Expert: Chris Eilertsen - 8/29/2009

Question
heyy. i was wondering if u could help me convince my parents to let me take competitve gymnastics. im in recreational almost adv. begginer, do u no how i convince them? they dont like the time commmitement. im only aloud to go 3 hours a week. plz help! thnks

Answer
Carlie,
This is probably the toughest question I have ever had.
I had very supportive parents where my gymnastics is concerned but what you should realize is that my gymnastics was at my school and it didn't cost a lot of money for me to do until I became really good at it. The first issue is probably that a private gymnastics school is expensive. You might consider working for your parents on the weekends to help earn extra money to help pay for your extra classes for one idea.
The second thing is the time... lucky women's gymnastics only has 4 events, but most competitive gymnasts train 3-5 hours a day from 5-7 days a week. That is a lot of time. Besides that you have to make good grades to prove it won't hurt your school.
The third thing is the physical effort and training involved. As the sign in our gym said good gymnastics are skinny and strong. You don't get that way without a lot of healthy diet and lots of extra conditioning in addition to the 3-5 hours a day of training. It is also Very demanding on your body and takes extra special care to stay in good condition.
It will take an extra special effort on your part to prove to your parents that you are serious about perusing your goal. Not only will you have to do GREAT at the competitions you are in but you will have to stand out so much that not only your coach but everyone in the gym sees that YOU are the MOST serious gymnast in the gym. When you show to your coach, friends teammates and parents that YOU are SERIOUS and that you mean business about being GREAT at gymnastics I feel really good about the possibilities that your parents will be more than willing to allow you to do more of what you have proven to them you love and are willing to go that extra mile to get to the top by doing great in the gym, the classroom and at home.
I hope some of these ideas help you to become the next Olympic champion!
Please let me know how it goes.
TF