Morceanu, for one, says she spent at least 40 hours a week training, with no formal schooling or much socializing with friends. The cost of training your child to become a competitive gymnast is also something to consider. You can find gymnastics classes for children as young as 2 years of age, but many coaches say that it's better to wait until your child is 5 or 6 before enrolling in a serious gymnastics program. For younger children, introductory classes should focus on developing body awareness and a love for the sport.
Parent-child classes that emphasize climbing, crawling, and jumping are a gentle way for children 2 to 3 years of age to develop their physical coordination and self-confidence. Tumbling classes are slightly more demanding physically and are suitable for kids ages 3 to 5. Basic gymnastic moves like somersaults, cartwheels, and backward rolls are introduced, as are balancing activities on a low beam.
Once your child has mastered these early courses, they're ready to move on to introductory gymnastics classes, usually around age 6. Other sports can also help prepare children for a beginning gymnastics class. Ballet, dance, soccer, and baseball all help kids develop the same hand-eye coordination, balance, and agility skills they'll use in gymnastics. Older children can also benefit from trying gymnastics, though the longer your child waits to begin, the less likely he or she will be able to compete with kids that have been training since toddlerhood.
Then again, Brazilian world champion Daiane dos Santos didn't start gymnastics until she was Kids that start more serious training very young don't seem to have a leg up on kids that start a bit later.
Fink objects to classifying gymnastics as an early-specialization sport. Brehanna Showers, a former University of Oklahoma gymnast, began to specialize at around age 9 — relatively late according to the standards of gymnastics.
When she shifted from recreational gymnastics and a handful of other sports to a more regimented gymnastics schedule, she recalls that her new teammates, many of them between 8 and 10 years old, were already nursing injuries. It is kind of crazy. There were girls who were extremely talented, but their bodies were not going to hold up. What Showers observed anecdotally is supported by most of the available research.
Though Showers was training more than 20 hours a week, she refused to give up her other interests. During this time, she started competing in pole vaulting, something she had to hide from her gymnastics coaches.
She was found out when one of her pole-vaulting teammates posted a photo on Facebook of Showers at a competition on her day off from gymnastics. Her coach saw it and told her she needed to stop. But what if gymnastics culture encouraged kids to explore a range of other activities rather than limiting their options?
What if coaches viewed other sports as a complement to gymnastics, not a distraction from it? The weight training gives you stronger muscles, so you become a better tumbler.
Gymnastics tends to view itself as foundational to all sports — and perhaps it is — but a consequence of this thinking is that what gymnasts can learn from other sports tends to be discounted.
Ellen Casey, a former collegiate gymnast. One of the new physicians for the U. Her expertise is in treating women, particularly female athletes, and she has conducted research on the role sex hormones play in injuries like ACL tears. In other sports, she noted, some athletes wear sensors on their bodies so there is a steady stream of data to analyze.
How much are people training? How old were they when they started doing that training? How many repetitions? The first thing we need to do, or try to do, is establish some sort of baseline.
Casey would love to see gymnastics embrace science and start collecting data on itself so that best practices can be established — as well as guidelines on how to intervene to improve training and development. Gathering this kind of data is particularly challenging, Casey pointed out. And then you have to put it in.
That would be gymnasts and coaches primarily dumping data into the system because we have a decentralized system and people training all over the country. And it is a big ask. But how would that look? The vast majority of gymnasts who have extended their careers into their 20s and beyond have also followed the early-specialization model the sport is known for. Perhaps some of them experienced more humane coaching in their early years, which probably protected their bodies and enabled them to continue longer.
But even the patron saint of older gymnasts, Oksana Chusovitina — who, at 46, just competed in her eighth and final Olympic Games in Tokyo — got started at the elite level at the same age as everyone else.
Younger even, since the age minimum when she started her senior elite career was only By 16, she was a member of the Soviet team that won the gold medal at the World championships, where she also tied for the gold on floor. And at 17, she was a member of the gold-medal-winning Unified Team at the Olympics. The end of her career looks very different, but the early part definitely hews to the old stereotype.
And being an online student has its perks of time management. I have more hours in a day. So do what makes you happy.
A man once said the sky was the limit…and then because of a certain competition between Russia and the US, we landed someone on the moon. No matter the expectations. Expectations are never the same as reality. I wish you all the best!! Never give up! Fight for your own reality that makes you happy.
