MAG Competing Level 5 -- what to expect

[alongfortheride]

My little guy will be competing in his first level 5 competition soon, age 7. He is a bit of a perfectionist (perhaps that's one of the thing that makes him good at gymnastics.) He's worried that he doesn't have one of the necessary elements perfectly (on one apparatus), and also is unable to completely do 2 of the bonus skills (he actually has most of the bonuses already).

It's hard to know how to comfort him, other than to say it will come in time. I am afraid he won't get a lot of medals (or any) and that may discourage him.

How did your boys do the first time they moved up to level 5? Level 4 was basic, with quite a few competitors. I'm honestly not sure what to expect in Level 5. It seems that some boys drop out after Level 4, so perhaps there will be fewer boys? But then again, the ones left would be more serious, I would think. I am trying to prepare myself as well as him. (The coach tells me he's definitely ready to compete Level 5). I don't think he has his mushroom bonuses yet either, but he didn't mention that.

 

[skschlag]

Oh, he will have so much fun There are typically still a lot of boys at level 5, and they are at many different levels. Some will have base routines, some won't. Some will have bonuses, some won't. Level 5 can be a really fun level for the boys. Hopefully he can just enjoy himself and not focus too much on placement or medals.

Welcome aboard! To follow your name...enjoy the ride

 

[sce]

There are very few level 5s at that age in my area. Having most bonuses is great. Few have all of them. I'm sure he'll do great.

 

[Dr Maleficent]

Don't worry - not getting medals isn't a disaster. Although on CB you can sometimes get the impression that everyone's kid gets a medal at every meet, this is a biased sample, firstly because to be on CB your child is probably doing pretty well in gymnastics, and secondly because people don't often post about how their kid just missed out on the medals!
But it does happen that kids go to meets and get no medals - in fact unless you are in an area that gives out medals to say 10th place for each apparatus, the majority of kids won't get medals (its certainly the case where we are that only a very small minority get medals at each meet, and there are no individual apparatus medals so you have to be in the top few all around or you get nothing).
Hopefully they are in gymnastics because they love doing it, and if that is the case any disappointment around not winning is soon overcome. Good luck to him and don't worry, it will all be fine - enjoy!

 

[profmom]

At 7, he'll be in the youngest age group. A lot of those guys won't have a significant number of bonuses, and some will be shaky on some elements of the base routines. A small handful will be shockingly good. As for missing bonuses, my son had a great state meet last spring with a questionable back lever hold and no free hip on high bar, and he was in the most competitive age group. Your guy will do fine, but you will probably have to defer the important life lesson of how to endure meets without medals for another year.

Encourage him to have fun! Level 5 is really fun. It's a great level for learning and perfecting core building block skills, but there's also a lot of room for them to stretch themselves. Many, many boys do more than one year at L5, so it's designed to fit a big range of mastery across all of the apparatuses. Almost everyone can find something good and relatively easy in L5 and almost everyone will find a place to learn and improve.

 

[alongfortheride]

No worries-- I could care less whether he gets a medal or not, if he does his best! But, you know, at 7, it's hard to coach him past the "wanting" a medal really badly feeling. LOL

Looking back, last year I was completely new to this, and wasn't realizing . . .but I'm fairly certain the 7 year olds that were sweeping the medals in Level 4 were most likely training at Level 5, and competing Level 4. Is this common? I just can't see how a first year Level 4 would be *that* good. It's something I was curious about. It was never even suggested that DS should stay in Level 4, so Level 5 it is!

Thanks for all the words of encouragement. I'm sure he will be fine once he gets used to competing at this level.

 

[curlymop]

No worries-- I could care less whether he gets a medal or not, if he does his best! But, you know, at 7, it's hard to coach him past the "wanting" a medal really badly feeling. LOL

Looking back, last year I was completely new to this, and wasn't realizing . . .but I'm fairly certain the 7 year olds that were sweeping the medals in Level 4 were most likely training at Level 5, and competing Level 4. Is this common? I just can't see how a first year Level 4 would be *that* good. It's something I was curious about. It was never even suggested that DS should stay in Level 4, so Level 5 it is!

