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Leanne

Proud Parent
My dd, age 9, had started back at gymnastics a year ago and had just wanted rec classes. She came home from practice last week saying her coach wants to talk to me about her goals. The thing is when I ask her what she wants she does not know. Her gym now says it's optional to go to any of the meets but want her to compete level 5 since she has the skills.
She has done cheer competitions before but I think she is nervous to compete by herself. She says maybe she can do team but only 1 competition. Any suggestions?
 
Talk to the coach first. And she would need to score out of 4 before she could do 5.

Things like Leo's and warmups cost a lot of money for one meet. What are the hours they expect her to train, I'm sure more than rec. and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
 
It's national. You have to get a certain score in level 4 to be able to compete level 5. Girls "score out" by competing level 4 for one meet, getting the needed score, and then moving on to level 5.
 
You may also want to be clear what Level the gym would like your daughter to compete at. If your daughter has been doing gymnastics for a year in a rec class getting invited to compete Level 5 seems a little strange. I'm sure it happens but it is atypical.

Also, a commitment to competing on team will usually require a commitment to compete most meets.
 
If she doesn't know what she wants, and they really will let her compete "voluntarily", and the cost is not too high for leo, etc, I'd say absolutely let her try (meaning, do the required score out for L4, and then compete even one meet L5).
She may decide she likes competing as an individual vs cheer. She might decide there' s no way in heck she's going to continue it.
If the gym really is this easy-going, you've got the best way to find out.
 
If she doesn't know what she wants, and they really will let her compete "voluntarily", and the cost is not too high for leo, etc, I'd say absolutely let her try (meaning, do the required score out for L4, and then compete even one meet L5).
She may decide she likes competing as an individual vs cheer. She might decide there' s no way in heck she's going to continue it.
If the gym really is this easy-going, you've got the best way to find out.
You will also need to get a clear definition from your gym on what all the fees are for team. Her hours will increase immensely, so monthly tuition will increase, and many (if not all) gyms have other fees to pay throughout the year for different things. You want to make sure this is something she really wants to do, it involves a big commitment from her and from the parents. It sounds like a meeting with her coach is definitely in order.
 
She practices 4 hrs a week now plus tumbling. She is just learning the higher skills (loves the new things she can do on the bars) but says she's worried she will mess up if she competes (really struggling on the beam). Is there anything she would miss staying level 4 to relieve stress and any clue if she would still be practicing her other skills? Or do they really get to learn and perfect their skills? I've heard the summer is full of conditioning.
 
I am amazed that some gyms can prepare their rec kids for level 5 with four hours a week! Is it a large team?
 
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It is a little gym. Her class has 3 kids. I think the team all levels practice together. She had done gymnastics when she was young so she had some but the past 4 years she has done cheer and just played around on the gymnastics equipment. I let her do both this year (10-12 hrs of practice all together) with the understanding she had to choose one for next year. She really just can't get enough of any of it.
 
My biggest problem is that I spent the past 4 years in cheer and just got to where I can explain a little and now I feel like I know nothing again. Luckily I have found this board that has helped me a lot (and confused me a little :)
 
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She practices 4 hrs a week now plus tumbling. She is just learning the higher skills (loves the new things she can do on the bars) but says she's worried she will mess up if she competes (really struggling on the beam). Is there anything she would miss staying level 4 to relieve stress and any clue if she would still be practicing her other skills? Or do they really get to learn and perfect their skills? I've heard the summer is full of conditioning.
If she is struggling on even one event, then doing a whole season of level 4 might be best. It gives her a chance to work on her technique which will allow her to really build skills later on. She can also gain experience in doing competitions before adding the pressure of level 5 and beyond. Also, everyone makes mistakes sometimes. Even Simone Biles has fallen in competitions. I think it is a great lesson to learn to fall, get back up and carry on. We all need to do that in life. But, she needs to know that there is no way to assure that she won't fall or make mistakes.
 
Did your daughter compete when she was in cheer? My DD moved from cheer to gymnastics last year. She had a tough time at her first meet getting over the nervousness of being the only one competing as opposed to competing with a bunch of other girls at the same time. But she moved past the nervousness and felt pretty comfortable by her 3rd meet of the season.

As far as competing goes, my advice would be to encourage her to do a full season of competition and then make a decision as to whether or not she wants to continue doing competitive gymnastics. My DD was a MESS at her first competition. She fell off the beam 4 times, fell twice on bars, did her beam turn during floor and forgot to do a full element of her floor routine. Just about all of DD's mistakes were due to nervousness. It took her until her fourth ever (vault) to finally calm her nerves and pull herself together. Every meet after that, her confidence grew and her performance improved. If we had decided to only do one meet last season, I highly doubt DD would have continued on the competitive route.

As far as her level goes, your DD will have to score out of level 4 before she can compete level 5. So your DD will have to compete in at least two competitions if her coach's goal is to have her compete level 5. If it were my DD, I would have her compete one full season at level 4 and see if she wants to continue.

ETA (hit reply before I was finished typing):
Or compete half a season at 4 and then see if she can move on to 5 for the second half if she is comfortable with moving up and her scores are high enough.

One of the biggest hurdles for my DD (coming from cheer) was her form and technique. DD moved from rec to preteam to team in under two months. While she had all of the same skills as her teammates, her form was lacking. It took almost a full year for her technique to improve to the level her teammates were at at the beginning of the season.
 
Is there anything she would miss staying level 4 to relieve stress and any clue if she would still be practicing her other skills? Or do they really get to learn and perfect their skills? I've heard the summer is full of conditioning.

I have a "worrier", and no, there is absolutely nothing she would miss by staying level 4. Level 4 has a lot of skills that really are needed to be solid for the upper levels.
Summer is a lot of conditioning, traditionally, but also a lot of skill-training.
 
Thank you all so much! I talk with the coach this afternoon. I think it will be a full year of level 4 with all the competitions or just stick with her rec class. We'll see how it goes.
 

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