WAG Compulsory Routines Practice 2017-2018

[Deleted member 18037]

I know compulsories build. This is not my first go around. The point is, do you want ok routines, good routines, or great routines? Sure they can be learned in a month, but can they be learned and performed well in a month? In my experience, no. The great routines take lots of practice. (It also doesn't exclude uptraining just because they are learning and practicing routines 5 months before the 1st competition.)

I guess that is one school of thought.

At our gym the school of thought is not to burn them out on a routine. Because they also get to a point where they have done it so much they get bored and lose detail. Get sloppy, make goofy mistakes. Lose focus and perhaps get injured.

Think bell shaped curve. Their proficiency goes up. Timed to be at peak (the top of the curve) by states. As their performance goes up so should their scores. You don't want them on the downside of the curve at states.

The reason it's a season is to improve. The reason for a mock meet is to get a baseline. If they had it all down by meet 1 why bother with a season, just go right to states.

We've had our share of state champs and podium finishers so it works here.

 

[mommyof1]

My daughter's compulsory team starts working on floor and beam routines about three months before their mock meet. Some of this year's new L4s were working on the L4 bars routine while competing L3 last season, but bars is a different animal.

This seems like about the right amount of time for the girls to learn the routines. In past years, they have all seemed confident that they know the routines at the mock meet, even if they are nervous about particular skills or competition in general. For a week or so after each meet they typically take a break from working on routines to focus on uptraining, which helps avert boredom during their very long competitive season.

 

[CuriousCate]

Our gym started teaching the L4s their routines in mid-June and they have their first meet in early September. Honestly, I'm a little worried! The beam routine seems long!

ETA: Now that I've read some of the other replies, I realize that compulsory routines build on each other...our gym did bronze and silver for lvl 2 and 3, so maybe that's why it seems so new and long to learn! And bc my kid is 7 and has the attention span of a ... well... of a 7 year old!

 

[BritBrat]

I talked to my DD last night and she said that she already know most of the L4 routines because she's watched them many times last season, so this makes me feel less stressed.

 

[BritBrat]

I guess that is one school of thought.

At our gym the school of thought is not to burn them out on a routine. Because they also get to a point where they have done it so much they get bored and lose detail. Get sloppy, make goofy mistakes. Lose focus and perhaps get injured.

Think bell shaped curve. Their proficiency goes up. Timed to be at peak (the top of the curve) by states. As their performance goes up so should their scores. You don't want them on the downside of the curve at states.

The reason it's a season is to improve. The reason for a mock meet is to get a baseline. If they had it all down by meet 1 why bother with a season, just go right to states.

We've had our share of state champs and podium finishers so it works here.

This makes a lot of sense to me. Thanks for replying.

 

[John]

But your DD had more experience than most compulsories too.
Our "newbies" have been learning parts of the L3 routine since April. Once they get to L4/5, they have WATCHED the routines so many times that it doesn't take quite as long, so they start REALLY learning them in mid-late August… but all of our levels practice at the same time, so it would be different if the levels weren't in the gym together.

This is true, but IGC is optionals from the start. Whoever said if you have the skills in pieces that the routines come fairly easily has it correct. I will say DD cannot Dance so the text deductions surely got her. She also had never done a back extension roll.

 

[Nikki4]

I guess that is one school of thought.

At our gym the school of thought is not to burn them out on a routine. Because they also get to a point where they have done it so much they get bored and lose detail. Get sloppy, make goofy mistakes. Lose focus and perhaps get injured.

Think bell shaped curve. Their proficiency goes up. Timed to be at peak (the top of the curve) by states. As their performance goes up so should their scores. You don't want them on the downside of the curve at states.

The reason it's a season is to improve. The reason for a mock meet is to get a baseline. If they had it all down by meet 1 why bother with a season, just go right to states.

We've had our share of state champs and podium finishers so it works here.

A thousand times yes!!
We've been a a gym that did that. All they ever did was routines, routines, routines! My dd wasn't even competing yet. She was bored to tears, it felt like they did more routine work than skill work.

Even by the end of level 5 I could see a difference in dds routines. Since the lvl 5 is so similar to the level 4, she had been doing it for 2 years and it was getting sloppy.

 

[skschlag]

I think there is a balance at all levels on drilling routines versus doing skill development. I see the compulsary girls at our gym currently working skill development in one station, and being pulled 1 at a time to work specifics on routines. And these girls are amazing at these routines. Hand placements, etc. are great. But then they go back and work their next skill. To do one over the other could be detrimental to development. And that goes fro optionals all the way up. I know during seaon they do tons of routines...but with new skill development.

 

[ayyyrial]

I don't remember specifically "learning" the routine text after my first year of competing compulsory. I'm sure we had a day or two where we went over the choreo changes from one level to the next. We already knew most things from watching the other girls train and compete. "Learning" the routines was a lot less important than getting competition-ready by drilling routines over and over again to build consistency. We'd also have days where we'd do a meet-style warm-up and then everybody shows their routine one at a time in front of their teammates, to practice in a setting that's more like a meet.

We'd compete September through November. The focus was on skills, drills, and conditioning through probably May or June, and then we'd slowly start focusing more heavily on the skills for the next competition season over the summer. By August we were running full routines. Other than the day competition season ended, when we stopped training routines, there wasn't really a hard line between "uptraining", "pre-competition season", and "competition season".

