America vs Australia

[gymgurl]

Ok since being on this website particularly with meet/comp season coming up that over in america it is quite common for children to be as young as 8 competing level 6. In Australia you just don't see that, in our gym we have 12 year olds in NDP level 5 i know that our gym is not aimed at elite but it seems that way at a lot of the competitions we've been to. Any ideas on why this may be?

 

[lil_gymnast_alanna]

Well in Australia, there are alot less people than in America. And the Australian system is in streams (State, National and Internatinal), so sometimes you have kids jumping from stream to stream. Also the clubs that have kids in the international programs, tend to do better in all the other streams. Every club has a different sort of atmosphere, some are more relaxed and some are more competetive.
hope this helped!

 

[coachmolly]

I'm not super familiar with the Australian system, but from what I do know, it sounds like they pick out the little super stars early on for the international stream. In the USA, those little hot shots advance through the same program as everyone else, typically just a little faster or at a younger age. So while there are 8 year old level 6s, there are also plenty of older girls in those levels.

 

[Aussie_coach]

There are a lot of differences. In Australia Level 1-3 are fully competitive levels with lots of sanctioned competitions up to state championships. In the USA sanctioned competitions start from level 4 in most area's. This is one of the reasons our gymnasts are older because they spend several years competing levels 1-3 while in the USA the focus is preparing for level 4 and above.

Australian gymnastics also has different expectations in the area's of dance. For example our level 4's must hit full 180 degree split leaps in their routines and in the USA they only need 90 degree's, our levels five's must have full split leaps and jumps on beam with 180 degree's and in the USA this isn't expected until level 7. While our acro expectations are no more difficult the high expectations in the dance area keep kids in the lower levels at later ages.

We have other expectations that keep the kids in lower levels at higher ages. Like vault our level 5's must be on at least 110 cm's and level 6's must be on at least 120 cms our level 7-10's must compete on 125 cms. In the USA there are no expectations and the vault can be as low as it will go making it more possible for small girls to vault.

Also bars, our level 4's must jump to high bar and do high bar skills in their routine. In the USA this is not required until level 5. Meaning in the USA kids of 5 and 6 can do the level 4 routines, where in Australia it would be very difficult especially as we won't allow them to have the bars too close.

 

[gymnastjess]

we have lots of state level 4 and 5 7 year old girls so its not exactly uncommon most of our 14 yr old NDP'S are level 8's and 9's and we have 15 and 16 yr old IDP level 9's aussie coach hit it absoloutely SPOT ON

 

[Kiwi]

I think the New Zealand system is similar to Australia. The girls compete from level 1, most of the level 1 girls seem to be 6 or 7. We don't have state, national and international streams here, but some gyms have an international development program, the girls in this seem to be a little younger. But NZ has a tiny population and hardly rates in gymnastics internationally. I like that the girls can compete straight away, I think my DD would get bored if she had to train for years with no competitions. I must admit I am amazed when I read here of 4 and 5 year olds doing handsprings and so on. I can't imagine my DD doing anything like that when she was in pre-school gym!