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My name is Donna Hughes. I am the head coach at RGA, and have been coaching gymnastics formally since 1989. 
I have been a school teacher, and a real estate agent, but coaching gymnastics has been the most satisfying career I have tried. I have made many girls into State and National Champions, in cheerleading as well as in gymnastics. Many of my former students have become college cheerleaders, gymnasts, coaches and fantastic adults! Many people unfortunately are not aware of the wonderful opportunities awaiting their children, until it is too late. Those who wait and enroll their daughters a month before a middle or high school cheer tryout, have waited too late to see results. Not even the most talented athlete can realize his/her full potential without consistent, year-round training. Even serious baseball and basketball players train year-round to excel in their sport. No one is so awesome, that they can be their best, without training. Some gyms are better than others, and some coaches are better than others. The key however, to a successful athlete begins with consistency. Regardless of equipment, gym size, class size, coaching ability, personality, or age of student, success can be achieved through consistency. Children have the most potential to learn the sport of gymnastics or tumbling between the ages of 6 and 12. This is the most crucial time of life when kids are most fearless, and most agile. Typically, if they have not received any training prior to age 12, progress will be much slower, but not impossible. To see the most for your money, enroll your child in a year-round gymnastics program, as early as you can. I have seen many start their children in serious gymnastics training too early. Nothing saddens me more than a child who has quit gymnastics before realizing her full potential. To avoid this, you must let your child decide how much, and how often she wants to train. Forcing a child of any age to participate in a sport as difficult and challenging as gymnastics, will result in disappointment on both the part of the parent and student. Some children can begin training seriously at age 6, and train happily all the way to their senior year in high school; while others who start serious training at age 6 will burn out and quit before realizing their full potential. It largely depends on the work ethic naturally born within each individual child, and whether or not the parent is too demanding. Although gymnastics does improve overall health in many ways, a severely obese child should not be enrolled in gymnastics. Only children at a safe weight, should be enrolled. Check with your doctor if you are uncertain. 
Gymnastics improves strength, endurance & flexibility, which is wonderful for a child's developing skeletal structure. However, if a child is overweight, and participates in gymnastics, there can be a high risk of permanently damaging the developing joints, and a greater risk for other injury. Gymnastics is a weight-bearing exercise. Overweight children should participate in other non-weight bearing activities, such as swimming, or cycling to achieve a proper weight before attempting gymnastics. Children who learn to eat healthy food, and become fit as children, will more likely be healthy as adults. 
If you are considering whether to enroll your child in cheer class, or in the general classes, I can give you some advice. I recommend the back handspring class, or the cheer class for students over the age of 12. I recommend the advanced tumbling class for any student who has a roundoff back handspring on floor, over the age of 12. For all other students from the ages of 5 to 12, I recommend enrolling them in general classes, rather than cheer class or private lessons. The general classes cover all of the women’s events in gymnastics: Balance Beam, Uneven Bars, Vault (drills), and Floor Exercise. Until they reach a certain level of ability, we teach drills to prepare them for vault, but the actual vaulting horse is much too dangerous for beginning levels. In addition to the four traditional women’s events, general classes also learn to use tumble track, which is a training tool for floor exercise. They also learn flexibility & strength training. Cheer classes only focus on jumps, dance, cheers, some stunts, and tumbling. The big skill that everyone wants to learn today for cheerleading, is a full twisting layout. A full twisting layout is a somersault, 360 degrees vertically, while at the same time the athlete is twisting 360 horizontally. The skill is a completion of two 360 degree turns (upside down and sideways) at the same time. We have over 40 students that can perform this skill. We have an Elite Cheer Squad, of which every member has this skill! "The best cheerleaders, were gymnasts first!" Video below is RGA Gymnastics Team Captain, Micaela Hayes At all of the cheer competitions held today, you will see them often. Successful squads have several girls doing this at the same time. This skill takes an average of about 2 years to learn, with weekly, year-round, serious. consistent training. Some of my students have learned it sooner, but for most folks, this skill takes 2 years, and sometimes more to learn. Back in the old days, it took more like 3 - 5 years to learn, when all we had were panel mats, and mini-trampolines. With our awesome training facility today, containing air-track, tumble track, and training pits, we eliminated one whole year of hard work at least compared to what it used to be! If you want your child to get a back handspring, and nothing else, the cheer class is a fine solution. However, if you want a serious, advanced tumbler, that doesn’t just make the squad, but leads the team in ability, you will need to strongly consider the general classes as a starting point. Many parents fail to exercise patience with this daunting sport. If you enroll your child in any class, and become frustrated because the pace of learning is slower than what you would like, then my advice to you, is to sit in the car. Stop by to watch the class once every month, every two months or even three, to see results. It is literally like watching grass grow. or even slower! The parents who are willing to be patient, and respect this process, are always the parents with the most successful kids at our gym. Safety is our number one priority. Just because a student appears physically strong enough, does not mean they are ready mentally. Many students are already strong enough to do very difficult skills right now, but the mental awareness needed to complete a skill takes a long time to develop. Just because a child is strong enough, does not mean her MIND is ready for the task. Mind and body must work together to perform gymnastics and tumbling. I have seen many of out best tumblers lose all the tumbling ability they have achieved for a while, due to mental blocks, and fear issues. Those who lose their tumbling, get it back sooner, when the parents DO NOT interfere, but rather, offer sympathy and friendly support. The interference of parents can often make it difficult to proceed. Most students learn gymnastics better at a snail’s pace. Snail’s pace learners will stay in gymnastics longer, while quick, impatient, fly-by-night students who look for ways around the hard work, and short-cuts to success, become susceptible to injury and loss of confidence. Would you rather your child become advanced by age 8, and then get burned out, and quit at 10? Or would you rather he/she learn slower, more comfortably, and become advanced by age 10, and stay in it through high school and even college??? I would choose the latter. In the general classes, students get
a mental break from working on tumbling when they go to balance beam or
bars. Students in our cheer classes work mostly tumbling and floor
skills, which over time, can become very dull and boring. The general
class student not only gets a break from the monotony while over at bars
or beam, but the bars increases upper body strength and air awareness.
