Parents Not as much time training L5 as I thought

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Blackie6

Proud Parent
Apparently according to my DD's coach the compulsary "seasons" are changing here in NJ and instead of waitting until the end of the year to start L5 meets (here in NJ they ran from about Jan til states in May) we are starting in SEPTEMBER! I thought we would be enjoying a long LONG stroll into L5 without the rush, but seems like this summer DD will be in the gym on a tentative schedule of M-Thur 5:30-8:30pm, which stinks! She does the dive team in the Summer and meets are held in the evenings. Plus, I am not sure how she will handle the 16 hours up from 11. She really loves gymnastics so I guess this will be the real test. On the bright side she has her kip, although it looked bent and sloppy tonight, and she did a ROBHSBT last night at practice on the floor about 2 feet away from where I was sitting and I freaked out because I did not know she could do one! She's really been enjoying the up training since the end of L4 and even got to do swings on the strap bar while some of the 2nd yr L5's (moving on up after May) were trying giants. DD now says she wants to do giants too! UGH!
 
Those summer hours do stink, but am I adding wrong? I only counted 12 hours.

As for learning level 5 routines, I do think that there is plenty of time, hopefully the skills will come as well when focus is on them. If she isn't ready, I imagine they won't compete her.

If my DD does get moved to L5 (which is doubtful) I am not sure she can be ready to compete in September either. I think maybe by January, but not by September. Not sure if I would want her to do L4 fall and then try to do L5 in January either. I think it is too confusing for her and will be better to focus on one level or the other.

Your DD already has her kip, which is HUGE, so I think she is well on her way. She has surprised you so much in her short time as a gymnast, I bet she will surprise you this time as well. She is quite the determined little girl. :D
 
LOL, no you didn't add the hours wrong, I messed up and wrote 5:30 when it is supposed to be 4:30! So there are the missing 4 hrs, LOL

I watched our group from last year break off from L4 and do an immediate move up into competeing L5 and it looked stressful. I was glad they said we would not be doing that this year. But things are changing, so I guess I should be happy we have til September at least.

You are still in "limbo" with your daughter? I have to get caught up on posts here this weekend, but are you still looking at new gyms? Did you find anything yet?
 
Hmm, AFAIK, most compulsories compete in fall. That's when the zone and state meets are. In spring there are meets for compulsories but no zone or state meets.

Compulsory from September to October with a meet in August for Judges Cup. State in November and 1st week of December. Optionals and boy's have their first meet in December but really don't start till January. Boy's have their state meets in March and Regionals 3 weeks later. Girls have state in late March/early April and regionals 3 weeks later and Nationals some time after. TnT competes from Dec/Jan to nearly June for nationals or something.

I dislike competing compulsories in fall and spring. Preferably fall. Maybe go to a few spring meets, but if you do too many, some of the kids get real burnt out on it, especially me. Too much time spent on competition since then you have to prepare for the fall season learning routines in June/July and dealing with missing Summer time.
 
One season here for everyone, starts early October, we start in December, and ends by April. I am always amazed by those of you who seem to compete all year round. I don't think I could take the stress. We enjoy the downtime to work on new skills and levels. And to let Mom's checking account rest from all the meets!
 
My dd's team has been rushed from day 1.At her gym they compete AAU 2-4 then L5 They do AAU and Usag then strictly USAG.AAU has 2 seasons Fall Sept-Dec and Jan-April this year it ends May 3.She started L2 Nov compted spring season then double seasons L3 and L4 with one left States in May then L5 starts Sept and the head coach would like them to be ready in Jan to start Prep-op(they skip 6)They are just now started to learn some L5 skills luckly our L4 has option on bars to do kip and start 10value without they start 9.5 so they have been working kips since last summer my dd has hers but some still do not.I think the L5 beam is going to be rough for my dd since right now she is scared of the cartwheel on beam.My dd right now still only trains 3x a week 7.5 hrs, sometime they do not no when they will add an xtra day.does not give much time.I am stressed out just thinking about it,but my dd is fine.Our Optional teams compete Jan-May.
 
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Blackie, those are terrible hours for summer! Why don't they train during the day? We go days during the summer - usually 12 - 4pm for compulsories and 8am -12pm for optionals. Only the boys at our gym have evening hours during the summer, which is one reason my ds did not do team. I'm sure your dd will be fine with the extra hours, especially since she's not dealing with school at the same time. L goes 16 hours now during school and is doing fine with it. She is L5 this year and on the fence for L6 next year, but we have a season like catesmom - starts in December and ends in May, for both compulsories and optionals. I'm sure your dd will do well in L5 - it sounds like she has got all the skills already and it's just a question of polishing them.

Meg
 
At least she is getting her kip. You still have several months to go before September, so if she keeps coming along with things and with the increase in practice, I'm sure she will be pretty good by then.
 
One season here for everyone, starts early October, we start in December, and ends by April. I am always amazed by those of you who seem to compete all year round. I don't think I could take the stress. We enjoy the downtime to work on new skills and levels. And to let Mom's checking account rest from all the meets!

