Reply to How much is too much for kids sports?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a gymnast and it's a hard decision. I'm coming from the perspective of parenting a kid like my daughter who simply doesn't want to do any other sport even though she's been encouraged to try. Gymnastics is it for her, period. If yours is open to trying other things, I'd lean in on that.

If switching sports isn't a possibility, you could always delay competing for another year or two but you might not be able to delay at the same gym, depending on how full the pre-team is, coaches whims, etc. Also, ageism is a risk - your DD is the perfect age for Level 3 or 4 now, but some gyms are more welcoming to older beginners than others. So it might be worth having a conversation with her coach to see what your options are.

If the travel is a bigger problem than the hours, you could look around for another team that doesn't travel as much or as far, or consider doing Xcel (lower hours, less travel) instead of developmental.

Something else to consider is that some/many kids hit a mental wall around middle school age and start to be scared of skills they've done their entire lives. ex: For a period of time in 6th grade, my daughter refused to do any sort of backwards tumbling at all, just balked whenever she attempted anything, even a simple back handspring. She got over it eventually but she lost time where she should have been learning new skills so it set her back and she repeated the same level the next season. So as kids get older and heavier and taller, they can start to realize that what they're doing is scary. That's why coaches try to get kids through the lower levels as quickly as possible before the dreaded mental blocks start to kick in. [/quote]

OPs daughter may very well be in the Xcel program which is more recreational. All these downsides are less relevant.[/quote]

True. 9 hours per week with lots of travel for a kid newly promoted to “the team” just sounds more like Level 3 than Xcel Silver to me but it’s possible. Either way, travel is travel no matter what program she’s competing. If 9 hours at age 9 is too much (and it’s actually very common in gymnastics, for better or worse— I’m not defending it), OP should look ahead at the practice schedules for the levels above because that’s what the future would look like. [/quote]

But she’s 9. Not 6 making the team for the first time. What was she doing previously at the gym? [/quote]

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