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rlm's mom

Proud Parent
Hey plain curiosity causing me to ask this question... Does anyone here have/had a DD level 8-10 and not changed gym since she started? If you did do a gym change or two was it because you were unhappy with your old gym, or did your DD outgrow it?
I'll start: we changed gym when DD's were going on levels 6 and 8 because our old gym didn't have a strong optional team. Looking around my DD's groups I know most girls didn't start doing gymnastics here at 6 - they all moved sometime during the higher levels. Obviously that's because our gym has extremely strong optional coaching staff and is the only one of the kind right in our area.
ETA maybe this should be a poll
 
My daughter is still at the same gym she started at. She started as a 5 year old in training group and started competing level 2 as a 6 year old. She's now 13, competed level 9 last year and will either be 9 or 10 this year (trying for 10, but not quite sure she'll be ready on floor).

Of the girls she started with in training group/level 2, none are still in the sport. I think 1 from her level 3 team and a couple from her level 4 team are still at the gym, but not sure their level. Of her current training group, I'd say about 1/3 started here (they are mostly older because she's in the level 10 group). The rest either moved from out of state (pretty rare) or moved from other gyms (a lot).

What's kind of sad is, despite her being one of the few original girls, she's actually kind of the outcast. The other girls that have joined her team from other gyms mostly knew each other already and have kind of taken over and don't really include her. But she's fiercely loyal and there really aren't better alternatives nearby, so she sticks with it.
 
In my experience most level 8-10’s around here are at the sane gym they started at.

Following a consistent training program, planned over several years is one of the keys to making it to this level.

Also kids training higher hours become pretty attached to their teammates and their coaches.

They get a sense of belonging to a certain gym, it feels like a second home.
 
Same gym here, my younger daughter is only a level 7, but my older daughter competed 8 and was training for 9 when she quit. She did start at a different gym, however we only switched because we moved across the country, and she was a level 5 at the time.

Most 8-10s at our gym started at our gym, with a few exceptions.
 
Of the 14 that started Compulsory with my daughter she is the last one at her gym, she is a level 10. After level 8 there was a large exodus to another gym for greener pastures, which turned out to be not so green with only one remaining in the sport.
After COVID closure we tried a new a gym with a large upper optional team. She had a one month trial and was offered a spot but decided to return to her original gym.
She is the only level 10 and while I often think there was great benefit to having a bigger group I am not the one in the gym everyday so we left the decision to her. Again of the 14 original only 3 remain in the sport.
 
DD is almost JO8 but no plans to change gyms ever. Coaches have changed so in a way her gym has changed but the owner has been their the whole time and she is a coach as well.

Of the girls in JO2 with my DD 50% are still at the same gym with her, the other 50% don't do gymnastics anymore.

When my DD went to JO5/6 several girls from outside gyms joined the team, 75% of those girls have gym hopped to another gym since then.
 
There were 17 girls on the level 3 team with my dd. Now, there are only 4 left at the gym and they are all level 9 or 10. My dd left after several injuries and switched to a different gym to do Xcel. The girls that left are no longer doing gymnastics. Several are doing competitive cheer.
 
My daughter changed gyms at level 9, huge mistake, it was due to a coach she did not like who ended up leaving later. The owner was out of the country for over a month, so we were going to just take a break until she got back but she started at a new gym that had no idea what they were doing, so she made a move to another well established gym where she stayed for a few years before returning to her original gym. Of the girls she started with none made it to level 10 as seniors, a few left around sophomore/junior years. One gal is a diver at her same college now, she left gymnastics around level 8.
 
Wow its interesting to hear that a lot of your DD's stayed at the same gym all the way through. Out of over 30 level 9's and 10's at our gym only 3 that I know of started in this gym. There is a mass exodus to our gym at around 6/7 as we are the only gym in the area with a large, successful optional program. Our compulsory program on the other hand isn't on a much lower standard but there are many other similar compulsory programs in the area. Most girls still in the sport by 6/7 switch to our gym. I assumed a lot of gyms are like that.
 
Changed gyms after level 6. They moved my daughter up 3-6, with just 1 year of ever stepping foot in a gym. They told my wife and I we will work on her form when she gets to level 10. She’s now a 12 year old level 10 Hopes gymnast. Our gym change was the best decision for my daughter
 
DD started in a rec gym so she switched to the only competitive gym in our area at 5 years old so technically not really a switch. She’s been there ever since. Reading through these posts about retention rates makes me think our small town gym is pretty impressive, lol. Of the 10 girls selected for team the year my dd started, 3 remain at the gym (if they want to compete, they have to stay or move hours away). One is L8, one L9, and then my dd. She’s the only elite, but we do have several promising up-comers.
 
