moving up

[gracefulone]

I hate waiting to find out whether or not you'r e moving up to the next level. If you qualify for state, you are eligible to move up at our YMCA, but the coaches give each level a list of skills to be working on. If you don't learn most of the skills, you can't move up. They also look at your attitude, how you use practice time, and how well your work with the other girls potentially on your team. The optionals coach has hinted to me several times to "start looking for music" and things like that, but the director will make the final decision and it's killing me. Does anyone else go through this?

[xstitchcarina]

Hope you get to move on. Keep working hard.

[bogwoppit]

I get how you feel. I have two girl in gym, each year the evaluations are held the week before gym begins in September. (No summer training at our gym) We find out the next week what group and level our girls will be training/competing for that year. It is such a pain to plan our gym life after school has begun, and the girls get so stressed out by wanting to know.

I wish it was better, more transparent maybe, but it is the way it is and I just encourage my girls to work hard and have fun.

I am sure our coaches have an insiders view of it all...

[gracefulone]

Yeah. We have a chart. Once you do the skill three times with no spot, you get a star. We also have a smaller list that we should be prepared to perform/attempt for the director. The only thing I'm nervous about is vault because it is my weakest event and I can only do one of the three vaults. BTW I'm level 6, going for seven. This is our smaller list.
Bars: Layout flyaway(check), clear hip to horizontal(check), cast handstand(not quite)
Beam: switch leap 180 (almost there), backhandspring( I do front handsprings instead), cartwheel-back tuck dismount( I have it, but the coach wants me doing back walkover back tuck instead)
Floor: switch leap(check), front pass with a salto ( check), layout(check)
Vault: handspring(check), 1/2 on (yuck), twisting vault(double yuck)

I am definitely not concerned about the attitude/work ethic thing because the optionals coach jokes with me about my holding a seminar about that for some of the other girls!

[midwestgymmom]

My dds coach at the being of the summer split the level 4's in to two groups A's the new level 4s and the level 4s from last yr that are not proficient in their skills and the B's the girls that did 2 yrs at level 4 already and are close to moving and the level 4s from last yr that have are close enough to level 5. The B's are all moving to level 5 and the A's probably will do level 4 . My dd is so happy to be learning level 5 routines. (I hope all that made sense)

[Anna]

Sounds like everyone has been working hard. I hope you get rewarded! And graceful one, I did cast HS on bars the other day spotted for the first time - that was interesting. Bugger, it's scary, and oh my goodness, how on earth I'm going to do that by myself...my shoulders killed the next day too.

[gym law mom]

Graceful---As a parent who has gone through this with her daughter several times now, I have an idea how you feel. At least you have a chart that you can look at. Our kids are told the skills, but as parents we don't always know what they are Also the kids don't always get alot of feedback about how good the skill is---good enough to move on?, still needs some work etc.

I know our coaches take work ethic, overall attitude plus skills into the equation when deciding who moves up. Thing is it is not just the coaches, but also the team director who make the call. The team director coaches only L9/L10, so she doesn't always see the lower level girls alot or may watch them on a day when they're a little off.

My daughter knows your pain on the cast-HS. She could do it as a L5--in fact was learning to do it as a straddle cast. Then all of a sudden, its was gone. No matter how hard she tried and tried and tried she couldn't get it back. The only reason we could come up with was----she hit a growth spurt last summer and that really threw off her timing etc. for those skills. Just about a month ago she came home thrilled that the handstands on bars "were back." She has to be able to do them 1st time/ everytime. Keep working on that---it will happen.

I've read many of your other posts and if I could vote, I would say move her up. You definitely are a role model for the younger girls!

[gracefulone]

Anna, I know I can do cast handstand, but my shoulders are so ridiculously flexible that I am deathly afraid to lean them over the bar. When I have done it with a spot, they kind of arched themelve in this odd way and just totally freaked me out. I'm glad you did it though.

gym law mom, thank you for your input. It also means a lot to me that you would move me up, never having met me, based on what you have read. I am truly touched by the compliment.

[gracefulone]

We started skills testing. The program director tested us on vault and floor, our coach checked us off on bars, and beam is not solid yet. There are six different amrks you can get, in order from best to worst: high mastered, low mastered, high in progress, low in progress, high not quote, low not quite. Vault went exactly how I knew it would-I got high mastered on the handspring, low in progress on 1/2 on, and low not quite on twisting vault( I haven't really done them except on our vault trainer) Floor went very well: High mastered on switch leap/180 degree leap(my swtich leap counted for both), high mastered on 1 1/2 turn, high mastered on gym acro, low masterd on layout(not bad considering I started them last week, last night was only my second time doing them), high in progress on front pass(fornt handspring-front tuck). Bars was pretty good too: high mastered on clearhip horizontal, low in progress on cast handstand, low mastered on clearhip on highbar, low mastered on layout flyaway.
Friday, I 'll have to test beam since we ran out of time. I have to do a switchleap, a 180 degree jump or leap, a full turn, a connection, flight element(mine is together, fornt walkover-front handspring), and my dismount; backwalkover back tuck. My coach said not to get too worried, which made me feel good.

Just thought I'd give an update. We''ll find out for sure at our banquet on Sunday night, so I'll try to get a post up then.

[gracefulone]

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am moving to level seven. The director left it up to me, because I was a little borderline and she trusted my decision. My coach, however, said she would be disappointed in me if I chose not to move up-I told her she didn't need to worry. So the worry and anticipation is over for me!