PLEASE ANSWER. (gymnastics)?

Wow, a lot of questions. You do sound keen. I can’t give you a definate answer as it can vary so much.

1. How long until you can compete? Well this varies a lot from person to person. For some people it may only take a few months, for others it may take a few years and many will never get to the point where they are competing. If you want to compete you need to ensure you are in a program that is working towards that goal. many teen and preteen beginners classes are not working you in the direction of competing at all. because very few teen beginners ever stick with the sport long enough to compete. Most are recreational classes, based on learning skills and having fun, not on getting you ready to compete. Ask your coach or your gym what the goal of your program is. Let them know that your goal is to become a competitive gymnast and find out if you are in the right program to do that. It may mean that you have to train with younger kids, but if you are focussed on your goal, then this wont bother you.

Also be aware that some gyms will not allow kids over a certain age to join their competition team. Some gyms will only take 6,7 and 8 year olds. Some will take them a bit older. Some will take teens and some will not. Find out about your gyms team program. Do they accept teens into the team to compete or do they only accept kids yur age who are already very advanced? If they don’t, don’t worry, its better you found out now. Find a gym that will help you achieve your goal.

Also if this is your goal then training once a week is no where near enough. Training once a week you will not progress very much. At this early stage aim to train twice a week. Then in a few months increase to three times a week and so on. Don’t increase your hours too quickly. Your body will take time to adjust to each new training schedule. If you all of a sudden start training 5-6 days a week after doing just one you are at risk of serious injury. Best to start at 2 and add another day only after 3-6 months and then another day after another 3-6 months and so on. But definatly up it to 2 days.

2. I would not go for the home school option right away. Like I said before you need to increase your hours slowly. If you drop out of school and just train then you will be at risk of injury which could stop you from even doing gymnastics at all. Your body wont benefit from it. Don’t consider home school for a few years. Top gymnasts who are home schooled may train 6-7 hours a day. Generally twice a day for 3-4 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. But they have worked towards this for many years. These sort of programs wont accept beginners. Don’t drop out of school until you are at least level 7-8.

3. This is a very difficult question to answer. You are already 13, you may find progress is slow and you may not even reach the standard where you are ready to compete at the lowest level by college. Most likely you would be about level 5, 6 or 7 bu the time you reach college. But this is not high enough to compete college gymnastics. It is possible to get to level 10 by college even starting at 13. But this is rare, it can happen though if you are very naturally talented.

4. I have no idea how much it costs to home school, but remember it does cost a lot to do competitive gymnastics. You will be paying a lot of money for training, competition, leotards, transport and so on. It will cost several thousand dollars a year to do gymnastics competitively.

5. There is no rule about how many leotards you own. Preferrably 1 per day a week you train. If you only train once a week, then 1 is fine. If you do twice a week 2 is better. 4 days a week 4 would be good and so on.

6. Probably your gym does not allow teens to compete if it seems they focus on little kids competing. Their teen beginer program probably does not even work towards competition. But ask, let them know what your goals are and if they wont let you compete find another gym. be honest with any gym you ring and let them know your goals. It’s better to find out straight away that you can’t compete than wasting time there.

7. Tough question. I’ll assume that you are in the USA.
Level 1 – generally there are no competitions for level 1′s. It is a training level only. You will often learn these skills in beginner classes. Straight jump vault, pullover on bars and casts on bars, forward rolls, cartwheels, handstands and basic skills.

Level 2 – Most places to do not compete level 2, but a few do. These comps are generally just for little kids so you wouldn’t compete 2 even if your state and your gym allowed it. Again it is more of a training level. Some skills include – handstand flatback vault, back hip circle on bars, sole circle dismount from bars, jumps on beam, and other basics.

Level 3 – Again some states and gyms compete this level but most don’t and those who do dont do it for teens. This will also be a train