Parents New level 5 and 6

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gymmom8772

Proud Parent
Is there really a difference between new level 5 and new level 6 in terms of skill difficulty? Obviously level 6 is optionals and the gymnasts get their own routines but if a gymnast has all of their level 5 skills can they easily compete level 6 instead after obtaining a qualifying score in a level 5 meet?
 
My daughter is competing 6 now. The only difference I see is the expectation of the cast height on bars. If it's not at handstand, there are .3 deductions each time. I've seen lev 5 bar routines done in lev 6 meets and they typically score 8.2 - 8.4. There is a wide variety of skills being competed. Lev 6 only requires one acro skill on beam ie a back walk over, but I've seem girls doing lev 7 series.
 
Level 5 actually requires harder skills than new Level 6, although L6 allows some harder skills, they are optional. This is why scoring out of L5 is needed - to assure by USAG standards that a kid is ready to move up. Level 6 is a completely optional optional level - some gyms do it, some skip it completely. Some gyms are using it like EXCEL, some to keep kids from doing a couple years at L7 (which was the previous norm).

So the answer is yes - a kid proficient at L5 could likely do well at L6 - but it would depend how your team is using the level.
 
Level 6 follows the optional rules for deductions (though I think there are some minor adjustments), so they are expected to hit handstands on their bar casts, even though their SV requirement is only past horizontal. They are also expected to hit all their splits to 180* on beam and floor. I believe L5 is 150*. Doesn't sound like much of a difference but there are a lot of girls in optionals that get deducted for not hitting their angles. These deductions have a range, so if the gymnast is close, she will be deducted less than one who is way off (theoretically, of course).

As Gracy said, L6 gives more options for making the routines easier/harder for particular gymnasts, though I wouldn't say that L5 REQUIRES harder skills. Many gymnasts would agree that a cartwheel or roundoff on beam is *much* harder than a BWO or BHS, my dd included. She learned a BWO just to avoid having to do a cartwheel on beam in her silver year (xcel).
 
It sure seemed that at most meets both L5 and L6 were very small compared to L4 and L7 - so I would guess that most gyms are doing a version of the either 5 or 6 as above....it will be interesting to see how it evolves with time...
 

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