As a girl moves from L8 to L9, which events) would you expect her to get comfortable with and score well more quickly, and which event(s) would you expect to take her longer to master and maybe even scratch in early meets. Of course all girls are different, so we are talking generalities here based on your own observations. Thanks.
For Parents Easier, more difficult events L8 to L9
- Thread starter wolf_turn_on_uneven_bars
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I think the skill jump from 8 to 9 across all events is pretty big so I would say the hardest event will be your weakest event. Typically in optionals what I see is your weakest event is probably where you are doing the lower end of required skills so that jump is going to be bigger than say your strongest event where you may have had some upgrades already built in and competed. I know thats what its like with my kiddo. Her weak event she has the bare minimum skills to get to a 10 start value so when she moves up a level its really hard to hit those higher difficulty skills and get the bonuses you need in 9.
I would say bars would be the most difficult for most gymnasts in general, as you are now dealing with high-low transition and upgraded dismount. As for which events are the easiest ones to transition to, like muggle said, it really depends on which events are your strongest/weakest. If you are a good vaulter, chances are you will transition fine to L9 vault. Same with floor and beam.
Floor was my biggest challenge as I moved through optionals, although vault was rough until I learned a yurchenko. I did the bare minimum tumbling I could get away with and compensated with dance where I could. Bars came easily to me, but that tends to be a big one for a lot of people. My husband things I'm crazy, but I will always contend that physically, beam is easy. It's a mental game. By the time you do most skills on beam, you've already been doing them on floor for years.
I'm actually interested in seeing how the newer vaults for level 6/7 effect that event's progressions moving forward. I did gymnastics when level 6 was still compulsory, and competing below level 4 was kind of rare, so you did a front handspring in levels 4, 5, and 6, as well as a lot of level 7s (including me - I never got the 1/2 on 1/2 off!) and then you'd get to level 8 and pretty much have to flip something. Progressively, I love the move to competing timers.
I'm actually interested in seeing how the newer vaults for level 6/7 effect that event's progressions moving forward. I did gymnastics when level 6 was still compulsory, and competing below level 4 was kind of rare, so you did a front handspring in levels 4, 5, and 6, as well as a lot of level 7s (including me - I never got the 1/2 on 1/2 off!) and then you'd get to level 8 and pretty much have to flip something. Progressively, I love the move to competing timers.
In our region it appears that we have the most scratches (especially early in competition season) in level 8 on vault and level 9 on bars. This lines up with my own daughter's experience too. She had a slow transition with flipping the vault last year for level 8. She is repeating 8 right now because she was not ready for bars. Strangely though, she placed very well on bars at most meets last year as an 8. It is the bar transition with flight that has been difficult. She has also grown a lot too, which I think is a contributing factor here.
I think bars is the most common to struggle with in general. For my daughter it was definitely floor though. She is a bars and beam gymnast. They’ve always come easier to her. Floor is a struggle.
For my DD (1st year level 9), floor has been the most difficult. She has her double back, but struggles to do anything more than a 1/2 twist cleanly. She has phenomenal leaps with fantastic amplitude, but trying to add a turn to any of them results in a sloppy mess.
It seems that gymnasts are either good at flipping or twisting but rarely both, especially early on. Mine was always a better twister
This is DD’s first year in 8 and I can vouch for the event most often scratched in a meet being vault. We have been to two meets so far and that apparatus is unnerving to watch. The last meet especially was a splat fest.
Bars!! Bars is just a HUGE jump from 8 to 9. That was both of my girls' strongest event prior to 9. It is just really, really hard and takes a lot of time to master. The other events were ok. They can do a pike vault on 9, and many actually do that especially early in the season. I guess the only other struggle was figuring out the bonus connections on floor. For some reason, getting credit for the leap pass was tricky for my girls, but they figured out something that worked for them.
My daughter's gym has trended towards repeating levels instead of moving up and scratching events. For us, it's definitely the bars flight and upgrading the beam series that keep girls repeating level 8. I see others mention vault, but ours are required to flip to move from 7 to 8, so that transition to 9 isn't as much an issue (and yes, the timer vaults in levels 6 and 7 really helped prepare my daughter to flip).
Interesting to be strong on beam and struggle on floor. My understanding is that beam is basically floor two levels down but done on a tiny straight line.
With that said, my daughter loves beam (she has super human balance) but isn't the strongest back tumbler so not amazing on floor.
I think it’s not uncommon. She’s got nice form but isn’t a power gymnast. I thought she was more of a twister, but even that has been a struggle lately. Doesn’t help that she keeps hurting herself on floor so she doesn’t have good feelings towards it. Lol. But she pretty much competed a level 9 beam routine in level 8 and had no trouble getting her release moves on bars for level 10. ♀️ she did good on floor through level 7, but after that it’s been a challenge.
In my daughter's first L10 meet a couple of weeks ago only 9 of the 20 L10's competed all four events. It is still early in the season. She was in the older age group and won AA with a low score because she was the only one to compete all four events. Two gymnasts competed bars and three competed vault out of the 6 in her age group. Albeit, this is a small sample, but from my experience at the upper levels its bars and vault that have the most scratches. But as other posters have pointed out, each gymnast has their own best and worst events. I also know that most colleges in any division (1,2, or 3) recruit for vault and bars.
So my DD (kinda in the middle of this transition right now)…. I really think that it depends on your definition of “getting comfortable and scoring well”
Getting to a 9.7 SV… Easiest to hardest has seemed to be:
Floor
Vault
Beam (getting a B dismount)
Bars (high to low transition)
But getting to more competitive scores (9.9-10.0
SV, minimal up to level deductions)… it seems more like it is going to be more like
Beam
Bars
Vault
Floor
Getting to a 9.7 SV… Easiest to hardest has seemed to be:
Floor
Vault
Beam (getting a B dismount)
Bars (high to low transition)
But getting to more competitive scores (9.9-10.0
SV, minimal up to level deductions)… it seems more like it is going to be more like
Beam
Bars
Vault
Floor
The most scratches we’ve seen at our meets for level 9 where bars, beam then vault. The release on bars and the layout on beam are a huge deal and basically all of our 8s repeated 8 because they couldn’t get over the mental hurdle
Thanks for all the replies. I think I see some common threads, and some interesting nuggets in there too.
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