Club Grade & Compulsory

[Glasguy]

Hello,

My daughter loves gymnastics, she started recreational gymnastics at school and was invited to local gymnastics performance center and joined development their for few months, she recently passed compulsory 5.

It was exciting watching her and her club mates compete. So I'm wondering what the difference is ( scoring / skills ) between Club Grade and Compulsory ?

 

[Rose]

Hello,

My daughter loves gymnastics, she started recreational gymnastics at school and was invited to local gymnastics performance center and joined development their for few months, she recently passed compulsory 5.

It was exciting watching her and her club mates compete. So I'm wondering what the difference is ( scoring / skills ) between Club Grade and Compulsory ?

Well done to her for passing Compulsory 5! Compulsory is the elite route and it is tough, best guide for skills is here
https://britishgymnewstics.com/2018/01/29/new-national-compulsory-levels-for-2018/

Many start on elite then switch to national grades as the learning curve is very steep, but if she continues to love gymnastics then she could well stay on this path, and good luck to her. I’m not sure where the latest rules for national/regional/club grades are.

 

[Taxidriver]

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Hope they work, I think compulsory 5 varies from region to region? These are for compulsory 4-1 and the other for club, regional and national grades

Edited as put wrong links on

 

[mumof3]

Guessing from your username that you might be in Scotland. If so, I think this page might have the info you're looking for. It lists the skills and judging requirements for the Scottish grades that you mentioned, and might answer some of the questions you had about scoring? Apologies if wrong info!

https://www.scottishgymnastics.org/competition-forms

 

[Glasguy]

Well done to her for passing Compulsory 5! Compulsory is the elite route and it is tough, best guide for skills is here
https://britishgymnewstics.com/2018/01/29/new-national-compulsory-levels-for-2018/

Many start on elite then switch to national grades as the learning curve is very steep, but if she continues to love gymnastics then she could well stay on this path, and good luck to her. I’m not sure where the latest rules for national/regional/club grades are.

Fingers crossed she continues to enjoy this and be able to stay on some sort of gymnastics path, I see it as being positive!! her hours are going to be increased soon. She does find the conditioning tough and sometimes after a long school day does not look forward to it, though I tell her it is already paying off, her core is very muscular and she has unbelievable strength for an 8 year old. She loves doing things on Beam, Bars and Floor. When not at gym she is constantly performing gymnastics at home doing back flips, no handed cartwheels or walking on hands in supermarket stores

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Hope they work, I think compulsory 5 varies from region to region? These are for compulsory 4-1 and the other for club, regional and national grades

Edited as put wrong links on

Thanks, great information in those pdf's.

Guessing from your username that you might be in Scotland. If so, I think this page might have the info you're looking for. It lists the skills and judging requirements for the Scottish grades that you mentioned, and might answer some of the questions you had about scoring? Apologies if wrong info!

https://www.scottishgymnastics.org/competition-forms

Yes, I am in Scotland and thanks for the link.

 

[Glasguy]

Another question .

Is the end destination....Espoir, junior or senior the same for both club Grade and Compulsory?

 

[Annikins]

Hmm, well, yes sort of, but it's very hard to qualify for espoir, junior or senior at British Championships without going the compulsory route. Not impossible, but very difficult. You have to do another competition, the Challenge Cup, and score a certain (very high) mark there... At least, that's my understanding anyway...

 

[Glasguy]

Hmm, well, yes sort of, but it's very hard to qualify for espoir, junior or senior at British Championships without going the compulsory route. Not impossible, but very difficult. You have to do another competition, the Challenge Cup, and score a certain (very high) mark there... At least, that's my understanding anyway...

Thank you

 

[Taxidriver]

Another question .

Is the end destination....Espoir, junior or senior the same for both club Grade and Compulsory?

Agree with what Annikins said, just to add my understanding is if you are on regional grades the jump would be huge, if on national grades whilst still hard not impossible, I believe Ruby Harold never did compulsory grades? Also I believe others at the Academy don’t do compulsory grades but have qualified for the British Championships, my dd gym also will take girls the challenge cup route for those who don’t suit the compulsory route.

 

[Glasguy]

Agree with what Annikins said, just to add my understanding is if you are on regional grades the jump would be huge, if on national grades whilst still hard not impossible, I believe Ruby Harold never did compulsory grades? Also I believe others at the Academy don’t do compulsory grades but have qualified for the British Championships, my dd gym also will take girls the challenge cup route for those who don’t suit the compulsory route.

Thanks for providing further insight to this.

 

[Jenny]

Agree with what Annikins said, just to add my understanding is if you are on regional grades the jump would be huge, if on national grades whilst still hard not impossible, I believe Ruby Harold never did compulsory grades? Also I believe others at the Academy don’t do compulsory grades but have qualified for the British Championships, my dd gym also will take girls the challenge cup route for those who don’t suit the compulsory route.

The Academy girls are training similar to girls competing compulsory grades. They are not the norm for girls 'not on compulsory route'.

 

[Taxidriver]

The Academy girls are training similar to girls competing compulsory grades. They are not the norm for girls 'not on compulsory route'.

I know they are not the norm but I know they are not the only gym who use the national grades as an alternative to compulsory grades.

 

[Annikins]

When you say they are training similar to compulsory grades - do you mean in terms of hours? If so, how many do they do at what ages? Just curious...thanks!

 

[Taxidriver]

When you say they are training similar to compulsory grades - do you mean in terms of hours? If so, how many do they do at what ages? Just curious...thanks!

Academy do very high hours, higher than the girls at my dd gym who are doing compulsory grades.
I can’t remember exact hours just being shocked when I was told how many hours they do.

 

[Jenny]

Academy do very high hours, higher than the girls at my dd gym who are doing compulsory grades.
I can’t remember exact hours just being shocked when I was told how many hours they do.

and the older ones homeschool at the gym so they train twice a day . They are beyond compulsory lol.

 

[GymBeamRisky]

I personally think the Nationals are a great safety net that ensure that some of Britain’s great talent does not get overlooked. As others have said many compulsory girls drop out at a young age ,either leaving the sport totally or moving over to the Nationals which may be more suitable to their ultimate progression.

Some gyms ,including my daughters first gym do not seem to follow the compulsory route anymore for whatever reason,others seem to throw all their elite squad girls in at the beginning to see how they fare. In my daughters case she started gymnastics relatively late at 7 years so jumping into the compulsory 5 grades in such a short time would probably not made much sense. She has now moved on from her original gym and has now competed national grade 3 with her new club just missing out on the national finals by a pointy toe!

Nobody has mentioned the hours. I am not aware of the Academy’s hours but my daughter at her first club trained around 23.5 hours per week at national grade including half a day authorised leave from school. At her new club who compete with the Academy on regular basis she no longer needs school leave and has reduced hours of 17.5 per week. Soon her hours will rise to 21 without requiring school leave. At present she is improving on less hours but then again less can be more when you are with a club that has a proven track record at the highest level. Personally I have found that it’s not always about the “number of hours” the gymnasts do but more about what they do with the hours when they are in the gym.


Who knows going forward how my daughter will fare but if you are good enough and determined enough on the National pathway then everything is possible!