Parents Did your child compete before ready or wait?

[gymhorsemom]

Spinning off of another thread that I started -I'm curious to hear if your child competed when they were maybe slightly less than ready or waited until they were very confident and if you have opinions on which is the better way to do it. My DD is one of a couple of girls who the coach said could "probably" compete level 3 in the Fall but she's just not sure so she's keeping them on pre team. I actually didn't expect my daughter to compete in the Fall so I was initially fine with that -but now I'm watching her and her teammates and while I can see that she's slightly behind I don't see a huge difference. DD joined her current pre team group later than most of the girls and isn't as strong as the rest of the girls. Nevertheless she's made a TON of progress and it seems to me that if some of the other girls can pull it together by Aug/Sept DD probably can too. Most of the girls will be missing more summer practice than DD so she has that going for her too. Of course, it's not my decision but I'm curious to hear if waiting a year is a good thing or not. Have you seen kids start the competitive season not quite ready and was it a major blow to them? Is it better to be more confident a year later or push a bit and maybe not score so well but still have the experience of competing?

 

[needcoffee]

Yeah I think my DD wasn't all that ready, but over here at level 3 everyone gets a medal (bronze, silver or gold, dependant on AA score) so it wasnt a huge blow to her self esteem. She had only been doing gym for 6 months before her first comp, and her first was also a team comp, so even if she bombed the rest of the team pulled her up. Her second comp was a disaster, but by states she was over the nerves and did really well.
There was no live scoring or anything at any of her comps, so no one even knew scores, just a rough estimate based on what colour ribbon they got.

 

[Sneezyone]

I think it depends on the child, the gym, and your goals. How's that? DD skipped from old 3 to new 4 at a gym that was not very big on conditioning and progressions. She didn't have a kip at the start of the season, barely had one at the end, and finished with a season high of barely 32. Dead last at every meet. It was a mistake and sapped her joy and love for the sport.

Fast-forward 12 short months to a new gym that is constantly conditioning, up-training, and drilling for straight legs, and she is near the top of her 5-6/7 training group. Here, they insist on min. skills or you don't advance but also provide ample time/opportunity to gain them. If old gym had conditioned and drilled like this one, DD would have been fine. They just didn't have a system in place to support rapid growth.

 

[anothergymmom]

I guess I don't see why there should be a hurry to compete. I remember once reading a wise posting on this site that has stayed with me ever since. Someone, I apologize I forget who, wrote: "gymnastics is what happens in the gym, meets are for parents." If what happens in the gym is good then its all good.

And read the thread on meets if you need any reminders that meets can be, shall we say, less than enjoyable!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

What is ready?

There are skills you need.
There is a polish that you need.
There is a focus you need at a meet that you only get from being at a meet.

Your first meets get you ready for future meets.

That is pretty much what Level 2 and 3 are for. To get experience with competitions.

It is expected to see improvement as the season continues for whatever level your at, no matter where you start.
A child starts at an 8 you expect perhaps 8.5/9 by season end
A child starts at 9, you expect high 9s by end of season.

Now the point to start, very dependent on the child and the gym. Our gym uptrains and prefers the girls to be more successfuld at meets. So they would rather compete confidently a lower level then iffy at the next one up.

 

[kaloss]

Dd made very fast progress and was moved to level 3 team as a 6 year old. She had been in gymnastics for 6 months. She struggled last year and it was a blow to her confidence. She was the only one that didn't qualify for state. She wanted to quit at the end of the season. This year, she is strong and confident and LOVES setting the example for the new level 3s (she is repeating). She has ample time for uptraining and is in love with her sport again. I'm all for confidence!

 

[raenndrops]

Neither of my gymmies was COMPLETELY ready when she started competing. Of course, if YG had to wait until she had that dreaded middle circle to compete, then she STILL wouldn't be competing. She competed 3 years without it and still managed to place "not last" (not even on bars - and in fact, took 1st at one meet on bars).
As long as the coach is ok with it, as long as the gymnast can compete SAFELY, it should be fine.

