Parents Uptraining- how important and thoughts

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yes. ^^^ but i should point out that the higher you go the "lower" you compete, or what is referred to as competing down. gymnasts never throw their full arsenal at competitions. and with volume training and such, you may train everything you know how to do, but when meet time comes the best "water" down and compete flawlessly at about 70%.
 
Having coached both ways, I prefer the method of training a level up from that which you are competing. Might mean missing a year of one level to compete it next year. I like to think about the bigger picture and long term goals and I like my gymnasts to be 100%ready and confident worth their skills before competing them.
 
At my DDs' gym, it seems the lower levels (new L3 and L4) don't do much uptraining at all, especially during the school year. They work on learning and refining current-level skills and routines. They do a little bit of uptraining in the summer.

However, the higher levels (new L5 and up) do a lot of uptraining. My DD who is training L5 is working giants on strap bar, BHS on low beam, tsuk and yurchenko drills. The coach seems to be moving them towards the bigger skills in little baby steps, over a long period of time.
 
I agree with dunno, I never see up training with girls struggling at their level....it is usually fun for the girls, as long as they are having reasonable success at the skill they are trying. If they are not successful at whatever skill, then coach usually goes back a step, and perfects whatever is already there.

uptraining does not mean moving up, it just gives certain skills more time to mature. Not the mention, the girls stil must learn tons of ballet, so there is more to moving up......they must be able to compete at their level well.
 
I don't know what you would call it, but at dds gym, she will start doing drills and different things that have to do with a skill a long time before she actually does the skill.
 
I want to thank everyone for posting on this thread- it gave me a lot to ponder and weigh as we began to question different coaching philosophies as they pertain to our gymie.
When it was all said and done, we decided that even though we loved the coaches at the gym we were at, their coaching philosophy didn't really jive with our DD. They had a good track record- but even the HC acknowledged the fact that type A girls did well and type Bs kinda needed to learn to deal with the manner of coaching.
We still miss the coaches and families, but we're now finishing our 2nd week at the new gym and my cautious DD has already stepped out of her old self to work on bigger skills she refused to even think about attempting at the old gym. Kinda crazy to think about....but when the "connection" is made between student and teacher, it's positive for all involved.

Happy, calm mom
--thanks again for the thoughts/info!
 
Lol @ Dunno. Never thought of that, but so true.

Suzie at Gym A may never try a giant until the end of her L6 season. While Suzie at Gym B may begin trying giants on a strap bar at L5.

Pros/cons of each?
I have a friend whose daughter did her first giants on a strap bar at old Level 3... of course she was getting 38+ in every meet... ended up skipping 4, going into 5 for one season, doing a bump up meet this past April, scoring out of old 6. She will probably compete L7 this fall. BTW, this summer, her mom posted video of her working her full on the tumble track into the pit.

At our gym, we have girls who have all the skills and others who are missing 2-3 skills for the level they are competing. We don't compete until November, and every week, somebody is doing a "showcase" of one of their needed skills that they just got! We do not have them train skills from the next level unless they have all of their current level skills (or at least all of them on the event they want to do harder ones for). During the season, there is an additional rule that you have to have earned a 9.3 or higher on the event to work harder skills. (This came after a L7 with a 9.275 on floor had been doing Fulls onto an 8" mat. Later, one of the dads of a L4 wanted to see - she only did a 1/2 and her foot slipped off the corner of the mat, twisted, and tore a ligament. That was in November. Because she went to the wrong doctor first, surgery didn't take place until March/April ... she will be fully cleared to tumble in 2 -3 more weeks... after she finishes with physical therapy.)
 

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