Parents determining age

[gymbeam]

my daughter's bday is the very end of march. that's toward the end of our competition season. so, when i refer to her age at a particular level- do i go by how old she was during that whole training year or right at then end of the season?

does that make sense?

like, when i see someone say i was 9 in level 4 and 10 in level 5- how do differentiate?

perhaps a stupid question so i apologize, if so!

 

[rosettasmom]

I think for gym they use actual birthdates? Interested to hear if I'm incorrect here though...

 

[poodlemomma]

Interesting question. Fortunately, my daughter's birthday is in the summer. So she is the same age for the entire season.

 

[MaryA]

As far as meets go, it differs from meet to meet. Some meets put you in the group for the age you will be at States. I used to think this was required because it seemed like every meet we went to did this. But it seems like more recently more gyms in our state just do it by your age as of that day. I guess it makes sense if you're hoping to draw teams from out of state. I mean, it doesn't make sense to base the age cut-offs at Chicago Style on the dates for Illinois States when 90% (or whatever) of the girls there are from out-of-state.

 

[raenndrops]

Up until this past season, our district went be your age as of December 1... all season (late Oct - Championships in March), you competed at that age. This year, they decided to do age as of the competition day. This meant that we had girls competing at Championships in a different age group than they competed in all season (early March birthdays).

At Y Nationals, the age cut off is the day of Opening Ceremonies - not that it makes that much of a difference usually since there are only 3 age groups per level each session.

 

[z2akids]

When I refer to it in general for my daughter, I go by her age for the majority of the meets. Her birthday is right around States, so some years she will change right before and some years she will be the same age for the entire season.

As for age for meets. around here, they place girls in order by birthday and then they make the divisions based on how many girls they want in each age category. So, at some meets she was in the same age group as her teammate who is 4 months older than her. Some meets they were in different groups. It all depended on the age spread at that particular meet.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

In JO, it's based on the last meet of that level.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Wish we did that. All my children seem to have suffered cut off date birthdays. Most sports here use the academic year,so big boy being the end of August was always youngest, now P&F has picked the one sport that uses the calender year, and she is right at the end of the year , sigh .....

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

I know this isn't totally relevant because I am in Canada, but here the competition season is generally November to April/May, but the "gym year" goes July to June.

The age is based the same as it is for school, meaning the age you are on December 31 of the "gym year" is the age you are considered for competition purposes.

So if you turn 11 in January, or the end of December like my dd, you are in the same age division.

Oh and in case anyone is curious, for T & T, it is the age you turn in the year of championships, so since championships are in the spring, dd was able to compete provincially in T&T when she was still 8, as a 9 year old.

And now you know, lol.

Oh and edited to add it was confusing when we competed in Florida last year because even within an age division there were other age divisions? Or something.

 

[profmom]

In JO, it's based on the last meet of that level.

Just to clarify -- I always thought it was age as of states, but for 8s and up, it's age as of regionals or nationals? I guess that makes sense, as it would be bizarre to have a girl change age groups between states and regionals or between regionals and nationals. (Not something I've ever thought about much, as my DD has a summer birthday.)

The JO/JE boys are much simpler: age as of September 1.

 

[MeetDirector]

Let me take this opportunity to encourage folks to learn as much as they can about this sport. To that end, there are specific rules about age determination and age divisions for meets in the USAG rules and policies (just published for the 2014-15 season and available to everyone on the USAG web site).
Now to the question -
The competition age is not changeable; it is the age the athlete will be on the last day of the culminating meet for her level for the season (per USAG rules). For level 9's and 10's, the state meet is used for the regular season competition age.

Now, age divisions (age divisions equate to award groups) are a different matter. For an invitational meet (which are most of the meets clubs attend) the age divisions are up to the meet director. An age division can be a literal age (12 year olds) using the competition age above, it can be an "invented" title, like Junior A, which would most likely have a range of birthdays included, or it can be "open" meaning all ages.

I usually try to plan a meet so that my award groups are about equal in size. If that means combining or splitting age groups, then so be it. Lately, I have just started using the method used by USAG for Nationals; I divide the competitors into equal groups and then find the birthday cut-off dates and then title that group whatever I want it to be. On my meet schedule I specify the birthday ranges for the sessions.

