Parents Level Progression Path - Pros/Cons?

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Would anyone care to share their experience or advice on the best way forward after Level 4? I understand some gyms prefer their gymnasts to score out of 5 and spend a year competing 6. Others prefer their gymnasts to compete a full season at 5 and then go directly to 7. And still others prefer their gymnasts to spend an extra season on 4 to perfect their skills, then test out of 5 and go straight to 7. My daughter just finished 4, her gym prefers the first option. We are visiting another gym next month (for other reasons) that prefers the second option. I was a gymnast growing up, but don’t claim to totally understand all the level requirements/what is best for foundational skills etc. It looks to me like 5 and 6 have the same skill base requirement, with the main difference being compulsory routines v optional routines. Any thoughts appreciated
 
5 and 6 are really similar. When I was an athlete, level 6 was compulsory and more similar to the current level 5. My gym did the score out of 6 and then right to 7. I think if you're up training well, and you have all the foundational skills, there's really not a reason to do level 5. I guess now vault is a pretty big jump but hopefully they're starting to drill the pieces of tsuk and yurchenko entries early now. Compulsory has a lot of extra pieces that aren't necessarily important for progression - when I was in level 6, for example, the floor routine included doing a back extension roll to land in a kneeling position and a straddle jump connected to a back handspring step out. My coaches wanted to get us out of there and into skills that suited us and helped us be the best gymnasts we could be. I think they've made a lot of improvements progression wise, but there are still lots of text errors and I think when you have to focus on those routine details you lose time on the skills. Actual dance class or ballet work would be more useful in my opinion.

But you can definitely be successful either way . Some gyms also just compete every level.
 
I would make sure that whatever gym you choose selects the best option for the girls as individuals. Our gym's path that really seems to work well is that the majority do level 5, skip 6 and do 7. Some do 5 and 6 if they are not ready to go directly to 7 from 5. I would not be happy about repeating 4 just to skip 5. That seems like a gym just wanting to win.
My dd did not do 6 so I'm not sure how it really compares to 5.
 
Really, it's so variable, the responses you are going to get are going to be specific to that individual's situation. There is no right or wrong or better or worse in this case. So you are going to get a lot of opinion that may or may not fit your specific situation. Only you know the gym you are at, the coaches that are working with your child and the surrounding competition. Ultimately, do you trust your coaches? Do they or the gym have a history of producing good results at the upper levels? Does your child "fit" in the gym environment? Based upon those answers change the path or let the process work out. Good luck.
 
It depends on your kid and the gym. I've seen all the different ways done successfully. Level 5 is hard. Its scored hard and honestly from what I have seen just not terribly fun. However, many kids at our gym do really well slugging through 5 then going to 6/7 depending on their skills. For most kids it seems the big differentiator at that level is Bars. Strong bar workers tend to do ok skipping 5 but if you struggle at bars that level may give time to work on that some. My kid was a strong bar worker skipped 5 then went to 6. we had some girls go 4 to 7 and they did really well. Most of the kids are doing 5 or 6 not both. I had a weak beam worker so optionals helped give her more options on beam. The biggest advantage of going to 6 is (if your gym doesnt have strict requirements) a lot more skill options to help you move ahead on your good events and work around your weak events.
 
JMO in the long run it doesn’t matter especially the first 2 options.

Also JMO the only reason to hold a child back at 4 is if they have no skills ready for 5/6.

My kid did 5 then 6 before going to 7. Some kids went 5 to 7. They all ended second year 7s together. Our coaches felt doing 5 would help my kids bar. I absolutely agree it did. The requirements at that time helped her bar weaknesses. I can’t speak to the new cycle of L5.
 
JMO in the long run it doesn’t matter especially the first 2 options.

Also JMO the only reason to hold a child back at 4 is if they have no skills ready for 5/6.

My kid did 5 then 6 before going to 7. Some kids went 5 to 7. They all ended second year 7s together. Our coaches felt doing 5 would help my kids bar. I absolutely agree it did. The requirements at that time helped her bar weaknesses. I can’t speak to the new cycle of L5.
to correct mine did 5,6 then 7. some did 5, 7 then 7 again. They all went to 8 together. Mine out scored most of them when they all did 7 together as she caught up on bars. In other words they all got to where they needed to be.
 
When my daughter was a compulsory, her gym did the second option. She competed 2,3,4 & 5. There was a whole year between 5&7 (level 5 state meet was in December, first meet at level 7 was in January 12 1/2 months later). It worked out well for her. In fact level 5 was her best/favorite year. It did prepare her team well for level 7 and at the time, most of the stronger gyms in our state did the same so our gym wanted the competition. A few years later, they (along with a lot of gyms in our state) started going 4 to 6 without a break. It worked for some, but I think they lost quite a few gymnasts in the process. Now I think they do both depending on the gymnast. Level 5 seems to be shrinking though overall in our state, which I personally think is unfortunate.
 
Our gym used to go 4 to 6. Now, we do every level- no skipping or scoring out. However, the girls in L6 put in lots of L7 skills in their routines (giants, layout etc.). And same with higher levels upskilling their routines. The coach wants them to be completely comfortable competing at that level and then not have to repeat. It's working well and producing very confident competitors.
 
I would honestly base things more on the gym that is a good fit for your daughter. Our state has gyms that do all of the above, but when my daughter changed gyms, it came down to where the coaches, environment and training methods were the best fit. In full transparency, I had a bit of a bias in favor of doing a full year of 5, largely because our old gym did this and I associated it with the "stronger" gyms in our area, but my daughter is absolutely thriving at a gym that goes from 4 to 6. It would have been disastrous for me to chose a gym without taking the full picture into consideration (I'm not at all implying that you intend to do this).
 
This is really a gym question. Some of the gyms here do all compulsory levels but pick and choose who gets to test out of 5 and go to 6. Some gyms in our area compete level 4, test out of 5 and then compete level 7 (6 isn't required if you have tested out of 5 as I understand it). The gyms that do the jump from 4 to 7 are often looking for the youngest girls to fast track to 10. If you are older in this area (meaning our general 4 county area in which we see the same gyms over and over) you do all the levels because the gyms are interested in fast tracking older athletes. Here I feel age is a huge factor in what path coaches put kids on.
 
Thank you everyone!! Our current gym made some coaching changes, which we really like and we have decided to stay. DD and team will compete 5 for the first meet and, if they do well enough, 6 for the rest of the season. Thanks everyone for your insight and advice!
 

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