Parents Do kids really train with team for summer and then not make it?

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

gymhorsemom

Proud Parent
My DD (almost 8) is in the level 3 training group for the summer -she was definitely on the cusp of not making it into the group and staying in pre team but she was moved up in the end (and without me even asking for it). She is still missing skills as is most of the rest of her group. First meet is in Sept. What could really happen in this situation? The coach has been clear that anyone who doesn't have the skills will not compete -but realistically could this happen? Are kids sent back to pre team after training team for the summer?
 
Did you ask the coach? "Not compete" is "no meet" not necessarily off the team.

And yes depending on the gym they could not make their current level.

Our girls are Level 3/Future 4. They won't be official level 4s until August. And the coach will not say they are. She will tell you the are training level 4, she will call them L3s until Aug. Anyone missing key skills will remain L3. So yes they will train level 4 not necessarily be Level 4. We pretty much know who will move though and who is at risk. We have 2 kids without their kip. No kip they will not move. So they have about 10 more weeks.

I know my girl is moving because she has all her skills.

Seriuously ask the coach how they handle it.
 
In our gym, once you are invited to team, you are on the team. You sign a contract and are required to pay team fees.

That said, if you don't have the skills to compete a certain event, you will have to sit that event out. (For example, some kids just can't get that kip for L4 by the first meet an end up scratching bars.)
 
Also if much of the girls are missing skills they must be close and one would hope the coach has a plan for getting them there by meet time. As in they moved the girls who are close.
 
Our gym is like kayjaybe's. If the kid is missing a skill they might compete a few meets at the lower level until they get it. Or just miss a meet or two. I think this is common, but probably not universal, so ask. You could also try asking parents of older team members.
 
Our gym approaches it similarly to others: the girls are placed in training groups and it's obvious which level they're training for, but they are not officially placed in a level until the end of summer. I've never seen them tell a girl who trained with team all summer that she has to go back to pre team. We begin paying meet assessments in July so I don't know how that would work if they did.

My dd was much like yours-on the cusp last year. She trained with the team over the summer and was placed in level 3 despite not having all the skills required by the end of the summer. The difference for her though was that the first meet wasn't until Dec, so she still had 4 months after summer to gain the skills. She's on the cusp again (between lvl 3 and 4), I expect her to repeat 3, but we'll see what summer training brings.
 
I've seen kids make team, then go away on vacation for 1 month, and come back Aug 1 expecting to compete (actually it's the moms lol)......in that case, coach would just say no to the first meet or two. The same for the kids with missing skills. they are on the team, ready to go, once the skills are there.

it would be the same for a kid ready to compete, and then gets injured must scratch....they are not OFF the team.

Once meet season rolls around, just the thought of the rest of the team 'going' to the meet, is a huge motivator for those who aren't 'ready' to go.

the whole premise of having her join the L3 team, is readying her to compete! I think any coach who kicks a kid off team, due to missing elements is evil.
 
I wasn't given a contract or anything like that -I don't know if those with kids who are closer to having all skills were or not. So I'm not really sure of DD's "team" status. She might not actually be "on" team but maybe just allowed to practice with team.
 
Well, our "pre-team L3" and "competing L3" work out together, so that particular scenario wouldn't happen at our gym. :). If the gymnast has her skills competition ready by season, she will get to compete. Every now and then the coaches will allow a gymnast to scratch one event in L3 or L4... I've even seen it happen once in L5.
Once in Optionals, there's no scratching. If you don't have all the required skills for that level, you don't compete it, including L7 (our gym does not compete L6).

For the levels above 3, you are placed in the "training Level X" group after season has ended and the idea is that all kids in the group would ideally move up to the next level. It doesn't always happen. If the gymnast cannot get the required skills in time, they get moved back. Some levels work out together so it's not too noticeable.

The coaches try really hard to place the girls in the group they feel will be most likely for them to have success at, in some cases they're taking a chance and seeing how it goes as the girl may be on the cusp. Sometimes they know right away that the kid will have to repeat, sometimes they're giving the girl a shot to make it. :)

In your case I would definitely ask the coaches what will happen if she doesn't get her skills in time, especially if the team and preterm work out at different times.
 
^^^^^^ That is pretty much our gym.

This is probably our gym too -and I think my DD is sort of like level 3 pre team with chance of getting the skills this summer while some are definitely competing in Fall. But our gym is very small -there are about 8 girls total in this group of team/preteam and they haven't used these separate terms. So even on the schedule posted on the team board it says "level 3" for the group that DD is in -but since we have not gotten any official move up she is not actually on team. It is a strange place to be and I'm wondering what happens if she's the only one to not be ready by the end of the summer -which is possible.
 
Well, our "pre-team L3" and "competing L3" work out together, so that particular scenario wouldn't happen at our gym. :). If the gymnast has her skills competition ready by season, she will get to compete. Every now and then the coaches will allow a gymnast to scratch one event in L3 or L4... I've even seen it happen once in L5.
Once in Optionals, there's no scratching. If you don't have all the required skills for that level, you don't compete it, including L7 (our gym does not compete L6).

