My DD tried out and was placed on team last year. The girls were asked to make goals, which I thought was a wonderful idea. They were told no goal was too high if they were willing to pay the price in terms of time, money, and hard work. My daughter's goal was to compete compulsory Level 4. She was placed on a prep opt team, even though there was another team with girls at my daughter's skill level and age who were specifically training for level 4. She competed last season as a prep silver which is basically a combo of level 4 & 5 skills with bonuses awarded for the higher level skills. She competed with almost no bonuses which brought her start value to a low 9, but still placed 5th in the state competition. The girls who were being trained for level 4 did not get their level 4 skills and also competed prep silver along with my DD. My daughter's scores were better than most in this group. I asked my DD's coaches on many occasions if she was progressingg on track for her goal, if her goal was attainable for her, etc.. I did this because she is very serious about this goal. She has made up her own conditoning schedule that she does every day, and she always gives her all in practice. She has given up birthday parties, sleepovers, and was willing to give up a trip to the amusment park for the sake of her gymnastic's practice. She is so serious about this. When I asked her coaches, they always told me she was doing great, she was on track for her goal. After the season ended, I inquired if she would be moved to a level 4 team. They said, "no". When I pressed them about it, they told me she would stay on her current team and train for level 4. We got registraton forms for USAG and my DD's team is listed as an introductory athlete which is only for prep op. I talked with her coach about it and he said maybe they could change it later, but he didn't know for sure. He said they still didn't know if she would compete compulsory and she was still considered a prep op. He said it was really up to another coach. I'm so confused. It doesn't matter to me if she competes prep op or compulsory, but my heart is breaking for her. I mentioned causally to her that she might consider competing prep silver again now that she has some of her bonus skills. She gave me a deer in the headlights look, like don't crush my dreams. She now has all her level 4 skills (a couple still need to be perfected), plus she can do ROdoubleBHS, ROtripleBHS, front tucks in the resi, cartwheels on the beam, jumps to the high bar, and is very close to getting her kip (muscled one up today!) I love our gym and the coaches are great. I am just confused and don't know what to do. If they had just told her from the beginning that prep op was a great fit for her, she would have been fine. But they keep encouraging this goal for her and then saying she can't do it. Any wisdom on how to handle this?
(Sorry this is so long)
(Sorry this is so long)