We have the same meet schedule. While there are a few meets in early fall (oct,nov.) we don't ever go to them. Our kick off is always The Cup in Cincinnati the weekend before Christmas. Our season ends with States with L4 thru L10 anywhere from mid-March to mid-Apr by the time all the levels have competed States. Our Regional meets for optionals are mid-late April. We have 1 season for all levels, so our optionals travel with the compulsories to the same meets. We usually do only large format meets held in off-site facilities. Our L7 States are this weekend, L8/9/10 next weekend, and L4/5 are the the first weekend in Apr. this year.

After States, we'll start the up-training hard. For summer, my L5 will up-train for optionals, which means that she'll do opt. hours for the summer. 20hrs a week summer opt hours. Optionals train 16hrs. during school year. As a bonus to my checkbook though. The gym owner doesn't charge extra for extra hours in the summer, it's 1 fee per level year round. So if you're already an optional, going from 16hr bumping up to 20hrs. for summer, your monthly payment won't change. YEAH!!! She figures that there are times during the year that due to meets, weather, etc. that practices get cancelled, so that makes up for it. Nice to have a considerate owner!
 
There is a proposal to change the Level 5 and 7 seasons in NJ but it still has to be voted on (I believe this week, not sure if it "happened" yet). This has been talked about for a while.

As for learning the routines, our gym gives little time for that ....most of the training time is used for learning skills and training up, and the routines are taught in a few weeks before the actual season starts. I used to stress over that but now I'm used to it and my girls do fine. In fact, little monkey just got her new FX routine for USAIGC which starts in 2 weeks. Big DD got her FX routine and competed it 10 days later!
 
Here our compulsories have always competed from Sept-Dec. So, they start serious up training before Christmas. Move ups are done by April/May and the coaches like to see complete routines in mid August.

Blackie, I agree those hours are not great for a kid to enjoy some free time during the summer and also look to hamper family time together. At most gyms around here, they go to morning or early afternoon practice hours for the summer. Last summer, my gymmie did 20-22 hours/week and there were times it did get wearing on her. It sounds easier to do since no school, but it is more pounding on the body and many gyms also up the conditioning time.

NW Ohio---Wish our gym was like yours and didn't have us pay more for the increased hours in the summer, but not so. We'll use June as our "vacation" month though since gymmie will be at LO(only pay 1/2 tuition) and August is pro-rated since the kids go back to school and the summer hours end by the 2nd week of that month. Still.............................the checkbook would love that break!
 
Our gym selects teams and move-ups in May after States. We don't start competing till January so the summer, even though they still hold practices, is kind of the "off season" where lots of kids miss for vacations and family time.

I was a bit shocked when I heard that the Optional MDL girls only practice 7 hrs a week as opposed to the 11 that the MDL level 4's are practicing. Apparently, since most of the compulsory level 4 skills are already learned, there isn't too much more to learn for Level A for each routine. Also, since it is MDL, it is not as strict as USAG. So now that dd will have more free time, she can enjoy other activities and maybe do another dance class (Ballet!!! or maybe Jazz??) or just chill with her friends if that is what she chooses.
 
Our gym selects teams and move-ups in May after States. We don't start competing till January so the summer, even though they still hold practices, is kind of the "off season" where lots of kids miss for vacations and family time.

Even though we increase hours during summer, there's no problem with families leaving on vacation at anytime. Most families take off a week or 2 for vacations, no problems or questions asked. Since the owner doesn't raise the monthly fees during summer for extra hours, there isn't any break on payments if you take a week off though. If your gymmie is out a month though, then you don't pay for it. After moving to our gym last Apr./May, we took off a week in June to go watch the Olympic Trials in Philly and then went to NYC. They were great about taking off, and encourage a vacation once in a while to stave off burn-out in the gymmies.
 
Oh--I need to add--my response was regarding the Mason Dixon League, NOT USAG for our gym. I do know the USAG kids practice a lot of hours, I am just not sure how many or whether they are increased or decreased for summer.
 
LOL, no you didn't add the hours wrong, I messed up and wrote 5:30 when it is supposed to be 4:30! So there are the missing 4 hrs, LOL

I watched our group from last year break off from L4 and do an immediate move up into competeing L5 and it looked stressful. I was glad they said we would not be doing that this year. But things are changing, so I guess I should be happy we have til September at least.

You are still in "limbo" with your daughter? I have to get caught up on posts here this weekend, but are you still looking at new gyms? Did you find anything yet?

Our level 5s do 16 hours a week all the time, not just summer. It is a bit much in my opinion, at least during the school year.

We are still in "limbo". She really wants to wait and see if they move her up to level 5 and I really don't. Her best buddy is a definite to be moved up and I know she will be sad if she doesn't. Just today she came home sad because her BF got her kip pretty consistent now. Abby is close, she has gotten all the way up a few times, but either falls forward like in a front hip, or falls right down. I told her that it is normal, but the coach that worked with them on bars today is one that makes comments he shouldn't, about getting certain scores, etc, "you will get to move up..." comments and he told her friend she will get to move to 5 and didn't say it to Abby, so she is bummed. She really wants to move to level 5 and I wish she didn't. :(

Otherwise, things are pretty much the same, just watching and waiting and going to decide maybe at the end of March or April.

Thanks for asking! :D
 
Boy I thought our summer hours were bad 21hours a week but 8-12:30 in the morning so my daughter can still go to the pool in the afternoon. The whole team practices these hours the level does not matter. Our meet season usaully starts in Dec and goes till May so she will have plenty of time to train for 5 and get that kip.
 

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