Thanks for all the words of encouragement. I'm sure he will be fine once he gets used to competing at this level.

Yes, I think that's common. There were a few 7yo L4 superstars around here, and for most it was their second year of L4. One in particular had scored really well during his first L4 season, so I was puzzled as to why he would do a second year. Some gyms are also more particular about who can compete, and they keep kids on pre team for longer perfecting the basics so that by the time they get to L4 they look really sharp.

If your son has most of his L5 bonuses, then I think he is in the right place. My son is 6, turning 7 next month, and he will compete L5 this year with just the base routines (at least for now). I feel strongly that he should have competed a second year of L4 while training L5 skills, but the coaches felt it was best to move him up. He was emphatic that he would rather move up and get no medals than stay at L4 and (probably) have a very successful year. It's his sport, so I let him choose. I still worry that he'll get too discouraged, but at this point I'm just going to support him and keep my worries to myself. If he improves at anywhere near the rate he did last year, then by the end of the season he should be doing really well.

Good luck to your son!

 

[Sasha]

Some gyms are also more particular about who can compete, and they keep kids on pre team for longer perfecting the basics so that by the time they get to L4 they look really sharp.

This has been the strategy at our gym - especially for the younger ones. Not sure if it's the best strategy or not long term, but the boys do look very sharp in comparison to most other programs as first year L4s, and do take a lot of podium spots and team awards. Usually our younger ones (7-8) outscore our older ones (9-11) because the younger ones have been held back on pre-team to work on form and bonuses, while they let later-starters go ahead and advance/compete sooner. The older ones typically don't have the form yet at L4/L5, though, and so don't score as well. The older ones who stick with it, though, can catch up on form eventually.

I have yet to see anyone repeat L4 at our gym. I'm sure this would change, though, if they let the 6 year old pre-teamers go ahead and compete like they do at many other gyms.

I'm sure your son will love L5! From what I hear from the L5 parents around me, the range of mastery varies WIDELY, so he won't be out of place. He will probably earn some medals at that age, if your area is like ours. Not many L5s under age 8-9 around here. But a few awesome ones, of course. Have fun!!

 

[skschlag]

Our gym has a bit different strategy. They have found that keeping kids in rec/pre-team makes them lose more kids to other sports. They will get them to 5 to compete (we dont compete 4) and help them thru. So several will repeat 5. But it has worked for our gym, being a pretty small gym.

 

[profmom]

Keep in mind too that some L4s do a LOT more hours than other L4s. When DS was a first-year L4, I thought he did a great job learning over the course of the year, but he really was nowhere near the ballpark of the guys who were going 10+ hours a week to his 5, even if some of those guys were also first-year L4s. He only spent a year at 4, so like your guy, he moved on to L5 without ever mastering all the L4 bonuses. L5 was the right place for him to be, even though he didn't have all the bonuses in his first year. He really mastered it in his second year, and will be a better first-year L6 than he was a first-year L5 as a result.

 

[Sasha]

Our gym has a bit different strategy. They have found that keeping kids in rec/pre-team makes them lose more kids to other sports. They will get them to 5 to compete (we dont compete 4) and help them thru. So several will repeat 5. But it has worked for our gym, being a pretty small gym.

It's interesting - I have heard this as a strategy and it makes logical sense on the one hand, as I think competing is fun and exciting and might make a boy "choose gym" over another sport. On the other hand, however, because our L4s practice 3 days a week vs only 2 in preteam, we actually would have potentially lost more boys if they moved out of preteam sooner. As is, they could keep doing both pre-team and soccer/baseball/swimming practices and matches for another year with their weekends free. And since Spring comp season is our baseball/T-ball season, there's really no way to do both baseball and compete L4. And many parents of boys seem to want to keep the "multiple sports" going as long as possible before being forced to choose - at least in my circles. So I think moving to team more quickly could work both for and against when other sports are involved.

We did lose 2 boys between pre-team and L4. In our case it wasn't for other sports, but just interest and emotional factors.

