Gymnastics - what kind of progress to expect?

[Fantasia99]

My son started gymnastics when he was 4. It's a proper gymnastics club (not like the toddler club he used to go to which didn't involve much real gymnastics). Completely out of curiosity, how long did it take your kids to actually learn how to do some proper gymnastics moves? I'm bored witless for 2 hours a week watching them do forward rolls and and trying to touch their toes 😅 slightly lighthearted, but also interested to know if I've got years of this to come...

What do you mean by proper gymnastics moves? A forward roll is a proper move. I’d expect forward rolls, backwards rolls, headstands, handstands, cartwheels etc within 12 months at that age but they all develop differently

What type of class is he in? If it's a rec class they'll do that, and have a go on the equipment from time to time.
One of my DC does acro and started with cartwheels and moved on to backbend walkovers etc. This is when practise at home really helps though!

Well. Anything he couldn't do before he started really. He's been able to do a forward roll since he started doing them on my bed when he was about 2.

Yes recreational I think. Though it doesn't specifically say. Just gymnastics.

Gymnastics is all about repetition. If he’s enjoying it and his form is good then buckle up, because that 2 hours can turn into 20 hours by the time he’s a teenager. Invest in a Kindle and a flask 😁

I tech Acro (dance with acrobatics incorporated). If they are teaching him proper technique it's going to take a while. It will be worth it though.

I’m a gymnastics coach and ex gymnast and I’d be careful. SOME Rec classes don’t progress them very well at all and it’s months and months of walking along the beam, swinging on the bars and drills and progressions, without really progressing forward. They have to cater for people who have literally just started and I find they don’t separate the good ones very well.

My son was stuck in one such class and outside of class I was teaching him bridges, handstands, kart wheels. I’m just about to move him clubs if they won’t progress him to squad at his current club.
After a year I’d expect decent kart wheels, nearly onto round offs and a hand stand for a second hold.

He's not been there very long. And when some of the older kids (age probably 6-8) are in a class at the same time they are doing pretty amazing moves. I just don't see how he will get that far when a new person seems to join every other week and they have to go back to basics. He can do a headstand and a semi-decent cartwheel but he taught himself these. Can't even begin to handstand but he's still very new. It doesn't bother me as he's only just started, bur equally at £60 a month it'd be good to know what to expect and whether he will actually progress!

Watching with interest as mine also does gymnastics though a bit older. He enjoys it but I know absolutely nothing about it at all. I wouldn't know where to start getting him to practice at home for example. I'm happy the club is reputable eg they've made us join British gymnastics for insurance and seem to have sensible safety precautions but otherwise I'm clueless and have no idea what to expect...

Also in our club all the older ones seem to be girls so I don't know whether there is a separate class for boys or what is going on there.
The most important thing is that he enjoys it though so I'm not overly bothered really.

Exactly how I feel! I'm glad he's having fun but it's very hard to tell whether they're actually teaching him well. I'm sure they are based on the level the other older children are at.

What's interesting is that the vast majority of the huge number of kids that go there are girls, but the you get group age 4+ are all boys coincidentally.

There's a forward roll and a forward roll though. On your bed he will not have been performing a correctly executed forward roll involving the right form, speed and start/finishing positioning.

It is hard at that age when you get so many little ones join at different stages. Rest assured though he will progress if he keeps practising.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who feels a git in the dark about it all. he did do something called an agility test recently and did level 8 (why doesn't it start at level 1?? I thought he'd got muddled when he told me...). But I don't know whether he is now on level 7 or whether that was just some aspects of level 8 and then there will be some other kind of test at some point for the rest of it. Am looking forward to some useful information on this thread :)

A bit not a git (hopefully!)

My daughter joined a recreational class and it was not good and she made barely any progress in a year - moved her to a cheer club with specialist tumble training and it has been way better. I'd give it a bit longer though and see what happens for him!

The one she went to (part of a proper club) and she enjoyed it but they weren't treated as individuals - just followed the lesson plan and then said see you next week. The one she goes to now does tumble by ability as well as team training and is given personal exercises and goals.

I think some of it is natural ability and some of it the quality of the coaching. My 7yo isn’t very good and has been going since she’s 2 but she enjoys it despite being one of the worst. You can see she doesn’t have the same core strength as some of the others and is pretty uncooridnated. I suspect my 4yo will overtake her but she enjoys it and it’s good exercise which is what matters really.

