orientated and not at all pushy.

The only reason she has done it for so
long is because she loves it, and the girls and coaches she spends time with.

Now she's at secondary school it is taking second priority to hanging out in Starbucks with her mates and that's fine, I give her an optimistic 6 more months before she wants to quit or help out coaching the little ones instead.

The benefits have far outweighed the hours she spent, she hasn't fallen behind at school, she's really strong and fit and more importantly she has learned how to be part of a team, to have confidence in herself and that winning a medal isn't as important as doing your best. Those things have a positive impact over everything you do in life.

So, my advice would be to go in with a very child led approach, be willing to back off if it all becomes too much and most importantly don't be one of those pushy mothers who are living thier own childhood unrealized dreams through thier kid!

Lots of stories here. My kids club's coaches are lovely. Really caring and funny and we could watch every minute of their training. There is a viewing gallery at the gym and many parents would stay and watch.

However, it was either 1 hour rec classes which were quite basic or they were plunged into this extreme training world- 4 hours (fine and what my kids would have preferred) , to 8 hours then 4 hours a day 3x a week and 6 hours on Saturday (or something like that, I can't remember). My youngest daughter quit when she was the only girl put up from a few hours to a lot of hours and she would be in physical pain obviously because she hadn't had a chance to recover. I asked her coach if she could say do half the time on saturday and work her way up and her coach refused saying that my daughter should tell her if she was in pain.

Kids aren't going to speak up in a session unless they're very confident.

So in quick succession, my 3 talented kids who really enjoyed gymnastics, quit.

My 2 eldest kids also did competitive swimming. Again, they loved it and were really good. As they moved up the lanes, they had all the fun taken out of it and it was just about getting faster to win competitions. No more fun bits of it.

Some of their friends who carried on spent a few years swimming before school and it became their and their parents lives until they too, quit.

Now, my kids only do badminton at a local club. Once a week and they love it. There are some friendly matches and some of the players do play at county level (mine did for a few years). The man who runs it is great. It is fun, sociable, a great sport and the primary aim is for kids to enjoy themselves whilst doing a sport.

Like other people have said, most will not (and do not want) to make a career out of the sport or discipline, they just want to enjoy doing it as a hobby. So why are so many clubs so intent on pushing kids so hard so that they end up quitting?

Saying that, I think gymnastics is brilliant and as long as your child is enjoying it, let her continue but be wary and maybe look at other sports. Gymnastics really helps other sports.

My daughter has just turned 7 and my other daughter is 9.

7 Year old is in squad and trains between 9-12 hours week. Oldest is in floor and vault and trains 6 hours a week.

This is gymnastics.

If she has a talent its competitive and unfortunately is a young sport therefor when talent is spotted training starts young and is full on.

Unless my daughters didnt want to or it started affecting their health and school then im happy for then to train these kind of hours.

What gymnastics has done is increase the confidence of my youngest daughter hugely, she won her first gold a few weeks ago at her first comp ( 6 months ago she was so shy it was a struggle to get her into the gym), her Ipad usage has dropped significantly as her passion is now gymnastics and not roblox.

Whilst the hours can seem alot the benefits far outweigh this, not only fitness and health but also attributes like discipline, motivation, listening skills and team work.
Their gymnastics club is always focusing on praise and all the girls are so supportive of one another.

I think it is only a decision that you can make with your child. It really depends on whether she wants to do just gymnastics to the exclusion of other activities. And you know what they are capable of bedtime wise etc.

I think the delaying the extra hours for a while is a great plan. Maybe in the meantime you can get her to try some other activities- so she can at least decide.

On another not a child at my children's school was in the development squad. All we heard was the the child was potentially a future Olympic medallist. The child tore a tendon and not been able to continue with the gymnastic training.

I have been broadly lucky, my kids haven't been that talented at sports so have only ever done their activities for fun.

You also need to think about the impact of all of the training on your life and any other children.

Good luck

In general I think it is a shame that there is not more options between a one hour rec class and elite training. The club my daughter was at was very all or nothing but I’ve seen others that offer higher level training in just floor or vault so there are some less intense options.

our local swimming club is very successful but the hours don’t ramp up until secondary age. An 11 year old would be doing 10 hours. The 7-8 year olds are only allowed to do 3 hours max.

I was training about 6 hours a week at that age. I competed at a local level but wasn’t good enough to be elite. I carried on until I was 13. I really wish I hadn’t, I still have issues from the injuries o got and I’m 40.

I wish I’d been able to try other sports, I may have found something I was much better at.

I do think that is part of the problem - it may seem great a the time but there are so many that look back and say they regret it. In particular it means they don't usually get to try other sports at the junior age when its a great time to take it up.

Also similar to above - the swim club here ramps up hours around 10 but there's no way they have those kind of hours at 6/7 in fact ours explained they are in for the long haul so don't want to overdo it when young!

Yes I think round here 7 would be considered too late. By 6 they will already have done a couple of years.

The age thing isn’t necessarily the case up here (Scotland). DD was in a competition last year that had beginners categories for 6/7, 8/9, 10/11 and 12+. I think the club grades also allow for somewhat later starters as they’re done by birth year.

Sadly, lots of very young girls train so hard that they retard bone growth, get constant (sometimes life-changing) injuries, and delay onset puberty. They want a winner, and they want more of your money. Be the advocate she can't be. 5-6 hours a week for a six year old is already a lot.