To consider 10 hours gym a week excessive?

There are a lot of people whose parents thought they knew best who are full of regrets at what might have been

Those people will be looking at the best case scenario, and imagining themselves as top athletes or whatever.
In reality, it may have been a road of struggle and disappointment, even injury.

Clearly, no-one can predict the future so the likely outcomes have to be weighed up.

My almost 12 year old dgs plays rugby, basketball and attends a judo class weekly as well. He spends around 7-12 hours per week on all his sporting activities depending on whether he’s just training or has games as well. He sometimes goes out with his father for a run/cycle but this at his own request. So yes, I do think 10 hours per week for a ten year old is far too much. My Dgs is double her age and doing roughly the same number of hours.

Concentrating on one sport to the exclusion of all other hobbies and activities for a child of that age may not be the best way for her to find out what she may enjoy in the long-term.
My DC did do a range of activities, sport, music, the arts but I did insist they carried on with swimming until they were all excellent swimmers.

You have to also remember that many sports use many different muscles one sport uses the same muscles and the same pressure on joints over and over

Swimming clubs are equally demanding. Your GD won't be doing gymnastics for all of that time. There'll be a lot of talk.

If you think it's a really bad idea, don't fund it.

Mine went to swimming clubs which were for learners up to a competitive level - if they wanted to continue to that level that would have been when they were older than 6.

Too much, definitely too much.

It would worry me physically - she is so little and her body is very undeveloped.

I do not think it is healthy for any child to be so concentrated on one thing - it is like children who have skills on a musical instrument - they do need to practice a lot but they also need to have some balance in their lives.

I agree Luckygirl - she may love gymnastics (DD has just started - 2 hours a week at age 6) but she may never find out if she loves another sport, dance, or music. Any of these could become a career one day, but with 10 hours a week of gymnastics at age 6 she could be burnt out by 12.

If she's gymnastics burnt out by the age of twelve she can do something else. Reasons for not doing it that I can think of: (1) mum can't cope with all the toing and froing, (2) the little girl gets fed up with it.

No, she may not be able to if she has wrecked her joints.

If it's a reputable gymnastics club they surely won't wreck a child's joints? Perhaps the OP should check out stuff like that.

Yes this is too much, I’d be interested to her what her GP might think about it, could it be that the gym is just looking to increase their income, but apart from all these concerns what about the other two children, might there be a risk of turning this one into “the golden child”, also if the same thing happens with the other two the expense could be quite huge.

like many of you I think this is way over the top. I also wonder about how she will manage to do homework if she is going two days a week from 4 - 7? Also that her bedtime will be much too late for a 6 yr old, (by the time she finishes and gets home and gets ready for bed it would be 8 o'clock?!)
As a retired teacher, I used to see a lot of very tired children at school who hadn't had enough sleep. I'm afraid I would discourage her from such extreme training at such a young age.

It should be ok as long as the trainer is fully trained in child physiology and doesn't expect the child to perform in ways that can put too much strain on her. See if you can find out the trainer's qualifications and experience.

If your granddaughter is to continue. You can apply to BAGA for a grant referred to as a hardship fund. This could help with travel costs etc.

My daughter does gymnastics and has just passed her B.A.G.A. Grade 3. She does 1 hour of gymnastics a week. She also does ballet, tap and jazz plus swimming lessons. Focusing on ONE activity at that age is ridiculous. Let her try and enjoy a few things and if she’s naturally drawn to the gymnastics then she’ll make her way up the grades and can then decide if she really wants to focus on just that.

Just to add, my daughter is 8

Actually, if the child really does have the ambition to be a competitive gymnast, then I think sadly she really does have to be focussing on it already. The competition is strong and the kids she will be competing against in the future will have already started fairly intense training at an early age

10 hours does seem a lot but they must think she has exceptional potential to suggest trial for squad. Does she want to try for squad? My dh could run 100m in 10 seconds dead at 16. He was offered chance to try out for county youth squad but it would have involved travelling 25 miles each way 3 times a week and more travelling to compete at weekends. He wanted to do it but his parents said no as money was tight and they had 2 other children. He has never really forgiven them and still muses about being denied his chance as he is still convinced he could have had a career in running. In gymnastics children do start to train seriously at a young age. How will your dd feel if her dd resents being denied her opportunity?

I wish I could get back some of the money I spent on the children's activities, they were excellent at judo / swimming / dancing (national stage awards) and ariousother things. Hang spent a small fortune on these things none of them pursued them to a veryhigh level.

Unless you are absoutely sure I think it is better to remain a child enjoying things rather than fritter away a childhood on punishig regimes.

I wouldn't grudge money spent on activities that were enjoyed by the DC, radicalnan.
But if you mean money spent on striving towards unlikely goals, possibly with reducing enjoyment for the child or with effects on other family members, then I see your point.

If she is doing 2 days a week from 4-7, when is she going to eat dinner? At 3pm? After 8pm when she gets home?
Who will look after the mother's 2 younger children when she drops off and collects her daughter? What if one of her other children isn't well? Who does the taxiing then?

I had a member of staff who was a burnt out gymnast. so sad at 30 he was an old man with a rod to fuse his spine and aches everywhere.

devotion to this type of sport is not worth it. I am sure that there will be something less damaging she will enjoy just as much if later on in life she does decided she wants to go for some Olympic sport.

I often wonder whether people who post asking for opinions end up more or less confused about it than they started :D There is rarely a consensus among the replies!

Well, quite a number come back to thank us for our opinions and say it has helped them to think through their decision.