Seyram Atubra was the primary researcher in a study of mainly recreation gymnasts.
British Gymnastics – England commissioned the Institute of Youth Sport to conduct a study to examine the reasons why young gymnasts leave the sport. …
Over 5000 former gymnasts and their parents were asked to complete a survey and telephone interviews were conducted with 40 former gymnasts and their parents. …
Key findings:
• started gymnastics at an average age of 6.2 years and stopped at an average age of 9.9 years
Most important benefits gained from being a gymnast:
• Improved strength and fitness
• Enjoyment/fun
Most important reason for leaving gymnastics:
• ‘boring/repetitive’
• Left to take up a new sport
• Didn’t like the coaches’
bored gymnast
Here’s the PDF if you want to read the full report. For more information contact name via the Gymnastics England Research page.
Thank Keith Russell and Meike Behrensen for the link.
(via Recreation Gymnastics)
19 comments ↓
I think that many of the “boring/repetitive” responses is directly linked to the fact that gymnastics is hard and they get stuck at a certain level. Some kids are never going to learn a bridge kickover. After 3 years of trying no amount of jumping on the trampoline will keep a kid in the gym when they don’t progress in other events.
Interesting! In NZ at the moment the strategy of the national body is to promote recreation gymnastics programmes as an essential step for progression to other sports through development of all the necessary foundation skills and movement patterns. There has been some success in convincing the govt sport funding agency of this theory. I guess what I am saying is that here, we wouldn’t necessarily consider a kid leaving for another sport at age 9 a bad thing. Gymnastics at higher levels isn’t for everyone.
I love the “didn’t like the coaches” response. I always read that as “didn’t like being pushed by my coaches”.
Was in an education seminar today where the speaker talked about how kids quit doing things they loved because ultimately they felt like they stunk at it. I feel it applies here.
TippingCows,
not always, sometimes kids don’t get along with certain people. I switched gyms after my first gym closed and my coached moved to the other main gym in the area and switched to coaching boys. I just did not get along with my new coaches, not to mention them using me as “look at her, that’s how to do it wrong” for every single thing even if I wasn’t doing it wrong. It got old really fast and I just ended up quitting.
Good point. Rec gymnastics is ideal prep for other sports.
Why? How? Proof?
For one thing other sports are more “sandlot”able (like soccer or football). Or even just play like kick the can and the like.
Making Movement Matter in rec gym is a great base for all kids, and I think it’s one thing that GymsportsNZ is doing right for all NZ kids. There is proof out there that the total body development from rec gym helps educational development… dyslexia, dyspraxia etc are all better for it – take a look at the Dore programme used for such development issues and tell me that rec gym isn’t a core part of it.
The biggest reason kids drop out of rec gym at age 9ish is because there’s nowhere further to take it other than to other sports. By 9, if you’re good then you’ve already been put into the competitive stream; so what’s left in rec are those kids whose parents want them doing some physical activity – and so they’re bored! And they can see the cool stuff the comp kids are doing and think they’ll never achieve that, so yes they leave.
Not liking the coaches – that happens in every sport at every level. If the kid and coach don’t click, it won’t work.
First of all, I agree with KiWi here… it’s not necessarily a bad thing if kids leave for another sport – as long as they’re still joining in a physical activity, it’s all good!
Gymnastics is hard. Rec kids coming in one day or two days a week and desperately wanting to learn a backflip when they’re having difficulty holding their own body weight in a handstand… it’s not gonna happen!
I’ve taught a lot of kids over the years, and I don’t think it’s very common that they leave because of coaches.
It’s not like tennis where you learn to hit a ball with a racquet, and once you’ve learnt that you just improve on that ones skill from there… Gymnastics is the most difficult sport in the world. There’s 1000 skills to learn, and all are completely different from each other! It’s not swapping from backhand to forehand, it’s mastering a switch-leap on a beam and a kip on bars and a flip-sault on floor – it’s just not for everyone – and that’s okay!
I agree with KiWi too- I have known many gymnasts whose parents joined them up to recreational gymnastics to gain general coordination. They then went on to play soccer, do dancing etc. A lot of parents will sign their kids up at about 5-6 for that reason and because they have excess energy to burn.
By the time they hit 9-ish its easy to tell if they’ve progressed- I would say the kids who are ‘bored’ probably haven’t made it up the level system and are still aiming to master beginner skills at rec level. When they figure they aren’t going to ‘make it’ as a gymnast, the may move on. That’s my experience anyway.
Reason number 4 for leaving gymnastics…..too expensive! There’s no way my parents could have afforded to support a competitive level gymnast. Not sure I could right now either.
Lets not forget that some girls/boys can also get too big for the sport! We all know that even the super tall children/teens can still particpate, but it’s not easy for them, and not as enjoyable as “it used to be”.
I’ve had a couple of girls over the years who literally GREW out of it – hitting 5″9 or 5″10 in their early teens, or going through puberty and simply not fitting on the equipment, losing flex and strength fast and not wanting to wear a leotard anymore!
They moved onto netball or basketball or swimming – and if they still wanted something girly to do – they joined the dance school adjacent to our gym!
Wasnt there some research out of the US a number of years back showing how recreation gym is the ideal prep for other sports?
I think there is also an element of ‘getting real’ here for nations like NZ. Our national sports are Rugby, Cricket and Netball. We probably wont create Olympians in Gymnastics. We can however add value by building foundation skills for all children.
Kids get discouraged when their coaches and their coach’s “less than honest” partners….continually let them down.
The Canadian Gymnastics Association should be watching and controlling the Industry.
Who protects the Athletes and their Parents ?
Prime Example…Sky High Gymnastics, Regina, Sk.
Sky High Gymnastics… collected athletes fees for March…. Promptly Cashed Checks…
Right IN TIME BEFORE… Landlord locked their doors.
Smells rather Fraudulent to Me !
Oh no, I’m sorry to hear that Sue. I’ll email Wesley and try to find out what happened.
my daughter got stuck age 9 level 5. she couldnt do a flip flop. but she didnt give up!!(so glad her dream being an olympian) now she qualified for nationals and cant wait till we go to texas in a few months!! woo hoo
SHES LEVEL 5 AGIN THIS YEAR!! AND ALMOST LEVEL 6
WIPPPPPPEEEEEEEEE TEXAS HERE WE COMEEEEE!!
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