Parents Commonly skipped levels

[StephensMom]

Well, as our competition season wraps up and up training increases, the talk about levels for next year also increases. It got me curious, for those who have been at this gym parenting thing for awhile, what are the levels you see girls skipping most often? I have a couple daughters in competitive gymnastics now. One is 7 and competed level 2 this year. Our gym has a lot of level 2’s this year and it sounds like the plans are in motion for at least 4 of them to skip level 3 (not my daughter). A couple of them are on the older end of level 2s so it kind of makes sense to me that they would want to move up quickly. What have you all seen at your gyms?

 

[littlegirlsdream]

At my daughters gym they do not compete lower levels at all. They enter the comp world in xcell anywhere from bronze to gold depending on each individuals ability. They then start dev lvl 6 after gold. The vast majority do one year of each level 6-8 with most of them doing 2 years at level 9 then finishing with multiple years of level 10. On occasion a gymnast will test out of 7 but that is not the norm and I have not seen them ever score a gymnast out of level 8 or 9.

 

[CA_GymDad]

My daughter went from 5 to 7. I'm pretty sure skipping level 6 is fairly common.

 

[NutterButter]

My DDs gym doesn’t start competing until L4 (common in my part of the country). Then they usually skip either L5 or L6. I think it just depends on where the particular cohort is at with everything on whether they skip L5 or L6 (my DD skipped L6).

 

[BusyMomof2]

In our area/region, it's becoming increasingly common to use xcel in place of compulsory, so most girls go gold - level 6 or platinum - level 7. Some girls stay in xcel too. The younger girls score out of 4 (or 4/5 depending on scores) and girls aged 12+ petition. My daughter scored out and is moving to level 7.

 

[Coach Kate]

I started competing under the old compulsory levels when 6 was compulsory. We didn't start competing until level 4 and it was very common to score out of level 6.

The gyms I worked for as an adult sometimes used fall season to move levels but they got rid of it in the last few years. Level 5 was still a common skip though.

 

[ORgymmom]

Dumb question, but when everyone says “skip” do you mean “score out” or genuinely skip without the USAG mobility scores? Our gym is very strict and girls will compete 1-2 levels in the same day at a late fall meet just to get their qualifying scores to go to the next level. I am getting a sense from others that this might not be the typical practice, especially with under-12s moving from xcel to DP?

 

[GymnastMomX2]

It's all over the place at my daughter's gym, which I appreciate. It shows that they look at everyone individually. I'd say the most common are 5 and 6, but I've seen girls skip 3, 7 and 8 too. Not sure I've ever seen someone skip 9.

 

[GymnastMomX2]

Dumb question, but when everyone says “skip” do you mean “score out” or genuinely skip without the USAG mobility scores?

I'm fairly certain everyone means "score out", you can't actually skip any levels except 5 & 6.

 

[StephensMom]

Dumb question, but when everyone says “skip” do you mean “score out” or genuinely skip without the USAG mobility scores? Our gym is very strict and girls will compete 1-2 levels in the same day at a late fall meet just to get their qualifying scores to go to the next level. I am getting a sense from others that this might not be the typical practice, especially with under-12s moving from xcel to DP?

I’m in Canada so our seasons are a little different, I think. We don’t have a fall season. Our provincial championships are in April and our gym registers for a later competition in May. Girls who are skipping will finish championships at their current level, compete the next level at the meet in May and then move on to the following level for next year. I think a handful of gyms are all using that late meet in the same way.

 

[GymDadWA]

We do 3/Xcel, skip to 4, score out to 6, 7,8,9,10.

 

[Milomom]

Dumb question, but when everyone says “skip” do you mean “score out” or genuinely skip without the USAG mobility scores? Our gym is very strict and girls will compete 1-2 levels in the same day at a late fall meet just to get their qualifying scores to go to the next level. I am getting a sense from others that this might not be the typical practice, especially with under-12s moving from xcel to DP?

If you get 2 36's at level 4, you can skip 5, you don't need to score out. If you compete level 5 and get 32 or higher, you can skip level 6 and go to level 7.

 

[Gymfrog]

Well, as our competition season wraps up and up training increases, the talk about levels for next year also increases. It got me curious, for those who have been at this gym parenting thing for awhile, what are the levels you see girls skipping most often? I have a couple daughters in competitive gymnastics now. One is 7 and competed level 2 this year. Our gym has a lot of level 2’s this year and it sounds like the plans are in motion for at least 4 of them to skip level 3 (not my daughter). A couple of them are on the older end of level 2s so it kind of makes sense to me that they would want to move up quickly. What have you all seen at your gyms?

The first mandatory level is level 4.
You can skip Level 5 if you have two 36.00AA at Level 4.
You can skip Level 6, if you have the required mobility score at Level 5 (32.00AA)
I know many gyms in my area skip either Level 5 or Level 6.