High School Gymnastics ?

[cher062]

Ok DD started High School on Tues. So far she loves it. The gym coach has been in touch with her and anyone that wants to be on the team. One of the girls on the team is also on the team at her club and recommended my DD to the coach for the team.

She e-mailed my DD to ask what skills she had and DD just sent her the Youtube video link to show her competing last season and then described what she was currently working on. the coach was thrilled and responded like she was alreay on the team with statements like "you are going to add so much to the team". DD is very excited about the whole thing but they don't start practice and stuff until November.

She also asked us to video DD practicing new skills and send them to her. The coach also gave her a "wish list " of sorts letting her know how many C and B skills for each event she would need and suggested adding things like a 1/2 turn in her bars dismount. This is all great. We brought the list to her club to see if these types of skills could be added and worked on there as well. He said if he feels she is ready to add these he will but won't guarentee.

The HS Coach also said that HS gymnastics is judged based on L9 criteria not sure if that means they want L9 girls or not but everything on her wish list my DD is able to do or would be able to add in easily and she is a L7 - L8 (working on L8 skills)

So anyone coach, judge or have a kid in HS gymnastics that could clarify how this works? It sounds like their "requirements" aren't as hard as USAG at the upper levels makes me think prep-op the way she describes it.
Anyone one with insite to the HS experience?

 

[gymnastbeth]

Highschool gymnastics is so much fun! There isn't any individual competition, it's all for the team.

Instead of A's and B's, there are mediums, superiors, high superiors, and bonus high superiors. You need a certain number of each in every routine, except for the bonus. On vault, all the vaults just have different start values.

Besides needing all of those difficulties, there are basic requirements on each event. For example you need a handstand on bars, an acro on beam, at least a half turn on bars, and a high difficulty front pass on floor. (eg. a FHS FT wouldn't count as a pass, but a FHS layout would, as would any 3-skill front pass. Even just FHS FT forward roll)

And then there are bonuses that you can add to the routine. If you do any skill "to the ultimate" meaning almost perfectly, you get an added tenth. If you have two superiors in a row on beam, you get a bonus. And obviously, "bonus high superior" skills are also bonuses.

A lot of the requirements can be filled without doing too many high level skills, but of course being able to do a large variety of skills can help. I LOVE highschool gymnastics, I'm sure your DD will too. The levels on my team range from 2-10, and we all have so much fun as a team.

I think that covers it all, if not I'm sure someone else can jump in...

 

[MaryA]

Is HS gym the same across the country, or does it differ from state to state?

 

[gym law mom]

Is HS gym the same across the country, or does it differ from state to state?

It varies alot from state to state.

Cher-The SV is based on L9 skills so for example a fhs vault has a 8.6 SV under this system. As another poster said you do medium, high and high bonus skills to add to the basic SV. Gets a little confusing, but if dd is doing L7/8 routines, she'll do well in high school. You'll see everything from a basic L6 routine to L10 stuff.

 

[Tumblequeensmom]

GymLawmom.. .in my state, you'll even see girls competing who have NEVER competed gymnastics at all!!! In HS, the gymnastics team is necessarily made up of girls who go to the particular school. You can't just pick up and "switch" schools!! There are girls of every skill level involved on their high school teams. If the school is really lucky, they can have some L9/10 girls (those are the only ones who really qualify to the HS state meets anyway). Many gyms, however, will not allow their competitive team members to compete on their high school teams (too bad as far as I'm concerned).

At any rate, gymnastics in high school is so much more fun for the girls. Everything is all about the team scores, and individual placements are just kind of mentioned in passing... the big anticipation is to hear which school places third, second and finally FIRST!!!!

Oh... my DD has been on her HS team for the last two years.

gymnastbeth has explained the program very well.... ALL states must follow the NFHS rules. You can find everything you need to know at: NFHS | National Federation of State High School Associations

 

[cher062]

Thanks everyone. Its just one more system to get use to LOL.
The coach of the HS team refered to the skill needed as B's and C's - maybe because that is what she and the girls are use to hearing at the clubs I don't know. but I guess the skills my DD have are more than many of the ones on the team alread and they are excited espscially for her bars and floor to joing the team.

 

[gym law mom]

Around here, high school gymnastics is not a big thing so we do have girls from high schools with no gymnastics program competing for a high school that has one. There are rules about recruiting(not allowed) and reporting kids competing for 1 school but attend another. Most schools around here make the try out requirements pretty basic---mainly L6 skills, but you only have to show those on 2 events to make the team.

As TQM said, it is all about the team so in reality the gymnasts competing higher level routines will "start" over the others.

 

[gymluvr33]

In our state, we don't use the medium, high bonus, etc. The requirements are like a lax Level 9, as in it is Level 9 rules, but judges won't take as much off for some deductions (ex. Missing special requirements is .2 off instead of .5, or they might not take quite as much off for form, etc) You will see such a range of levels; there are people who have never competed gymnastics before all the way up to Level 10s. High School gym is really fun, much more relaxed than most USAG meets, and I hope (and think) your DD will really have fun with it!

(btw, I realize that this varies a lot depending on the state, but this is what I've seen in our state)