Anyones DD a compulsory gymnast - is it worth it.

[Gymnasticmum]

So, ive name changed but have been a long time poster/lurker.

DD is 7 and has been in gymnastics for a year now, she asked to go to gymnastics and I (silly me) thought it was just like a dance class.

A year later she is going down the compulsory route training 12 hours a week ( sometimes 15) and our live revolves around it.

Now i want to say clearly, Her coach is amazing, the club is amazing and im now heavily involved within the club ( think more admin) so get to see the environment /training and the general ethos of the club.

She is very talented and loves it, her personality is pretty up and down emotionally but she seems to be building resilience.

The route that she is on is similar to that of an Olympian but im under no illusion that that is unlikely.

So i guess im thinking is it worth it, its so hard, i question whether its right for her all the time, i talk to her about how shes feeling and if shes happy. Its a brutal ruthless unforgiving sport.

Does anyone have any feedback or experiences.

I was a gymnast and loved it at the time - I used to train about 15 hours a week so not top level but OK- but I wish I had swapped it into a gym related sport in my mid teens so I had something to carry on with. I loved being really flexible and kept the flexibility until my early 30s when I had kids. I started trampolining at 40 and it was fun but wish I had done it in my 20s. I am now old and fat and no longer flexible at all. - I miss it.

I took my kids (boys) to gym early and they did advanced rec for years - one moved into parcour type gym and the other still does a bit of trampolining.

My major concern would be the impact on her body. I don't know many Olympic gymnasts who haven't needed surgery in their late teens/ twenties and this just seems normal.

Personally I would go down the route of different sports that don't involve such intense over training. The culture of gymnastics needs to change to try and protect young people but because the Chinese, Russian and other squads will continue to exploit young kids to win medals other countries feel the need to train kids so hard at such a young age to keep up.

We went through this with our son but we live in Dublin so it may be a bit different . He started at age 3 and it got really serious when he was about 10 . From then on we had training 5 days a week. This increased to 7 days a week by his early teens.

He travelled all over the country and many places in Europe to compete. He was National Champion (Artistic Gymnastics ) many times.

He finally ended it himself when he was 16 and entering an exam year . He was going from school, straight to training and coming hime at 10 pm !!!

He loved it up to when he stopped. He was also begin to suffer from recurrent injuries .

The pluses were - amazing memories, he made so many friends , experienced lots of travel , he still has great fitness and posture ( he is 18 now ).

The negatives - very expensive ( fees, competitions , travel, kit , physio ). He missed out on playing other sports . He missed out on quite a lot of social events ( he even trained on St. Stephen's Day /Boxing Day ).

Would we do it again ? Yes , but ONLY if the child wanted to. We have 4 other kids who also have many hobbies so we were run ragged but overall I think it was worth it.

Good luck with your decision and to your daughter.

The thing is if she’s that good at gymnastics at that age she is also probably fit and agile enough to cultivate an interest in other sports that would be better long term. Running, climbing, football, tennis, etc. could be great ways to make friends and keep fit in teen years. I would spend some of those hours to try other sports as she gets older and have better family life balance.

I would be cautious of the long term impact on her body. She could pay a heavy price.

I was a competitive gymnast growing up, wouldn't have changed it for anything. My coaches were incredible, made sure we all ate well and safely. Yes it's a difficult sport however it's changed a lot over the years and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who's children have been selected for squad (Aslong as you think your child is mentally strong enough to handle the commitment). It is a big commitment but it's also very rewarding and I made some life long friends from it.

DD was asked to do this and it was a big fight to stick to 1 x 2hr session a week. They would not let it drop - endless guilt tripping and pressure from the coaches. She stopped at 12 and focused on football which has been much better for her socially and body confidence. I found the whole 'scene' very pushy and hierarchical.

Be ready for her to re-write history as an older teen/twenty something and to tell herself - and you - that she was NOT in fact happy, that it was culty, and that she would have been better off with a more ‘normal’ childhood than one involving a time consuming and intensive sport with a tiny number of like minded people. We are going through this atm with an ex-rower in hee early twenties.

British Gymnastics themselves recommend that under 8s are not training at sessions longer than 2 hours each. DD did the sport for a long time. She loved it but it will take over your entire life. DD quit several years ago and now says she will not put her own children in the sport. Make of that what you will! A lot of clubs are great others not so much. The Whyte report is an education!!

My dd has come through the compulsory route, started when she was about 4 and quickly progressed up through pre-development up to squad.

