Gymnastics... Artistic or Acro???

[gymadviceneeded]

Hi All! I'm hoping someone more knowledgeable in gymnastics can help with this!!

DD is nearly 7, she does 2 hrs in an advance rec class (will call this gym A).

She had asked to progress into one of their development class but wasn't getting anywhere so started 6 hrs a week at the beginning of the year in a development group at a different gym where they advance into either artistic or team gym squads (will call this gym B).

This gym then asked her to do 3 more hours a week which clashed with the rec class so she chose to leave the rec class. When the head coach found out why she was leaving she came to look DD and offered her 10 hrs a week in a NDP Acro with the view of increasing this next month.

She's good at artistic gymnastics but likes the idea of moving to Acro (as they use blocks) so I was hoping someone with knowledge of the two could help me to help her to decide which is the best one to progress with.

If you've followed this this far then well done and thank you!!

@gymadviceneeded have you & your DD come across a series on CBBC called Gym Stars? It's available on iPlayer. It follows various children who are excellent gymnasts, some of whom do artistic & some of whom do acro.
As someone who knows nothing about gymnastics but whose DD was, at the beginning of series 1 at least, very into gymnastics, it was really interesting and helpful.

My daughter loved Gymstars @alphabetspagetti.

She's decided to go with the acro. She's been given a partner so we will see how it goes.

I'm sure this will bring its own host of issues and im still not 100% happy with her doing gymnastics s but she's happy and that's the main thing.

I’d say it depends on 3 things:

The first gym sounds bad and I’d recommend if sticking with artistic, moving to a better gym where they give your dd more opportunities

The second is which plays to your daughters strengths: with acro there is no apparatus other than blocks but your daughter will need to work with others - as a top she’ll need to be flexible or as a base she’ll need to be very strong. If you go to a competition you perform as a pair or group so it’s a very team sport. Artistic is more individual, your responsible for your own performance which means you perform individually on apparatus and ideally you need to be both strong and flexible.

The third is how far does she want to go? With artistic there’s more opportunities such as going to the Olympics or getting a full university scholarship to a US university which is an amazing life opportunity - sadly with acro there aren’t these opportunities yet

@gymadviceneeded
Come back and tell us how the decision to go with acro has gone??

@Lily4444 one of my main concerns for giving up artistic was the lack of opportunity with acro but in reality, very few athletes will get to that level so I think for a 7 (now 8) yr old it’s more important that they are enjoying whatever they are doing.

I spoke with parents at other artistic gyms in the area and didn’t get a good vibe from any of them… some of the stories I heard meant I couldn’t send DD, it just wouldn’t have been right.

Hey @MomOfTwoGirls2

Shes been a top in a trio for the past 6 months or so and has been really enjoying it.
I think she has enjoyed competing more as part of a “team” rather than individually.

You were so right about the changing of partnerships, they are always on the search for the “dream team”.
They are currently waiting to see if there will be any changes after the results from inter regionals/Nationals so we will see how it goes.

From the gymnasts point of view, it’s a positive environment, DD adores all the coaches. The negative for me is that it’s a big commitment but they can be dropped at any time!!

@gymadviceneeded
That is lovely to hear!

My DD got years of enjoyment from Acro. Things didn’t always go her way, there were several disappointments along the way but there is learning and growing from that too. Overall it was a very positive experience.

Beat of luck to your DD!

@MomOfTwoGirls2
She's just facing a bout of disappointment now so it will be interesting to see how it turns out.
I think the thing with gymnastics is that it's brutal from such a young age, you can't just enjoy taking part past the very basic level.

@gymadviceneeded ah, that is a pity, and I’m sure you are feeling her pain too!

My DD found disappointments difficult to deal with at first, especially when she was younger. She had a range of disappointments relating to partnerships, competition and injury.

In my experience, give it time and things seem to right themselves one way or another. But it can be very stressful!