WAG What's your gym doing with L5 and L6

[JoyAvenueMom]

Just curious....now that it seems most gyms have made team level assignments and starting teaching routines, what is going to be the reality of the New Levels 5 and 6? Is your gym doing one or the other...or both?

Our gym held a move up meet to score out of new L5. Everyone who would have competed old L6 this year is going to compete the new L6 instead. The word I got from coaches was the skill requirements are very similar, and they would rather have them competing with the other optionals. They are not requiring giants, layouts on floor, or BHS on beam in order to move up. (although some of the girls are training those skills)

Do we know yet if there will be a mobility score required to go from 6 to 7 after this year?

 

[GymMom67]

Our gym also had the girls score out of Level 5 and will be competing Level 6 in the spring. I'm not sure if this will be the plan from here going forward, or if it was just for this year. My DD isn't at that level yet.

 

[Deleted member 15064]

Our gym has both lvl 5 & 6 gymnasts competing this season.

Some of our gymnasts purposefully scored out of old lvl 5, (my daughter included) and old lvl 6 near the end of last season.

I'm curious to know, too, if my daughter doesn't move on to lvl 6 optionals this season (and obtain mobility score) will she have the choice to compete lvl 7 next fall? My guess is not.

 

[Gym Beam]

We have no Level 5 gymnasts competing this season. Our old Level 4 gymnasts who would have been old Level 5 are competing new Level 4.

 

[vagymmomma]

We don't have new level 6. Most of our L6 girls from last year moved to L7 except for a couple with mind blocks/skill deficiencies (they stayed at L5).

 

[aerialriver]

We did AAU a lot. They have a level called mod opt. Which is kind of higher than a 5 but lower than a 7 (old levels) the kids that did that are doing the new 5&6 depending on where their skill level is. The 5's are not to thrilled to be doing compulsories again. Strangely we have no 7's now.

 

[Quadqueen]

Our gym has old level 5s either repeating (so new 4), or moving on to L6 (they scored out). We will have no L5s. Our old gym will have girls in both L5 and L6.

 

[htimcj]

We have girls in both l5 and l6 although only 2 in 6 right now. Most of the girls who were in old 5 stayed in new 5. Two girls in old 6 went to new 6 and four girls from old six went to 7. So our gym took full advantage of all the levels.

 

[SignHere]

We have girls who competed old 5 last year who did a score out meet over the summer . They will compete as new 6s.
There are some girls who competed old 5 who are competing new 5.
So we will have girls at both levels.

 

[Natasha]

Our gym has both lvl 5 & 6 gymnasts competing this season.

Some of our gymnasts purposefully scored out of old lvl 5, (my daughter included) and old lvl 6 near the end of last season.

I'm curious to know, too, if my daughter doesn't move on to lvl 6 optionals this season (and obtain mobility score) will she have the choice to compete lvl 7 next fall? My guess is not.

I don't think this will be an issue. Even if a mobility score is required for some reason she can still do a L7 routine but enter as an L6 for one meet and then go to L7. However, I don't see USAG requiring L6 at all as it is designed for girls not quite ready for L7.

 

[lhmom]

Our gym will be doing level 6 instead of level 5. My daughter's group who competed level 5 last season tested out of level 6 back in May. We are curious to see what the other gyms in the state will be doing.

 

[gymmomtoo]

No one doing level 6 here. All going to level 7 or staying in level 5

 

[GymnastMomX2]

We have no one competing level 5. Girls who competed old 5 scored out of old 6 and are either doing new 4, new 6 or new 7.

 

[Bajanswife]

We only have new 4s, 6s and 7s - no new 5s. Our coach didn't want to start over teaching a new compulsory routine to the old 5s and 6s when they had enough of the skills (or were close enough) to be able to put together new 6 routines of their own. Some of the old 6s have the skill set for new 7 so they will compete that if they are ready by the time the first meet comes around. We generally don't decide who is competing what until it's time to send in the meet entries!

 

[LizzieLac]

Well, we will have it all, but some arwe still being sorted out. For instance, one some of last year's level 6s know where they will compete. Two will do new 5, the rest are training right now and decision of 6 or 7 will be made at the beginning of October (our first meet is not until November).

The "funky" group is last year's level 5s. A few may "repeat" (primarily due to bars) which will mean doing level 4. There was the advanced level 5 last year, which you may remember me asking about qualifying for states at the next level. Well, that group did several level 6 meets last year but did not compete vault so they would automatically qualify for level 6 states. It was by design by the head coach as those girls were likely going to be state champs at level 5...fast forward, most were.

