Advice needed - 4yo gymnast

[mudpiesfortea]

4yo DS started rec classes in Sept and was invited to join development team in Jan. They do 2x 1.5 hour sessions a week. He's always practicing at home and says he likes it but he's showing sign of getting burned out (eg asked if he still has to do gym when he starts 'big school').

He's a natural - very strong, fearless and flexible so it'd be a shame to quit now but I don't want to push him to hard.

What should I do? I was thinking of talking to the coach to see if they could have thesis one for 1 hour instead of 1.5. A few other boys have also started losing interest. In fact, one little boy cried before class started last week saying he didn't want to go. Or maybe I could have him do 1 development session and 1 rec session so that he still gets the time in. Not sure...

Also, I know boys have to play the long game a bit in gym because they don't really start to peak until puberty so there's no rush re: training IYSWIM

Hi, my daughter does gymnastics at a low level but there are lots of similar gymnasts at her place. What I would say is ride it for a while and see how he feels in a month or so. My daughter and her fiends all seem to have gone through phases of not enjoying it so much but have come out the other side relatively quickly and back to enjoying their sessions. Also, does he enjoy it once there? Is it just the going out bit of going he doesn't enjoy? Is he at full time school now? He may find it even more tiring to go when he first starts. A good coach will let them go back to one session a week at times like this for a month or so.

Once he's there he loves it and he always says he'd had fun.

At the moment he's in preschool every day (9-3). I imagine by sept gym hours will increase to approx 4-5 per week plus full time school. He also e's martial arts 2x per week and swimming.

To some his schedule seems hectic but he's got loads of energy and he's not flagging by the end of the week. I make sure to give him down time/let him feel in control of his time (eg let him stay in his pjs until quite late in the AM on Sunday's, veg out for a couple hours in front of the TV on Sat afternoons, LeapTV for an hour, etc).

Maybe I'll see how he is after the Easter break and decide then.

The development classes at our gym (national and international level gymnasts) don't start until they have started school. DD1 began in development at the end of her first term at school and was doing 2.5hrs a week for the rest of that year and only 4 hrs per week up until the start of this school yr (yr2). She now does 6hrs per week.

I think 3hrs is a lot for a pre-schooler, you could step back to just rec for a bit - there should be opportunities for him to start development at a later date & if there aren't I would be asking why not!

That's how my daughter is with lots of things, I think it's the move away from home she doesn't like rather than the activity when she gets to wherever we are going.

My DD does 6 hours of sports a week by her choice and has done since 4. She won't give anything up. If he's very talented I'd try keep it up for a few weeks and see. Both my DC are tired now as it almost end of school term.

i coach girls gymnastics so don't know a lot about boys, but I think the coach has rocks in his head! They, almost without exception, end up quitting if they do too many hours too young.
Girl can't compete anyway until the year they turn 8, I would assume it is the same for boys.