Nastia Liukin as a LEVEL 6

[Ingymmom]

Cute, cute cute! She was amazing even then. Love her bars

it is the 4th row down, 1st clip

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[bogwoppit]

Now that is precious. Such polish for such a little thing.


It is amazing to me that every US gymnast, no matter their potential, has to go through all the compulsory levels. Here our hot shot girls can skip the beginning levels and move into a performance development programme called Defi, followed by proviancial streaming or National Pre-Novice.

In fact any gymnast can begin at any level here, if they have the skills. Though having said that we can only send two girls to the Olympics, maybe that speaks volumes about our system.

[flippymonkeysmom]

Gee - that looks just like my dd doing her level 6 routines - especially bars - NOT, lol. I can't get over how amazing she looked at such a young age. Well I guess that is why she is where she is now.

[CoachL]

wow nice bars

[Ingymmom]

Quote:
Originally Posted by bogwoppit Now that is precious. Such polish for such a little thing. It is amazing to me that every US gymnast, no matter their potential, has to go through all the compulsory levels. Here our hot shot girls can skip the beginning levels and move into a performance development programme called Defi, followed by proviancial streaming or National Pre-Novice. In fact any gymnast can begin at any level here, if they have the skills. Though having said that we can only send two girls to the Olympics, maybe that speaks volumes about our system.

She did do very well off the chart well LOL... Now interestingly enough, we do have a similar way of mobility here in the US, the girls don't always have to do compulsories or optionals - they could participate in USAG and then avoid compuls. all together using TOPS & then just competing in the higher optional levels OR they could just train and then test elite when they are ready. No need to even participate in the USAG levels.

I am thrilled that Nastia (I imagine she is one that did not need to compete compuls. ) did these lower levels. How fun for her to look back on, and us to watch now!

[gracefulone]

That's so cool! She looked so adorable. I would have like to have seen the scores though...I can only imagine!

[bogwoppit]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ingymmom She did do very well off the chart well LOL... Now interestingly enough, we do have a similar way of mobility here in the US, the girls don't always have to do compulsories or optionals - they could participate in USAG and then avoid compuls. all together using TOPS & then just competing in the higher optional levels OR they could just train and then test elite when they are ready. No need to even participate in the USAG levels. I am thrilled that Nastia (I imagine she is one that did not need to compete compuls. ) did these lower levels. How fun for her to look back on, and us to watch now!

Thanks Nic, I learn something new here everyday.

Certainly Nastia had the most perfect routines I have ever seen, as CoachL said, her bars are amazing, you can see right there her coaches are aiming for higher things. kips to hs and her baby giant is lovely.

I still find myself distracted by her feet though, her lower legs are so flexible. Amazing as she is also quite powerful.

[momof5]

Wow! That was amazing. How old was she in the video? How did she move through the levels?

[gymdog]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ingymmom Now interestingly enough, we do have a similar way of mobility here in the US, the girls don't always have to do compulsories or optionals - they could participate in USAG and then avoid compuls. all together using TOPS & then just competing in the higher optional levels OR they could just train and then test elite when they are ready. No need to even participate in the USAG levels.

Yeah, technically someone that talented could skip levels. Off the top of my head, Bianca Flohr started competing as a level 9. But that seems relatively rare. I can't think of any other cases like that really, although granted I only know that because her mother used to post on another board. A lot of elites probably "skipped" a couple levels by just competing one meet to get a mobility score, or through TOPS, but most probably still entered competition as a level 4 or 5 initially.

I didn't even know a layout flyaway was an option back then! That's funny. No one ever seemed to do it, at least in VA. And I wasn't a L6 until 2002 (she's doing the old, old routines, when there were still two leaps on beam and a cartwheel-jump in L6). Cast HS and free hip HS in L6 bars were also relatively more rare here in the late 90s and early 00s. Now they are much more common when I watch L6 competitions, from the more competitive programs (not usually as nicely executed as that though). Her form is impeccable but I can't get over the rhythm on beam - pretty incredible for a child who has only been competing a few years, no matter what their background in the sport is.

The interesting thing is that I have seen a couple compulsory videos of current L10s, some who are on the edge of elite or extremely competitive, and it amazes me how different it used to be, because generally the skills are well executed and you can tell they have potential, but overall the routines lack the kind of polish that is expected more today (of course I would consider the compulsory routines now a little more conducive to looking nice, but still). They probably still won too. Although I know a former Worlds qualifier who says her mother worried throughout her level 4 season because she was the only girl on the team who never won an award.

[luvnastia]

aw, that was so cute! thanks so much for sharing

Did you guys watch the "Auspicious Beginnings" video where she said she might continue after the Olympcs?