Parents Old Level 7 question

[armbmom]

Sorry, I admit, I'm a confused mom!

My daughter is currently training for the new level 4 and we were never exposed to any of the option levels before. The gym my daughter started out at only went up to old level 4 and we would get to see other compulsary levels at different meets. At our new gym, they currently go up to level 10 and watching these girls is so much fun. Our gym hosted a meet and we finally got to see them in action and watched the level 7 girls compete. I noticed that they all had the same vault and same bar routine. The vault looked like it was the same as the new level 4 vault. Am I right, that it is the same vault? The only thing that looked "optional" to me was the beam and floor. Am I missing something? I thought that "optional" meant that the girls got to do their own thing, as long as it includes some required skills.

 

[Krystan]

Current levels 5, 6, and 7 all have the same vault, though I assume it is scored differently. I'm not sure if Level 7's can do another vault, but I've always seen them do the front handspring.

Your gym may have them all do the same bar routine, but it's not necessary. Ours are slightly different, but all have the same skills for the most part. At that level I don't think there's as much variation as there is when they have more/harder skills at higher levels.

 

[mimi]

To me, I see a big difference between a level 4 bar routine and a level 7 bar routine....giants?? Maybe I'm confused about the post.

 

[gymgal]

L7 can do different vaults but most don't because there is no benefit to it. Everyone starts with a 10 start value and the handspring is the easiest. As for bars, it may have been just the gyms that attended your meet. We see a variety of routines. Some girls do all their skills only on the high bar. Others do 1/2 and 1/2. Most have giants but some do only clear hips. You will see a huge range of heights for the skills too. Dismounts are mostly layouts, but there are some tucks.

 

[kandkfunk]

Optional means that the girls and coaches get to pick which skills are performed to meet the criteria of each event. That being said, there really isn't a lot of variety on vault and bars because the skills chosen are usually the easiest to compete for credit and with a minimal amount of deductions. On vault for example, most level 7 girls, and even some level 8 girls, compete a straight front handspring vault. They compete this vault because it's usually the easiest of the available vaults. Other options for level 7 include a full twist, a half twist, a half-on half or full off and a yama****a (sp?). At level 7, my daughter has competed a front handspring, a half twist and a half-on half-off. Although the front handspring vaults at levels 5, 6 and 7 all look the same, the judging standards just get harder at each level.

As for bars, girls mostly stick with clear hips and giants to fulfill the requirements. Some girls have 1 clear hip with 1 or 2 giants and others just have 2 clear hips - one on each bar. At our meet this last weekend, however, we saw some level 7 girls performing stalders on the low bar as one of their circling elements. We were outside of our normal region, so I'm not sure if this was a regional thing or just something that specific gym trains, but it was really cool.

You will see the most variety on floor and beam because there are just more skills to choose from to fulfill the requirements. My daughter competes a bhs back layout and a fhs front layout on floor. Her front pass could also be a fhs front pike (which she has competed) a fhs front tuck or a font tuck-front tuck. On beam, girls do everything from cartwheels to a bhs-bhs connection. The dismounts vary between back tucks, front tucks and gainers. These events are definitely much more interesting because of the variety of the routines.