For the levels above 3, you are placed in the "training Level X" group after season has ended and the idea is that all kids in the group would ideally move up to the next level. It doesn't always happen. If the gymnast cannot get the required skills in time, they get moved back. Some levels work out together so it's not too noticeable.

The coaches try really hard to place the girls in the group they feel will be most likely for them to have success at, in some cases they're taking a chance and seeing how it goes as the girl may be on the cusp. Sometimes they know right away that the kid will have to repeat, sometimes they're giving the girl a shot to make it. :)

In your case I would definitely ask the coaches what will happen if she doesn't get her skills in time, especially if the team and preterm work out at different times.

This is very similar to our gym. Except they compete level 2 so most of the girls training level 3 were the ones that competed level 2. After the season ended they all became level 2's training level 3. They did that from January until mid May when it was decided who was moving up. It wasn't really based on having all the skills perfectly (most of the girls don't), but rather how close they are and what the coaches think are the chances of them having everything by September. Before my dd started team last year I assumed they all will just move up to the next level, but that wasn't the case. Of the 12 that competed level 2, plus 3 more that started after the level 2 season ended (1 came from rec team and 2 competed level 3 at a different gym), 9 are moving to the level 3 team. 1 will be a level 4, she is one that competed level 3 and she ended up getting her kip and doing well in other areas. 1 chose to leave gymnastics for tennis and soccer. 2 are staying on level 2. And 2 are leaving the gym because they didn't get offered a spot on the level 3 team. Only 2 girls are on the now level 3 team (as of today!) do their ROBHS unspotted most of the time right now. The rest are close though. None of them are completely missing any of the bar or beam skills, but it's still common to see shoot throughs and FHS that aren't successful. They still have over 3 months to perfect everything.
 
We don't really have summer training here (only 2 weeks training during the summer holidays) but kids train the next level up / new skills once season is over, if they don't have them all Ready then they get moved down a group for the year.
We don't really have pre team (and you wouldn't get moved to the low level groups without the skills) but I guess yes if they didn't have the skills they would be moved off 'team'
 
I think this is why you are training L3, not officially L3 until you actually compete. Your coach probably won't compete girls that don't have a chance of doing well or being safe. Your daughter is still on the team, but will wait until the next season to compete or start when the coach feels she is ready. When my daughter was L3 I saw some girls that probably shouldn't have been competing yet, lots of near misses on robhs and 1 saw one fully spotted bar routine, including the pull-over.
 
The summer after DD turned 7, she was invited to start training with the L3 girls (old L3) to prepare for her first season in the fall. After about three weeks, the HC told me that it wasn't working out well due to DD's lack of maturity/focus. So she was pulled off of team and started taking 2-3 privates every week for the rest of the summer. Then in August (if memory serves correct), she re-joined the L3 group to get ready for competition season.

So she didn't transfer smoothly to team at all.
 
Thanks for all of the replies. To be more specific my DD is in a pre team group that will start summer schedule soon. For summer schedule they are called "level 3." 2 girls from the group will not be moving to level 3 but will move into the newer pre team group which practices on different days from level 3 -I think these 2 don't stand a chance of being ready for comp in Sept. So I'm guessing there's a chance for DD to compete in Fall but I wish I had a better idea of how likely this is.
 
but I wish I had a better idea of how likely this is.
The answer is how long is a piece of string.
Kids have gymnastics spurts and gain skills quickly for awhile and then often nothing for months. I've seen kids have very successful comp seasons and then not get the next level skills and repeat, kids skip levels after a successful uptraining time, jump from the one struggling to the one with the new skills. Injuries, fears, not getting something, lots of factors.
Gymnastics, to me, is about being in the gym, working hard, loving it, being fit, hopefully being rewarded for the work with new skills. It's the journey that matters not what level they are competing, that is just a number.
My draughter has been injured and dropped a level to compete this year, yes she was disappointed when she realised she didnt have enough time to regain all her skills, but next day joined the new group and put her all into that, just happy to be in the gym.
It will be a disappointment for your dd if she cant compete this year but I can be sure she will forget that disappointment very quickly, she will be in the gym doing what she loves.

You need to let her know that it doesn't matter if she competes 3 or not, that she just has to enjoy her time in the gym, and that it doesn't matter at all to you either way what happens after the summer.
 
When our team did move ups, HC made 2 groups: "Team with Skills Emphasis" and "Team" ... the problem is that there have been a lot of coaches taking time off and the groups are always combined. The lower group (Skills group) is supposed to be focusing on GETTING the skills and NOT learning routines yet. However, since they are with the other group, they are starting to learn routines (kinda hard with all the missing skills only being "marked").

HC did tell the girls last week that in August, she will decide who needs to order a leotard then and who can wait until November to order one. The girls that aren't ready will not compete until at least January.

Of course, we have most of July off and there are always a few who leave for the summer for other sports and don't come back ... or some that CHOOSE not to compete ... or parents that decide it's all too much or they only want to compete at home meets or they want their daughter to train, but not compete until she can dominate (we have had all of these in the past).
 

New Posts

DON'T LURK... Join The Discussion!

Members see FEWER ads

Gymnaverse :: Recent Activity

College Gym News

New Posts

Back