National NDP Grades - Info on Competitors

[Ex member]

My oldest has her grades in 2 weeks and we were emailed a copy of the pre competition letter, on it was a section requestion some information about each gymnasts for the MC, they want to know :

Name
Club

Do they have a birthday during the event
How long have you been doing gymnastics
How many times a week do you train
How did you get started in gymnastics

Competitive sucess to date:
Medal won and event - Where - When

Personal Careers highlights...

________________________________________________

Have you ever come across this request before? Is this a normal request for NDP grades conpetitions?

 

[Bess]

I have nothing to offer as I am an American however....I am very interested in what are the grades, badges, etc our British posters mention. I am sorry if I offend you hijacking your thread

 

[Galadriel]

I know for my kids swimming its like a thing they can refer to in the commentary. Eg x started aged x and loves her pets and does cross country skiing as a pastime! Quite benign .

 

[Faith]

I have nothing to offer as I am an American however....I am very interested in what are the grades, badges, etc our British posters mention. I am sorry if I offend you hijacking your thread

Oh lord, that's a huge question! If you want in depth try the UK forum, there are some lengthy discussions on how our system works

Briefly;

Levels- for kids identified as potential elite usually before age 8
Grades- A pathway for competing WAG for your more average child. So those not elite path can compete regionally and nationally.
Badges- for rec kids, not competing, basically a reward system for progress.


TD, it sounds like its just to make the commentary a bit more fun. I've seen it in other sports like 10k's and triathlon where they read out a fun fact about someone as they cross the line

 

[Learning Parent GB]

Faith, I love that summary. The number of times I have to try and explain to people that DD is not doing her BAGA badges. But it all goes a bit wrong when she is doing grades and levels!!

 

[Bess]

I knew it was a bit of a loaded question...I just didn't know if it was okay to post in the UK section to ask. Thanks so much for the info and now I am off to find more threads. So intriguing the differences btwn countries

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Good Luck @Bess some of us have been in the system for years and still don't get it

 

[Rapunzel]

I knew it was a bit of a loaded question...I just didn't know if it was okay to post in the UK section to ask. Thanks so much for the info and now I am off to find more threads. So intriguing the differences btwn countries

I don't see why you can't ask on a country section about that country if you're not from that country .

 

[Jenny]

Faith, I love that summary. The number of times I have to try and explain to people that DD is not doing her BAGA badges. But it all goes a bit wrong when she is doing grades and levels!!

oooh showing your age there! The BAGA badges went out 20 years ago lol. They are BG or BGA badges now. Btw @Bess it is a very complicated system. It doesn't help that the elite grades are sometimes referred to as compulsory grades and sometimes as compulsory levels.

Basically we have 2 types of competition. Grades of all sorts (from beginner grades to elite track grades) have set moves which must be included and a pass mark. Once passed you move onto another grade. These are set nationally.

And voluntary levels. These do not have a pass mark and you can compete them as long as you like (although some regions force kids to move up if they reach a certain mark). There is more choice of moves in these. Unhelpfully only the top few levels are set nationally. So the lower end varies hugely from region to region. And these lower levels have all sorts of names from the very old fashioned 'novice' to level 8,7,6 or whatever. Needs all pulling together.

Levels and grades are run and organised by each region.

Invitational competitions organised and run by a club (like the Sapphire Open or Alpha Factor South or whatever) run along their own rules but are mostly allied to levels requirements (Sapphire open is a team competition along these lines) or grades (like Alpha factor North and South)

One of the big differences I notice is that we tend to have either team competitions with no individual awards or individual competitions with no team awards (although there are a few exceptions of course) I notice USAG always has a team award.

Badges are used as an incentive in rec and development classes and also sometimes in schools
They have to pass a set of certain moves to obtain a badge. They do love them. Some clubs run their own version but most people follow the BG set up of badges.

 

[Learning Parent GB]

Does that make my BAGA 4 a collectors piece since it is so old then?!
My DS is going to receive his badge o

 

[Jenny]

yes definitely collectors items . Do you have the coca cola ones or earlier ones? I think they were even kitkat at one point.

 

[Faith]

I think I have/had the Sunday times ones...

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Yep @Faith you'll have Sunday Times if you are reaaaaaaallllly ancient ( I got mine )!

 

[Jenny]

Mine were Sunday times too

 

[Learning Parent GB]

At this point I have to confess I don't remember what mine were. So that is really showing my age. I only did 1 term of gym at school and I remember having to do a half turn and a bridge, and some kind of jump on and jump off a horse. And a forwards roly poly. That sentence ended up longer than I expected. I was clearly a top gymnast!

 

[Frase]

Does anyone know whether national grade 8 has 'distinctions' and if so what the score needed would be?

 

[rlp2]

Does anyone know whether national grade 8 has 'distinctions' and if so what the score needed would be?

They do award distinctions. According to one club's site it's a score over 44 plus 11 on range and conditioning.

 

[Frase]

Ok thanks - dd scored significantly above that and only got a 'pass' certificate.

 

[rlp2]

Ok thanks - dd scored significantly above that and only got a 'pass' certificate.

I think that it must mean a total score over 55 including 11 on R & C.

I know that Regional Grades are given distinctions over 55

 

[Iwannabemargo]

and its only awarded if the minimum range score is passed I think