 

[blueredzone]

Well last year was my dd's first yr competing. She started out okay. 32.3 I think. Her season high was a 36.2. So a good jump throughout the year. But there are gyms here who hold ppl back to score high. Like right off the bat first meet getting 37 and 38's. But funny thing is that they don't improve to much. Yeah it might be fun to win every meet, but i think kids need that disappointment of not winning. It means just that much more when they do win. Or place well.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

My dd competed level 2 last season. The team was put together rather quickly after only a 6 month training group (preteam like group). There were definitely girls on the team that weren't competition ready at the beginning of the season. My dd actually scratched on vault for the first 2 meets because she needed to be spotted on it. It took several meets before she got near a 9 in any event. She ended up getting the most improved award for her level (vault went from 0 to 9.3 lol) and had a great end of the season and state meet.

Right now her group is training for level 3. They find out sometime next month if they will move on or repeat level 2. I am fairly sure that some of the girls will repeat. The level 3 team at our gym was amazing last year and there is a high expectation to score well. I don't think they will let any of them move to level 3 unless they are very solid on all the skills and capable of scoring well.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

It also depends on your child. Some kids want to do harder skills and don't care much about scores.

My girl is the cautious kind, she likes to do the skills she has a high confidence level at. And she freely admits to liking better scores. She preferred to be a good Level 3 last year rather then a mostly Ok level 4. She has her 4 skills now and still up training, she is ready for L4

For our Xcel season. One girl is doing a harder skill on the bar not scoring as high and she is happy. My daughter can do the higher skill, but chooses the lower skill she is better at and scores higher, she figures she will deal with the higher skill when it's required. Both girls are OK with their choices as are the coaches

 

[gymhorsemom]

I guess I don't see why there should be a hurry to compete. I remember once reading a wise posting on this site that has stayed with me ever since. Someone, I apologize I forget who, wrote: "gymnastics is what happens in the gym, meets are for parents." If what happens in the gym is good then its all good.

And read the thread on meets if you need any reminders that meets can be, shall we say, less than enjoyable!

I think for me it is less about rushing into competition and more about DD being separated from the group that she's in as all but one move to team and she and another girl join the pre team group that was below them. I was ok with it until I started observing just how close DD is in skill to the girls moving up. And her coach has said this too. So it's a bit frustrating that she should not move with them when she could possibly do level 3 -but then again maybe she's the lucky one to get to do it (hopefully) really well the following year? We have a friend who just barely made level 3 team (they were told she wouldn't and then told she just barely squeezed on) and she ended up doing pretty well by the end of the season -which makes me wonder if I should be pushing to give DD a bit longer to get the skills and move to team? Or just go with what the coach says?

 

[Committed]

It does depend on the gym and situation.
DD competed old 3 at 5yo (kindergarten). She had a blast! It was the 1st year of artistic competition for the rec gym she went to. After that year, they moved to Xcel.
It was a rec gym & not competitive. DD didn't score very well, but she beat her older teammates! She was too young to understand scoring and placements, so it was no big deal.
We switched to a competitive gym and moved to preteam. She waited a year and a half to compete, and competed well as a L4. This time, the losses hurt, so she worked her tail off to be one of the higher scorers.

 

[duyetanh]

It really depends on your kid.
My kid does not care about winning. Yes, she likes to win, but she was given a choice of moving up or remaining. She chose moving up. She likes the harder tricks. She told me she would have been so bored staying where she was. Her top place in an event was 3rd. She was fine with it....her goal is to get to optionals. I support her.

 

[mariposa]

My daughter competed (old level 4)a few months before she was really ready. It was hard on her. She was a young 6 and didn't medal and seeing her friend (who to me looked similar, but to judges there was over a point or more different in their scores) medal was so hard for her because she didn't understand.

