I remember when my daughter was little and learning her BHS. Her gym had tumbling clinics that had team and rec gymnasts. At the clinics, the coaches let the rec kids work through the drills fairly quickly and move onto spotted and (eventually) independent back handsprings. They were always safe...
My daughter does high school gymnastics. She’s an Xcel diamond. The high school gymnasts who compete range from probably gold/platinum up through level 10. It’s a fun, relaxed atmosphere- she really enjoys it
I’m pleasant to all of them. The ones I was actually friends with, I’m still friends with. A few of the current moms and I took a bunch of the girls to cheer on two former teammates at their first meet for the new gym. Zero animosity- some sadness and missing them, but the girls are all still...
I love watching Fred Richard. I was waiting for my daughter’s session to start at a meet a few years back. His session was happening on the other side of the gym. His high bar blew my mind then and, of course, has only gotten better since. Between that and having mutual acquaintances (who all...
My daughter has gone up through the Xcel program and is a second year diamond. Meets range from kids working to get to a 10 start value up to a few former levels 9s and 10s (who are usually easy to pick out)- with a lot of kids in the middle. There are far more Xcel only kids and former 7s and...
My daughter and I watched that last night. We’ve always enjoyed Michigan, but MSU was *really* fun to watch. The commentary, was excellent, too. I wish the Big 10 Network televised more meets.
My daughter just turned 16 and is a sophomore. She’s an Xcel diamond.
Kindergarten- Kindy class
Grade 1&2- two levels of preteam
Grade 3- bronze
Grade 4- silver
Grades 5&6- gold
Grades 7&8- platinum
Grades 9-10 - diamond
She’s cut back on days to do school sports so I’m not sure if she’ll...
My daughter is Asian and has super straight/smooth hair. Most bobby pins and even hair pins slide out. The absolute best are Amish hair pins (on Amazon). They are thicker and grippier.
Practice leos go in the wash with everything else on cold and then hung on a drying rack. Competition leotards are washed on gentle and hung. We don’t do anything extra and have never had an issue.
Amish hair pins from Amazon are the only thing that works for my daughter’s super long and super thick hair. They are available on Amazon and hold really well.
It’s done the same way- top 7 are state, then all stars are a percent based on numbers. MA just had states and announced that top 7 are state, next 6 are all stars so only 13 gymnasts qualified to regionals (231 competed at states). Other states will have a different number of all stars...
In region six, each state has their own state meet. They then list the gymnasts who competed in rank order by all around score at states, regardless of age. The gymnasts with the top seven all around scores in MA make the MA state team. Same for CT, NY, ME, etc. Those state teams compete...
It varies so much by state. My daughter did high school gym this year (along with Xcel) and loved it so much. Scoring is very different and few gymnasts start from a ten in our state- basically only level 9s and 10s. It’s an incredibly fun atmosphere, though, and has been a fantastic experience.