Parents Questions to ask

[pinklemonadeliz]

Please help me think of questions to ask, as this may be the last chance I get to talk to her one on one.

This alone would concern me as a parent - not to mention the "only moving up as a group" part. You should have access to your coach all the time - via text, email or in-person (either arranged in advance or before/after class). My daughter's coaches have ALWAYS

 

[gymnastics24.7]

They definitely should not be moving the team up as one. That hold gymnastics who are ready back. How does your daughter score a meets? What other level 4 skills does she have?

 

[pinklemonadeliz]

Please help me think of questions to ask, as this may be the last chance I get to talk to her one on one.

Sorry - accidentally hit enter before I was done lol!

This alone would concern me as a parent - not to mention the "only moving up as a group" part. You should have access to your daughters coach - via text, email or in-person (either arranged in advance or before/after class). My daughter's coaches have ALWAYS been more than happy to discuss anything with us about her and if it's something that's going to require more time, they will set up an appointment with us.

I would ask the reasoning behind the entire group moving at once because in the many years my kiddo has been in gymnastics I have never heard of such a thing happening (not in our gym or any of our friends gyms). Also I'm not sure I like the "same coach forever" scenario - kids "get" info differently from different people and I've seen many times one coach help a kiddo get a skill in a few lessons when the skill has eluded them for quite a while with other coaches. Plus, what if your kiddos doesn't gel well with that coach - sure, she can make a go of it for a year, but forever.. that's a different story that isn't very motivating for a kiddo.

There are lots of other questions you could ask specifically about your child, but I think the other stuff is bigger - that it sets the tone for the whole gym & might make you re-think whether another one might be a better fit.

 

[Mamabear123]

Ok, so a bit of an update. 2 of the other gym moms had their meetings with the coach today so we have a little more insight on what next year will look like. My meeting is next week. So, the girls on our team are 6 and 7 year olds, one 9 year old. The 9 year old is going to be doing L4, the rest of the team L3. Since the L4 team will be going to L5 and taking the coach with them, our current L3 coach will coach both L3 and L4. They have invited some Silvers to join L3, but no one from rec or bronze. The coach told the moms that the team will be a mix of L3's and L4's.

 

[raenndrops]

Ok, so a bit of an update. 2 of the other gym moms had their meetings with the coach today so we have a little more insight on what next year will look like. My meeting is next week. So, the girls on our team are 6 and 7 year olds, one 9 year old. The 9 year old is going to be doing L4, the rest of the team L3. Since the L4 team will be going to L5 and taking the coach with them, our current L3 coach will coach both L3 and L4. They have invited some Silvers to join L3, but no one from rec or bronze. The coach told the moms that the team will be a mix of L3's and L4's.

Glad you have more info… but Silver to L3 is more of a step down for those girls, especially in vault and, depending on their skills, possibly in the other events.
I still think they need to move girls based on INDIVIDUAL needs and skills.

 

[Mamabear123]

Glad you have more info… but Silver to L3 is more of a step down for those girls, especially in vault and, depending on their skills, possibly in the other events.
I still think they need to move girls based on INDIVIDUAL needs and skills.

I think they offered some of the silver girls to move to L3 because it will be a mixed training with L3 and L4. Also, I think this is the gyms way of offering the JO track to some of the girls. I absolutly think they need to move girls based off of individual progress, not team progress.

 

[Mamabear123]

Does the L5 girl have her own coach? If not, they're clearly willing to do mixed level training.

The L5 girl trains with the L4 girls.

 

[txgymfan]

How many level Level 4's will they have next year?

 

[Mamabear123]

They definitely should not be moving the team up as one. That hold gymnastics who are ready back. How does your daughter score a meets? What other level 4 skills does she have?

My daughter just scores ok at meets. She started the season out rough with a 30, but now she gets 33's and 34's. This is one of the main reasons that I'm ok with her repeating L3 again. She always get's 9's on vault, but has a hard time getting a 9 in anything else.
The L4 skills that DD has is, a cartwheel and round-off on beam, I actually found out yesterday that DD has gotten the kip (but not quite consistently), back tuck on floor, running and standing aerial, and the front handspring off the vault (she was actually taught this in rec classes, but had to get used to handstand, fall flat for L3) she's super excited that they let her do this again.

 

[Mamabear123]

How many level Level 4's will they have next year?

That's the part where we aren't clear about yet. The other gym mom put me in charge of finding out more about this mixed L3 and L4 team.

 

[raenndrops]

My daughter just scores ok at meets. She started the season out rough with a 30, but now she gets 33's and 34's. This is one of the main reasons that I'm ok with her repeating L3 again. She always get's 9's on vault, but has a hard time getting a 9 in anything else.
The L4 skills that DD has is, a cartwheel and round-off on beam, I actually found out yesterday that DD has gotten the kip (but not quite consistently), back tuck on floor, running and standing aerial, and the front handspring off the vault (she was actually taught this in rec classes, but had to get used to handstand, fall flat for L3) she's super excited that they let her do this again.

