Parents Choosing the right Track

[6YODD]

My daughter at 6 years old has 3 options. Compete at Xcel Bronze with a gymnastics team that is just getting started (4 hrs/week), compete level 2 at a very competitive gym (9 hrs/week), do a pre-team level 2 (4 hrs /week). She is very driven and has 5 years of experience, 3 on pre-team. I’m a new gymnastics parent and am wondering what questions I should be asking myself (and the different gyms) to make this decision.

 

[Dahlialover]

I’d do pre-team level 2. I don’t think competing level 2 or bronze is worth the money. Better to just focus on developing skills and then start competing at level 3/silver.

 

[Coach Kate]

I’d do pre-team level 2. I don’t think competing level 2 or bronze is worth the money. Better to just focus on developing skills and then start competing at level 3/silver.

As someone who coached level 2, 100% agree. It's a money grab in my opinion. I was at a gym that wanted their compulsories to be scoring 37s and 38s so we were under a lot of pressure to have the routines drilled to perfection. It was honestly so annoying to be stuck doing that instead of spending more time working the skill progressions.

 

[raenndrops]

I agree with both of the above ... but my question about the pre-team Level 2 would be:
Does this lead to joining the competitive team as a Level 3 or a Level 2?
If it only leads to competing Level 2 the following year, I would ALMOST say that Bronze would be the better choice.

 

[6YODD]

I agree with both of the above ... but my question about the pre-team Level 2 would be:
Does this lead to joining the competitive team as a Level 3 or a Level 2?
If it only leads to competing Level 2 the following year, I would ALMOST say that Bronze would be the better choice.

The pre-team gym starts competing at level 3 so level 2 is their preteam.

 

[raenndrops]

The pre-team gym starts competing at level 3 so level 2 is their preteam.

So I think that's absolutely the way to go.
No reason to waste time and money competing Level 2 or Bronze when she could be training to compete Level 3.

 

[34gymcoach]

I have a different opinion about Level
2 and Bronze! I think both are great levels. We have our preteam do low hours (1.5/week) bc we tend to have very young pre-teamers. Doing L2 or Bronze introduces competing and you can step up the hours only a little bit from pre-team so it’s more gradual. Also, once we started doing L2 our kids were super ready for L3 & 4!