Nastia Liukin as a LEVEL 6

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Now that is precious. Such polish for such a little thing.


It is amazing to me that every US gymnast, no matter their potential, has to go through all the compulsory levels. Here our hot shot girls can skip the beginning levels and move into a performance development programme called Defi, followed by proviancial streaming or National Pre-Novice.

In fact any gymnast can begin at any level here, if they have the skills. Though having said that we can only send two girls to the Olympics, maybe that speaks volumes about our system.:D
 
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Gee - that looks just like my dd doing her level 6 routines - especially bars - NOT, lol. I can't get over how amazing she looked at such a young age. Well I guess that is why she is where she is now.
 
Now that is precious. Such polish for such a little thing.

It is amazing to me that every US gymnast, no matter their potential, has to go through all the compulsory levels. Here our hot shot girls can skip the beginning levels and move into a performance development programme called Defi, followed by proviancial streaming or National Pre-Novice.

In fact any gymnast can begin at any level here, if they have the skills. Though having said that we can only send two girls to the Olympics, maybe that speaks volumes about our system.:D

She did do very well :p off the chart well LOL... Now interestingly enough, we do have a similar way of mobility here in the US, the girls don't always have to do compulsories or optionals - they could participate in USAG and then avoid compuls. all together using TOPS & then just competing in the higher optional levels OR they could just train and then test elite when they are ready. No need to even participate in the USAG levels.

I am thrilled that Nastia (I imagine she is one that did not need to compete compuls. ) did these lower levels. How fun for her to look back on, and us to watch now!:D
 
That's so cool! She looked so adorable. I would have like to have seen the scores though...I can only imagine!
 
She did do very well :p off the chart well LOL... Now interestingly enough, we do have a similar way of mobility here in the US, the girls don't always have to do compulsories or optionals - they could participate in USAG and then avoid compuls. all together using TOPS & then just competing in the higher optional levels OR they could just train and then test elite when they are ready. No need to even participate in the USAG levels.

I am thrilled that Nastia (I imagine she is one that did not need to compete compuls. ) did these lower levels. How fun for her to look back on, and us to watch now!:D


Thanks Nic, I learn something new here everyday.

Certainly Nastia had the most perfect routines I have ever seen, as CoachL said, her bars are amazing, you can see right there her coaches are aiming for higher things. kips to hs and her baby giant is lovely.

I still find myself distracted by her feet though, her lower legs are so flexible. Amazing as she is also quite powerful.
 
Now interestingly enough, we do have a similar way of mobility here in the US, the girls don't always have to do compulsories or optionals - they could participate in USAG and then avoid compuls. all together using TOPS & then just competing in the higher optional levels OR they could just train and then test elite when they are ready. No need to even participate in the USAG levels.

Yeah, technically someone that talented could skip levels. Off the top of my head, Bianca Flohr started competing as a level 9. But that seems relatively rare. I can't think of any other cases like that really, although granted I only know that because her mother used to post on another board. A lot of elites probably "skipped" a couple levels by just competing one meet to get a mobility score, or through TOPS, but most probably still entered competition as a level 4 or 5 initially.

I didn't even know a layout flyaway was an option back then! That's funny. No one ever seemed to do it, at least in VA. And I wasn't a L6 until 2002 (she's doing the old, old routines, when there were still two leaps on beam and a cartwheel-jump in L6). Cast HS and free hip HS in L6 bars were also relatively more rare here in the late 90s and early 00s. Now they are much more common when I watch L6 competitions, from the more competitive programs (not usually as nicely executed as that though). Her form is impeccable but I can't get over the rhythm on beam - pretty incredible for a child who has only been competing a few years, no matter what their background in the sport is.

The interesting thing is that I have seen a couple compulsory videos of current L10s, some who are on the edge of elite or extremely competitive, and it amazes me how different it used to be, because generally the skills are well executed and you can tell they have potential, but overall the routines lack the kind of polish that is expected more today (of course I would consider the compulsory routines now a little more conducive to looking nice, but still). They probably still won too. Although I know a former Worlds qualifier who says her mother worried throughout her level 4 season because she was the only girl on the team who never won an award. ;)
 
aw, that was so cute! thanks so much for sharing :D

Did you guys watch the "Auspicious Beginnings" video where she said she might continue after the Olympcs?
 
Can't seem to view them right now for some reason.

Honestly, I think it was my former gym's head coach opinion that he would prefer to train his girls with an elite route never bothering with compulsory, perhaps competing level 7. Training compulsory routines just eats so much time per training year. However, many parents very much want to see their child compete to either be a star or for the experience. I think his latest plan is that the Homeschool program is really the path to being Elite or Collegiate in his gym. However, the competition route is still open though I think there was a clause they would have to sit out their first year of making L4 to only watch meets, possibly 2-3 years preferably so they could just compete out of them. Then again, kids and parents love those medals and this is America.

Gymdog, I would say that cast HS and freehip HS are still fairly rare in L6. In fact, scores are more difficult in 6 than 7 often! Even the girls that are on the podium, at States, not just Zones, rarely hit 45 on either or was it 30. Same goes for 7's.
 
Gracefulone, I agree her scores had to be up there, I would love to know what they were as well. If just to see how the scoring compared today.:p These days the scoring seems higher then it did even a few years ago. I wonder if it is because gymnasts are better technically or because the system has become more leniant.

Bog, I learn something new here everyday as well :D. I always love hearing and learning about the system in Canada (and everywhere for that matter), it is one of the coolest things about the CB to me.

Nastia really did do a very lovely job here. She certainly would have stood out to me all around. I loved seeing these routines, and how they have changed over the years - I think its great that we have the same bar routine today. Thank goodness they removed the cartwheel from the beam routine & the aerial cartwheel from the floor LOL. I do think that our routines now are a bit more jerky, less balletic - if that makes sense, and I really enjoyed the dance in the older routines.

I imagine that Level 4 was not usual or perhaps not even available at that time?? (I am not certain when it became a competition level), regardless I am glad that the majority (as far as I know) did compete in the compulsories (L5 & 6). I also know of many girls today that competed unsuccessfully (by todays standards) at those levels & are still around to laugh about it - quite successfully as L10's - today. :D I think that there is a happy medium to training compulsories while still training on an elite track & if parents can be patient (I agree it is, and should not be, all about the winning) and deal with it for a couple of years the girls would actually remain in the sport longer. So many don't even make it past L5 these days because this is their 4th or 5th year competing (and they are still L5's) and they are just done. Too many gyms spend ridiculous amounts of time perfecting compuls. floor routines, and not enough time training on bars. Gym programs need at least equal quality bar time. ;)
 
WOW...that was the best level 6 bars routine I have ever seen...and I've seen a lot of them.
Everything else was very good too.
 
OK what's the secret to getting the video to play? I can't get any of the videos on that link to play
 
I couldn't get them to work through my Firefox browser. I had to go through Internet Explorer to get them to play.
 

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