I first want to thank you for your comment, my name is Cara and I am one of the blog writers for All Gymnasts this blog. Your comment was extremely inspiring and I want to apologize for the things you have been through. I am sorry you were pulled out of gymnastics even though you had such a passion for it, but it does not mean that was the end of your gymnastics career!
We only live in this one life and why should we let other people have control on what we do? It kills me when people look back on regret for things that have not done but wanted to do. Everyone should live their life how they want to! I am so happy to hear that you are getting back into gymnastics! I am very close to a Level 9 Gymnast that just started homeschool this year to work towards her dream of becoming an Elite Gymnast. I remember her telling me that going to school was hard for her in a way because she was practicing gymnastics for hours and hours, doing homework during lunch recess, and even had to go into school late or pulled out early just to make mandatory practices.
She told me she was always shy and quiet but when she was practice she was always herself because her gymnastics team understood her. Gymnasts understand Gymnasts. Gymnastics is a very hard sport that includes all the tears, sweat, and even blood! I believe that you are doing the right thing and I wish nothing but the best for you! You are definitely one motivational, courageous, unique individual- never let anyone stop YOU from what YOU want to do as well!
Hi I am almost 17 and I am not flexible at all. So my question is if I would take classes could I get good enough to complete. Excuse some of my grammar in my previous comment. I just got this new phone and I am still not used to the keyboard.
I am in online school. Not almost in it. Hi my name is Sarah, and I am a 34 year old gymnast who competes at the college club level. I was a level 4 gymnast when I was 11, but I gave up gymnastics when I was 13 because of homelife issues. So, it took over a year to get my bridge with straight arms and straight legs, it took like 8 months to kick over, and it took about 3 years for me to do backwalkover again.
I should also point out that I found a gym to take me in when I was 29 and help me with bar skills. The gym owner thought it was crazy but it watched me go from being 29 and pounds to being 32 and being pounds and doing back walkovers on the beam.
It is so awesome to do gymnastics at Also, since I have worked so hard on my flexibility and keep my weight at pounds, I can do the skills easily. My back is so flexible, and I can even touch my toes to my head again; which took a very long time to get back! Thank you Sarah for sharing!
You surely inspired me! Now I think I found the thing I really love and I hope to get better and better despite my age. Hello Sarah! I wanted to thank you for sharing your story! It is very inspirational to say the least. I am trying to help my daughter who is currently frustrated with restrictions resulting from Covid I had to pull her out in her early years of training due to moving and was finally able to start again 2 years ago. Despite the gap in training she retained most of past training and within 2 years she has progressed to Platinum Excel levels and a solid level 6.
This sport really makes her happy both mentally and emotionally, not to mention it keeps her physically fit. I am trying to find some way to help her to continue training.
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated. Hi sara, I have a question I gave up gymnastics when I was about 9 years old however I started again in 17 now im 18 and Im really trying hard Do you think that I may have a chance to compete?
I was a competitive gymnast from age 3 to age For 10 years I have been saying how I wish I could get back into it and be flexible like I used to be. Your story definitely inspired me to give it a try! When I was younger I was in gymnastics but my mother had cancer and I had to quit because I had no one to take me and it was not a necessity but now I am 12 and I am trying again and I hope I do well and succeed.
Hi you have an email skylar i would really love to be your pen pal i am going through a simalar situation pls answer i am also 12! Thx Hannah McRae. I was in gymnastics when I was a kid. I loved it but my mom had to pull me out for financial reasons. I am now 40yrs…not nearly fit or flexible. Am I to old to attempt it again? I read these comments and it is very inspiring.
I did gymnastics when I was 2 but my parents pulled me out because I was afraid of the bar. They are building a house and I have been asking since before. Like 3 years before. Which means I was 7 or 8. I want them to finally say yes and find a class.
They have no idea how much I want to be a gymnast and be able to lose weight and fit in with my friends.
You may think your child is too young, or maybe too old. Maybe you may be wondering for yourself and not for your child! Regardless of the situation, I am hoping that reading this post will ease your mind and answer your questions. In fact, there are toddlers as young as 2-years-old that participate in gymnastics. Every gym, or clinic, is different and have different programs. I know that the gym in my area has programs for toddlers to help release their energy.
Maybe you want to wait when your child is a little bit older, and just know that is okay! Maybe you wanted to wait until your child was in elementary primary school, or maybe even middle school. Either way, just know your decision is not wrong. There are two types of gymnastics: recreational and competitive. If you or your child is interested in competitive gymnastics, then typically those gymnasts start young, usually in elementary school.
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