6 ms·

One difference with other athletes is that, as with gymnasts, dancers have to start really early in their childhood (because they peak earlier than other sports

One difference with other athletes is that, as with gymnasts, dancers have to start really early in their childhood (because they peak earlier than other sports, due to the kind of preferred body type), so you are asking a sacrifice to a 9-12 year old that in most sports is not required until 13-18 or whatever, at an age where many things are decided for them by their parents instead of by them.

pnw_hazor 7y ago
One thing to keep in mind is that in dance, gymnastics, or figure skating non-competitive kids/families are usually identified early and then directed into recreational programs. By 12 YO most girls are in the recreational tracks rather than competitive or pre-professional tracks. Also, by 12 years old, the kids are motivating themselves. If the parents are pushing them at this point, they will soon quit or move to recreational programs. The amount of training or practice time is relatively minor for kids until they hit 12+ years old. And, then it is just the few the that remain in competitive/pre-professionsal programs that ramp up the training intensity. While some families with money do over train kids when they are little, it really isn't much of an advantage because physical/natural talent begins to separate kids around 10-12 years old such that the excess early training during ages 5-9 is washed out. Thus, a 7 year old that is taking 5 lessons a week will excel as compared to most other 7-10 year olds that are taking 1 or 2 lessons per week. But if kids join the competitive ranks everyone is taking 3-4-5 lessons per week and the early lessons don't make that much difference anymore because anyone who is competitive will have caught up. Ballet training has a similar split, where kids at a certain age/level are invited to the academy/pre-professional divisions that require 3-4+ classes a week. Otherwise, they drop into recreational dance (which can still be grueling but it is not on a professional track). Source: My daughter was a competitive figure skater. She also competed in rhythmic gymnastics until it interfered too much with figure skating. Her training included a serious amount of ballet, she did a year or two of pointe before moving away from ballet. She turned to Chinese dance after turning down an invitation to join her ballet school academy/pre-professional division. My daughter retired from competitive skating in her junior year of high school. She kept up the Chinese dance and did track and field until she went to West Point (USMA). It was an awesome ride while it lasted. Expensive, time consuming, but very much worth it. However, I could never recommend artistic gymnastics except for little kids. It causes way too many injuries and requires too much gym time. I can't remember the levels - but as soon as the full height balance beam comes into play it is time to switch to recreational or move on. In our case, that is when we switched our daughter to Rhythmic. Note, my son was doing little league baseball and basketball in elementary school, and then select teams in middle school, select and varsity in HS. He had more injuries than my daughter (some severe ankle sprains in high school).
thinkr 7y ago
Not to take away from your comment, but I wanted to highlight another sport that requires similar sacrifice at an early age, which is the male dominated sport of F1 racing. Many top drivers are the result of training and competing at 7-8 years of age in kart racing. I would say they "peak" later than a ballerina/gymnast but require the same early sacrifice to be a top athlete.
- Ididntdothis 7y ago
  You don’t make many physical sacrifices in racing though. You have to be in good shape but You don’t have to go to extremes like gymnasts do. There actually would be a big advantage if you brought up racers with stunted growth that are short and weigh little but thank god this doesn’t seem to be happening.
- lazyant 7y ago
  oh yes, also for car racing the financial sacrifice from parents that are not rich. And the sacrifice for the whole family in terms of time and money when one kid in any sport is good enough to go on travel teams (in the US/Canada this level is not very high) and the whole routine of the family around weekends and holidays are planned around those traveling sports events.
- andrepd 7y ago
  But you don't have to "sacrifice" anything to participate in kart racing. It's not even a physically demanding activity. All you need is enough money to compete, but that's the parent's responsibility at that age, so not even that.
- aidenn0 7y ago
  Most pro baseball players play little league as well, but the peak physical demands are later

pnw_hazor 7y ago

One thing to keep in mind is that in dance, gymnastics, or figure skating non-competitive kids/families are usually identified early and then directed into recreational programs. By 12 YO most girls are in the recreational tracks rather than competitive or pre-professional tracks. Also, by 12 years old, the kids are motivating themselves. If the parents are pushing them at this point, they will soon quit or move to recreational programs. The amount of training or practice time is relatively minor for kids until they hit 12+ years old. And, then it is just the few the that remain in competitive/pre-professionsal programs that ramp up the training intensity. While some families with money do over train kids when they are little, it really isn't much of an advantage because physical/natural talent begins to separate kids around 10-12 years old such that the excess early training during ages 5-9 is washed out. Thus, a 7 year old that is taking 5 lessons a week will excel as compared to most other 7-10 year olds that are taking 1 or 2 lessons per week. But if kids join the competitive ranks everyone is taking 3-4-5 lessons per week and the early lessons don't make that much difference anymore because anyone who is competitive will have caught up. Ballet training has a similar split, where kids at a certain age/level are invited to the academy/pre-professional divisions that require 3-4+ classes a week. Otherwise, they drop into recreational dance (which can still be grueling but it is not on a professional track). Source: My daughter was a competitive figure skater. She also competed in rhythmic gymnastics until it interfered too much with figure skating. Her training included a serious amount of ballet, she did a year or two of pointe before moving away from ballet. She turned to Chinese dance after turning down an invitation to join her ballet school academy/pre-professional division. My daughter retired from competitive skating in her junior year of high school. She kept up the Chinese dance and did track and field until she went to West Point (USMA). It was an awesome ride while it lasted. Expensive, time consuming, but very much worth it. However, I could never recommend artistic gymnastics except for little kids. It causes way too many injuries and requires too much gym time. I can't remember the levels - but as soon as the full height balance beam comes into play it is time to switch to recreational or move on. In our case, that is when we switched our daughter to Rhythmic. Note, my son was doing little league baseball and basketball in elementary school, and then select teams in middle school, select and varsity in HS. He had more injuries than my daughter (some severe ankle sprains in high school).

thinkr 7y ago

Not to take away from your comment, but I wanted to highlight another sport that requires similar sacrifice at an early age, which is the male dominated sport of F1 racing. Many top drivers are the result of training and competing at 7-8 years of age in kart racing. I would say they "peak" later than a ballerina/gymnast but require the same early sacrifice to be a top athlete.

Ididntdothis 7y ago
You don’t make many physical sacrifices in racing though. You have to be in good shape but You don’t have to go to extremes like gymnasts do. There actually would be a big advantage if you brought up racers with stunted growth that are short and weigh little but thank god this doesn’t seem to be happening.
lazyant 7y ago
oh yes, also for car racing the financial sacrifice from parents that are not rich. And the sacrifice for the whole family in terms of time and money when one kid in any sport is good enough to go on travel teams (in the US/Canada this level is not very high) and the whole routine of the family around weekends and holidays are planned around those traveling sports events.
andrepd 7y ago
But you don't have to "sacrifice" anything to participate in kart racing. It's not even a physically demanding activity. All you need is enough money to compete, but that's the parent's responsibility at that age, so not even that.
aidenn0 7y ago
Most pro baseball players play little league as well, but the peak physical demands are later