Our daughter did one L7 meet and achieved a mobility score for L8 but then took time off instead of competing L8 last winter. We had wanted her to take this upcoming competition year to get back into training and then have her compete L8 in 2011-2012. We thought we were on the same page with the coaches but after sitting down with the head coach more recently he told us she is coming back a lot more quickly than he had anticipated and he thinks it was premature for us to decide she won't compete at all.
We had thought about advanced prep opt [after repeating L7 was pretty much vetoed by the head coach due to no space on the team and his feeling that she was past that skills wise]. I had kind of wrapped my head around that but after another two weeks of practice the coach would really like us to commit to her competing L8 this fall.
He feels she has enough floor and beam skills to have competitive L8 routines. Her bars are a little stronger she has nice giants, smooth pirouettes, strong cast handstands, and has been uptraining and working on some bar changes and other releases. [Bars are her favorite.] They had not done much with vault but she started working on her Tsuck again and is landing it [and it looks safe according to my MIL which is probably more important].
As I type this I realize that she probably is ready to compete skills wise but I guess I just really want her to take another year and ease back into things. I do get the impression that if we say that firmly the coach will back off and let her do prep opt or not compete at all. In the long run I really think this is the best for her. On the other hand she wants to compete and spent much of this afternoon designing her own beam routine. I suppose I'm conflicted between whether I'm being overprotective or responsible. Any insight from other parents?
We had thought about advanced prep opt [after repeating L7 was pretty much vetoed by the head coach due to no space on the team and his feeling that she was past that skills wise]. I had kind of wrapped my head around that but after another two weeks of practice the coach would really like us to commit to her competing L8 this fall.
He feels she has enough floor and beam skills to have competitive L8 routines. Her bars are a little stronger she has nice giants, smooth pirouettes, strong cast handstands, and has been uptraining and working on some bar changes and other releases. [Bars are her favorite.] They had not done much with vault but she started working on her Tsuck again and is landing it [and it looks safe according to my MIL which is probably more important].
As I type this I realize that she probably is ready to compete skills wise but I guess I just really want her to take another year and ease back into things. I do get the impression that if we say that firmly the coach will back off and let her do prep opt or not compete at all. In the long run I really think this is the best for her. On the other hand she wants to compete and spent much of this afternoon designing her own beam routine. I suppose I'm conflicted between whether I'm being overprotective or responsible. Any insight from other parents?