Parents Flipfest or Woodward

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TumbleTimes4

Proud Parent
As a Christmas present, I want to gift my DD a week of camp at either Flipfest or Woodward. This would be her first gymnastics camp and I’m looking for opinions on both. She is working towards moving into upper level optionals next season, and so I’m curious if one of them is more focused on gymnastics and skills than the other. It looks like she would have a lot of fun at either one.
 
I have not been to Flip Fest so I can't really give you a comparison between the two.

I have been to Woodward many times as a camper and a coach, so I can give you my take on Woodward.

If your DD spends a week at Woodward, she'll have an absolute blast. There's always fun stuff to do, the area is stunningly beautiful, and I cannot say enough about just how much fun it is to be there.

If you're looking to get great benefit in terms of training, the answer is a bit more complicated. I'd say Woodward is reliably excellent for upper-levels (say, Level 9 and up), inconsistent-but-usually-pretty-good for mid levels (level 6 - 8), and probably not worth it below that. They have a certain core group of very experienced college and elite coaches who generally coach their upper-level groups; in addition, upper-level athletes are in the best position to take advantage of Woodward's facilities.
Their mid-level staff is less consistent, though they still usually have at least one very experienced coach with each group. Where Woodward's facilities really shine is allowing athletes to safely work on big flipping skills. For advanced athletes, being able to safely flip and twist in a belt, into a pit, on a trampoline, or some combination thereof is a massive benefit, but it's less relevant the lower you go in levels. Don't get me wrong, it's loads of fun at any level! Just doesn't have the training benefit at the low levels that it does at the higher ones.
For anything below level 6, I don't think there's much training advantage to be gained, and it will be more of a gymnastics fun camp than a gymnastics training camp.
 
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