Perhaps their is too much pressure on her to succeed?
My daughter is in to trampoling and the pressue to perfom at competitions gets to her, we have started to make it clear it doesn’t matter how she performs as long as she enjoys herself, and this has seen her performances improve.

corporal punishment is the only answer here

seems to struggle to carry out some moves which i know she is capable of doing.

it is a subject she refuses to discuss and gets very upset

British Championships next month so not much time to turn things around.

It does sound a tad like there is pressure from you as well as from peers/instructors…I’m not a parent but perhaps she is going 5 days a week as she feels she has to. Is 5 days a week normal or the equivalent of cramming before an exam?

If you value your daughters health, then stop her doing it.

My partner did gymnastics when she was young…..now in later life she suffers from many assosciated problems…. she knows many other ex gymnasts with the same problems…

How about letting her go to gymnastics but not competing if she doesn’t want to?

I know I love riding my bikes but the idea of racing is the very last thing I’d do.

There is a hint of pushy in your OP by the way.

PS proviso to all that in case it isn’t clear is that it has to be her choice. If SHE has ambitions, our job as parents is to facilitate and clear the path to give them a chance to do it. Which in this case might involve being pushy with her club, or with the regional / national body to see if you can get here some time with someone qualified to deal with whatever is causing the issue.

My son used to come CX and XC racing with me. He was really good and would win or place regularly.
After a particularly tough race I asked him ‘are you enjoying this or doing it because you think I want you to?”
His answer was the latter. I told him I’d be totally happy if he stopped, or carried on. The choice was his. He stopped shortly after.
He has grown into a healthy, happy independent young man., with his own hobbies and interests.
Not an identical situation to yours but my ethos is it’s best to let them make their own choices as they mature. I believe as a parent you are there to gently guide and support. I think in your case I would remove ALL pressure (see comments above) and allow her enjoyment be the driving force to a return to competition.
Don’t underestimate how stressful it may be for her. It could be a glitch, it could be she’s feeling the pressure of fulfilling your aspirations for her.
Good luck.

send her to north korea, to take part in the mass games.

Been there!!

Qualis are hard and they’re supposed to be. I’ve seen loads of fantastic club gymnasts just do really badly at routines that they nail everytime back at the gym. Happens to boys and girls. Loads of hugs loads of “love you’s” . Back to the gym and back to grinding it out. Also that’s about the age where it gets serious, the competition from now on is fierce!! Good luck I hope she gets through it

Have you spoken with her coach? What’s her view?

Similar to spooky, I read some pushiness in there too. Not bad (I saw plenty of that when I was a kid doing a sport pretty seriously) but it can be enough to put pressure on and the fact that she’s only 11 and doesn’t want to talk about it with you suggests that may be an issue.

Make clear that it doesn’t matter (because at 11, it doesn’t really, no matter how it may seem while you’re caught up in it) and that if she wants to skip the Brit Champs this year then that’s fine and that you maybe even think that’s the right thing to do…

And again, having been there, I know exactly how you’ll probably read this but you need to take a step back. Unhappy kid athletes rarely make successful happy adults unless they’ve burnt out early and quit the sport by their teens…

When I was a girl I was a competitive gymnast, although not quite at the level of the OP’s daughter, but I did compete in some national competitions.
It’s hard sport to be in and requires a lot of training and commitment, and she really needs to want to do it.

IF she is training 5 days a week I would recommend giving her a clear break from training for 3 or 4 days, also go easy on her strength and condition regime she does at home. So she (body and mind) has a good rest.
Hopefully after this break she will be desperate to get back in the gym as she has missed it and have renewed energy and be there because she loves being there, wants to ‘fly’ and wants to nail the moves she was struggling with.

Also speak to her coach. If the coach is not already aware of what the OP daughter is going through they can plan the gym sessions accordingly. The coach might no realise what she is going through especially if there is a large number in her squad and may think that your daughter is not interested anymore.

Finally the OP should talk with his daughter, me and my Dad had lots of long deep conversations in the car to and from the gym the 4 times a week he took me. Get her to talk how she is feeling, what is going through her mind when she is attempting the moves, she might be over thinking it and just needs to relax and trust her ability.

She also might be feeling frustrated and disappointed with her performance (good gymnastics have to be perfectionists otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do what they do)so she may just need to talk through what went wrong and what she could do to change it.

Finally unfortunately puberty is lurking around the corner, that’s a total game changer for her and it may lead her to stopping 🙁

Good luck to you both !

This and the pushy parent syndrome sprung to mind as I was reading through this I’m afraid.

My son was good at quite a few sports. When he suddenly decided to quit badminton we were surprised. At the time he was a training partner of an age group champion and capable of winning games at club level against the boy. The reason he quit was due to the pressure he was coming under from the club coach to enter competitions, something he did not want to do. He was, at the same time rowing every day and racing at weekends, winning a boxful of cups. Badminton was just for fun as was his bmx, cubs, scouts, ice hockey, DofE etc

My daughter on the other hand was never interested in sport but is a good swimmer and was also capable of beating the boys inc club players at badminton during school pe lessons.

Other questions to ponder is the coach relashion ship and is there any bitching going on amongst the squad? As a swimming teacher for a number if yrs what goes on in the changing rooms, the group dynamics and friendship issues especially with girls of that age can also have a huge effect.

when I was a young girl I was forced to do rythmic gymnastics by my pushy Russian parents. They would make me eat toilet paper and practice 6 days a week, it was hell but they only did it because they thought I loved it

Its not if she really does enjoy it and is motivated.

Assuming you are not being an overly pushy parent. One area I would be looking at is the coach and their attitude as it seems to me that quite often coaching is just a numbers game. Pressurise the kids, expect some collateral damage/fallout in the hope that you find one or two with the mental and physical capabilities to succeed.

It does no one any good to have an average kid forced to be competitive when really they only want to have fun, and will only make up numbers at the back of the field come comp time. Yet it seems to happen a lot.

Edit. That said, to be really good at any sport nowadays you need to start young.

Read OP several times now and see nowt that infers pushiness. Good luck to you all!

It was quilted though, not that nasty shiny stuff.

Ugly Parent Syndrome?