Anon Is "post-Covid" team rebuilding a thing

[Anonymous Post]

I have a question that I feel silly asking our gym, so hoping all the bring minds around here can provide some perspective.

Has anyone found that teams over the last year-ish are maybe not as strong as they were before Covid, and now teams are being shuffled to get things "back on track"? We're pretty new to gymnastics and our girl had a good season, but I'm noticing that some of the higher level teams, both xcel and optionals just aren't super strong. I make this judgement based on scores at meets - they look pretty good to me when I see them but they do not do well in competition compared to the other gyms in our area.

Our coach told me that they are doing a major shuffle to get things back on track - some kids in optionals are being moved to xcel and a couple of xcel girls are moving down. She anticipates they will lose some people. I didn't ask when she mentioned it because I wasn't really sure what to ask, but I wish I would have asked why. Is it poor coaching (she did mention that they are making a few changes)? Did gyms accept lesser talent during Covid or just accept a decline in skills? Or is this something that just happens, where a gym decides that they want to be more competitive? Thanks y'all.

 

[Anonymous Post]

We are in a major rebuilding phase right now. The pandemic was only part of it for us. We had a major restructure planned over a 5 year period. The pandemic basically forced it into a less than one year time period. We also brought on zero new team athletes in 2020 as our tryouts were scheduled for the week after we shut down. Rebuilding can be very fun, but everyone may not be happy with the changes.

 

[Anonymous Post]

Our coaches mentioned something to the effect of they thought our girls were a bit behind because of Covid but honestly I dont see it. No one is really repeating levels and their skills are pretty on point with what I would have expected. We are just as competative as we were before (people are placing about where they did before we are usually a team thats in Top 4 but not usually number 1 and that has been consistent). I think the coaches more meant think of where we could have been if we hadnt had that hiccup but realistically I think they did a good job and we got back to normal quicker than some areas so I dont think it made much difference. I will say I think that our levels for conditioning are a bit behind and I have a feeling its gonna be a rough conditioning summer.

 

[Anonymous Post]

My daughter's gym was closed until late summer of 2020 and opted not to compete during the 2020/2021 season. They uptrained and did zero routine work. Most of the girls made more progress than they would have during a competition season and started the 2021/2022 season two levels up from where they ended in 2020 (in other words, where they would have been if they'd competed and moved up one level per year) and scoring better than they ordinarily would at the beginning of the season. A number of gymnasts left during the summer of 2021, however, mostly for the usual 8th-9th-grade reasons.

 

[Anonymous Post]

I think it makes sense that some gyms are in a rebuilding phase, depending on how long they were closed for covid and how many gymnasts they lost. There are a few gyms that we compete against regularly that seem to have smaller teams this season and aren't placing as high as normal so I would guess they might be in that kind of phase.

We were only closed about 2 months total and they held required virtual practices the whole time, so I don't think our team has really experienced that. A few families chose not to compete in 20-21 and I think they probably are a little "behind" where they would have been. We lost some upper level gymnasts for the normal reasons, but overall our team is probably the largest it's ever been and is very competitive.

 

[Anonymous Post]

I think it makes sense. We lost 2-3 months of training.
We definitely had repeating after covid. Many repeated 3/4 that probably would have moved up if they had those extra months. Now they are back on track and moving along, though, so it wasn't all bad.
I think it had the most detrimental effect on 6/7. Older girls that were already struggling at those levels had a lot of trouble coming back and staying interested. Our gym doesn't make girls move to Xcel, which I'm glad about, but there's been some talk of girls deciding themselves to move to xcel after 3/4 years at level. Or just quit.

 

[Anonymous Post]

The trend at our gym and what seems to be among others in the area was that levels 4/5 took the biggest hit. We had a lot of new level 3s this season, but the lowest number of 4s and 5s that we’ve had in a while. Those that had made the optional team I felt like had enough investment in the sport to stick it out through the shutdown and the crazy 2020-21 season, but for the younger levels where training is a little more repetitive and they don’t yet have years invested, several lost interest and did not come back after a very limited season last year. So our gym is trying to build the numbers back up in the compulsory levels.

 

[rlm's mom]

The trend at our gym and what seems to be among others in the area was that levels 4/5 took the biggest hit. We had a lot of new level 3s this season, but the lowest number of 4s and 5s that we’ve had in a while. Those that had made the optional team I felt like had enough investment in the sport to stick it out through the shutdown and the crazy 2020-21 season, but for the younger levels where training is a little more repetitive and they don’t yet have years invested, several lost interest and did not come back after a very limited season last year. So our gym is trying to build the numbers back up in the compulsory levels.

I see this in our gym as well. Our optionals program lost maybe 3 kids who would have left anyways… there were no changes. But levels 4-6 are much smaller; I think many of our preteam and level 3 kids left the sport by covid shutdown or last year. Same with Xcel, especially Gold!

 

[Anonymous Post]

We had lots of shuffling and repeats. My daughter competed level 3 with over 20 gymnasts...level 5 with only 6 others!

 

[Anonymous Post]

I'm a bit late to the party, but, I found there was a lot of changes over covid. Our team didn't seem to lose any momentum, but in other gyms at competitions it seemed like the gymnasts may have been pushed up before they were ready as their skills looked a bit dangerously unsteady at times (especially beam). However, home gym had a lot of restructuring due to head coach leaving and they took it as an opportunity to rebuild. Our numbers had dropped drastically before the pandemic and we are still recovering.

 

[Anonymous Post]

Level 5 in general was very small in 2021 in the so cal area. Our gym had a decent sized squad, but the fall state meet for level 5 was only 95 girls across all age levels total. 50% drop from 2019 so cal states. Level 4 was 327 gymnasts. Both were a drop from 2019 states but level 5 took the biggest hit. I think a lot of elites skipped 5 and went to 6 over the pandemic. The top ten level 5 performers at states skipped 6 and went to 7 in the spring. So obviously they were over-prepared for level 5 and competing to kill it as a warm up to optionals. My guess is 5 won’t return to similar 2019 numbers this fall, but maybe 50% increase form 2021 to the 150 range.

Sorry I’m a bit of a statistics junky….

 

[Anonymous Post]

I see this in our gym as well. Our optionals program lost maybe 3 kids who would have left anyways… there were no changes. But levels 4-6 are much smaller; I think many of our preteam and level 3 kids left the sport by covid shutdown or last year. Same with Xcel, especially Gold!

I’m curious the long term effects of this. With 40% drops in compulsory levels 3,4 and 5. Will the field for college recruiting be much less competitive in the “pandemic” yeat graduating classes?