Parents New Level 3 Parent General Question!

[Eagleperson]

Hi Everybody!
My 9 year old daughter was moved from her pre-team class (L2) to the Level 3 team in May. She is practicing three evenings a week for a total of about 6.5 hours/week. She has made great strides and is having fun. The L3 team she is on has about 11 girls ages 6-14 and two coaches. Her first meet is scheduled for about 6 weeks from now and she is not really ready. Her vaulting is inconsistent, she doesn't have her round-off back handspring yet and is lacking a couple skills on bars. She is doing pretty good on beam and getting more confident with her dismount every day.

Her coaches suggested a few private lessons before the first meet to see if they can get her up to speed on some skills and then if not, that she competes on all four events but with a spot where needed. I am okay with this because I want her to have the experience, fun, etc. She seems okay, though I am sure she would rather be 100% ready to go.

I guess my question is just: is this normal, if not typical? It seems her team is big and diverse and I worry about her not getting enough attention from the coaches (who are new to coaching team this year). Are private lessons the way to go? Is there anything I should be aware of or keep my eye out for with a kid not quite confident or capable on all her skills as she gets ready to compete for the first time?

Thoughts and ideas (and support) appreciated! Again, our goal is not a particular outcome of competition but a fun experience based on hard work!

 

[Eagleperson]

Hi Everybody!
My 9 year old daughter was moved from her pre-team class (L2) to the Level 3 team in May. She is practicing three evenings a week for a total of about 6.5 hours/week. She has made great strides and is having fun. The L3 team she is on has about 11 girls ages 6-14 and two coaches. Her first meet is scheduled for about 6 weeks from now and she is not really ready. Her vaulting is inconsistent, she doesn't have her round-off back handspring yet and is lacking a couple skills on bars. She is doing pretty good on beam and getting more confident with her dismount every day.

Her coaches suggested a few private lessons before the first meet to see if they can get her up to speed on some skills and then if not, that she competes on all four events but with a spot where needed. I am okay with this because I want her to have the experience, fun, etc. She seems okay, though I am sure she would rather be 100% ready to go.

I guess my question is just: is this normal, if not typical? It seems her team is big and diverse and I worry about her not getting enough attention from the coaches (who are new to coaching team this year). Are private lessons the way to go? Is there anything I should be aware of or keep my eye out for with a kid not quite confident or capable on all her skills as she gets ready to compete for the first time?

Thoughts and ideas (and support) appreciated! Again, our goal is not a particular outcome of competition but a fun experience based on hard work!

 

[LIGYMMOM]

At our gym, they get to compete when they have all the skills on their own. Likewise, they are moved up a level when they will be successful at that level. A bar routine that is heavily spotted (or with more than one fall) will not produce a great score, which can damage her confidence. If she's the kind of kid who won't care much about her scores/placement, great! It will be a fun experience.
Private lessons can certainly go a long way. I would do it, so that she can have the most successful first meet possible. 6 weeks is a while still, she may surprise you! Also, you will likely see a huge improvement from the beginning to the end of the season, which is so much fun to see. Good luck!

 

[Ariekannairb]

Our gym requires the girls have the skills in order to compete at that level. The coaches will move up girls that they believe will have the skills by meet season, though. My daughter for instance still has a very sloppy ROBHS and is very inconsistent with her back hip circle. However, she has until January to get it so they are confident enough that she will have it in time. If she had to be heavily spotted they would move her back down.

Oh, there is an exception to this. If the gymnast is consistently scoring 36 or higher she is automatically moved up.

We have added in a power tumbling class in order to get DD's ROBHS up to scratch. After just 1 class I am already seeing a vast improvement.