She's now 16 and competing British Senior FIG level and still lives it. Yes we have had wobbles from time to time (the big one was when she sat her GCSEs earlier this year)

I asked dd if she had any regrets about spending so much time in the gym and she says honestly she doesn't - that being said she now doesn't train on Saturdays so she can spend time with her mates and be a "normal" teenager but does still train 5 nights a week with one full day out of school as well.

From my point of view gym had been good for her - she is organised, committed, able to push through difficult times and knows how not to give up!

From the family point of view I probably wouldn't have let her start gym if I'd known how much of and impact it would have on the rest of us. Training comes first and family holidays have to be planned around the competition calendar (no time off training for the 8weeks leading up to comp). I try very hard to but let my other dc miss out on things but sometimes it's just impossible to be in 2 places at once! So while
I'm very proud of dd and what she's achieved I also thing life would have been a lot less stressful and complicated over the last lot of years if we hadn't gone anywhere near a gym!

I swam competitively from the age of 7-16, I loved it! Trained over 12 hours a week (6 2 hour training sessions) it was a lot but I loved it! I only stopped when it became obvious that, despite my talent and hard work, I wasn't quite good enough to make a career out of it.
If you don't mind the commitment, and your DD genuinely loves it, I'd say carry on until she no longer wants to. It's a great form of exercise, instils discipline, and if you feel it's bringing her out of her she'll and improving her confidence then it can only be a good thing. My parents always worried I was training to much, or too hard, but it's a lot different being the parent and being the kid, follow her lead.

My dc were both competitive swimmers.
The hours of training were brutal and we spent a lot of weekends at competitions.
They both did it for 5 years or so and absolutely loved it at the time.
They made so many friends and the club felt like a real family. I particularly liked the fact that all the kids, regardless of age, would support each other which I found healthy.
They both loved competing and they did well. However at the ages of 14 and 12 they individually decided they wanted to stop as they were starting to fall out of love with the amount of training hours, so we did.

At 7 there is no way I would have my child doing 12-15 hours a week of any sport.

It's too much time, to much physical exertion, would have too much impact on the rest of the family and I would consider them too young to narrow their life down to school and one sport.

I think serious gymnastics is really awful for the body long term isn't it?
Personally I wouldn't want a child of mine to do it.
IMO There are so many other hobbies that that are fun with better health benefits.

DD does 9 hours of gymnastics a week, she's been a squad gymnast since she was 5 and she's now 11. But most importantly she is involved in other sports. She plays football and runs cross county as well.

She adores gymnastics, but mostly because she has made the most wonderful group of friends. None of them go to school with her and some are a few years older but they have the most natural, nurturing friendship. She says herself that her gym friends are so supportive, they don't judge or be jealous of each other, it's just fun. I think her gymnastic world is just as important to her as her school world.
She's a resilient child and very independent and driven and I think gymnastics has a big part to play in this.

If your DD loves it and wants to continue I would support her but is there any time to add in another activity or so just to broaden her world a little?

Thanks everyone, this thread has came alive again.

It is a struggle i wont lie, i periodically ask her if shes happy, remind her she can drop down to a more manageable level. But shes determined.

I worry about her as she can be an anxious child so im constantly reminding her about her choices and how its her path not mine, she can choose to drop levels, reduce her training and of course stop at any point.

So i hope thats enough for her to feel comfortable to make her own choices regarding the sport.

My parents pulled me at 11 from gymnastics when I started periods, was handed a diet sheet by coach and.told.to drop some weight.

I wouldn't do this. The chance of it having long term relevance in her life eg becoming a professional or coach, is slim, and the cost to the parts of her life that actually do matter (her education & wellbeing) outweigh that.

I also think - dont be guiled by the selectivity of it - gymnastics knows parents are thrilled when their child is selected for an exclusive squad, they feel their child is special amd talented when actually there are tens of thousands of children in such squads around the country and only a handful will make it.

If they were a club that let them wear the new longer leotards then I’d be happy. Teenage girls having to glue their outfits to them with no underwear does not sit well with me at all.

My dc are into sports, they did swimming at a similar age with early mornings and hours of swimming. One gave up at 12 but because of the fitness was able to move across easily to another sport, one continued on the England pathway, had some amazing experiences but ultimately wasn't at the required grade and now coaches whilst at uni.
My rule was to ask at the start of each term if they wanted to continue and then have a two month cooling off period if they wanted to quit.