So, that advanced group still needs a mobility score to do new 6 (or even 7 if it makes sense), so they will compete at least the first meet at 5, then move to 6 if they look strong. Or they will actually be able to compete level 5 AND level 6 states this year, as our state moved to one season for all levels and the 5 and 6 states are about a month apart.

Sounds like a lot of moving parts, but I think the positive aspect is that there are a lot options for what level to compete and even make moves mid-season. I think this takes some of that awful "what level am I" stress away, so the girls can just train.

 

[gymnastmom38]

Our gym had a bunch of old level 5s test out last spring and will now compete either level 6 or 7 in the spring. Now we have 2 more competing the new level 5 this fall to test out to start competing level 6 in the spring and the remaining old level 5s (including my dd) will compete the new level 4.

 

[LMV]

In the past our gym liked girls to do (at least) a year of L5 and a year of L6 and then they adapted progression in more individualized fashion from there. They did not compete before L5. They competed L7 lightly (only 3 or 4 meets ) so they got there mobility scores but they really trained through their season. Girls who had weak events which kept them from securely making the jump from L6 to optionals were often offered a side step through Prep Opt/Excel where they had a very focused training plan to address their deficenies and get ready to either return to compete an L7 season or possibly to score out of L7 if things clicked in a way it looked like they would be ready to compete L8. During their Prep Opt/Excel side step it is my understanding that they competed routines geared to allow them to continue to progress on the stronger events but also some routines that might have been considered more training routines on the weak events.

This year our gym will start with L4 which seems to just be L5 with a new name. It is my impression that the new plan is for everyone to do (at least) a year of L4 and L5 and then some of the kids, who in the past would have sidestepped through Excel, will now compete L6. Girls who are ready for optionals will go directly to L7 (since it is our coach's understanding that there isn't a required L6 score now) which, at least this year, will still be lightly competed to allow for them to train for L8. I may be missing something because it is really mostly irrelevant to my daughters (older gymnast daughter is repeating L10, younger perhaps gymnast daughter is three and in a pre-school class currently) and I'm just going off of what was shared at our team parents meeting.

 

[wgymmom]

Our gym has no 5's or 6's. We have 2-4 and 7-10. I feel like this is putting my DD at a disadvantage since she "could" score out of new 4, but would then be training and competing alone.

 

[JoyAvenueMom]

Our gym has no 5's or 6's. We have 2-4 and 7-10. I feel like this is putting my DD at a disadvantage since she "could" score out of new 4, but would then be training and competing alone.

That is our situation, too. Kipper was scheduled to test out of old L6 and compete new L6..but wasn't ready in time. Since our gym isn't competing the new L5, she is training with a group that is (mostly) just now learning skills she competed last year. She and I are having weekly conversations about her frustration. She is the only one in her group who already has most of the L5 skills, but isn't allowed to practice them unless there is plenty of extra time. (which is almost never, as they are learning routines). However, I do believe the emphasis our gym (new for us) places on conditioning and perfecting technique will help when she gets ready to work new skills. For example...she had been allowed to work FHS FT on the air floor at old gym and was still landing on her rear. Now, her FHS is getting very powerful and she is focused on learning to control her body shape and the MUCH larger rebound. She told me she knows that when she gets to try the FHS/FT again, it will be much easier. I try to grab these snippets when she brings them up to help encourage her when she "forgets" the big picture.

 

[thefellowsmom]

Oh how I wish I knew. We have a large group of girls in the 5/6/7 range of skills, including my daughter. Not knowing your daughters level is something you just have to learn to live with at our gym as there is no emphasis on levels, just skill development. You compete where you are ready to compete and be successful at the time it is time to compete. Last year dd was on the fence between levels as well and they didn't make their decision until late November. This drives many parents totally batty, especially the newer ones.

The girls who still need to compete at least one meet of compulsories (not scored through a level) are learning the new routines. It does appear that my dd's group is working more on the new routines at this point than the girls that they already know will be competing a compulsory level or those that they know will be competing optional levels so I guess it is possible they plan to score those girls through a level at some point this fall before they make final decisions, but who knows really how they will handle that.

If I had to guess I would say we will have girls at both 5 and 6 but honestly I have learned to stop speculating.