Can someone explain AAU to me?

[clark222]

Hi. My almost 9 yo dd is a level 3 but is moving to level 4 next month. Our gym only competes AAU. It is the only gym for hours in any direction so if dd wants to continue in the sport, it will have to be where she is now. We have been to a few meets this last year and I have come away feeling a bit confused, especially since the AAU website has very little info. I have lots of questions, but my biggest concern is wondering what sort of a future dd has in the sport. I know by national standards, she is already pretty old for a level 4. But even at her age, I am wondering that happens if she stays involved for a few years. There seems to be very few girls competing past level 5 at the meets we are going to. I assume that is because those gyms compete USAG for the higher levels. But since our gym does not, what becomes of girls past that level? We have a handful of level 7s and a few that are called "modified optionals," which I do not fully understand. They tend to be the only girls competing in their levels at the meets we go to. So, I wonder, what is the point? Why go to a meet to have no competition? And I don't see that any of them have a chance of even advancing to a higher level as the girls only spend a maximum of 6 hours in the gym each week. Some have been level 7 for years now.

I am not really sure what kind of advice I am looking for. My dd LOVES the sport and I love that she loves it but I am already dreading what happens when she is "stuck" at a point with no competition and no way to advance in skill. I am wondering if I am missing something. The meets involve a great deal of car travel as there are no other gyms anywhere close by so my dd's involvement in the sport is expensive and time-consuming for the whole family (stuff we did not really think about before it was too late....). Why is there more than one type of league and why would a gym choose to be AAU rather than USAG? It just seems limiting to me.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

AAU= fun and easy. USAG=Difficult, Challenging and rewarding at a different level. by chance, are you in the St. Louis area?

 

[wallinbl]

why would a gym choose to be AAU rather than USAG?

There are two local gyms that do it. One does it all the way through, the other does it for compulsories, then switches to USAG for optionals. I don't know much about the one that is all AAU. The one that does it for the compulsory levels does quite well at the optional levels and has a very good track record for their gymnasts getting college scholarships. Their argument is that since AAU is less pressure, the girls will stick with gymnastics and fewer will quit. There may be merit to that argument.

 

[clark222]

AAU= fun and easy. USAG=Difficult, Challenging and rewarding at a different level. by chance, are you in the St. Louis area?

Dunno, No not St. Louis.

Maybe I just have no frame of reference but the meets do seem hard and challenging. But not having been to any other types of meets, maybe the girls don't know the difference?

 

[clark222]

For now my dd is happy so I don't have any immediate worries. I just wonder about how she is going to feel in a couple of years to have passed up other activities only to be sort of "stuck" in what looks to me like a dead end sport. Not that anyone else can really answer, but I feel like there is almost no longer-term point to the sport as my dd's current gym is handling it. I am thinking I must be missing something. I am just wondering how other AAU-only teams handle this since I do not see other higher level and/or older girls at our regular meets. We have seen more competitive and older girls at big invitationals, our "state championships" and age-group "nationals" but going to most of those is cost prohibitive due to our location.

Dd is also involved in another competitive sport (cross-country skiing) and the time is soon coming when she will have to choose. CC skiing also involves travel, lots of training hours, and cost. Right now, the sports compliment each other nicely. When it comes time to choose, in theory I would have no real preference in which sport she chose. I think if pressed, dd would choose the gym. But seeing what appears to me a very real limitation due to the AAU path, I am more inclined to steer her toward skiing as there is a real path all the way through to adulthood and beyond whereas gymnastics as it is available to us here seems very limiting.

I love our coaches, I love the atmosphere, dd loves her friends at the gym, I love that she has an indoor activity during our long winters, I loves the lessons she is learning from her involvement, I love that parent spectating in indoors and WARM, and I am seriously envious of her ab and arm muscles....but I have this lurking concern and it does factor into decisions we are going to be making soon. Just hoping by chance someone here could shed a little more light on the purpose and future of the AAU path and maybe even why a gym would choose that route rather than the traditional USAG.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

all sounds good. when she wants more i'm sure she'll let you know. for now, if it ain't broke...

 

[dmytv]

Another simple reason they may do AAU is cost. Here, it is only $38 to enter a qualifier and $60 to enter State for AAU all levels. USAG is around $60 for compulsories and $90 for optionals for qualifiers and state. I do agree though, that there is less competition at the AAU meets. AAU is usually locally run from area to area, state to state. They each have their own rules on what moves are allowed at each level with everyone having to switch over to national rules if the kids do aau nationals or junior Olympics. Modified Optionals is, skill wise, an optional level between 6 and 7.

 

[clark222]

Another simple reason they may do AAU is cost. Here, it is only $38 to enter a qualifier and $60 to enter State for AAU all levels. USAG is around $60 for compulsories and $90 for optionals for qualifiers and state. I do agree though, that there is less competition at the AAU meets. AAU is usually locally run from area to area, state to state. They each have their own rules on what moves are allowed at each level with everyone having to switch over to national rules if the kids do aau nationals or junior Olympics. Modified Optionals is, skill wise, an optional level between 6 and 7.

So that is what Modified Optional is!!! Thanks for clearing that up Any chance you know what novice, intermediate, and advanced optionals are? I would just like to know what I am looking at at meets and I could not find any explanation online.

I knew AAU is cheaper. I think the annual membership is also less expensive, which I appreciate. That is one good reason. I think it might also be true that there is not much interest at our gym for big training hour commitments. Most of the higher level girls are also heavily involved in school sports so I can see with a limited talent pool (due to low, rural, population) that it might be wise to stick with AAU. Until this year, the gym did not even hold training hours in the summer. I just wish we could perhaps go with some of the other programs I have heard about on here like the xcel program.

 

[dmytv]

here is a link http://image.aausports.org/handbooks/gymnastics/Girls-Gymnastics-National-Rules.pdf