Geenastics

Still looking for someone to give my sweet kitty girl a new home, so if anyone out there could give her some love....


ANYWAY tonight I am here to blog about gymnastics, or as AJ calls it "gee-nastics." She is in a pre-school class (actually she's the only one enrolled so it's a private lesson I didn't have to pay extra for). AJ gets so excited to go every week and she talks about it a lot and practices at home. I so want to love this experience but there are a few things that really bother me.

The safety issue is one of them. Why oh why did I not put her in tap dancing? Safe, fun, much more affordable, great for posture and movement and rhythm. Gymnastics is so dangerous -- and she's only three!! One day the instructor put her up on the high balance beam (maybe 4-5 ft?) and then turned around to check her binder. AJ kept walking by herself, perfectly balanced, but it scared the crap out of me. There was absolutely no one there to catch her. I can't imagine my baby hitting the floor from up there. I did say something to the teacher afterward.

Another issue is that the gym owners kind of suck. They may be good coaches but they are not good at running their gym. I have been consistently disappointed in the lack of customer service. The facility is good, and AJ's instructor seems very good with her, but as a parent I feel out of place and a little uninformed and unwelcome.

While AJ takes her 45 minute lesson, I sit and watch the older girls, who are probably 8-12 years old. Sometimes I can't believe the things they are doing already. AJ's teacher says she is "advanced" for her age. She told me last week that AJ's cartwheels are better than the 6-year olds in the beginner class. Let me tell you that AJ's cartwheels are quite underwhelming. But each time the teacher tells me things like this, I go back and forth between being so proud of her natural talent and being scared that she will want to continue classes (or notice if I pull her out). So I am torn on whether she should continue.

Last week I was watching the 8 year olds who were divided into two groups of higher and lower ability levels. The higher level girls were on the balance beams (two on each beam). The coach instructed them to lean over in a low arabesque then go directly into a handstand with their legs in a split (I have no idea the technical terms for this). I could not believe how he was berating those girls. First of all, they are freaking eight years old. Second, they all looked very uncomfortable with this exercise which tells me they may have been unready for such difficulty. But the thing that really ticked me off was his negativity. Coaches are supposed to encourage and support. This man just kept bashing their abilities and form during what I saw as a dangerous activity.

The thing that bothered me the most was his attitude toward one girl in particular. She is a bigger girl, and her body is built differently than the others. She is slightly overweight. I always watch her during practice and silently root for her to do well. And she does, she is just as well-trained as the others. But on the balance beam, where she was obviously scared and uncomfortable, the coach repeatedly told her how bad she looked and threatened to send her back to the lower level. I just wanted to cry for this girl, because I bet she faces criticism like this at the gym all the time and she just persists and keeps working. But you could tell she was unhappy and really not enjoying herself, especially with that moron coach barking at her.

The best part of gymnastics (other than watching AJ having the time of her life and shouting "TADA!") is seeing the cheerleaders come in for practice. Those girls are experts in wasting time. I think it's perhaps because they have so few skills to practice. They will work on round-offs for a half-hour just because they don't have the balls to add the backflip (despite having a spotter). There are very few cheerleaders there who appear to have any motivation, desire or skill.

So after I have this baby, I'm going to have to decide what to do about AJ. I can not run her around town for activities every day of the week as I do now. I guess we could take a break from gymnastics and see if she misses it or asks about it. But there's a tiny part of me that says, "YOUR KID IS NATURALLY TALENTED! She is going to be a world-class gymnast if she keeps training!!" And the rest of me says, "Maybe, unless she fractures her spine falling off the beam."

~