 

[spider_monkey]

I talked to my DD last night and she said that she already know most of the L4 routines because she's watched them many times last season, so this makes me feel less stressed.

This. My DD is horrible at learning choreography, and did Xcel Gold last year instead of level 2 or 3 so she has nothing to build on, but she already knows most of the level 4 routines she'll be competing this fall because she's watched them so many times.

 

[3rd_time_around]

It actually worked quite well for my dd. She was state champ on floor for levels 4 and 5, scoring in the 9's.

Yes, and the state meet is about 4 months after the first meet.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Again can't speak to other gyms but our kids learn bits and pieces here and there. Even optionals. They have their tumbling runs, their leap sequences. For beam, mounts, dismounts. Bars upper part, lower part, entry, dismount. They practice pieces. So putting it altogether comes quickly. And it appears they are doing very little practice, as in run through start to finish.

Also our coaches are leave gym at gym . But they actually expect you to practice the dance parts at home and watch your videos so the steps become muscle memory.

I remember listening to that L2 music with the dude talking the steps while the kid stepped through it till I could run screaming from the room. And then 3 becomes a bit of a change same for ; then 5.....

 

[3rd_time_around]

They are already working routines for meet season that starts in January. They work skills, uptrain, and work on parts of routines.

This is my first post on this thread. Read it again: skills, uptrain, parts of routines.

It's a successful formula, but what do I know. I'm just saying that it is obvious at the early meets who has just started learning routines vs those who have been leaning them all summer/winter (depending on meet season). I don't believe the meet season is where the learning should be. Yes, improvement should be apparent from 1st meet to state meet, but who is paying for those 1st meets to be a place to learn? Learning is in the gym. Meets are expensive. I'm not one to go along with "they'll learn as the season goes on." I want my gymnast ready at her first meet as if it were the state meet. And after a meet, they take some time off routines to learn new skills or perfect trouble spots, so they don't get bored and sloppy.

(My daughter won bars, floor, and AA at her very first meet. Talk about a boost of confidence!)

 

[3rd_time_around]

Again can't speak to other gyms but our kids learn bits and pieces here and there. Even optionals. They have their tumbling runs, their leap sequences. For beam, mounts, dismounts. Bars upper part, lower part, entry, dismount. They practice pieces. So putting it altogether comes quickly. And it appears they are doing very little practice, as in run through start to finish.

Also our coaches are leave gym at gym . But they actually expect you to practice the dance parts at home and watch your videos so the steps become muscle memory.

I remember listening to that L2 music with the dude talking the steps while the kid stepped through it till I could run screaming from the room. And then 3 becomes a bit of a change same for ; then 5.....

Our gym firmly believes no gymnastics at home, not even dance needs to be practiced at home.

 

[2gymkids]

At our old gym, it depended on the coaches. In L3 they started learning the routines once fall practice started, so early September, with the first meet end of November/beginning of December. Then there was a lot of turnover and for L4 they started learning bits and pieces of the routines in July (which was a shame because they all had skills they needed to work on!). New gym has not yet started working routines, I assume it will start late August with the fall schedule/solidification of levels but I'm not sure. DD will be repeating so it should be easy for her, but she claims she already knows the L5 routines as well.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Our gym firmly believes no gymnastics at home, not even dance needs to be practiced at home.

Yep every gym is different,

We actually have to video their optional routines so they can watch them over and over. We have 2 versions. Straight run through with music. And a run through with no music just doing routine with coache talking steps and corrections.

Again that first year it wax the hateful music with the verbal instructions,

Not wrong, not right, not better or worse. Just different.

 

[Flyaway]

Our gym starts teaching the floor and beam routines about 4 weeks out from the first meet (in January). Of course they've been working the skills since May. They seem to pick them up super quick. The littles sometimes struggle with text issues, but mostly by the first meet they've got it together.

 

[SMH]

Adding- my daughter's gym learns pieces of routines sometimes before they are competing the level-
The level 3's have been practicing the level 4 floor routine leap pass for awhile now.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

I'm a little confused about the differences between what some people are saying. I responded earlier that at dd's gym they have just started working on routines and their season starts (mock meet) in 6 weeks. But of course they have been working on parts of the routines for much longer. I thought we were just talking about practicing the actual, entire routine from start to finish.. On floor, they have been working on the individual skills and pieces of the routine since December. That includes the leap sequence, the beginning sequence (straddle jump/turn/etc), the back extension roll through the split, etc. On bars they have been demonstrating the low bar section and the high bar section (minus the dismount) at the end of the bars rotation for months. Beam is more about practicing the individual skills, but they have put several of them together for a while. They are also level 5 and the floor and beam really are so similar to level 4, so it's not that much to learn/remember. However, at dd's gym they are very into the details and they will spend a lot of time in the next couple of weeks practicing routines over and over to master the hand movements, feet positions, etc. They are perfectionists. Luckily my dd enjoys this time of year and it doesn't bore her or annoy her or anything. She wants high scores so she understands that she needs to perfect the details. Their skills are already quite solid by this point. They do not spend the entire rotation on routines, but they likely will be working on them at most every practice.

 

[Nikki4]

Yes, and the state meet is about 4 months after the first meet.

Sure. I guess I could add that my dd and her team were consistently on top of the podium from the beginning of the season. Ironically, the only event they struggled with as a whole was the one event they doesn't have a routine, vault! Lol