The "will my child move up" thread got me wondering. There seem to be two schools of thought on advancing compulsory gymnasts. I'd love to hear from both sides.
I could develop a hypothetical situation, but I don't need to - I'll just use me daughter. I'll preface it all by saying - 1. I fully understand and appreciate this is the coaches' decision, 2. I truly don't care if she advances or not next year, as I see the pros and cons to both option, and 3. Completely understand that the "evaluative criteria" is different from gym to gym. I was discussing it in a "how bizarre" kind of conversation with a former NCAA scholarship gymnast and thought it would be a good discussion point.
So - the basics - a gymnast who can physically complete every skill in her current level. Receives 7s - 8.4s on routines. Has a lot of "cleaning up" to do on current routines. Can physically complete all skills on the next level of routines, one with a light spot (in this instance, ROBH).
And not that it's critical to the evaluation, but could definitely play a roll in the decision making - is currently riding the age minimum for levels.
So - do you:
(a) retain her in the current level for a year to have her clean up her routines and increase her scores?
(b) uptrain her for the next level, but repeat competing the current level?
(c) advance her to the next level?
And why?
Again - not a debate, and definitely not a diagnosis of my daughter. She was just as good of an example as I could have devised, and didn't want to be dishonest about it.
Anecdotal experiences, coaches experiences, and general opinions all wanted
I could develop a hypothetical situation, but I don't need to - I'll just use me daughter. I'll preface it all by saying - 1. I fully understand and appreciate this is the coaches' decision, 2. I truly don't care if she advances or not next year, as I see the pros and cons to both option, and 3. Completely understand that the "evaluative criteria" is different from gym to gym. I was discussing it in a "how bizarre" kind of conversation with a former NCAA scholarship gymnast and thought it would be a good discussion point.
So - the basics - a gymnast who can physically complete every skill in her current level. Receives 7s - 8.4s on routines. Has a lot of "cleaning up" to do on current routines. Can physically complete all skills on the next level of routines, one with a light spot (in this instance, ROBH).
And not that it's critical to the evaluation, but could definitely play a roll in the decision making - is currently riding the age minimum for levels.
So - do you:
(a) retain her in the current level for a year to have her clean up her routines and increase her scores?
(b) uptrain her for the next level, but repeat competing the current level?
(c) advance her to the next level?
And why?
Again - not a debate, and definitely not a diagnosis of my daughter. She was just as good of an example as I could have devised, and didn't want to be dishonest about it.
Anecdotal experiences, coaches experiences, and general opinions all wanted