We've already tried this... both myself and my daughter would be thrilled for her just to train for a year and forget about the competitions, but they adamantly refuse. We asked both the owner and the coach. If you don't compete, you aren't allowed on their "team". I was told "we compete every season (fall and spring) every year, every level. There is no skipping levels or skipping seasons." If she spent a year training L3/L4 skills and perfecting form, and occasionally competed level 2, that would be ok too, but it won't be that way. They want her to do an entire meet season (10 meets I think), at the cost of around $2000-$3000, every single meet is a min. drive of 2 hrs away. She'll spend a year continuing to drill level 2 routines as they keep adding new kids, so then they spend a load of time trying to teach the new kids the skills and the routines. The goal is for her to go from, say 9.2 to 9.7 scores, from 35's/36's to 38's/39's. At level TWO! We would do it anyway, except for dd just REALLY doesn't want to do another full year. She is getting terribly bored, she feels discouraged, and I don't blame her. The only other thought I had was asking to put her on their xcel team. The coach seems really encouraging and the girls are enjoying themselves. But where do you go from there? Seems like a dead end for a 7 yr old to pursue that path.
