Women College Gymnastics

[ProudGymnast]

I am very curious. I've never been "in" on college gym stats, but I have definitely noticed it has got more competitive recently and includes lots of drop down elites. At this point, who realistically has a chance? There are a couple situations I look at.

First of all, your gymnast who's first year of level 10 is at senior year. Say she has a stellar level 9 year before, and has great L10 skills, would coaches even be looking at her as a senior gymnast?

Second, someone who competes level 9 as a senior and has a first aa L9 year. Would coaches consider that gymnast for d3?

Third, maybe someone who has great skill level, but decent form as a L10. Or a L10 who's skill repertoire is more minimal but has perfect form.

Essentially what I'm wondering is if you have to be the ideal level 10 these days to be accepted/recruited onto a d1,2,3 team?

 

[LadyJ]

I have all these same questions. My DD is a first year level 9 as a freshman. We're not hoping for anything at this point, but it would be nice to know what kinda of options she may have.

 

[NutterButter]

When my L9 DD was talking to D3 college coaches all were focused on whether routines with a 10.0 SV could be created around her current skills. They didn't seem to care much what success she had at L9 although I'm sure they did their homework before meeting with her. For example, DD usually placed on bars at meets but her club gym did not teach single bar release skills. So although she was a strong bar worker and placed well - even at regionals, she really had zero potential for ever competing bars at a collegiate level. The feedback she received from all the coaches she met with was thoughtful and very similar in how they saw her fitting into their programs. My DD was able to land on a D3 team and trained vault/floor only.

 

[rlm's mom]

We’re deep into this at the moment, with a great AA 2024 kid (who may have just committed or will be soon… but I’m trying to keep that private on here). She had plenty of interest and 4 offers from top 36 teams this year.
You definitely see girls committing to D3 teams near the end of their senior year in high school, so I’m assuming one who only did level 10 as a senior year would have a chance there. Same with a clean level 9.

College coaches mainly looked at DD’s competition videos and her skill bank. How they would theoretically put together 10.0 sv routines which she is likely to hit consistently.

As heard from other parents on the team, new level 10’s who have Yurchenko fulls or other high sv vaults, or good bars skills are more likely to be snatched by D2 and D3 teams. A good beam or floor worker is easier for them to come across.

 

[esor]

This is very complex and the path is so different for every kid. Unless you are top echelon all around L10, or an elite/former elite, or have a 10.0 start value on vault, scholarships are less likely for a top 36 D1 school, and you have to work different angles for what your child wants.

Walk-on offers at D1 schools also typically happen later in the process/timeline. If your kid has a standout L10 event or 2, or a decent all-arounder, they still could make a walk-on position at a D1 school. That happened to my daughter and her JO teammate - my DD found out this last April that she got a walk on spot at a top 36 D1 school for this year and is only doing beam and floor (they needed beamers, and she's an L10 state champ on beam ).

Her teammate has good bars and got a walk-on spot at another big D1 school. Another teammate spent 2 years at level 10, does not have a really strong event, and is doing D3.

So the point is there are so many options if you are a strong level 9 or early L10 but you have to work it. Reach out to coaches, camps, etc. But make sure you have a back up plan. My DD chose her school based on her major, and would have gone there with or without gymnastics as not all schools have her major. D3 was not an option as they don't have her major. She was just lucky that her best skills were something the team needed as well and she was constantly talking to the coaches and it worked out for her.

 

[NutterButter]

We’re deep into this at the moment, with a great AA 2024 kid (who may have just committed or will be soon… but I’m trying to keep that private on here).

Yes!! How exciting for you all!