My DD stayed at the same gym from parent and tot until she graduated high school. From her first competitive group of 16, I believe 4 or 5 made it to level 10 and another group of 3 or 4, including my DD, moved over to Diamond. I believe that means almost half of her original group stuck with the sport until graduation (or assume they will as they are seniors now). I have difficulty getting a clear count as girls added in to the various groups over the years and it all blends together! Interestingly, my DD never had a teammate leave for another gym.

Our gym has a decent track record of keeping gymnasts in the sport thru high school. I think this is because we offer a lot of flexibility - Diamond with same optional coaches, strong xcel program for Bronze thru Platinum with steady coaches, flexibility to be an event specialist at the upper levels if that suits you better, and support for participating in high school activities.
 
Most girls still in the sport by 6/7 switch to our gym. I assumed a lot of gyms are like that.
I think it comes down to a few things. The coaching first and if you have a coach that can coach a level 10. As you can see from the thread the numbers dwindle as levels go up and as we did you seek a place that has a larger program. It is hard to be a team of one. One of the gyms nearest us with a large optional team is made of almost all transplants from other gyms. That coach literally recruits from the other gyms.
In the end my daughter chose to be a team of one which has its own challenges.
 
We chanbed when she was 6/7 loved her coach. Was unwilling to do the high hours they wanted for a little kid.

Current gym and L8. She could be L9 but has some injurie and she really doesnt want more. Our gym is capable of L10s but our hours max out at 12 hrs during the school year, so L8/9 is where our kids tend to top out. And they all move on to Varsity high school sports a lot of the time as freshman. Those who want the higher hour gym move on and that’s fine, the training our kids get those higher hour L10 gyms are happy to have them.

Seriously I do what’s best for my kid. stay, go to a different gym or do other things. Its what works best for her and our family. And next year shell be a junior, I don’t know how many of her tribe will be left and I could see her moving to a gym where some of her HS team train, and that would be Xcel. whatever works
 
We changed gyms when my oldest was a level 10 because she had outgrown that gym ...we changed again 4 years later when that coach was too busy with his Olympians to coach the 10s and it was a fabulous move for all of us...we were at the last gym for 5 years before the last went off to college .
 
My daughter started team with a group of thirteen girls. By the time my she was level 7, nine of the original thirteen were still together and her gym had a team of 15 optionals. Within the next few years, five had left the sport, five had switched to new gyms, and five ended up staying at the original gym. Out of the those remaining ten gymnasts at multiple gyms, two quit their junior year, four continued through senior year, and the youngest three girls are still at it, training to compete Level 10 this year.

My D was one of the five who changed gyms, which was the absolute right choice for her at the time. New gym has many girls join at 9/10, typically because they have a goal of competing in college and have "outgrown" their gym, or because they're training alone as the highest level athlete at their current gym and want the camaraderie of training and competing with a strong and successful 9/10 team.
 
My DD was going on level 8 when we moved... she had two other team-mates on that level. She's a sociable kid and found it hard to have only 2 friends on her level. She was friends with the level 7's but then MD was also and I found my DD's needed their own space and different friends. They are both level 10's now and are part of about 30 level 10's in the gym - so plenty of space for them to branch out!
 
My daughter started at our gym as a 5 year old in rec classes. She is now 14. She competed L9 last year and will be Xcel Diamond this year. We are at the same gym. I offered switching gyms many times as she really struggled under the head L8/9/10 coach. She refused to leave because she loved her friends. Though many girls have left (some for other gyms, but most for other activities), her core group of friends is still there. I think that almost all of our L9/10 group started at our gym (other than a couple that may have moved from other states).
 
Changed gyms after level 6. They moved my daughter up 3-6, with just 1 year of ever stepping foot in a gym. They told my wife and I we will work on her form when she gets to level 10. She’s now a 12 year old level 10 Hopes gymnast. Our gym change was the best decision for my daughter
I have been considering a change for my daughter. She is currently a level 7 and I feel that it might be best to move to another gym with more coaches and more level 7s and 8s. I feel she could excel further but she doesn't want to change. I think she is just comfortable with the girls she knows. How does one go about making the change? Do you call the other gym confidentially? how do we inform the current coach without burning a bridge should it not work out elsewhere?
 
I have been considering a change for my daughter. She is currently a level 7 and I feel that it might be best to move to another gym with more coaches and more level 7s and 8s. I feel she could excel further but she doesn't want to change. I think she is just comfortable with the girls she knows. How does one go about making the change? Do you call the other gym confidentially? how do we inform the current coach without burning a bridge should it not work out elsewhere?
Well our situation was a little different. We knew someone that was going to my daughters current gym that was recruiting us. Also my wife called the new gym and said we haven’t made any decisions yet we just want to come in for a tryout. Once we went to our old gym to talk they kicked us out anyway, so we never even talked about the new gym because they wanted us gone. Was a lot of stories on why they kicked us out, but it’s been three years and it’s was the best thing for my kid so I can careless about the truth now.
 

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