We thought we were moving and wouldn't be able to have her in gym, so I pushed for it, so I don't regret it, but I wouldn't have done it in hindsight. The little things are the big things and if there are any actual skills a kid doesn't have, that makes it harder. My kid had the skills, not the polish. Part of it was her age/personality and some was that she has naturally bad form, lol.

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

Ready....well yes she was ready to compete and she has had lots of fun doing it, but would it have been even better to perhaps wait a year or start at a lower level..? Possibly. DD started competing at new L4 last year, she was one of the last they selected to go to 4 while all the other new team members went to L3. She is definitely still one of the "bottom" girls on her team. She didn't have a stellar season for 4, but could safely do all the skills and routines. This year, she is finishing up L5. Again, she can safely perform all the skills, just not super polished. So, would she have been "better off" starting at L3 and had a much easier season, eased into L4 this year and set her up for potentially better success at L4 and 5..? OR would have going into L3 and not having the hours of training she had for L4 last year turned her off to gymnastics because it would have been "too easy" and then she would have had a harder time transitioning to L4..? I dunno, hard to say.

She was absolutely ready for the competition part, she doesn't get really nervous, she handles herself well and loves the actual meets. Gymnastics wise, I think she could be "better" and sure, competing a level down instead might have actually been easier... But I think she would have become bored with it and potentially quit.
She would probably not have struggled with scores and placements the way she has this season though.

Is it better to wait and be one of the best, or to be challenged and consistently be one of the worst..? Depends on the kid!

 

[gymhorsemom]

My daughter competed (old level 4)a few months before she was really ready. It was hard on her. She was a young 6 and didn't medal and seeing her friend (who to me looked similar, but to judges there was over a point or more different in their scores) medal was so hard for her because she didn't understand.

We thought we were moving and wouldn't be able to have her in gym, so I pushed for it, so I don't regret it, but I wouldn't have done it in hindsight. The little things are the big things and if there are any actual skills a kid doesn't have, that makes it harder. My kid had the skills, not the polish. Part of it was her age/personality and some was that she has naturally bad form, lol.

Thanks for the response. My DD will be 8 and has naturally excellent form -probably the best or one of the best in her group. But alas, she's missing a couple of bar skills (and consistency with ALL bar skills at this point). I think my DD could probably do pretty well on floor and beam and OK on vault (she lacks power) -the only area where she lacks compared to the rest of her group is bars. I don't know if that makes a difference (struggling on one apparatus rather than all).

 

[SurpriseGymMom]

See, at our gym, bars is the gauge. If you're lacking bars, you are in trouble. Bar skills is what determines level.

 

[gymhorsemom]

See, at our gym, bars is the gauge. If you're lacking bars, you are in trouble. Bar skills is what determines level.

Yeah, I guess that's the case at our gym too -I just wish they'd give her a bit more time to get the skills. Placements for Fall are decided in March while competition doesn't start until Aug/Sept. Tough when she is so similar in ability to the rest of the group and only lacking those darn bar skills! As someone else said a lot could happen between now and Sept -I don't think it's unreasonable to think she might really step it up on bars and wish she could at least have a shot at it.

 

[gracyomalley]

DD competed old 5 a few meets scratching bars as an 8 year old. Had a ball. Placed on floor and beam a few times. 3 months later had all 4 events ready but still scored 33-34. Actually never got 36+ until level 7. Was she ready? Don't know. For our area yes. Did she have fun ? Yes. Did she care that her bars scores were 7s? Not much as her beam was 9s. Team not focused on winning low level compulsories.

Does this have anything to do with her present struggles at level 8? Not likely as bars were a strong event fir her at level 7. Maybe a little but I'm discovering most of her issues are vestibular and confidence.


She liked competing with her friends who were older and had been on team longer. It was right for her at the time

 

[wgymmom]

DD was more than ready, but she was on the "older" side for old 4 (9 years old) and had had 6 years noncompetitively beforehand. She was consistently at 36-37 from the start.