WAG Too young for Optionals?

[Committed]

There are 3 girls on DDs team who are 8yo & L7s. 2 are scoring in the 37s (the other is getting 35-36s)
That being said, they didn't skip any levels.
Two of them competed L3, L4, & L5
The other competed L4 & L5.

In all of DDs meets, she competes against 11-12yos, but I must say, it's the youngest who are the most fierce competitors. Sometimes the 'older' girls wish to be bumped to the higher age bracket!! So, I can't say that age is truly a factor. I would have to agree that your DD just wasn't ready.

 

[duyetanh]

It's a personal opinion really. Mine is an 8 year old optional, and I feel she is doing well. But if I based it on getting 37s consistently or hardware, she definitely would not be doing well.
If you feel she needs another year, do talk to the coaches. The jump from 6 to 7 isn't big...but it could be if she is doing the bare minimum skills in 6...I have no idea what skills she is doing (not trying to be harsh here). I think 34 shows some proficiency...if you said she was scoring 31 or 32 I would not feel the same. Good luck to her. How does she feel about it, btw?

 

[CameraShy]

Usually when someone says a level was "skipped" they mean it was scored out of instead of competing a full season.
You can't compete L4 until the age of 7. If you are in a state that has a fall season and a spring season and both compulsories and optionals are competed in both seasons and the birthdate falls just right, I could see "moving quickly" meaning competing L4 (fall age 7) and L5/L6 (spring age 7… because you are allowed to go back and forth), and L8 at age 8. Is that what your daughter did?

Her bday fell just right... Barely 7 in time to compete L4 in spring, L5 in fall, L6 a month later (winter optional season), then half the season L7, half season L8 the following year and finishing just shy of the 9th bday. She didn't really "score out" since I take that as a one meet kind of thing. May just be how I interpret it vs. how someone else does.

 

[ascarter1]

My daughter is 8, and competing lv6 this year. She competed lv3 last year and had a very successful season. (Top 3 AA all year). We are at a very small local gym and they skipped her several levels against my wishes for what I believe to be because they did not have very many optional girls. This jump has been horrible for her confidence, she is only scoring around 34 AA & only ever medals on beam. She is in the youngest age group at meets but the other girls are around 10-11. Anyone else have experience with younger girls in Optionals?

Last year, dd jumped from lv 3 to lv 6. It was a tough jump but I'm so glad we did. She was 10, so a little older than your dd. Her other teammates (who all jumped levels) were from 8-11. They had a successful year. Dd ended the season at 36.95 (which was significantly lower than her compulsory scores). She competed lv 7 this season and has had a fairly successful year so far.

It can be done, it can be successful, and it is definitely difficult. There were many growing pains along the way.

Trust the process, trust her coaches.

Best of luck!!

 

[gymmomtotwo]

My original post wasn't advocating rapid movement thru the levels or saying it was a good thing (or bad) thing. It was more meant to try and help the original posters daughter see that being a 34 Level 6 at 8 years old was a pretty darn good thing since she is not having the tangible success she was enjoying at Level 3. Apparently she is losing confidence at this level jump, and I thought that if it was explained to her that she was in a higher level, and while her scores and placements are lower, being in that level is an accomplishment in itself. I never said to compare her to other gymnasts but just to say, yeah, you'd place higher at 4, but being at 6 is a good thing. The post doesn't mention other gymnasts at all now that I look at it. Is moving levels not one of the goals? Aquisition of skills and advancement through the levels seems maybe more worthy of personal pride than actual placement and scores. Those the gymnast can't control, those are at the whim of judges or what age group you fall in on a given day. Advancement to the next level is within the gymnasts control. New skills, jumps that meet tougher angle requirements, harder dance all have to be mastered to advance. And yes gymnasts get way layed with fears, injuries, or they hit a plateau or they take off later than others. But in the end, most JO gymnasts would like to see level 10 someday if they stick with it. However they do it, right now this kid thinks she is not doing a good job because she is not medaling the way she is used to. It is because she has been advanced quickly, but her scores of 34 do not indicate a huge mistake on the part of her coaches. She is clearly competent at 6. I see nothing wrong in telling her performance at 6 measures up to higher placements she might have had in level 4.

