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[quote=Anonymous]As a former gymnastics coach (and gymnast) and someone who also used to do dance, I can tell you that doing dance will help her in gymnastics but not necessarily the other way around.  Gymnastics is going to be more full body type exercises plus teaching things like mental toughness (facing your fears) and spatial awareness.   You will not get as much of that in dance in my opinion.  USAG starts competing level 1 at age 4 so there are definitely some gyms in the area looking at that age for talent.  I agree saying an 8 year old is too old for level 3 is absurd.  The problem with being an 8 year old in level 3 is that there are literally a ton of kids that age in level 3 so it is extremely competitive.  It is very difficult to find a 4 year old with the mental maturity it takes to compete so I would not worry about that at this point.

Despite knowing my kids are talented and have natural ability (ages 6 and 5) I have not pushed them into the sport and they only do it for recreation at this point.   The reason for that is because they both like swimming they also like diving and soccer and basketball and I'm not going to corner them into one sport this early.  The amount of dedication it takes to be a higher level gymnast is immense and I know that first hand.  They are only little once and I want them to experience lots of things and decide what they like.  Hopefully they can find something they are good at that is also something they enjoy.   I've never done martial arts so I can't speak to any similarities that might exist.

For one of the PPs here, gymnastics has other disciplines like Tumbling and Trampoline or Acro that are less "gendered" because they have co-ed categories in case that is more appealing.  Personally I love watching Acro gymnastics even though it is less common.

All this said it seems ideal that if she has to pick one she can alternate between the two through the year. Then she can get the best of both worlds with no pressure to make a choice.   [/quote]

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