About a month ago, we received an email from Tia’s gymnastics facility inviting her to be a part of an advanced developmental team. The idea is that for the next year and a half, she and several other advnaced 5-7 year olds will learn bigger and harder skills with the goal of entering into competitive gymnastics.
The decision for whether or not to do this turned into quite a big deal for Lee and I. We stressed and prayed and talked to a lot of people about whether or not we should allow her to participate in this class.
The training schedule for this program is not overly strenuous. It’s only 3.5 hours a week of gym time. But Tia is also only 5 and we didn’t want to push her into something too early. For over a year, Tia has been in a preschool aged class and she has been far too advanced for the group. While most of the girls in that class were still trying to figure out what foot to put in front to successfully turn a cartwheel, Tia was performing running round off’s with almost perfect precision.
She’s kind of a natural.
Try not to be jealous of the art that is this photo. It's like you're there watching, isn't it? Ah, who're we kidding - I stink at indoor photography.
On the other hand, Lee and I are fairly certain that gymnastics is not a long term sport for Tia, mainly because she’s going to be too tall. As a former competitive gymnast and gymnastics coach myself, I have a bit of experience with this sport. I thought an opportunity like this for my daughter would thrill me, and it did. But it also terrified me! One of the questions Lee and I wrestled through was this: Tia will likely outgrow this sport by the time she is a preteen, so do we need to waste the time and money on training for something that she won’t be able to do long term?
"Take my picture wike I won da gold medal, Mom!"
Ultimately we decided to give her the chance to try it out. We’re trying it for two months. The practices are twice weekly and yes, it means our schedule just got a little crazier given that baseball season has also recently begun. Even if she doesn’t do gymnastics past the fifth grade, the skills she is learning will serve her in any sport she chooses. She’s learning strength, coordination, flexibility and discipline.
Plus, she’s pretty excited that within a few months she’ll be doing back flips on the trampoline.
So we’ll see what happens. At the end of May we’ll decide if we’re going to continue with this program or just put her in an advanced class without the goal of competition. This may disappoint the boys who spent the evening last night doing what boys to best.
Watching girls.
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