Hope this helps.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

If you are just meaning for your own personal anecdotal needs, (I.e. Little Suzie competed L4 at 9, and has now reached L8 at age 12) I would just go with whatever she was for the majority of the season, or if you feel the need to be specific, "little Suzie competed level 4 the year she turned 10". My gymmies birthday is in the summer, so it doesn't affect us at all but she has friends with birthdays in the middle of the competition season.

 

[profmom]

For my son, I usually just say "he's X but he competes as an [X-1]." Gotta love those fall birthdays if you have a boy!

 

[z2akids]

Let me take this opportunity to encourage folks to learn as much as they can about this sport. To that end, there are specific rules about age determination and age divisions for meets in the USAG rules and policies (just published for the 2014-15 season and available to everyone on the USAG web site).
Now to the question -
The competition age is not changeable; it is the age the athlete will be on the last day of the culminating meet for her level for the season (per USAG rules). For level 9's and 10's, the state meet is used for the regular season competition age.

Now, age divisions (age divisions equate to award groups) are a different matter. For an invitational meet (which are most of the meets clubs attend) the age divisions are up to the meet director. An age division can be a literal age (12 year olds) using the competition age above, it can be an "invented" title, like Junior A, which would most likely have a range of birthdays included, or it can be "open" meaning all ages.

I usually try to plan a meet so that my award groups are about equal in size. If that means combining or splitting age groups, then so be it. Lately, I have just started using the method used by USAG for Nationals; I divide the competitors into equal groups and then find the birthday cut-off dates and then title that group whatever I want it to be. On my meet schedule I specify the birthday ranges for the sessions.

Hope this helps.

This is what I was trying to explain earlier. That the groups for awards purposes at our meets are generally grouped in even numbers, so they don't necessarily correspond to annual birthdays. Thanks for the explanation MeetDirector.

Even our State meet at the compulsory level at least does this.

 

[MaryA]

In JO, it's based on the last meet of that level.

This may be the way it's supposed to be but last year, at some meets, my daughter (Feb birthday) was considered a 12-year-old and for others she was 13. I figured it must be up to the host gym where they draw the line. If not, there are a number of gyms in our state not following the rules.

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

This may be the way it's supposed to be but last year, at some meets, my daughter (Feb birthday) was considered a 12-year-old and for others she was 13. I figured it must be up to the host gym where they draw the line. If not, there are a number of gyms in our state not following the rules.

Ditto for a meet that we have gone to, because my DD's friend whose bday is January but at this particular meet, the girl was in the lower age group instead of her age by States.

 

[Ex member]

Wish we did that. All my children seem to have suffered cut off date birthdays. Most sports here use the academic year,so big boy being the end of August was always youngest, now P&F has picked the one sport that uses the calender year, and she is right at the end of the year , sigh .....

I am with you on that, my oldest dd has a December birthday and was born 2 weeks early, her birthday should have been January, my youngest birthday is in October, both of my girls will have to compete a year older then they are, all next year my oldest will compete as a 12 year old and she won't be 12 until the end of next year and the same for the youngest, she will have to compete as a 9 year old and won't be 9 until near the end of the year. Both dd's have ideal birthdays for the school year.

 

[marie83]

I am with you on that, my oldest dd has a December birthday and was born 2 weeks early, her birthday should have been January, my youngest birthday is in October, both of my girls will have to compete a year older then they are, all next year my oldest will compete as a 12 year old and she won't be 12 until the end of next year and the same for the youngest, she will have to compete as a 9 year old and won't be 9 until near the end of the year. Both dd's have ideal birthdays for the school year.

Another vote here too.
I once had 2 gymnasts in my training group. 1 born on 1st jan 1997, the other 31st December 1997. They had to compete against each other all year. On 2nd jan 2005 There was a very big difference between the gymnast who just turned 8 and the one who had just turned 7!

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Two different subjects, one is how do they determine, the other is what the determination is. If two or three age groups are small they combine them, but the original age groups are decided by the age at the last meet and then put with another to make a group....

 

[cbifoja]

Personally I like the junior A, junior B way rather than locked age groups. Last season, we went to a meet where DD was the only 9YO L6. So she was in her own age group for awards and they actually called her up for all five awards to award her a first place medal.

I do not understand why they couldn't have just tagged her on to the 10YOs. She said she felt stupid going up there 5 times in a row and being asked to salute all by herself.