Anon GAP year for gymnastics, how does it work?

[Anonymous (278c)]

My daughter is very young for grade, so she will be competing for gymnastic scholarships with girls a full year older than her. I'm getting ahead of myself, but how do colleges look at GAP years in terms of scholarship offers?

I see a lot of gymnasts make commitments to colleges their Jr. year of high school. If my daughter is planning on doing a gap year before college, is there a way to let college's know this is the plan? I keep hearing if your not recruited by Jr. year, all the D1 scholarships dry up. But since the plan is a gap year, Sr. year is like Jr. year, so senior year would be the year we'd be seeking a commitment from a college.

 

[Anonymous (54e2)]

Interesting question. I think colleges are going to handle you like they would any recruit in your daughters naturally graduating class. Regardless if she is taking a gap year. So as soon as she ends her sophomore year, they are going to be recruiting you and in those conversations is when you identify that you are going to be taking a gap year and they will handle accordingly. There have been a few examples (mainly high profile olympic gymnasts)that have done similar things where they have committed to a college but it is known that they are not actually going to start attending until after the gap year.

 

[Dahlialover]

I have heard of people holding their child back in middle school or 9th grade to improve college recruiting opportunities. I don’t think taking a gap year after high school is likely to make a big difference in recruitment opportunities in gymnastics, since it would not change The student’s graduation date for recruitment. However, it might help if a student were trying to secure a walk-on spot at D3 school.

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[Anonymous (ca8e)]

I’ve heard it’s better to re class and repeat a grade, but I don’t really know for sure. My daughter has a mid August birthday so is one of the youngest in her class too. I sometimes wish I would have had her start kindergarten a year later, but at this point it’s too late, she’s going into 10th grade this fall.

 

[Anonymous (ac88)]

The people we know doing it were already homeschooling so they just sort of went more slowly in late elementary/middle school so they would be a couple levels ahead of grade in school, with the exception of a HS girl at our old gym. After announcing that she’s reclassifying to gym friends and coaches, she’s been very vague about what class she is and I think she’s waiting to see when she’ll get to level 10 before being public about what grade she’s in. She would be a junior this school year going into senior year next year, but I think she considers herself a freshman for gymnastics purposes.

 

[Anonymous (278c)]

Interesting question. I think colleges are going to handle you like they would any recruit in your daughters naturally graduating class. Regardless if she is taking a gap year. So as soon as she ends her sophomore year, they are going to be recruiting you and in those conversations is when you identify that you are going to be taking a gap year and they will handle accordingly. There have been a few examples (mainly high profile olympic gymnasts)that have done similar things where they have committed to a college but it is known that they are not actually going to start attending until after the gap year.

Thanks, my intent is how do I reveal to a college that while my child may be say a 2029 graduate... that she's at a disadvantage somewhat to a 2029 graduate that is a full year older than her and she can take a gap year and be the same age as her peers, with a extra year of level 10 under her belt.

 

[Anonymous (ac88)]

You don’t message it. If you’re set on this, then you hold her back this year and when/if she has Instagram, etc, you list her new class year.

No one cares about someone being young/old for their grade so there’s nothing to say and it would just sound defensive or weird.

Also, you as a parent don’t “reveal”things to a college. Someone who is capable of doing college-level gymnastics needs to have the maturity to manage their recruiting process, their outreach, etc., with light support and input from parents. College coaches want to know they’re recruiting an athlete with supportive but hands-off parents. They don’t want you overly involved. I’ve seen college coaches drop a recruit because their parents couldn’t back off.