Balance beam improves balance and coordination. As they flip around
and hang on the bars, they having fun and getting strong ~ without even
knowing it! Balance beam prepares children to "balance" themselves,
and it helps if they have to balance on top of a pyramid later in life,
if they become cheerleaders. Even if they don't cheer later on, nobody
can have too much balance in this world, so it's always a good thing to
have!
Not everybody reaches the level of the gymnastics team. There are many reasons, but the main reason is a lack of patience on the part of the parent. Most of the time, if the parents are patient, so the child will be as well. It has been my experience & observation, after coaching literally thousands of children, that children who are patient with the learning process, and with themselves, has been a result of their very patient parents. This is the recipe for a champion. Not minding the day to day hard work required, because they just know it's gotta be done. Successful in this sport, are the children whose families don't have panic attacks because another child has a skill their child doesn't. Jealousy completely spoils, defeats & ruins training. I have seen kids come to beginners for over a year, spend one month in intermediate class, one month on pre-team, and boom!, suddenly they are awesome, and are on team! Sometimes they are in beginners for two years before this happens. It really has to be on the child's terms. The children are all given the same curriculum here, but it is how they respond to it that determines their pace. Everyone is different, and everyone will progress at a different pace. This pace cannot be influenced by negative comments to the child from the parent. Positive encouragement is always the best thing a parent can offer to ensure progress! Children are reluctant to believe parents know anything, especially about the dynamics and psychological complexities of gymnastics. Even if you know a lot about it, your coaching tips will stimulate a possible rebellion, or even a loss of interest. Children even as old as high school age, want parents to be astounded and spellbound, not questioned or criticized of their every move when gymnastics is already difficult & frustrating enough. They don’t need a disappointed looking parent, while they proceed through a NORMAL process of gaining and losing skills. Acting like you know nothing about it, and being impressed that they do, always makes them want to learn it more. Offering encouragement, and holding back on the coaching is always the best suggestion I can offer to parents, no matter what the personality, or relationship of the child and parent. If you become frustrated with your child, try to remain positive! They won’t learn because you want them to. They will learn if it is fun, and if they want to! 
“Will my daughter get this faster if she takes private lessons?” I have also heard “We did a ton of private lessons, and she still didn’t get it!” Private instruction is not really ideal. Learning with others in a class situation, can provide a student with more time to rest between activities. Students in a class meet new friends, that help motivate each other. Private lessons can be very dull and boring, because there are far more repetitions than an average class. ***The competition between students can strengthen their desire to learn.*** Private instruction is by no means a short cut to learning anything, and is only advised when a student is already enrolled in every class possible, but is having extreme fear issues which will become safety issues, or has difficulty understanding a specific skill that needs one on one attention. People get their back handsprings much faster in a group situation. Instead of paying for 3 months of private lessons, save your money and enroll your child year round in the proper class at the gym. Private lessons will burn your child out twice as fast, and will also empty your pocket book twice as fast. There are no overnight answers to learning. People who try to get around the hard work, and defy the normal, snail’s pace process of learning, will experience instability, uncertainty, sudden crashes, loss of confidence, will regress, and will ultimately get discouraged and drop out. Furthermore, year-round participation is required for progress. If your child does not attend year round, you are not going to see the results you want. The child will basically be bored to death, because she will be learning and re-learning everything - again and again, instead of constantly building on what she knows, and continually learning new things. Remember, snail’s pace learners stay in the sport longer, and see the best results! Don’t expect to see magic overnight! By the time a girl has gone through beginners, intermediates, pre-team, and becomes a very advanced team gymnast, she has spent approximately ONE THOUSAND HOURS in the gym. That is a conservative estimate! Give it time, offer support & encouragement, and help your child to become consistent by getting her to the gym year round! Consistency is the key to success. This is the recipe for an amazing gymnast or cheerleader!  |