My child has been going to recreational classes for four to five years and they never do cartwheels/handstands - anything really. Obviously isn't gifted in any way but really enjoys going. Has tried three gymnastics clubs (all recreational) and they are all the same. I had no idea how to get into the squad where they do this sort of stuff and enter competitions etc.

I'd look for a more serious club and ask them about squads rather than doing what I did and spend four years watching kids hang off a bar for thirty seconds and forward tumbles.

Hmm I think I'd rather spend four years watching mine do basic stuff once a week as long as he's happy than get into something super serious, especially if it involves many sessions a week, weekends at competitions etc. All the posts on social media from our club about special events (I think competitions and things but haven't paid close attention) are all of girls so i don't even know if they do anything like that for boys.

The child may be happy age four but they become increasingly aware that they are doing basic things while others are advancing. That is fine if the child is happy but in my experience the children themselves want to progress too.

Yes I can see how that could be frustrating over time. Currently he's at the younger end of his class but I can see if younger children started overtaking him that could be tricky. Will have to see how it goes.

My son has been in rec for 2 years and to be honest is fairly rubbish but that's on him as he just wants to jump off things and throw himself around. It's not a gym geared towards boys so I'm not expecting progression tbh, it's more of a softplay with good coaches for him but he loves it. He's still only 4 tbh.

My DD is on the team now at 6 and is starting to learn decent moves on the bars and floor. It's taken a while as they're focussing on the muscle groups they need to execute the moves properly which looks pretty dull. Beam can be excruciating to watch as it's the same thing with small variations for what seems like hours but they're building confidence up. Same for conditioning. What my DD was awful at in the start she's now doing brilliantly at so you'll notice changes as he goes. The girls a year ahead are doing moves I couldn't even dream of so I think once they get started they really go for it.

Can you speak to the coach to question whether the team (development or squad) would be an option for him so you at least know if he's likely to progress?

If he really wants to keep going then definitely a book and a large coffee are needed. I read quite a lot 😂

As was explained to me when our daughter took up gymnastics, the age of the child is important. They mustn't attempt certain moves before their bodies are ready.

Parent of a competitive gymnast here. IME they talent scout from the rec classes pretty quickly - I think my daughter had only been in recs for a couple of months when they asked her to try out for the development squad and it was the same for all her squad mates. So if your child is showing talent or
potential they will usually let you know - however some clubs run an annual ‘test’ to get into competitive that any child can go for.

I help out at the club competition every year which is for all the gymnasts (rec and competitive) and some of the young rec kids are absolutely doing cartwheels, round offs, walkovers and then simple vaults - handstand flat type stuff - in their routines. So I’d say a decent club should absolutely be teaching recreational kids these sorts of skills… however as a PP said the build up is slow and it’s all about getting the basics perfect. In competition an easier skill performed flawlessly will always score better than a harder skill performed poorly so they do drill and drill and drill the basics.

If he's in Rec probably take forever. If you think he has natural ability you need to be proactive and ask about a 'trial' with the head coach to get into squad. They can assess natural flexibility and natural strength, also ability to take instruction. Squad gymnasts are generally really mature for their age. Unless he's the male equivelent of Simone Biles, he could sit in Rec for years.

My daughter was doing 12 hours a week by the age of 6 on a squad (started after a trial at age 5 doing 8 hrs a week) which progressed to 20 hrs a week by age 8. 20 hrs a week cost us £90 a month. The rec kids fund the elite squads basically. That's why you're paying £60.

If you want him to be 'good', get him off rec would be my advice. If you're doing any kind of 'badges', they're not interested. Squad kids do Grades.

Having said all of that, I wouldn't recommend gymastics to anyone. It's destroyed my daughter and I'm still dealing with the fallout 2 years later. If you've ever watched Dance Moms, it's like that but 100 times worse in terms of how they talk to your kid and how they view them. Nothing is ever perfect enough. Coaches have their favourites, another coaches kid will simply jump through squads without having any skills and get way more attention than anyone else, your kid will be fatshamed from the age of 6 and told they're not behaving like an athlete, judges at competitions will deliberately mark you down to make a point, head coaches will threaten you with rec if you even raise a simple issue..I could go on and on. Read the Whyte Report - worst bit, it didn't even surprise me in the slighest, my daughter has been through worse and I didn't report it as it was 'normal'

My daughter was decent. She was doing a round off flic and back tuck at 6 and an upstart at 6 too, giants by 7.

She plays netball now, fabulous sport. Gymastics needs a serious overall.