Congratulations!

You've been invited to a competitive gymnastics team for the first time. You're so excited!

Being invited to a competitive gymnastics team is incredibly exciting. Your gymnast will be challenged and rewarded throughout their gymnastics journey on a competitive gymnastics team.

But it will be different. Gymnastics will change for your gymnast. Expectations for team gymnasts are higher than for recreational gymnasts.

How different?

Very different.

So let's go over some of the changes, so you know what to expect.

One of the first conversations we have with our Training Stars (pre-team) is about gym expectations.

We break it down into two simple concepts for them:

• You will be here more.

• You are expected to do more.

While that sums it up for the little ones, let's break it down into a little more detail.

Of course, joining pre-team or team means more training hours per week! That's one of the best parts of being invited to the gymnastics team, right?!

While it may be great for your gymnast, parents need to ensure it can work for the rest of the family.

Team gymnasts are expected to be on time for team training, with few exceptions.

Check out the specific team schedule your child will be expected to attend.

Please talk to your coaches if the team training schedule will be a problem for your schedule. We know your life involves more than gymnastics (ours doesn't), and we understand that life happens. Hopefully, a solution can be found so your gymnast can fully participate in their gymnastics team training.

In addition to ensuring their schedule can handle the additional training hours, parents need to be sure their child is ready for the extra time commitment.

Children need to be committed to the team and willing to put in the work to succeed. It takes dedication and hard work to succeed.

But stretching a child too thin isn't good for them or you. Overpacking their schedule can lead to stress for both the families and the child. Be sure to talk with your child about the additional time commitment that comes with training with a competitive gymnastics team.

It's also important to note that team training is usually a year-round commitment. There is no 'off-season' in gymnastics. Gymnasts train all year long, while competition season is usually sometime between August and May.

While the team can accommodate an occasional family vacation, long absences are not usually an option for team gymnasts, although this varies by gym and level. Check with your specific gym regarding absences from team training. Be sure you understand the time commitment required.

There are definite differences in the number of times a gymnast will practice a skill between recreational and competitive gymnastics.

A recreational gymnast may practice a cartwheel ten times during practice.

A team gymnast may practice a cartwheel a hundred times during practice.

New team gymnasts may not understand why they have to do a skill 'so many times.'

We repeat skills, again and again, so your body gets used to doing it the proper way. It's called muscle memory.

If you do things enough times, your body does it without thinking.

Parents, you've probably experienced muscle memory in a different way. Have you ever gotten in the car to go someplace and started driving someplace you often go without realizing it? That's muscle memory. Your body 'remembers' doing it so often that it just takes over and does it.

Repetitions in gymnastics training are based on the same principle.

If you do a cartwheel over and over again while paying attention to your form, it's going to get better and better.

Doing things properly often enough means your body will do it properly (almost) every time. That's why we do skill, after skill, after skill.

Prepare your gymnast for the change in the number of repetitions between recreational and competitive team training.

Another part of transitioning from recreational to team training is the intensity of the training.

Just as you'll do more skills, you'll also do more challenging drills leading to more complex skills.

With progressive gymnastics training, cartwheels become roundoffs, and roundoffs become roundoff back handsprings, and then a double back handspring. Eventually that double back handspring becomes a roundoff back handspring, back layout which we can up-train to a beautiful roundoff back handspring back layout with a full twist. Notice how each skill builds on the one before it? Almost all skills in gymnastics are coached in this progressive manner.

Gymnasts progressively train more challenging skills. Your gymnast will be expected to try new things, learn new skills, and strengthen their bodies.

Conditioning will become a regular part of your gymnast's training. Her strength and flexibility will increase as she increases her team training hours.

Another difference between recreational gymnastics classes and team training is the focus on technique.

Each skill in gymnastics has an ideal form detailing how the skill should be performed. From angles of knees and legs to body position, it's all detailed exactly how it should be done.

Team training is about perfecting that exact technique. It matters if that leg isn't turned out quite enough. It matters if that leg isn't relatively high enough. It even matters if they don't keep their head neutral during some skills.

Why?

Deductions.

In competitive gymnastics, there are deductions for not keeping the exact body positions during skills. It's essential to master the technique before moving onto more complex skills. Once again, this comes back to repetitions and muscle memory. If we train those turns in super high relevé from the beginning, every turn we do, whether on beam or floor, will be in beautiful high relevé.

Competitive gymnasts need to understand that attention to detail matters. To succeed in competitive gymnastics, they should be willing and motivated to work on technique before moving on to the next big skill.

New competitive gymnasts need to remember that expectations for team gymnasts are different. They’ll be expected to train more and do more in the gym.

Some things to consider if a gymnast is ready to join a competitive gymnastics team:

• Team gymnasts should respect the sport and their coaches. Gymnasts should be physically strong and willing to work hard to improve their strength and flexibility further.

• Team gymnasts will work on setting goals and achieving them.

• Gymnasts on a team will work on progressive skills in a structured environment.

• Competitive team gymnasts should strive to progress.

• Team gymnasts will take in corrections with focus.

• Gymnasts will develop basic gymnastics skills to advance in the competitive gymnastics levels.

• Team gymnasts should be mentally ready for the expectations of training with a competitive gymnastics team.

• Gymnasts will learn routines on beam, floor, and bars to compete them at meets.

• If recreational gymnasts keep these expectations in mind, they will be very successful in transitioning to a competitive gymnastics team.