 

[raenndrops]

My original post wasn't advocating rapid movement thru the levels or saying it was a good thing (or bad) thing. It was more meant to try and help the original posters daughter see that being a 34 Level 6 at 8 years old was a pretty darn good thing since she is not having the tangible success she was enjoying at Level 3. Apparently she is losing confidence at this level jump, and I thought that if it was explained to her that she was in a higher level, and while her scores and placements are lower, being in that level is an accomplishment in itself. I never said to compare her to other gymnasts but just to say, yeah, you'd place higher at 4, but being at 6 is a good thing. The post doesn't mention other gymnasts at all now that I look at it. Is moving levels not one of the goals? Aquisition of skills and advancement through the levels seems maybe more worthy of personal pride than actual placement and scores. Those the gymnast can't control, those are at the whim of judges or what age group you fall in on a given day. Advancement to the next level is within the gymnasts control. New skills, jumps that meet tougher angle requirements, harder dance all have to be mastered to advance. And yes gymnasts get way layed with fears, injuries, or they hit a plateau or they take off later than others. But in the end, most JO gymnasts would like to see level 10 someday if they stick with it. However they do it, right now this kid thinks she is not doing a good job because she is not medaling the way she is used to. It is because she has been advanced quickly, but her scores of 34 do not indicate a huge mistake on the part of her coaches. She is clearly competent at 6. I see nothing wrong in telling her performance at 6 measures up to higher placements she might have had in level 4.

I get what you are trying to say.
Your original post just sounded like you were saying that being at level 6 made her better than if SHE were at level 4 … but to an 8 year old, that could mean that being a L6 is better than being and L4 at her age… which could get her thinking that she is better than girls her age who are L4, even if they are just as good as her.
I agree that if she is scoring 34s, then the coaches did not make a huge mistake. We tell our gymnasts that personal success (making skill goals, hitting routines, and all of that is the best way to measure success… Did YOU do the best that YOU could do? If not, what can YOU do to fix it? Did you make ANY of your skill goals at the meet? Did you have a personal best score? Do you feel that you did a personal best routine, regardless of the score?) is more important than placement. That last one about a personal best routine, regardless of score came in handy with OG a few years ago. She competed her beam routine - almost flawless… scored an 8.1 … they didn't give credit for her jump connection OR her acro connection, so she had a 9.0 SV. They only found 0.9 in deductions on a routine that included 11 skills when only 6 were required! That was AWESOME, so she was happy about the routine - it was her fewest deductions on a beam routine ever (but the score wasn't representative of the routine)!

 

[MiniSky85]

My DD went from L3 to L6 when she was 9y/o. She was always in the youngest age group. In many meets she didn't place, some she did. After one meet where she didn't receive anything, I asked her if we made the right move to advance her. "Mom, doing bad in optionals is still way more fun than doing good in compulsories," was her response. Maybe she isn't the most mature gymnast, but she loves gymnastics. She repeated L6 this season again and is much stronger and more consistent. Picking a goal for each event and being proud of those accomplishments may have to replace medals for a while.

 

[Torimom12]

I think jumping from level 3 to level 6 is way too much for an 8 yr old. Getting the basic skills in compulsorily makes it easier when they move up. I think she should of at least did another year compulsory level to at least build confidence. We had a young girl at our gym jump 2 levels and she is getting destroyed in competition...it is awful when we watch and she is getting very discouraged. She never medals and she is upset every meet. It's not worth it, Good luck!

 

[gymcoach1]

I think jumping from level 3 to level 6 is way too much for an 8 yr old. Getting the basic skills in compulsorily makes it easier when they move up. I think she should of at least did another year compulsory level to at least build confidence. We had a young girl at our gym jump 2 levels and she is getting destroyed in competition...it is awful when we watch and she is getting very discouraged. She never medals and she is upset every meet. It's not worth it, Good luck!

Gonna have to disagree. It could be worth it in the long run just because she isn't medaling now doesn't mean this won't help her in the future.

 

[munchkin3]

Can't gymnasts focus on learning as many skills possible vs. level? In the end it all ends up where it should.....
If someone is going from learning a kip, to kip cast HS, and then Giants......or if someone goes through BT and then Right to BLO and maybe some twisting....
Don't know....it seems level talk should come onto play about 1-2 months before the season. Our workout groups are not even divided by level, it's by skills.....
Isn't this more logical when trying to get to the upper levels?

 

[raenndrops]

Can't gymnasts focus on learning as many skills possible vs. level? In the end it all ends up where it should.....
If someone is going from learning a kip, to kip cast HS, and then Giants......or if someone goes through BT and then Right to BLO and maybe some twisting....
Don't know....it seems level talk should come onto play about 1-2 months before the season. Our workout groups are not even divided by level, it's by skills.....
Isn't this more logical when trying to get to the upper levels?

