Attendance

Gymnastics is a very complex sport that requires many repetitions over many days, weeks, months, etc to solidify skills. Once these skills are ready to be put in combination with other skills, the combination of skills must also be repeated regularly over time. Several combinations strung together become a part of a routine which have to be be performed regularly until the timing, positions and endurance required to put these complex body actions together. When all goes well, a routine is born and it too must be repeated regularly to solidify the movement patterns and to build the endurance required for the demands of competition; training days, general and specific warm-ups all while performing the routine under stress at competition.

Gymnastics in not a simple sport. It is arguably the hardest sport on the planet. Most sports are extensions of natural movement; running, swimming, etc, and training is design to increase speed and / or endurance. Gymnasts must learn complex movement throughout their entire career and still squeeze in time for routines and competitions. After an extended layoff (winter), returning to biking, swimming, running , etc is not so much about remembering the movement, but enduring the pain.

Regular training / attendance is very important to improving a gymnast's skill repertoire, strength, flexibility, confidence and endurance. While it may seem that missing one practice is not a big deal, depending on where that practice falls in your son's training cycle, they may miss up to four days of training. Four days is a significant gap in the training cycle. They will have to work on getting their timing back, some strength will have been lost and, especially in the case of growing boys, they will have lost flexibility. If they were in the middle of learning a new skill, they will have to take a few steps back in order to go through some of the learning process again.

Please try to attend all trainings and communicate with your son's coach regarding any absences.