Parents Fewer gymnasts?

[RTT2]

States meets have started up in our area and so far, I've noticed a pretty big dip in numbers for girls competing in States at levels 4-6. Wondering if it could be Covid fallout, possibly Nassar fallout, or something else? Curious if the number of competitors is down in other states too?

 

[LucyRobinson]

We lose a lot of girls in Level 4-6, historically not just recently. A lot of it is just lack of interest, which is totally fine. They want to do another sport, have more time for friends, or just aren't liking gym as much as they used to.

Covid might be a reason why it is more significant than it used to be.

 

[RTT2]

We lose a lot of girls in Level 4-6, historically not just recently. A lot of it is just lack of interest, which is totally fine. They want to do another sport, have more time for friends, or just aren't liking gym as much as they used to.

Covid might be a reason why it is more significant than it used to be.

Sure, but I'm comparing numbers who competed this year vs recent years (leaving out 2021 and 2020 bc of Covid), and there seems to be quite an overall drop in numbers. For level 4 in our area it was in the 400+ range from 2016-2019 and now is in the low 200s. Similar drops for 5, 6, and I just saw the numbers for 10 states and that is down as well. I don't know if it's an overall trend in the sport or just an off year, but I'm curious.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

I don't feel like numbers are down much, if at all, in my state. The schedule for my daughter's state meet this weekend has the following numbers:

level 6: 216
level 7: 160
level 8: 114
level 9: 104
level 10: 96

In 2019, the numbers were:

level 6: 167
level 7: 213
level 8: 137
level 9: 78
level 10: 90

I'm not sure about compulsories, but I don't think the numbers were much different there either.. My daughter's gym has more gymnasts than ever this year it seems.

 

[Coach Kate]

I know there are some gyms using Xcel in place of compulsories, so maybe they are going from Xcel platinum right to level 7, just scoring out as needed and thus not going to state.

 

[ORgymmom]

Just at my daughter’s gym, I see lower numbers in younger pre-team kids, Level 3 girl and Level 4 girls. Pre-team is more 7-9 year olds than 5-6 year olds like it used to be. There is a huge group of 3-5 year old girls coming up in the classes that feed into pre-team. We were in an area with long gym closures so I think the virtual workouts temporarily weeded out a lot of 5-9 year olds. There were a decent number of gym closures and program changes in the area, too. I don’t know if this is reflected at the state level because I haven’t seen the numbers yet.

 

[WV Gym Mom]

I think COVID could be a factor, but also many gyms are using Silver/Gold instead of compulsories. Silver and Gold were the largest groups at my State meet last weekend.

 

[TumbleTimes4]

We haven’t had state meets yet to know if numbers have been impacted from previous years. But our level 4 & 5 teams are lower than usual and so are the Xcel Silvers. But the Level 3 and XB teams have precovid numbers.

 

[pagymmom]

We are in PA and the numbers haven't changed downward that I've seen. My daughter is level 7 and she has 51 in her age group for states.

 

[katrid11]

Based on what I saw from past years, there isn't a specific drop off for our state but some gyms are missing lower levels. States for L4 felt full with over 65 girls age 9 and 50 age 10, 16 age 11, 30 age 7/8. About the same as 2019 which was the last "normal" year.

Our current and our former gym are both missing teams at L2 and L3 due to a lack of pre-teams in 2020/2021. When the state caps your # kids in the gym, many decided to concentrate on existing team girls first leaving nearly no spots for pre-team. Thankfully both gyms have a good amount of pre-team girls now and will field L2 teams this fall for the first time since fall 2019.

 

[CuriousCate]

Our current and our former gym are both missing teams at L2 and L3 due to a lack of pre-teams in 2020/2021. When the state caps your # kids in the gym, many decided to concentrate on existing team girls first leaving nearly no spots for pre-team.

Wow - I hadn't thought of this as a reason. I noticed that in our gym, the girls in the lower levels (we do XB, XS, and XG instead of compulsories and then move to 6 or 7), nearly all repeated their level. It hadn't even occurred to me that this was likely the result of COVID precluding the gym from getting them in the gym enough to train up, and also precluding them from recruiting in newer preteam kids. This makes so much sense.