 

[IreneKa]

I'm new to this myself, but from what I've been reading here on CB so far, it depends a lot on the gym\coach philosophy. Some are allowed to compete even though they don't have the skills, others aren't.
Our gym wants you to have all the skills before moving up. Our HC is also a judge, and she told me that this year the deduction for spotting is more than if you don't do a skill at all. She doesn't want the girls to get low scores and lose their confidence. But our gym also competes level 1 and 2, so the girls don't have to stay in pre-team and wait another year to compete.
As far as the team size, 11 girls with 2 coaches seems reasonable to me. What would concern me a little is 6.5 hours a week. Again, from what I've been reading, and from my own experience, Level 3s usually train somewhere between 9 and 12 hours, so 6.5 sounds low. Nothing you can do about it, of course, other than changing the gym. But maybe adding a few private lessons wouldn't be such a bad idea.

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

When my DD was a L4 (new L3) she practiced 6 hours a week, old level 5 - 9 hours and then 12 at old level 6 (actually xcel since our gym opted to score out of L6. I do not think the hours seem low (depending on where you live). I would do a private if it is available. My DD always liked the 1 on 1 of a private and could accomplish so much more than with the whole group.

 

[Gym Beam]

What would concern me a little is 6.5 hours a week. Again, from what I've been reading, and from my own experience, Level 3s usually train somewhere between 9 and 12 hours, so 6.5 sounds low.

I agree with IreneKa. 6.6 hours sounds low. DD is Level 3 and they train 12 hours/week. I would definitely recommend privates especially as the meet draws nearer. Our gym will usually let the girls compete if they are still missing 1 or 2 skills that don't require a constant spot. For instance, DD did just a RO instead of ROBHS in her first meet. Good luck to you and your DD. I'm sure she will do just fine.

 

[Eagleperson]

This is really helpful, everyone--thanks! I think I am going to go ahead with a couple private lessons and then we'll go from there! I appreciate all the comments.

 

[billise]

My DD is 6 years old and competing level 3. She was a late move up to level 3, meaning all the other girls moved up in January where as my DD didn't move up until June. Her first competition was a couple of weeks ago and she had everything except her ROBHS so for that she just did a round off. She was missing her FHC until about 3 weeks before the 1st meet when something clicked and she got it (we held our breath at the meet because it's still not completely consistent but she made it!). Anyway, it does seem to depend on the gym. Our gym makes their reputation largely on their very successful optional program, most of whom come up "in-house" through their compulsory program so we don't seem to be as concerned about compulsory scores especially at the lower levels. We have a large compulsory team that competes AAU and the girls are allowed to compete even if they don't have all of their skills. At the compulsory levels it seem to be largely about fun, learning skills and building the base for strong optionals (of course with each level a girl moves up the focus seems to shift a little more). Seems to me our gym is a bit more lenient with the younger girls (6 - 8 year olds) when it comes to moving them up without having all the skills and/or perfect form. Seems to be that "older" girls are expected to have a little better body awareness and muscle control and thus be able to pick things up a little better. But the coaches seem to be very good at spotting potential at any age.

DD practices 9 hours a week and I never imagined I would do privates with her but I did end up doing a couple right before the first meet to work on her ROBHS because they were spending most of their floor time in practice working on the routines and not working on the ROBHS because that's where coach felt they work was needed. I didn't disagree because most of the other girls had their ROBHS so I realized if I wanted her to get some work on them I should do a couple of privates. We did a couple of 30 minute sessions and she went from needing a heavy 2 handed spot to doing them on her own (still lands on her knees from time to time but it's looking like she'll be ready to compete them at her next meet!) so to me the privates were worth it.

Best wishes to your DD!

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

At our gym the girls have to show the coaches that they can consistently do the routine in the week leading up to the competition. If they don't pass during the week, they do not compete that event. (My kid is a new L4, but it is how it works throughout the gym).
For our first mock competition, dd ended up only competing one event. She had passed two events during the week but during warmup at the meet she failed to do her ROBHSBHS as tight as they wanted so she had to scratch floor.
It was explained to us that they don't want the girls to go into any competition not feeling confident and I can understand that. I wouldn't want my kid to go out there and feel embarrassed that she couldn't do half her routine or something, better to not compete that event and keep working on it. I think all gyms have different policies though.
Good luck!

