Need guidance for gifted 5 year old | Page 3 | Golden Skate

Need guidance for gifted 5 year old

Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Veg Mom, thank you for the thoughtful and informative response! This is such a great perspective. I salute you and your son for bravely facing your circumstances and hope that things go in your favor (and in his), healthwise and in his skating endeavor. He certainly sounds very dedicated!
 

tstop4me

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 2, 2015
Country
United-States
Wait, what? Let me get this straight - your daughter has been skating since age 2, breezed through all the snowplows and basics and freeskates before age 6, and has been doing axels and she is “modestly” talented? What exactly does “significantly” talented look like, then? How is that determination being made? And why would your daughter not be capable of advancing to the top level? I must be missing something very substantial, which is another reason I’m glad to have posted here. This is all very helpful - I didn’t realize that there are so many young children at such advanced level and the general reception of that is rather ho-hum in the skating community. Interesting!

Here are some sobering stats from the USFSA:

https://www.usfsa.org/content/competitive pipeline.pdf.

If your son progresses along the standard Regionals-Sectionals-National route, he will first need to be among the best (top 4) in his Regional to progress to his Sectional. He will then need to be among the best (top 4) in his Sectional to progress to National. He will then need to be among the best (top 3) to stand on the awards podium at National. That is, to stand on the awards podium at National, he will need to be among the best of the best of the best.

And that's just the start of the journey to International, World, and Olympic arenas.
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Ah thank you for the link! I was looking for something just like this to give us perspective. Appreciate it!

Here are some sobering stats from the USFSA:

https://www.usfsa.org/content/competitive pipeline.pdf.

If your son progresses along the standard Regionals-Sectionals-National route, he will first need to be among the best (top 4) in his Regional to progress to his Sectional. He will then need to be among the best (top 4) in his Sectional to progress to National. He will then need to be among the best (top 3) to stand on the awards podium at National. That is, to stand on the awards podium at National, he will need to be among the best of the best of the best.

And that's just the start of the journey to International, World, and Olympic arenas.
 

sandraskates

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 31, 2006
Country
United-States
That chart is very cool and also very sobering to see how the numbers dwindle. But that doesn't mean that your skater can't have satisfaction and enjoyment from skating.

There is now an alternate way to get to Sectionals by entering competition in the new National Qualifying Series (NQS) and getting a ranking.
Here's the link for further reading but this pipeline too could change: https://www.usfigureskating.org/story?id=84035
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
That’s a very helpful chart and you are absolutely right! We are going to let my son take the lead on this, as long as he is having fun doing this and stays motivated we will keep going. And when he’s ready to move on we will move on. :)
That chart is very cool and also very sobering to see how the numbers dwindle. But that doesn't mean that your skater can't have satisfaction and enjoyment from skating.

There is now an alternate way to get to Sectionals by entering competition in the new National Qualifying Series (NQS) and getting a ranking.
Here's the link for further reading but this pipeline too could change: https://www.usfigureskating.org/story?id=84035
 
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