To consider 10 hours gym a week excessive?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

I think DD will have been training for 10 hours a week when she started gymnastics, but she was 8. By the time she gave up at 15 she was training about 16 hours I think, plus she was doing a lot at home. Really she was only happy in the gym but it didn't stop her doing very well academically as well. The daughter of one of her friends was exceptionally promising but was in the National Squad before she left primary school and just became completely overwhelmed and dropped gymnastics altogether.

Everything is so competitive now. Even young children are being eyed with a view to taking part in serious competitions and possibly the Olympics.

It seems to me that, when it becomes so time-consuming and serious, the enjoyment, at least for some children, must go out of it. And I also think it might be physically damaging.

I wouldn't encourage such a huge time commitment in a young child. And, even when children are in their early teens, is it really a great idea for them to be training for many hours a week and giving up almost all other social activities?

DGD, aged 10, is a very good and fast swimmer and recently reached the stage where she had to decide whether to sign up with a swimming club and enter their training squad with all that entails or just have swimming as an activity she enjoys.

But after investigating all the demands on child and family, there was family agreement that she would not take that route. For her it would have meant giving up all the other activities she takes part in and also has a talent for, especially dancing and for her parents, whose work makes lots of demands outside office hours, the strain of meeting the demands of swimming training would be too much. They were also uneasy about a child as young as 10 focusing on one activity to the exclusion of all other, plus the effects on the other child in the family.

Talent needs to be nurtured to develop and this is not excessive if done correctly. If it were my gc I would check on the qualifications of the people training her as young bones can easily be damaged. If the trainers are professional a lot of that time will be on warming up and warming down as well as discussing the theory of what they are doing. Yes, you can do that with a 6 year old.

If you really think this is too much perhaps you could take her to ballet, tap or modern classes instead of one of the gym sessions. That way she would be doing something which would help her with the gym if she did take it seriously but giving her an opportunity to try something else which she might like instead. Be warned, you do need to ensure the teacher is properly qualified in those too.

Once I had done that I would give her all the encouragement she needs but I would not push her.

There are a lot of people whose parents thought they knew best who are full of regrets at what might have been and I can think of one particular girl who was talked out of doing what she was passionate about and now, at the age of 37, works on the fringes of what she really wanted to do.

Thanks all. It’s just all too much isn’t it? It’s different when a child is old enough to make a reasonable judgement but I just know so many stories of parents who gave up all sorts to ferry their children round the country at the expense of other siblings and then it’s all given up when other interests take over. I think the clubs are at fault though I have to say for putting pressure on the parents to think this is somehow normal.

The countries that have the greatest gymnast Russia China use the most punishing regimes from a tiny age 3

You are way behind the times BlueBelle. Russia and China are not the leading women's gymnastics nation - the top women's gymnastics Nation is the US - the last 4 Olympic Champions have been American. They train very long hours with 30-40 hours a week for top 10-12 year olds being common. Some gyms run their own home-schooling programmes at the gym. In the US there is also the collegiate scholarship system where hundreds of gymnasts get college scholarships and the best are recruited at 13-15.

However the dark side of this sucess and early training was revealed recently when the team doctor was convicted of child sexual abuse

Something to look out for is that very sporty children can develop Osgood Schlatter's or other similar conditions through over-exercising developing joints.
It was explained to us by a consultant that the bones can develop and the growing points do not always harden off into solid bone straight away - thus over-exercise can cause pain and tenderness and rest is required.

We do know of several children who developed this or something similar (including one of ours).

Not wishing to alarm you, OP, but it is something to look out for and needs prompt medical attention.

If you are in the USA and have hopes of being an elite gymnast then this type of training is pretty common. Many train the long hours in the hope of making the national team or getting a gymnastics scholarship to a top University.