British Gymnastics Membership

[Ex member]

My second thread in a few mins (told you I would make a pain in the butt of myself)

I have asked this question in a unrelated thread but I would rather make a new one as I have got more to add..

As you may of read I was confused that my youngest dd was upgraded to Silver Club Competitive a few weeks ago when she is only doing 2 1/2 hours a week in a development type group once a week. I also said that my oldest dd was doing her national grades soon and was still on Bronze membership. I thought that the gym had got my two dd's muddled up (easily done as I do it and so do their school teachers even thought there is 3 years between them). It turns out that there was no mix up (I asked another mum in youngest dd's group if her dd had been upgraded and she said that her dd did get upgraded at the same time as my dd) and the person who works on the desk and does the admin said that my youngest dd was upgraded and I mentioned that my oldest dd was still on Bronze and I was told that they were then going to upgrade my oldest dd as well.

I was wondering how the levels worked?

Is Bronze level for rec or is it for competitive gymnastis who do local competitions?
What is Silver level for?

I understand there is a price difference between the two but we don't pay for the membership as the fees are included in the direct debit for class fees.

If Silver level is for higher level competitions then I find it hard to see why they have upgraded the girls in dd's group, they do not do competitions yet and they are not working towards grades at the moment, the biggest skills they are doing is carwheel on the beam ( girls who has been the group for 1 year sometimes does backwalkoverd on the beam), this girls was with a different coach when she started and a new coach took over when my dd and the other girls started around 2-3 months ago. They have finally started working on the floor and the biggest skills they are learning are back bends up a wedge block or on a crash mat depending on the gymnast,bridge kickovers down a wedge block, round off's and cartwheels, the biggest skills on bars right now are circle up, front support, casting, frowards roll down and a spotted handstand from a cast. Is there anything that they are doing that really needs Silver Club Competitive membership unless they are going to be changing things in the group doing more days and hours and training towards grades and such. It doesn't make sense for the club to spend the money on upgrading them in their current form.

Do you mind telling me what your dd/ds is doing in the gym and what membership level they have..

I will start...

Youngest dd - Silver Club Competitive and I have no idea what she is doing
Oldest dd - Disabilitly gymnast - Upgrading to Silver (just waiting for the card to come through) and she is doing Disability Rec trampolining and Training for her Disability National NDP grades in April

 

[Learning Parent GB]

My DD has a Bronze membership and will be doing grade 13, a floor and vault comp and then level 5 this year. She will need to upgrade her membership to silver if she passes level 5 and moves to level 4, because that is a proper national level of competition - in my understanding. Our disability gymnasts that are approx. level 5 skill wise had to upgrade their membership to silver when they competed in a disability competition last year because it was a national competition.

That doesn't help clarify things does it?

 

[Flossyduck]

According to BG website, bronze is for people doing rec or competing in local competitions, silver is for those competing at regional or national competitions.

My understanding would be that if you compete anything from grade 14 upwards, you would need silver, as grades 14-9 are called 'regional club grades' and 8-5 are 'national club grades'.
but it might partly depend on how your region operates - Some offer more local and county based competitions and lower grades can be done at county level.

My dd has had silver level since she moved from her two hour a week rec class into the development squad.

 

[rlp2]

From the BG website:
Recreational Gymnast - Bronze £17
Competitive Gymnast - Competing in local and some Regional competitions* Bronze £17
Talent Pathway Gymnast Competing in Regional, National and British competitions* Silver £41

* Competitions resulting in National finals require silver membership.

 

[Rapunzel]

Has your region got a handbook on their website? Ours covers a few counties in the region, includes the county comps to the National comps. It includes which membership is needed for which competition.

 

[Ex member]

According to BG website, bronze is for people doing rec or competing in local competitions, silver is for those competing at regional or national competitions.

My understanding would be that if you compete anything from grade 14 upwards, you would need silver, as grades 14-9 are called 'regional club grades' and 8-5 are 'national club grades'.
but it might partly depend on how your region operates - Some offer more local and county based competitions and lower grades can be done at county level.
My dd has had silver level since she moved from her two hour a week rec class into the development squad.

Our gym also has a two hour a week Rec class, dd went from 1 hour a week Rec into her current development group, this difference between advanced Rec and my dd's group is that the conditioning in harder and they can spent longer on condtioning - the best part of 1 hour at the begining and stretching for around 20 mins or so at the end out of a 2 1/2 hour class.