For the record, though, I would have been pleased as punch if they'd suggested my 6 year old could compete L4 last year rather than staying on pre-team and/or skipping L4 as a 7 y/o. So your gym's strategy sounds pretty good to me

 

[curlymop]

It is interesting to hear about the different philosophies of different gyms. My son was pulled out of rec and put on team when he was 5-- well before he had any recognizable skills. I think they chose him based on his natural strength and a sense that he was coordinated enough that he could learn. If they had waited a year, he would have already been playing baseball, and I think it would have been a harder choice for us. As it is, we manage to fit baseball in around gymnastics rather than fit gymnastics into an already full schedule.

I also noticed last year that after the first competition, my son was suddenly way more focused during practice than he had been before. There was a boy who practiced with the L4s who was only 3 months younger than my son and also in kindergarden. He didn't compete because he turned 6 too late in the season. Before the season started, he was ahead of my son on pretty much everything. Now, there is a clear difference in skills, and DS's friend will be competing L4. It has made me wonder if DS would have made the progress he did if he hadn't competed last year.

 

[MyBoysFlip]

My son skipped L4 and competed L5 as a 6 yo & a 7 yo. Our gym is also on the low end of training hours (6-9). The first year was rough but he didn't care because he got to do 2 back handsprings on floor. That year he was nowhere near the young "superstars". He repeated the next year and looked like a different kid and had a great year as a 2nd year L5 and it continued last year at L6. He'll be a L7 this year at 9. His coach prefers to skip L4 if they can do any semblance of the L5 routines safely and then repeat L5. We also placed boys right from rec classes onto team this year - I think it was to get them competing before losing them to other sports!

 

[alongfortheride]

So, last night, my son tells me he's not doing most of his bonuses at the first competition -- HIS choice. He's so frustrating to me sometimes (LOL). . .Honestly, though, he's so good in the gym, and seems to get nervous about competing, and doesn't do all the skills he can. Maybe I should have held him back to level 4. I guess I should wait to see how the first meet goes. . .I literally dreamed he had a terrible meet, and woke up worried. HA. Most of it is he's slightly OCD/perfectionist, so if he feels he can't do a skill all the way/perfectly, he'll drop it in the meet. He did that last year too. Although, his highest all-around score was not built on him doing bonuses but on doing the basics really cleanly. . .so maybe he is on to something. I think as a mom I worry about this stuff more than he does, but I don't tell him.

 

[MyBoysFlip]

My son usually does not do all of his bonuses the first meet. They do his base routines and see how they score. Then they add in the bonuses as he feels confident. Pretty normal.

 

[alongfortheride]

@MyBoysFlip -- Thanks. Because my son is so young, and I haven't seen him do his base routines, I'm uncertain what to expect. For example, he had told me he could do the Muscle-up on rings, but now tells me he can ALMOST do it with no help. So he still requires a slight spot. Which I think is base. I'm still learning all this stuff.

 

[skschlag]

Spotter assistance on the muscle up is allowed at level 5. Unassisted is bonus

 

[MyBoysFlip]

My son had the ugliest muscle up in the world and was only allowed to do it once just to say he had did it. He also was scoring very high on rings and pommel with only one bonus last year.

 

[alongfortheride]

I don't think he has the pommel bonuses. He could do almost all of them (bonuses) on floor, but I think he'll "play safe". We'll see how it goes. Thanks!

 

[profmom]

Last year and the year before, our guys were not permitted to do bonuses unless they were really clean. They routinely scored above guys who did them ugly.

Oh, the heroic muscle up attempts -- I remember one guy who had struggled with the skill so much and went for it in a meet. Took him probably about 45 seconds to manage to get himself up into support with all kinds of contortions along the way, with the entire crew of parents and boys screaming their fool heads off in encouragement and going completely crazy when he finally made it. After the meet, the coach took him aside and said NEVER AGAIN and if you don't clean it up, NO LEVEL 6 EVER NO MATTER WHAT. I still have to laugh a little bit when I think about it.

When's his first meet?