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!

 

[littlegirlsdream]

Not sure if this will help but here is/was my thought process. I would look at the programs bigger picture. I would look at how they develop/progress their gymnasts, the goals and philosophy of the gyms/ coaches, the upper levels at the gyms. If you are looking to put her in a place that will give training that could possibly lead to more latter then good basics will be a must. Whether the gym competes their 2s, uses excel for lower levels, uses pre-team isn’t always a reflection of how competitive they are but rather what their philosophy is. When DD was little I steered clear of gyms that required years of high scores in lower levels and went for gyms that cared more about progressions that lead to competitive upper level gymnasts and had successful upper levels. For us it felt less important that a gym had winning lower levels and more important that they had the experience and knowledge to develop and coach upper levels . I know at a just starting out age and level this may sound odd but learning things like round offs, vault entries, casts on bars incorrectly can effect gymnasts skills well into upper levels and mastering L2 (or 3 or 4) just for the sake of high scoring routines in those levels also isn’t always a great use of time or money .

 

[3rd_time_around]

I would let her try either Bronze or level 2 team. I find it to be very good at getting kids comfortable in front of judges and audiences, performing with noise and distractions, being able to go out on the floor or event alone, and remembering the routines. I have been down all the roads, with one kid starting at Level 4, one at Prep-Op 2, and one at Level 1, and my youngest needed those first two years (levels 1 and 2) to get comfortable with team and all that comes with it.

 

[margoko]

Yes, I’d look at the gyms as a whole. Which one sends the most (or any) girls to college? Which one has higher scores at the upper levels? Of course she might decide she wants to take it less seriously as she gets older, to have more time for other things, or even do something else entirely. But if she does want to reach a high level, you want to set her up on the best possible track. You can also look up gymnasts on mymeetscores to see if they came up in the program or learned their basics elsewhere.

9hrs/week seems like a lot for level 2. My daughter’s gym has that for L3 and then 12hrs for L4 (they don’t even compete L2). With those kinds of hours you’d want a lot of uptraining, but I’d be worried they’re spending tons of time polishing the L2 routines which isn’t really useful for future progression.

My 6yo DD did bronze last year, and I mainly started her in Xcel because the gym was close to our house. Honestly competitions seemed a bit extraneous at that basic of a level. In your position I’d probably go for the L2 preteam and compete L3 next year. There’s still plenty of time in L3 for her to get used to the competitive aspect (like L2, it's not a required competitive level), and then she can go into L4 ready on all fronts. But depends on the gym as a whole.