To consider 10 hours gym a week excessive?

Lol they get streetwise at a very early age these days :D No, I meant if she's well into sport by that time, she's not so likely to be hanging about with the types who are bored on street corners. And trying to get a kid into gymnastics who is already spending time in destructive or self-wasteful ways is almost certainly a non-starter.

Age 6?

At the end of the day I'd rather have a grandchild that was busied out unnecessarily with gym training than one who had spare time to hang about buying drugs

Well, thanks for all the opinions/experiences! I think most agree with me that 10 hours is too long but I am decidedly uncompetitive. Unfortunately we do seem to be raising children in a crazily competitive world. We are going to give it a try I think because GD is so enthusiastic and loves it - against my better judgement but it’s not my decision. It is a reputable gym club and my DD who was quite good at gym does want her daughter to have a chance she didn’t have. We had neither the money nor the practical ability to give her this. Having watched the training, a lot of it is general strength training. Still think the clubs are at fault to be honest. I suppose the very top performers have to come from somewhere but we seem to be putting a lot of children through something excessive in order to produce the odd Beth Tweddle.

Enjoyment rather than excelling at sport didn't really apply with DD. We soon learnt not to play any sort of competative game with her because she's only in it to win. She would happily train for hours to get something right.

I, too, thought it was too much for a 6 year old - then I saw the news at lunch-time about an eleven year old Welsh girl who has been picked for the Welsh table tennis Squad to represent Wales at the Commonwealth Games!

Anna Hursey picked up her first table tennis bat as a five-year-old in Swansea and is determined to make the most of her opportunity and not put too much pressure on herself.

That is a very good point about enjoyment, aepgirl. But I presume the child wouldn't want to do the ten hour thing if she wasn't enjoying it.

I am astonished that a six-year-old should be expected to do this. I think there is far too much emphasis on excelling at sport rather than just enjoying it. I don't think any child should be expected to choose at such a young age - let them be children until they are at least 13 or 14.

Check the gymnastic advisory council. 6 y o is very very young and could cause latent and long lasting problems. Who is your GD's gym club authorised by? And what sort of gymnastics is it? there's the Olympic form and then as I understand it a less stressful more balletic form which has competitions but isn't in the Olympics. Check the gym and its governing body first.

Who are we blaming for this?
The school, the gym club or the parents?

We have the eleven plus in my county and it puts a lot of strain on parents and children. One little girl in year six, my daughter’s friend, was a gymnastics star and the head teacher advised her mother to keep her focussed on the activities. She had some eleven plus practice but was the almost the only girl to fail. The child’s mother realised too late that her daughter was being pushed because the gym cups looked well on the headmistress’s shelf and she bitterly rued letting the child overdo the gym practice.

Having said that,the little girl is now a grown up gym instructor and making a good living at it.

Nannarose an interesting perspective from someone who knows about this.
My DC competed at county and one at national level - but we made sure they maintained a balance and did not spend hours upon one sport to the exclusion of other interests and hobbies.
In fact, one DC, who competed at County level in sport and could have gone higher had she wanted to, concentrated as well on music which is now her career.

My whole family has done competitive sports at representative level - my mum missed out on a lot because of WW2 but the rest of us have competed at levels from county up to international. Nearly everyone would tell you that this is too much at 6 years of age.
There is real danger of physical damage and burn out. I know little about gymnastics as such, but have dealt with some of the fall out from sports such as dance & gymnastics that put a strain on young bodies.
I would look at the website of the governing body - most have good advice for families. You could even contact them and have a chat. That may help you to find out what they would consider reasonable, where such training may be found (and indeed what support there is for families)

Certainly when older, they will be needing that level of training but my own take is that any sport requiring that level if training at 6 is taking it too far.

Exactly this happened with my dgd and in the end she decided with her mum that it was just too much. The gyms, however well intentioned and whatever guide lines are adhered to, do have their own agenda and are pretty hard line about progress linked to attendance and pressure pupils accordingly. Although I kept quiet and tried to be as neutral as possible, I must admit to a sigh of relief as I was designated driver and very often covered taking dear Gd to the sessions when her mum was working.

It is also important to remember that not all of the training time will be spent doing gymnastics. Competition gymnasts spend several hours of their training time doing conditioning exercises and learning dance skills.

I had a 7 year old who trained skating for 8 hours a week - only 5-6 hours of the time was on the ice and the rest of the time was off-ice conditioning and dance training.

My7 year old GD has a similar regime with ice-skating. She loves it and works hard at it and jumps out of bed without any complaint on skating mornings 5am. However, it involves my DIL having to be up to take her there two or three morning a week plus 6 hours at the weekend. My DIL has to do a full day's work on top of the early mornings. The stadium is very cold off-ice. the fees for being in the special group are huge, a bit like a mortgage. I am in awe of my DIL and my S for making these sacrifices. My S has a similar programme for my GS's
football with private coaching, practise matches and fixtures. They are a happy hard working family but I have no idea where they find the energy to do it all. They are not doing it with any expectations of their children and quite happy to stop it whenever they want to but simply want them to have a chance to be the best that they can.

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

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!

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.

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 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.

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.

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?

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

Just to add, my daughter is 8