Freakchylde's

Ok, I just watched a segment on CNN about gymnastics and how elite gymnastics is evil. First thing I would like to say, are those parents a bunch of morons? They sit there and wonder about whether they’re pushing their child too hard, yet sit back and don’t put a leash on the coach when their kid breaks something. They had two kids training on injured limbs, bones, and muscles and they didn’t do jack shit. I was a pretty high up gymnast in my day, and I NEVER saw anything like that. When I broke or injured something, even if I wanted to train on it, I got side-lined, the way it should be. I can’t believe any coach would pull that bullshit, regardless of what name they wanted, or what name their gymnast wanted. The one thing they did get right was the fact that the kids themselves push harder than anyone. Gymnasts, at that level, are nuts. Seriously. Once you hit it, there’s no going back. The only thing that you can hope for, is that there’s a good fluffy crash pad when you land. The one thing I would advocate more of, is outlets and resources for the gymnasts – aka access to psychologists, therapists (medical, muscular, and mental), time out (vacation, when they need it). Yeah, you have to keep training to stay where you’re at, but if you’re burning out, then you’re going no where fast anyway. Even stepping back and scaling down practices would help. But, they don’t. To the point where I’m less concerned with whether the parents are forcing their dreams on the kids and more concerned with whether the coaches are forcing their dream/goal of most 1st places on the kids.