Some of the skills you list are L5+ skills.

 

[Nikki4]

I wouldn't like the group moving or staying as a whole either but it sounds like it may work to your dd advantage this time. She'll get to work on getting solid level 3 skills and uptraining 4 skills for next year.

 

[SMH]

If she has all of her level 3 skills and the ones you mentioned above, it sounds like she's still working on getting good form? If so another year of level 3 likely won't hurt, especially since she's young!

 

[duyetanh]

I am not being rude here...but your situation is crazy.

 

[Mamabear123]

I wouldn't like the group moving or staying as a whole either but it sounds like it may work to your dd advantage this time. She'll get to work on getting solid level 3 skills and uptraining 4 skills for next year.

Yes, I'm actually happy that she will be competing L3 next season because I feel like she is ready to dominate. LOL. She has grown so much in such a short amount of time. Her body awareness and her confidence has changed her as a gymnasts so much. I think that since she will be repeating L3 and training L4, she will more than likely only do L4 for 1 year.

 

[Mamabear123]

If she has all of her level 3 skills and the ones you mentioned above, it sounds like she's still working on getting good form? If so another year of level 3 likely won't hurt, especially since she's young!

Yes, she has the skills and she's learning her body as far as what looks and feels right. I think that she will do great with another year of L3.

 

[Mamabear123]

I am not being rude here...but your situation is crazy.

LOL, why is it crazy?

 

[Mamabear123]

Some of the skills you list are L5+ skills.

During school breaks, they have 3 hour "practices" everyday of the week, but it's more of a lightly structured open gym. They recently had a spring break and that's where she learned some of the tumbling skills. I'm hoping they let her continue to practice those skills even though they aren't working with them right now so she doesn't lose them.

 

[amiandjim]

LOL, why is it crazy?

I believe the poster means crazy just because it is set-up completely differently than most gyms. First, I don't know a single gym that puts more work and time into their Xcel girls than their JO girls. Now, if they are using Xcel instead of compulsories to get to optionals, that's another story. Second, I don't know of a single gym that moves the entire team together....it's typically very individualized. Third, I definitely don't know of a gym that has coaches move up levels with the gymnasts. So, it all sort-of sounds crazy to most of us I think. To be honest, it's not somewhere that I would have my DD, just because I think the system sounds a bit flawed, but if it is working for you, that's great! I hope your meeting goes well and you get the answers you need.

As far as working the higher level skills, if you DD doesn't have polish on the level 3 skills and doesn't solidly have the level 4 skills, I would think they won't spend a lot of time on back tucks, aerials, etc...

 

[Mamabear123]

I believe the poster means crazy just because it is set-up completely differently than most gyms. First, I don't know a single gym that puts more work and time into their Xcel girls than their JO girls. Now, if they are using Xcel instead of compulsories to get to optionals, that's another story. Second, I don't know of a single gym that moves the entire team together....it's typically very individualized. Third, I definitely don't know of a gym that has coaches move up levels with the gymnasts. So, it all sort-of sounds crazy to most of us I think. To be honest, it's not somewhere that I would have my DD, just because I think the system sounds a bit flawed, but if it is working for you, that's great! I hope your meeting goes well and you get the answers you need.

As far as working the higher level skills, if you DD doesn't have polish on the level 3 skills and doesn't solidly have the level 4 skills, I would think they won't spend a lot of time on back tucks, aerials, etc...

Ahh, I get it. I think our gym focuses on Xcel a lot because it's a bigger program for them. They often mention that they are working on "building" their JO program. Just my guess of course, but unfortunately I have no experience of other gyms. Moving the team together didn't seem strange to me until I read and posted here, same with the coaches moving with the team. I actually admired the L4 coach because she coached my DD at a warm up one time and I was like, I can't wait until she has her as a coach. I was definitely taken a back when I was informed that the coaches move with the team, but I figured that was the norm. I honestly don't know anyone from any other gyms, so me and the L3 moms just go by what our our gym does.
Right now for these lower levels, I'm ok with DD being here because she adores her teammates and loves going to practice with them, and I don't want to take that away from her. It's a group of 8 girls and they are so tight.
As for the "extra" skills she has learned, I'm not anticipating that they would perfect those skills. The director of the program, mentioned to me a while back that DD is just a "naturally great tumbler" so I think she just picks up on those skills quickly, but definitely not something that would be the focus. The coach actually told the other mom that the girls were forgetting their L3 routines because they have been working so hard on L4. She said that she has to reel them back in and go back to focusing on L3 because they haven't had states yet.