Dd's gym does the following (and possible more):

Local County Grades (not Grade 14-1) Levels 1-6 (or maybe 1-5) - old Floor & Vault Squad now do this.
Grades 14-9
Grades 8-5
Grades 4-1
County Squad
Performance Squad
Disability NDP Grades 10-1
Trampoline Squad

My DD has a Bronze membership and will be doing grade 13, a floor and vault comp and then level 5 this year. She will need to upgrade her membership to silver if she passes level 5 and moves to level 4, because that is a proper national level of competition - in my understanding. Our disability gymnasts that are approx. level 5 skill wise had to upgrade their membership to silver when they competed in a disability competition last year because it was a national competition.

That doesn't help clarify things does it?

It still doesn't explain why youngest dd's club have upgraded her lol

From the BG website:
Recreational Gymnast - Bronze £17
Competitive Gymnast - Competing in local and some Regional competitions* Bronze £17
Talent Pathway Gymnast Competing in Regional, National and British competitions* Silver £41

* Competitions resulting in National finals require silver membership.

Looking at the above Membership levels my youngest dd fits the Bronze level membership as it will cover some competitions, I cannot still understand why they upgraded dd's group partway through the membership year unless you need Silver to train Grade 14 and above this year and they go on to compete next year, kind of like a founadtion type squad, I am completly unexperienced with this side of gymnastics but I am looking forward to see where dd's group is heading, as long as dd is happy and learning and progressing then I am happy and I am not bothered if she is Bronze or Silver level, just curious about the upgrade for a group training once a week and not competing yet.

 

[Ex member]

Has your region got a handbook on their website? Ours covers a few counties in the region, includes the county comps to the National comps. It includes which membership is needed for which competition.

The only handbook is General Gymnastics , nothing on WAG for our Region, I haven't looked to see if there is a seperate county website or just a Regional one. I will go and check..

Edit..
There was a County website but that has errors all over it and has not been updated for 3 years so I guess it is just the Regional one that is not very good.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

I only upgraded my daughters membership to Silver this last year when she competed out of county at regional level (Wiltshire Open, Alpha Factor etc) Up until then Bronze was sufficient.

 

[Ex member]

I only upgraded my daughters membership to Silver this last year when she competed out of county at regional level (Wiltshire Open, Alpha Factor etc) Up until then Bronze was sufficient.

The gym club upgraded dd to Silver with the rest of her class, dd is in "intermediate C" according to her coach.

 

[Learning Parent GB]

I feel the need to check this out now. DD only has a couple of weeks before grades. Margo, am I right in thinking your DD is a higher level than my DD (level 5, about to do grade 13) but managed with a bronze membership?
DD's competitions are only county level so I presume they would just upgrade her if she did well and progressed to the next stage or to compete for the county team. That is very unlikely to happen!
But I do hope that she will pass level 5 and at that point we automatically upgrade membership....which gets me back to thinking that the issue of grades may just have been forgotten as the gym didn't do any last year. It's all too confusing!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Yep

P&F did 12 last year and will do either 11 or 10 this year - she is competing Level 5 out of county but may move to 4 when her giants are consistent.

She only upgraded when we went out of county.

 

[Ex member]

I feel the need to check this out now. DD only has a couple of weeks before grades. Margo, am I right in thinking your DD is a higher level than my DD (level 5, about to do grade 13) but managed with a bronze membership?
DD's competitions are only county level so I presume they would just upgrade her if she did well and progressed to the next stage or to compete for the county team. That is very unlikely to happen!
But I do hope that she will pass level 5 and at that point we automatically upgrade membership....which gets me back to thinking that the issue of grades may just have been forgotten as the gym didn't do any last year. It's all too confusing!

Oldest dd has National NDP finals in 6 weeks so will be competing out of county and will need Silver, after enquiring to see if there was a mix up between my dd's the gym club said they would upgrade dd.

Youngest dd just out of rec and not doing grades yet, not sure if they are training them or not has been upgraded to silver

It is confusing lol

 

[Ex member]

I am guessing the Membership level has something to do with insurance, the more you compete the higher the insurance level and benefits etc.

For me it would make more sense to have the following:

Bronze - Rec and local Rec competitions in own Gym and County
Silver - Training to compete, competing Regional, National and beyond.

 

[Jenny]

I am guessing the Membership level has something to do with insurance, the more you compete the higher the insurance level and benefits etc.

For me it would make more sense to have the following:

Bronze - Rec and local Rec competitions in own Gym and County
Silver - Training to compete, competing Regional, National and beyond.

I think that is pretty much what it is now!

 

[Ex member]

I think that is pretty much what it is now!

That makes sense.