Competitive or recreational gymnastics for 4th grader

[Anonymous]

My daughter has the option to join a competitive team in 4th grade. I at first was excited but upon realizing the commitments, am now against it for this year at least.

She will go from 2 2-hour practices per week at a nearby gym, to 3 3-hour practices at a gym much farther away. This means she will also be unable to join school clubs after school, such as the school play she loves in the spring. She also will have to travel on some weekends.

Her dad wants her to do it because he wants her to be pushed. I’m also concerned about injury at her age. That seems like a lot of practice. She is very athletic and enjoys lots of activities, although she does love gymnastics.

[Anonymous]

If she loves gymnastics, I would chose competitive. I have the feeling I will be in the minority.

[Anonymous]

You mentioned how you feel and how your DH feels, but not really how your DD feels. Does she want to do competitive gymnastics?

I’m a mom of a competitive gymnast. 4th grade is considered late if she’s joining a DP program so she must have a lot of natural talent if the coaches are inviting her at this point. 4th grade is a very typical age to join an xcel team and that’s a great program especially for girls going into tween/teen years.

I think it’s really important for girls that age to have an activity outside of school to sustain them as friendships shift. If she is just doing school-based activities, all of her social eggs are in one basket. My DD loves her team because she is with a mix of girls from many different schools, all races and family backgrounds, and a multiage group. It’s been really healthy for her to be in such a mixed group and to have hours of time with zero access to laptops and phones. The travel has been a positive, too. It forces her to stay on top of homework and has also given her a lot of concentrated social time but extracted her from some things I wasn’t thrilled about- sleepover culture, middle school dances, etc.

Don’t worry about injuries. They’re less likely with more practice and more strength and conditioning work. My DD’s teammates so far have had many injuries. But all of them happened doing benign every day things: stepping off a curb weirdly, tripping on a step, playing on an exercise machine that they were told not to play on, and kicking a box instead of picking it up.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely recreational. She's pushed in school, and if she has the personality will push herself.

Doing recreational, and joining the school play is great - two different skill sets, one creative outlet, two different group of kids, more down-time since shorter commute.

[Anonymous]

What is her opinion?
If you have the funds and the ability to transport her I would tell her the pros and cons and let her choose.
If you don’t have the funds etc I would say no.

My rising 7th grader is starting travel soccer for the first time. It’s 3x a week practices about a 25 min drive from our house. Sge really wants to do it after many years of rec. so we’re gonna make it happen.

[Anonymous]

If she loved gymnastics and only gymnastics then I would say join the team. But since she has a love for other things like theater—I vote staying rec.

I’m overall kind of sick of the push for youth sports to go from reasonable to “this is your life now,” which seems to happen with so many of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she loved gymnastics and only gymnastics then I would say join the team. But since she has a love for other things like theater—I vote staying rec.

I’m overall kind of sick of the push for youth sports to go from reasonable to “this is your life now,” which seems to happen with so many of them.

9 hours a week isn't "this is your life now", although I do wonder how long the commute to the gym is, because that part could be a dealbreaker.

As a former competitive gymnast who absolutely wanted to compete and would have been devastated if my parents said no, I think the first step is to ask her. If she wants to compete, try it out. This isn't some path that will have to take over her, and your, entire life.

FYI, I worked out about 25 hours a week at my most competitive, and I still had time to do orchestra outside of school. I also had plenty of friends at school, and I saw them outside of school as well.

[Anonymous]

This is a great opportunity. If DC/parents decide it's no longer enjoyable, too expensive, too much of a commitment, decreases quality of life, then DC can always dial it down and do xcel or rec. If you don't take the opportunity when offered then you'll never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she loved gymnastics and only gymnastics then I would say join the team. But since she has a love for other things like theater—I vote staying rec.

I’m overall kind of sick of the push for youth sports to go from reasonable to “this is your life now,” which seems to happen with so many of them.

9 hours a week isn't "this is your life now", although I do wonder how long the commute to the gym is, because that part could be a dealbreaker.

As a former competitive gymnast who absolutely wanted to compete and would have been devastated if my parents said no, I think the first step is to ask her. If she wants to compete, try it out. This isn't some path that will have to take over her, and your, entire life.

FYI, I worked out about 25 hours a week at my most competitive, and I still had time to do orchestra outside of school. I also had plenty of friends at school, and I saw them outside of school as well.

OP - we are in a rural area and the competitive gymnastics team practices 1 hour away from her school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If she loved gymnastics and only gymnastics then I would say join the team. But since she has a love for other things like theater—I vote staying rec.

I’m overall kind of sick of the push for youth sports to go from reasonable to “this is your life now,” which seems to happen with so many of them.

9 hours a week isn't "this is your life now", although I do wonder how long the commute to the gym is, because that part could be a dealbreaker.

As a former competitive gymnast who absolutely wanted to compete and would have been devastated if my parents said no, I think the first step is to ask her. If she wants to compete, try it out. This isn't some path that will have to take over her, and your, entire life.

FYI, I worked out about 25 hours a week at my most competitive, and I still had time to do orchestra outside of school. I also had plenty of friends at school, and I saw them outside of school as well.

OP - we are in a rural area and the competitive gymnastics team practices 1 hour away from her school.

With that distance, I don't think anyone can really give you a good answer, and this has to be a family decision. Maybe the coaches could let you know if there's anyone else in your area that you could carpool with, to lessen the amount of driving (my parents did that for a while, even though for me the gym was about 25-30 minutes away). My guess is that you're the mom, and the burden of driving to practices will fall on you, so of course your husband is saying that he wants your daughter to do this (his time investment is much smaller and manageable).

Also, this decision can and probably should be revisited every competitive season, so if you and your daughter decide to go for it next year, that doesn't necessarily mean that she'll be doing this until she's 18.