Is 6 hours of dance classes a week too much for a 10/11yo? Even if she wants to do it?

[castille]

A comment from our GP at a check-up has got me thinking.

DD2 loves dancing and now she's coming up to secondary age she wants to audition for a local secondary school that has a dance section with modified timetable - normal lessons until 3pm, then dance classes 3.30-5pm.

But our GP thinks that 6 hours of dance classes a week is a lot for a pre-teen's body. He also hinted that lots of kids do this sort of intensive training under pressure, conscious or otherwise, from their parents.

DD is keen and quite talented but I don't think she's going to be good enough for a career in dance, and I'm not so sure now it's the right thing to do. The school is great academically (she's very bright so it should suit her in that respect), but if she doesn't get a dance place she won't be able to go there as we don't live in catchment.

Anyway, my question is: would you let your DD do this much sport?

At about 11 my son developed trouble with his knees. The specialist he saw asked us to tot up the amount of sport he was playing per week and it came 10 10 hours. He said an hour for every year fo their life is the maximum you should do on a growing body. But he stressed that they must learn to listen to their bodies and stop when bits start to hurt. Alot of these kids who are passionate about sport/dance seem to continue through the pain. So 6 hours for a pre-teen sounds acceptable, but you have to include any other hours of sport on top of the dance.

My ds is 7. He plays 4 hours of football a week and an hour's trampolining. Apart from school sport and charging around like a badly made firework.

Dd is 13. She does 4 hours of dance, 2 hours of trampolining, 2 hours of handball and 2 hours of riding.

If that helps at all. I don't think either of them are overstretched.

dancing Mum come help me with my tap shoe dilema in chat

plllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaase

I did a lot more than 6/7 hours a week at that age

OK so it's not as much as I thought. She doesn't do any other organised sport ATM (no time) but she is an active sort of girl.

Thanks all, very helpful