WAG Does level affect friendships?

[Flipomaniak]

At my gym it doesn't at all. When we had 2 elites, they were best friends with a level 8 that was the same age. We once had a 12 year old elite and she was really good friends with the level 7 group. We also had a level 10 that was friends with a level 8/9.

At your gym, does the level of the gymnast affect what other gymnasts she befriends?

 

[SuperGirlmlm]

Thats a good question!
Im really good friends with my team, since i spend all my time with them, but there are some lvl 10 girls that im friends with. One of my "non-gym" friends just started rec because she was in awe when she came to one of my meets last season

 

[Lucy's Mom]

I think it can also depend on the training groups. If a level 9 is put in the elite group for some reason, the girls could become friends. Since the elites and the level 8 were the same age, this also contributes. I mean, when gymnasts meet another nice, friendly girl (that also happens to be a gymnast) outside the gym, she would not say or think, "I really like this girl, she is very nice and likes the same things I do. Oh but I can't be friends with her because she is 3 levels below me!"

I have also seen gyms were the older girls act superior and more important, bossy and sometimes mean to lower leveled girls. So it really depends on the environment and the individual gymnasts.

 

[Flipomaniak]

Good points Lucy's Mom!

 

[MaryA]

The biggest group of girls at DD's gym that are her age (pre-teen) are the prep ops, but for some reason there seems to be a real split between the JO girls and the prep ops. The prep ops go to the same meets, went to Woodward with the optionals, share a locker room with the optionals, have an amazing (former elite) coach... certainly not treated as second-class team members in any way. And DD will say that they're all perfectly nice (though she does complain that they "trash" the locker room), yet she doesn't really socialize with any of them, which I find odd. I wonder what it is that makes them identify themselves as such separate and distinct groups like that?

 

[gymgurl]

We are all friends in my gym, I am good friends with most people in the gym who are close to my age. I am good friends with a lot of the coaches as I also coach and as alarming as it sounds I do go out and socialise with my own coaches because they are closer in age than a lot of my team mates. I am also relatively good friends with a girl on the tumbling squad who is only a year younger. I don't think level affects friendship I think it is more age that affects it. It is quite hard for a 10 year old to be friends with an 18 year old for instance.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

I think level, and to a certain extent, age, really have little bearing on friendships. Some personalities just jive. There's a girl on my team who's pretty much my best friend outside of school, and we're different levels, religions, and races and we're five years apart in age, but we love each other to death. Of course level matters in so far as if you work out in the same group, you get to know each other better.

 

[Moxiegrl83]

I don't think it matters much at our gym. The girls who work together the most tend to be better friends, and most are close in age. The girls who go to the same school seem to hang out together a little more, it doesn't matter what level they are. When our gym had an AAU and USAG team, they had some issues with some of the girls thinking they were "better" since they competed USAG. When that happened, our HC stopped AAU, and made it one program, and it worked out much better.

 

[Flossyduck]

This doesn't happen so much in daughter's gym. There are girls from 8-10 in her training groups and they all get on well but they just don't really have time to notice what is going on in other groups as they move around the gym. They chat to team mates when they arrive and are changing and, as all the classes are staggered start times and most kids travel, it is just their own team mates in the changing rooms. Then they're in the gym and working their socks off and pretty focused on their own group and coach, then they have a little chat at the end as they get their boots on and that's it!

It's not that they feel any different or seperate, they just don't have the opportunity to get to know each other. They would certainly acknowledge any girls from other groups if they saw them out of the gym, but that rarely, if ever, happens actually - they're all at different schools and have very different lives.

My son on the other hand, who spends quite a lot of time outside the gym waiting, has made friends with loads of kids from different groups. He plays with them as they wait for their class or wait for a sibling, remembers names names and looks forward to seeing them each week

 

[All Chalked Up]

We have a tiny competitive team- 16 girls ranging from 7-16 yrs.

I love all of them to death. The 16 yr old is one of my closest friends. We always get invited to the little girls' birthday parties, they're adorable! The pre-teens come to us for boy advice (as if I know anything- no time for that. I'm in the gym too much so I fake knowing what I'm talking about ) and things like that so they consider us close friends.

The levels don't really matter either as we're such a little team.

I consider all of them like little or big sisters

 

[gymnastbaby88]

In my gym, the level 6's are really horrible to everyone below them. They're even mean to each other sometimes. The lower levels are all friends, and upper. Just level 6 team is really mean to everybody & thinks they're superior.

 

[Canadian_gym_mom]

I know it's an old thread but being at Gymnix with everyone from 9-16 year olds at level 2 (Canadian) National girls 9-16 and everything in between... it proves to me we have the best gym ever with the camaraderie and support everyone shows each other.

I am honestly blown away by the way the coaches and owners have established and maintained this atmosphere between every level of competitive girls.

 

[gymgurl]

I decided I need to rephrase what I said before. In our gym there is a great bond between all gymnasts of all ages and all levels but it depends on how you define friendship, if you define it as someone you get along with then Level and age doesn't really matter. If its someone you would catch up with outside the gym age would be more of a factor. Because I am so much older than a lot of the other girls I maintain good friendships with my squad but when it comes to befriending lower levels its in a more of a role model sort of way.

 

[Seeker]

My DD is the youngest (by almost 2 yrs) in her training group and would love to have at least one other girl her age in the group. She just turned 9 and her training group has 2 11yr olds, 1 12yr old, 2 13 yr olds and 1 17yr old...so, at those ages, it is hard to be real "friends". She is friends with the 11 yr olds, but they're bff's and in 5th grade (she's in 3rd) so it is still a big difference in interests and maturity. The older girls are very nice to her, but her real friends are in the L4 & L5 groups. At this stage, it is more about age-interests than level for my DD. But all the kids and parents in our gym get along very well. I have met some of my best friends there and so has my DD.

 

[Gymnast_Tor]

I just started going back to gymnastics, do I'm in L2, but I have befriended a level 8 and a level 9. My gym is small, so we don't have any elites at this time, and I practice from 5-7 PM, and the team girls come from 5-9, so I get to talk to them during their five minute break. I want to be up there in those levels with them, but I guess I have to work my way up again. So, yes, I'm a 6 level difference than these girls, but Im still friends with them.

 

[EastCoastGymMom]

The girls in our gym hang out with the girls of the same age who are in their training group. They don't get many opportunities to socialize with girls in other training groups or levels, but sometimes will maintain friendships with girls they used to train with in the past. I haven't seen any evidence of older girls snubbing younger ones or upper level girls not being nice.