Is age 11 too late to take gymnastics seriousely?

[babasheep]

My dd is coming up to age 11 this summer. She has recently achieved BG badge 1 (whatever that mean). Also I don't know the standard of her current gym club. The main thing is that she loves the sport. She has a very small and flexible body. She is very happy with the gym club that she s attending for several years. However I feel the club can only offer a limit range of training as they only hire halls in various sites so children don't get to use equipment much but more focus on floor work mainly. Just wonder at age 11 is she too late to be considered to start competition sort of training. Would anyone share their own experiences or professional views.

Flissiecat- some of it is how the sport is set up in this country. Having an "elite track" from age 8 means girls are selected very early for high hours and specialist training. They have to meet certain goals and get the required score at a competition every year to continue on elite track. It's very regimented with progression per year.

Anyone finding the sport later, even if they are very talented, will simply struggle to find a coach willing to take them on- by 8 even children will have advanced skills, and it's too much of a long shot to spend time trying to catch a newbie up. Catching up becomes harder the later you start.

It is technically possible to start later or join the elite track at 11, but again, non-elites tend to do lower hours and are coached differently, so in reality it's all but impossible.

I don't agree with it, and think we miss a lot of talented kids that are late bloomers/starters, but it is what it is.

BTW, personally I think a home beam is not a good idea. Expensive for one, and it isn't safe to do anything beyond basic steps. A line of parcel tape on the floor is cheaper, safer, and just as effective :)

I don't know much about gymnastics by any means (although do understand that generally you need to start young) but just so you don't write her off, my friend started at 12, caught up to a reasonably high regional/national level, and competed right through to her 20s (certain competitions) She's still training now in her 30s, obviously not as much as when she was at school, but competes with Team Gym to a high level (so still using all her floor, vault etc skills) & coaches girls to national level part time. She's still learning/doing courses, judges some comps & her tumbling skills have even been useful for some dance productions she's been in! Gymnastics is very much part of her life, yes she was never going to be Elite level starting at 12, but she worked hard & got to a high level, & has a lot of enjoyment from it. It's not all about aiming for the Olympics!

Yes it's probably to late DD2 was about 9 and 2hrs recreational is the best thats on offer, despite her practicing for hours at home.

She's now 13 and has just started trampolining and thats totally different. They have competitions for all levels.

She's only one move off being able to do the squad level routine (stupidly she can do a harder open back somersault after endles back walkovers at home, but not tuck correctly).

In four years she's never been offered a gym comp.

The other thing one of her friends uses recreational gym to support is diving.

Realistically at 11 the chances of reaching good competition standard are not high - but does that matter?

My daughter started at the local gym club at 10. She has no talent at all but she's stuck with it (2-4 hrs a week) and given her complete lack of aptitude has done all right. She even won a (very low level) competition . She's giving up now (13) to focus on other things but it did wonders for her coordination and strength.

My son started this year (11) - he won't ever be a great gymnast but he has some aptitude and he's a hard worker. He trains 6 hrs a week. After a year with the younger kids (his group is mostly 6-9s) he should be in the adolescent competition group next year. He won't ever be better than a decent club gymnast but that's fine as I'm a lazy parent who would prefer not to have to run around to competitions anyway ;) (plus he also competes in another sport).

Tbh I don't think she wants to be trained 20,30,40 hours a week neither would I want to going through it with her. May be 2 to 8ish hours weekly maximum or some low level competitions or displays. Although she has wonder if she would ever be able to maybe become a coach assistant while in her teens so to use her hobby to make a some pocket money. She enjoys gymnastics and wants to keep going. Academically she is doing quite ok at the moment so there no urgency of looking into different area of a maybe career path. However although she is 11 but her body is still like an 8 yr old.

It depends what you mean by 'seriously'.I would expect any child in a squad to be taking it seriously.
You need to take her to a sizeable competitive club, they will have a look at your DD and be able to assess her potential and advise what routes are available to her.Gymnastics is such a mainstream sport there are competitions for gymnasts of all ages/level/training hours and disciplines.
Once they join a squad there will be a lot more conditioning/stretching and really her attitude to this will be pivotal to how well she progresses.It can be boring and nearly always uncomfortable and having the self discipline to push herself is what really separates the 'girls from the women' so to speak.

Tbh dd wants to do try out and do a more than what she 's doing at the moment. But how much I don't think she really knows until she joined a big club. So that what we are going to explore this summer.

DD's club has three levels of recreational gymnast. There is novice, intermediate and advanced. The advanced recreational gymnasts do two hours a week and do learn more complex moves, but they will never be olympicans. My impression is that the more advanced classes are less over subscribed than the novice classes.