G
GymAunt
Well my niece has officially quit gymnastics.
Her coach refused to let her repeat Level 5 so she could polish her skills and get back into shape after missing time last season for an appendectomy, a pulled calf muscle and a pulled groin muscle. (the last two I attribute to poor training since the coaches at her gym didn't pay attention to HOW the girls were doing tricks and they seemed to develop bad (aka dangerous) habits.
She missed the first two meets @ Level 5 and only competed 3 PREP Op 2 meets after Level 5 state. Her gym did compulsories in the fall and PREP Op in the spring. After an explosive start with all 9's in Level 3 and PREP 1, she skipped Level 4 and was doing great in practice on Level 5 until the appendix issue. She was one week away from her first L5 meet when she was hospitalized and was out of the gym for 6 weeks. She came back and scored mid/high 8's after only having 2 weeks of gym time to prepare for HER first meet.
The leg muscle didn't cause her to miss any meets but did affect her practices and the groin muscle issue made her miss the end of the Prep season and Optional State.
She wanted more time to prepare before moving on and asked her coaches to let her compete Level 5 again. This is a common thing as there was a girl on her L5 team who had competed for 3 years at that level before finally moving on (she consistantly scored low/mid 9s unless she was mad at her mom - who was one of the coaches and a judge).
The coaches refused. They said she had to move to Level 6 then immediately score out to Level 7. They don't have a Level 6 team because the gym owner hates complusories and wants to get everyone into Optionals as soon as possible (which is why they all do PREP Op in the "off season"). Ash told them she didn't want to score out. The coach told her she either moved up or found another gym.
I could see it if Ashleigh was scoring 9s... but she wasn't and her routine needed some serious work. She lost alot of her strength during the time she was out and had confidence issues with the back walkover and back handspring on the beam and the back tuck on the floor. She could do it, but hadn't done them enough to get her confidence up. How can a coach push a kid to Level 7 when she's afraid of those skills?
And Ashleigh isn't the only one they ran off. At least two more girls that were on her team quit because they didn't want to move that quick either. Sad.
But she's moved on... she's playing soccer now and plans on running track at her new middle school. Just seems odd seeing her go from flipping and flying to running and kicking.
Her coach refused to let her repeat Level 5 so she could polish her skills and get back into shape after missing time last season for an appendectomy, a pulled calf muscle and a pulled groin muscle. (the last two I attribute to poor training since the coaches at her gym didn't pay attention to HOW the girls were doing tricks and they seemed to develop bad (aka dangerous) habits.
She missed the first two meets @ Level 5 and only competed 3 PREP Op 2 meets after Level 5 state. Her gym did compulsories in the fall and PREP Op in the spring. After an explosive start with all 9's in Level 3 and PREP 1, she skipped Level 4 and was doing great in practice on Level 5 until the appendix issue. She was one week away from her first L5 meet when she was hospitalized and was out of the gym for 6 weeks. She came back and scored mid/high 8's after only having 2 weeks of gym time to prepare for HER first meet.
The leg muscle didn't cause her to miss any meets but did affect her practices and the groin muscle issue made her miss the end of the Prep season and Optional State.
She wanted more time to prepare before moving on and asked her coaches to let her compete Level 5 again. This is a common thing as there was a girl on her L5 team who had competed for 3 years at that level before finally moving on (she consistantly scored low/mid 9s unless she was mad at her mom - who was one of the coaches and a judge).
The coaches refused. They said she had to move to Level 6 then immediately score out to Level 7. They don't have a Level 6 team because the gym owner hates complusories and wants to get everyone into Optionals as soon as possible (which is why they all do PREP Op in the "off season"). Ash told them she didn't want to score out. The coach told her she either moved up or found another gym.
I could see it if Ashleigh was scoring 9s... but she wasn't and her routine needed some serious work. She lost alot of her strength during the time she was out and had confidence issues with the back walkover and back handspring on the beam and the back tuck on the floor. She could do it, but hadn't done them enough to get her confidence up. How can a coach push a kid to Level 7 when she's afraid of those skills?
And Ashleigh isn't the only one they ran off. At least two more girls that were on her team quit because they didn't want to move that quick either. Sad.
But she's moved on... she's playing soccer now and plans on running track at her new middle school. Just seems odd seeing her go from flipping and flying to running and kicking.