Your gyms requirement for level 4

[tgc]

Most of our team comes from the pre-team. The pre-team draws from the recreation program once a year. The girls that the competitive coaches are interested are invited to a tryout. The girls are then tested for basic skills, flexibility, strength, and coachability. A few girls are brought onto the preteam. When my daughter was brought on there were 20 girls at the tryout and 6 girls were invited onto the preteam. The girls usually sit on preteam for a year and then are tested for the level 4 team. To get onto team a girl has to have all her level 4 skills “competition ready”; which means she has to be able to show that skill on demand and the skill has good form.
The preteam route is for the girls under 11. The team also has some older girls. These girls must have all their level 4 skills consistently to be invited onto team on tryout status. They are given the summer to clean up their skills.

[Blackie6]

My DD was in the right place at the right time for our L4 team. Our current gym owners took over the gym about 5-6 years ago and went thru a transition period where they lost girls and coaches. They ended up with a small group of L4 girls that did not compete the year before last, no L5's and no L6's. They did have 7,8's, 9's and 10's. My DD was invited onto a pre-team program 2 yrs ago and then invited onto the L4 team at age 6 last year. I am thinking they decided to do what they could with the amount of girls they had in pre-team and added them to the older ones already in L4. They brought on a good coach to help jump start the program again at the L4 foundation. They added another 2 coaches (one is a judge!) and first yr out send all 16 girls to states and our team came in 9th out of about 30+ gyms! 1/2 the group moved to L5 and our younger group (the 6's and a couple young 7's) will do another yr of L4. I feel like my DD was very lucky to be in the right place at the right time while the gym was re-building the lower level teams.

However, when she came to L4 she had no skills for the routines other than the vault and a pullover on bars. She had to learn everything within 3 months of her first competition. Pre-team had built up her strength and she was in the gym 4 hrs/week though and that did help her acquire the skills pretty quickly. Now the gym learned from last year and they are starting the girls earlier w/routines and making sure pre-teamers have more L4 skills. They work out more hours now (7)and spend one night w/L4's too which is a plus. My DD had to transition from 4 to 10.5 hrs, there was no in between like they have now. Thye also have a advanced pre-school class which will feed into the pre-team program I believe. The futire team will be so much more ready than my DD ever was!

Our team also has some girls that came over for some other gyms and also we have a girl that came from our JOGA program becasue she wanted to do USAG instead. She had skills, just needed to refine them some.

I am jealous of all of you who go to gyms that have these lower levels in place like L2 and L3. It gives the girls a better foundation for L4 team and the opportunity to experience meets too. I often feel my DD was rushed into it & didn't get to really have fun the first year. Now that she is repeating, I think she will enjoy it more and feel confident.

[Shawn]

When my DD was first evaluated at our current gym last summer, there was discussion about putting her on L3. She was already doing a L2 rec program at another gym. She was only 5, though, and didn't have many of the skills. The coach said she could do L3 but probably would struggle, or she could have a very successful L2 season. We decided to do L2 and it has turned out great. DD had an awesome season, won two state titles and is now a 6-year-old L4.

Generally, though, our preteam feeds into L2, although there are a couple of older girls who went into L3.

[flippymonkeysmom]

Just out of curiosity - if preteam feeds into level 2 - what level is preteam. The only thing under is level 1 which is beginner, never done gymnastics before. All the gyms we have been to have had preteam either as level 3 or 4. Just wondering - I know all gyms do things different - I've just never heard that done before. I know some gyms that do rec competitions - is that kinda what it is?

[Shawn]

Quote:
Originally Posted by flippymonkeysmom Just out of curiosity - if preteam feeds into level 2 - what level is preteam. The only thing under is level 1 which is beginner, never done gymnastics before. All the gyms we have been to have had preteam either as level 3 or 4. Just wondering - I know all gyms do things different - I've just never heard that done before. I know some gyms that do rec competitions - is that kinda what it is?

Preteam is when they start learning the L2 skills. Once they have most of them, they get moved to L2 team where they'll perfect those skills and learn the routines. Since L2 is the first competitive level, the HC/O wants to give them plenty of time to feel confident and comfortable with the skills and routines.

[flippymonkeysmom]

Oh - ok - I was confused - I thought they were doing a level 1 preteam - that is why I was like, huh? Then again it doesn't seem to take much to confuse me these days, lol.

[Shawn]

Quote:
Originally Posted by flippymonkeysmom Oh - ok - I was confused - I thought they were doing a level 1 preteam - that is why I was like, huh? Then again it doesn't seem to take much to confuse me these days, lol.

I know the feeling. I think I lost half my brain cells with each kid. Since I've got three kids, that means I've only got about...... ah..... no brain cells left.

[Panda-girl's Mom]

Most of the gyms in my area start out competing at level4 or 5 there is no level 2 or 3 competing. Level 4 seems to be the starting point from competing in my area. Many of the girls on the developmental team go right into level 5.

[Shawn]

It occurs to me that I probably should have clarified. Our gym competes L2-L4 at AAU. They don't start competing USAG until L5.

[flippymonkeysmom]

What is AAU- we don't have that by us (not that I know of anyway).