New Grades and Training Hours.

[Ex member]

It seems like dd's group will be doing the new grades next year, she will either do 6 or 5, the coach has told the girls a little about it and the have begun work on the range and conditioning side of things.

How many hours on average are needed to train for these grades? My dd's group currently does 5 hours (2 x 2 1 1/2 hours), there are 7 girls in the group going up to 8 next week, ages 8-13 years and usually one coach. The coach wants the girls to do more but can't get the time and space in the gym.

It seems as if they are working well with the hours they have, dd almost has her giant on strap bars, she can get into a handstand but not go all the way over yet, coach wants her more in control instead of just throw it. They are working on :

Bars:
glide kips (just started), cast into handstand, squat on straddle undershoot, pullover, back hip circle. Swings and giants on strap bars. Long hand pullovers and various grips chin-ups, leg lifts.

Beam
Straight jump, tuck jump, high kicks, turns, forwards rolls, cat leaps, cartwheels.

Floor
Piked backwards rolls, round off back handspring (on fast track).

Vault
Hand stand flatback in high crash mats. Front handspring on fast track (done as part of vault rotation)

There isn't much been done on floor at the moment as they are working on trampette and tumble routines for their first comp next month.

 

[Noideaaboutgym]

My DD did grade 14 this year, they were on 6 hours and changed around this time last year to 9, she is likely to do club 5 next year, on 9-10 hours. She is on the whole working the same sort of things as your DD, they spend an awful lot of time conditioning rather than on apparatus from what I can tell though. Some of the "better" girls her age are doing 16 hours though and still doing club 5 rather than compulsory 4 ( they are 16+ a one on two lesson). From what I can tell the hours will vary massive between clubs. Oh and DD has a level 1 coach and 7 in her group (was 9 last year).

 

[Ex member]

Dd's group also spends a lot of time conditioning, they spend around 30 mins on warm up then the do conditioning spread around whatever apparatus they are working on, the generally do beam and strap bars and conditioning and a little bit of floor one session and the next session they do vault and a bars and conditioning and a little bit of floor, they also do cool down and get conditioning homework that has to be done every day once a fortnight. This will be the first time dd's coach has taken girls on a competition that she has trained on her own and the first time for the coach to train girls for grades as well, dd's coach is level 2. I think the structure at gym goes Advance Rec, Intermediate Development Groups (the gym has 3 of these group as far as I know) and Elite Development Groups of various ages.

I have no idea about Grades apart from what I have read on here, I think dd is starting Grades at the right time as they are changing from Grade 14 etc to the new Grades next year with the added bonus that dd is still quite young compared to her team mates, the oldest is nearly 6 years older that she is.

 

[Mumof2gymnasts]

My dd will be doing compulsory 5 next year and trains just over 16hrs a week, the other girls her age that are doing grade 14 train 7hrs a week. I'm new to gymnastics and don't have a clue about all the different levels. Even trying to read up on it confuses me!

 

[Hayleigh]

16 hours for compulsory 5 is quite good considering the hours in my area. My club only does 14 hours for compulsory 4.
Im training in a group that does WCL, Wiltshire levels, regional/national grades and club grades. And we train from 10-21 hours a week and an extra 3 hours the week of a competition. It is absolutely chaotic. Especially for the little ones who don't understand why the hours range so much.