Parents Moving up vs repeating

[Quadqueen]

I haven't heard anything about next year's new L5 stressing dance any more than this year. ??? Maybe I'm misinformed.

Without knowing your child and her capabilities, it's hard for anyone here to say whether it would be a good decision to move her up. Some girls struggle in compulsories with all the details and never score really high. However, scoring around 30 suggests some pretty big problems with the major skills in the routines, in my opinion.

I posted in another thread about the coach at a YMCA gym near me who desperately wanted an optional team. Her team only went up to L5. So she tried to push the girls who were OK L5s a year ago to L7 now. Only a couple of them scored out of L6 in the fall..with a 31 and 2-3 tenths. They continue to have big struggles in L7. In their case, I don't think they had a good foundation in L6 skills to do L7 successfully.

Again, not knowing your daughter, gymnasts need to have a good foundation in L5 skills to move on successfully.

 

[JoyAvenueMom]

We were in a similar situation with my DD this fall. She had most of the skills for L5, and was offered the chance to "move up" and compete Excel Bronze. For us the biggest factor was the increase in training time. L4 schedule is 4-6 hours per week, and L5/Excel is 12 hours per week. DD was BEGGING for more time in the gym. We had several discussions about the reality of not doing well this year, but it was worth it for her. She is so much stronger now, and STILL wishes for more time in the gym. LOL. Not sure if that might be a consideration for your dd.

 

[Quadqueen]

We were in a similar situation with my DD this fall. She had most of the skills for L5, and was offered the chance to "move up" and compete Excel Bronze. For us the biggest factor was the increase in training time. L4 schedule is 4-6 hours per week, and L5/Excel is 12 hours per week. DD was BEGGING for more time in the gym. We had several discussions about the reality of not doing well this year, but it was worth it for her. She is so much stronger now, and STILL wishes for more time in the gym. LOL. Not sure if that might be a consideration for your dd.

this confuses me. XCel Bronze is not equivalent to L5. If she had L5 skills she should have at least been doing Silver, and possibly Gold. ? And it would also be unusual for Bronze-level gymnasts to be practicing 12 hours a week, at least around here. They would be doing more like 4-6 hours.

 

[cbifoja]

As a parent that is part of a gym where most level 5s and 6s are repeating this year, I will tell you there are longer term developmental benefts associated with repeating. This was a hard concept for me and several other parent at our gym to "get." The level 5s that are repeating had all of their level 6 skills, but they were not strong on them. This would mean spending the season trying to improve these skills, not so much for the score, but because if these skills weren't strong enough how would they get to level 7 the next year.

Repeating has allowed them to focus their workouts on uptraining. Workouts are not focused on training skills they are competing, they are focused on new skills and getting stronger. In competition there is no worry about "will gymnast make this skill" which you often see when a kid moves up without really having "control" of the skills they must compete.

So, my advice is to look at repeating as a means to create a stronger gymnast down the road and less about how the gymnast will score 37 and win all the time. Scoring well and winning is a byproduct. This has greatly reduced competition stress and the whole mindset has shifted allowing, these girls to work level 7 skills in practice. If they had moved up the focus would be on getting that clear hip to requirement. Now, we work clear hips but we also can work giants because the pressure of getting that clear hip to requirement for competitiong is not there. Next year, when they compete the clear hip, it will as if they are repeating that level since we trained it the prior year. Make sense? It took me a while to come to this understanding - it is a shift in thinking away from the scores/placement/medals and more on the developmental process.

Good luck with whatever you choose!

Another factor that plays into this decision that is highlighted very well I think in this post is "gym philosophy". I see some gyms who will field a gymnast at a level even though the gymnast has weak skills. I mean come one....who here hasn't gasped at some of the tumbling and vaulting being thrown out of fear for the gymnast's future walking ability!

Other gyms, from what I've read on here, compete down a level. That they have their L6 skills and are working on strengthening them, but compete L5.

So another factor that probably plays into this decision to repeat or not probably needs to consider gym philosophy.

DD's gym doesn't tend to repeat unless a gymnast is missing a major skill. We had an L4 last year who could do her ROBHSBHS but that second BHS was super weak. Some gyms in the area move a girl like that up and let her take the hit on floor score. Our coach does not field girls who do not have consistent, strong skills at that level. So she is repeating L4. We don't scratch bars because an L5 doesn't have a kip. You aren't an L5 unless you consistently are kipping. Some gyms don't go that far some gyms go further.

One of the reasons I love DD's gym so much is I agree with their philosophy about levels. HC believes that girls should perform the skills well but not necessarily to perfection to compete a level. If the gymnast doesn't have those skills, they will have to repeat. But our coaches do a good job of getting the girls ready so we really don't have many repeaters. The L4 I mentioned above was out with an injury for a couple of months. So it's a nice balance. If you get to skip a level, and again, not many do, then it is ONLY because you have solid skills on the new level.

I honestly think that is what is going on with a situation that affects DD. She has been beaten all year long by the same three girls. One is a second year L5 who was scoring 34-36AA in her first year and is crushing the competition around here with high 37s. This infuriates some of my family members. They feel she should be competing L6 and that the gym is sandbagging to win. The gym she goes to has a great reputation and I don't believe this is the case. I think that the girl must be missing important parts of L6 and her coaches refuse to let her compete a level she isn't prepared for.

Of course, all of this is just my opinion....

 

[JoyAvenueMom]

this confuses me. XCel Bronze is not equivalent to L5. If she had L5 skills she should have at least been doing Silver, and possibly Gold. ? And it would also be unusual for Bronze-level gymnasts to be practicing 12 hours a week, at least around here. They would be doing more like 4-6 hours.

Sorry, I know it is confusing, we are not with a USAG gym. We compete AAU and with a local non-sanctioned rec leage. In the non-sanctioned league, Bronze is L4/L5. She was missing her kip, so it seemed like a good alternative. When we compete AAU, she gets an automative .3 deduction for not having "B" skills. She gets a light spot for her kip, which is penalized less than in USA. The other girls in her training group competed L5 last year. They are competing in the "silver" level in our non-sancitioned league. (it only goes to gold). Their routines appear to be simliar to the L6 routine.

 

[Quadqueen]

Sorry, I know it is confusing, we are not with a USAG gym. We compete AAU and with a local non-sanctioned rec leage. In the non-sanctioned league, Bronze is L4/L5. She was missing her kip, so it seemed like a good alternative. When we compete AAU, she gets an automative .3 deduction for not having "B" skills. She gets a light spot for her kip, which is penalized less than in USA. The other girls in her training group competed L5 last year. They are competing in the "silver" level in our non-sancitioned league. (it only goes to gold). Their routines appear to be simliar to the L6 routine.

oh, gotcha

 

[kjvac]

Remember that this year, the question is:

move back a level - do similar skills as current
stay at same level # - similar to moving up one level before the change because the new level 4 is today's level 5
move up a level - is similar to skipping a full level because going from level 4 to level 5 is like last year's gymnast going from 4 to 6!

 

[SignHere]

This is funny. I have always let the coaches decide. I also know that there are some parents at our gym who have input into whether or not their gymmies move up (they have told me themselves) - and sometimes it is unsolicited ! However, I still feel the coaches are in the best position to decide.