More Gymnastics

There is so much drama and seriousness in the sport of gymnastics, at least, if you want to progress as a gymnast past the basics. I don't know if we (as a family) are going to be able to make this all work out for Davan.

First, I'm tired of the drama of coaches leaving, not doing their jobs, owners letting their personal lives interfering, yadda, yadda, yadda. It's constant. And we're paying a lot of money for it.

Then, the only way you do more than very basics are to join the team. Then you have to compete and there are serious team fees to pay on top of the serious tuition.

Davan has, as you all know from me blogging here, had some problems with coaching at the team level. We're not having good luck there. Plus, she's nervous about competing. She doesn't want to have to commit for a year. She wants to just try a meet. That isn't an option in the gymnastics world. Unfortunately. Seems like it should be.

She, though, loves the gymnastics part. She loves tumbling and doing bars. She loves vaulting. She isn't overly keen on the balance beam, but is very happy and proud about mastering new skills on it anyway.

Her gym is falling apart. Even if it weren't, we'd be moving because of coaching problems. The new gym, which we had great hopes for, might not work out for her for two reasons. One is that she didn't much care for the level 4 coach. I agree with that assessment. She had trouble with crowd control, allowing too much goofing off and running around, followed by harsh snapping at the team to try to get them under control. It's not a good mix for Davan, particularly, who doesn't care for the goofing around and hates to be yelled at. She also hardly paid any attention to Davan and her abilities, mostly because other people were constantly vying for her attention.

The other reason is that the level 4s at this new gym are quite a bit behind Davan skill-wise and they don't even work the more advanced skills that Davan has. Plus, they aren't even going to compete this fall because they aren't ready for competition. If Davan stayed with that group, she wouldn't compete until spring (really winter, but they call it the spring season) and, thus, wouldn't get a chance to work on more advanced skills (many of which she already has) until after that.

What are the other options?

1) Going to a gym that would require a hefty commute. When Davan is feeling rather iffy about being on team anyway, that seems like a bad idea.

2) Just have her do recreational gymnastics. That would be fine for her in a lot of ways, with the very important exception that it would never be challenging for her.

3) Quit and find another sport. This sound more appealing to me all the time. But, I'm not sure of another sport that will work for her in the same way gymnastics does. I also think she might regret it, as she is doing so well and moving so quickly. Anthony feels that, partially, at least, she needs to grow a backbone and learn to put up with a coach who is only okay in order to pursue the sport she loves. Maybe.

4) Go with recreational classes for now. Continue with Do Jump. If she wants to move back up to team at some point, do it. If rec gets too boring and she doesn't want to move up, then she can move onto another sport at that time. If level 4 team at this new gym is boring, though, then imagine how rec would be.

Davan has been thinking about all of this, too, obviously, and these are some of the options we've come up with.

Something will work out eventually. It'll all be fine. It's not life or death. Yeah.