We are in "no levels or divisions" season right now. We have "clubs" where different skills are being worked. It helps that the whole team practices at the same time all year It makes it easier to change it up.

 

[munchkin3]

We are in "no levels or divisions" season right now. We have "clubs" where different skills are being worked. It helps that the whole team practices at the same time all year It makes it easier to change it up.

I agree that when competition season is over, kids should be grouped by skill......when they acquire skills they move to a new group......it's not uncommon for a level 5, 8 year old with BHS on beam, and kip cast to high horizontal to be in the same group as a level 7 girl who may be struggling with the BHS on beam, or working on layouts vs. tucked flyaways.....in the end it makes more sense for the coaches. We even have a few L8 girls who lost some skills working at the lowest optional group.....with L5s.
Does is suck sometimes for a 13 yo L7 to be with a 8yo L5? Maybe, but they have to get over it......in the end it's progress that matters, not level......I even would guess that it keeps the motivation a bit higher for the older teen girls (who may be more complacent) when they get a younger focused kid working hard.

 

[LJL07]

It all depends on the gym's philosophy and how they move kids through the levels. Some don't care about scores at lower levels, some do. Just doing the bare minimum at a higher level/or just having the skills doesn't mean you are better than a gymnast competing the only the best skills they can at a lower one. Most kids in gyms competing and scoring 37s at their level have skills for the levels above them and could compete at the next level and score 34s, it doesn't mean they are less accomplished than the kids competing in the higher level! Just that their gym's philosophy is to not compete things until they are super solid and have good form and will score 9s, etc.

I'd just explain to her that skipping levels is hard and that you are proud of her hard work! Reminding her that she's often competing against older, more experienced girls is fine, but don't put down other gymnasts in the process!

Agree with this. I have an 8 yr old level 4 scoring 37s all season. Sure, she could have competed 6 and I have been frustrated about that, BUT I have seen some sloppy looking 7&8 yr old level 6/7/8, so competing it and competing it proficiently are not the same thing. At the very least, my 8 yr old level 4 has gotten very polished on the basics and hopefully this will serve her well next year. Some gyms seem to push them up very quickly if the kids get the skills but others seem to want extremely clean form before moving up. It seems rare to find a gym that strikes a good balance between the two at least where we live!

 

[mom2newgymnast]

From what I have heard/seen, no one skips level 4 at dd's gym. I do agree that it must be a gym philosophy thing though. They also do not do much uptraining in compulsories and they train separately so there is no mastering next level skills and moving up during the season. However, the optional girls do train together and there is much more of the uptraining/learning new skills at those levels. I don't think there is the huge hurry to get the girls out of compulsories and into optionals that some gyms here seem to have. Perhaps, because they are not an elite gym? They do have quite a few level 10's/college scholarships, but I think there just isn't that focus on getting there super quick. Personally, I am not in a hurry and am happy that my dd is able to spend time in compulsories, learning good basics and doing well. I am definitely not one to push for her to skip levels and train more!

 

[raenndrops]

I agree that when competition season is over, kids should be grouped by skill......when they acquire skills they move to a new group......it's not uncommon for a level 5, 8 year old with BHS on beam, and kip cast to high horizontal to be in the same group as a level 7 girl who may be struggling with the BHS on beam, or working on layouts vs. tucked flyaways.....in the end it makes more sense for the coaches. We even have a few L8 girls who lost some skills working at the lowest optional group.....with L5s.
Does is suck sometimes for a 13 yo L7 to be with a 8yo L5? Maybe, but they have to get over it......in the end it's progress that matters, not level......I even would guess that it keeps the motivation a bit higher for the older teen girls (who may be more complacent) when they get a younger focused kid working hard.

The girls on our team are only 7 to 15 ... With an 18 year old that trains off and on (but she looks 10). Our youngest girl going potentially to L5 is 9 right now. The 7 year old might move to L4 if she gets the skills.
The 15 year old is our lone L8 at this point. We have two L7 that could move up. The three of them are working yurchenko drills together and working giants and cast handstands... Along with some of the L6s.

 

[refugee]

My daughter competed the old L4 at age 7. She had a competitor that year who was then 8. We didn't see her the next year (looked for her--she was impressive as a L4). In fact, they wouldn't compete against each other again...she jumped to L7 the next year while my daughter went thru the one level/year route. They became teammates (and great friends) a few years later, now one level apart. She was still an impressive gymnast. Notably, the friend observed and mentioned that my daughter had stronger fundamentals because she didn't skip L5 and L6. By L9, my daughter caught up, and passed her friend the next year. In the FWIW category.