Oh, and our L3 train 6hrs/wk, our L4/5 train 16 hrs/wk.

 

[Eagleperson]

Again, thanks for the replies! I did gymnastics as a kid many many moons ago but was always in the recreational group even though I worked out with the team so a lot of the team dynamics are brand new to me as well as how the sport works these days. Hearing how much other kids are working out and the policies and philosophies of other gyms and coaches is helpful. I have lots of questions but this was the big one on my mind this week. I really just want her to have fun and be rewarded in some way for her hard work. I also know I need, to a certain extent, to let her and her coaches make some decisions together.

 

[JMACAZ]

I have a L2 and a L3. My L2 is competing L2 because she does not have her ROBHS or FHC. She goes 6 hrs per week. My L3 needed to have all the skills for L3 before our mock meet. She has had 3 meets and at least 8 girls miss either the fhc, mill or ROBHS despite having it at practice. .Our L3 team has 25 girls and 3 coaches with 1 helper coach. She goes 10 hours per week. New L 3 in my opinion is tough. There are a LOT of girls competing. If you feel comfortable with the privates go for it!! And you never know when the skills will "click" Good luck to your DD!!

 

[Ariekannairb]

I'm new to this myself, but from what I've been reading here on CB so far, it depends a lot on the gym\coach philosophy. Some are allowed to compete even though they don't have the skills, others aren't.
Our gym wants you to have all the skills before moving up. Our HC is also a judge, and she told me that this year the deduction for spotting is more than if you don't do a skill at all. She doesn't want the girls to get low scores and lose their confidence. But our gym also competes level 1 and 2, so the girls don't have to stay in pre-team and wait another year to compete.
As far as the team size, 11 girls with 2 coaches seems reasonable to me. What would concern me a little is 6.5 hours a week. Again, from what I've been reading, and from my own experience, Level 3s usually train somewhere between 9 and 12 hours, so 6.5 sounds low. Nothing you can do about it, of course, other than changing the gym. But maybe adding a few private lessons wouldn't be such a bad idea.

We train 6 hours per week for level 3 so 6.5 hours sounds spot on We chose to do an extra hour with a tumbling class but most of the girls on team do not do extra classes.

 

[sglemon]

It is entirely up to your gym! Our gym will not allow you to compete unless you have all the skills. They feel it is a safety issue. We do have gyms in our states that do have girls compete without all the skills, and a lot of spotting. Let me warn you, those girls score really low. I have seen 2, 3 s and 4 s. If you are competing against a team where the girls have all those skills, they will be getting 8s and 9s. It will entirely be up to your dd's personality to whether or not she is able to emotionally handle it. If she can't I would recommend holding her from competing until she does. You want it to be a positive experience for her.

 

[wgymmom]

I'm not exactly full of experience, but before my DD competed last year, I seem to remember having some anxiety over whether she'd have that beam dismount or not. She ended up getting it, no problem.

6.5 hours does sound light for new L3. I think mine did about 9 hours at old L4 and does about 12 now at new L4.

 

[lilymom]

My DD is 5 and a level 3 and they practice 9 hours a week (3 times a week, 3 hours each day)

 

[Eagleperson]

All the comments have been really helpful---thank you everyone! We have done a few private lessons (along with one other girl new to the team) and though I have seen some improvement, she still doesn't have her back handspring. There is a practice meet in a week (we have one more private lesson before that) and I think she and her coaches will have a very good sense then how it is all coming together and can make a final decision about the first meet (in about 3 weeks) after that!

Now I just need to figure out how to keep her hair in a ponytail in a meet, how the scoring works these days, etc etc etc!!

 

[txgymfan]

Look up Hair in the search forum. You will find lots of suggestions and advice for hair.

Enjoy the journey I hope it is long and fun!