by site editor Rick McCharles
Amy Van Deusen on her About.com Gymnastics blog posted an important article.
Important not only because I was quoted in it:
… Kids that start more serious training very young don’t seem to have a leg up on kids that start a bit later — and it may even be to the child’s disadvantage to start early. “The risk of starting advanced gymnastics at a young age is potential burnout as a pre-teen,” says veteran coach Rick McCharles of Altadore Gymnastics Club in Calgary, Canada.
Altadore runs a “Mighty Mites” program in which kids age four to six work on general physical and motor fitness. Then, children progress to a “pre-competitive” training program.
An interesting sidenote: McCharles has noticed a difference between boys and girls. “Girls are on average more psychologically and physically ready for structured training than boys the same age,” he says. …
read the entire article – When should my kid start serious gymnastics training?
Leave a comment on that site if you have an opinion.
Just last week I was in the gym with an AMAZING 7-year-old. She did giants to flyaway at age-6, for example.
But the coaches worry that her gymnastics ability is so far ahead of her mental consistency. It’s easy for a developmentally young 7-year-old to get “lost”.
As always with coaching, we have a balancing act trying to ensure that young gymnasts progress at an optimal rate.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 