Anon Girls repeating lower levels with 39+ scores

[Anonymous (965d)]

So I am always seeing posts on social media by certain big name FL gyms bragging about all their crazy high scores, so I poked around a little bit and I was shocked to find that they have girls repeating lower Xcel levels 2 and 3 times. One girl scored a 39+ at both state (including 2 perfect 10's) and at regionals in Silver in 2023, and then repeated the level AGAIN the following year. And I saw multiple other girls having repeated the same level after scoring high 38's and 39's.

I know some people are going to come at me saying maybe she didn't have the skills for the next level. But we're talking about Bronze and silver here. Not level 7, 8, 9.

But here's my biggest question: How on earth do they get parents to agree with the plan to repeat levels when their child scored a 39+ consistently their first year in the level? If my child scored 39's, won both state and regionals, including several perfect 10's, and the gym told me she would be repeating silver again, we would be out of there SO fast.

I'm also curious how many of these girls actually stick with the sport vs getting bored and quitting. I couldn't help but notice that for an upcoming meet, they have over 100 girls competing Bronze, silver and gold, but only 5 level 10's.

We do not live in FL, so we don't compete against these gyms, but I was genuinely curious why these gyms are so popular.

 

[Anonymous (dcdf)]

They may be competing lower levels while uptraining skills to the point of when they do go up to the next level they will expect to see the same level of success. So while nothing is changing at competitions a lot is happening behind the scenes. Additionally some gyms have move up requirements that have nothing to do with meet performance, things like can't move up until their kip is solid, or need a giant, or BHS on beam, need to be able to flip a vault, etc. Lot of reasons why is gymnast isn't at the next level including straight sandbagging, but if the family is seeing progress in some way normally they are content with whatever the meets results are.

 

[RTT2]

There’s a gym with over 100 girls competing Bronze? How do they have the space??

 

[Anonymous (62fd)]

There’s a gym with over 100 girls competing Bronze? How do they have the space??

Is it possible it's one gym with multiple locations? There are some around here that are like that, maybe not in the triple digits, but definitely more than you'd ever see at a single gym.

 

[Anonymous (a5d2)]

There are also a lot of gyms, especially in the South, that use Xcel to bypass compulsories. Many of these gyms either have the girls score out of L4 and L5 (or now, they could just score out of L4 2X w/ 36+) if they are under the age of 12. For girls 12+, they can just petition them into L6 or L7.
Many of these gyms use Bronze-Gold instead of compulsories, so they would want straight-arm kips and casts above horizontal by Gold at the latest. They probably want their Silvers competing a salto on floor and competing maximum level skills on every event in each level before moving up. 39+ could be achieved doing bare minimum routines the first year at a level (or somewhere between minimum and maximum). The next season, they could compete upgrades that are now solid, so they still score high.
With the overlapping skill levels in each Xcel level, a gymnast could also have a "weaker" event holding her back. If they are using Xcel as a compulsory bypass, they would want all events at the same level when transitioning to DP, so repeating a level while working on the weaker event in practice to get it "caught up" could be the strategy they use.

I even know of one gym in Florida that has a regular Xcel Bronze-Gold and a HP version of Xcel Bronze-Gold. My guess would be that the HP gymnasts, training more hours, are those that they want to fast track into DP Optionals, while the other Xcel gymnasts would be more likely to stay in Xcel through DIamond, meaning that repeating levels as I explained above could be more common since there are fewer Xcel levels (with greater variability within the levels).

 

[Anonymous (7632)]

I honestly think some gyms do it because it looks impressive on paper to have such high scores. At my daughter’s old gym when we lived in Virginia, my daughter was six competing level 3 and there was a girl who scored a high 38( almost 39) and she had repeated level 3 and was 13.

 

[Anonymous (1ad7)]

They may be competing lower levels while uptraining skills to the point of when they do go up to the next level they will expect to see the same level of success. So while nothing is changing at competitions a lot is happening behind the scenes. Additionally some gyms have move up requirements that have nothing to do with meet performance, things like can't move up until their kip is solid, or need a giant, or BHS on beam, need to be able to flip a vault, etc. Lot of reasons why is gymnast isn't at the next level including straight sandbagging, but if the family is seeing progress in some way normally they are content with whatever the meets results are.

Level 3 at age 13? If you are scoring a 38-39 in level 3 surrounded by babies... it's time to skip States and a do a test out meet and get. yourself in an appropriate level.

 

[Anonymous (a5d2)]

I honestly think some gyms do it because it looks impressive on paper to have such high scores. At my daughter’s old gym when we lived in Virginia, my daughter was six competing level 3 and there was a girl who scored a high 38( almost 39) and she had repeated level 3 and was 13.

It could be that she didn't have the skills for Level 4. If she was missing the kip, then most gyms wouldn't move her up. If she was terrified to go over the vault, a lot of gyms wouldn't move her up.
Also, what were her scores the year prior? Was she coming back from an injury in the "off-season"? Did her gym have a lot of older L3s getting really high scores?

I know a girl that had a back tuck on the beam (she was her high school team's beam specialist) but only competed Xcel Gold because she didn't have a kip and was scared of vault ... she might make it over 1/3 times.

 

[Anonymous (7632)]

She had all the skills the year before as well. It appeared to be the gym’s policy to have the girls repeat the levels. My daughter was the only girl from her level 3 team to move up to level 4. We moved before she started level 5. I still very so often check meet scores and the gym still has “older gymnasts “ competing at levels that usuallly younger girls compete at.

 

[Anonymous (bee8)]

I guess some cases might be mental blocks or lack of some skills. I was one of those cases, I stayed most of my career at the same level (kind of gold-platinum skills) but I started pretty old and I had a lot of mental blocks that made it impossible to move to harder levels.
But I guess there's also some abuse going on.
My country just changed from age-limited levels to open-age levels, we'll see how it goes.
Many people is worried about what's being said in this post.

 

[Anonymous (1cb2)]

If it's just a couple girls repeating after getting 38+, it could be an injury or mental block causing the repeat of a level. But if it seems to be a trend that many gymnasts repeat every year, then they are sandbagging. I guess the parents don't care if they don't move up if they still see new, higher level skills being achieved at practices and their kid always at the top of the podium.

 

[Anonymous (acb8)]

So I am always seeing posts on social media by certain big name FL gyms bragging about all their crazy high scores, so I poked around a little bit and I was shocked to find that they have girls repeating lower Xcel levels 2 and 3 times. One girl scored a 39+ at both state (including 2 perfect 10's) and at regionals in Silver in 2023, and then repeated the level AGAIN the following year. And I saw multiple other girls having repeated the same level after scoring high 38's and 39's.

I know some people are going to come at me saying maybe she didn't have the skills for the next level. But we're talking about Bronze and silver here. Not level 7, 8, 9.

But here's my biggest question: How on earth do they get parents to agree with the plan to repeat levels when their child scored a 39+ consistently their first year in the level? If my child scored 39's, won both state and regionals, including several perfect 10's, and the gym told me she would be repeating silver again, we would be out of there SO fast.

I'm also curious how many of these girls actually stick with the sport vs getting bored and quitting. I couldn't help but notice that for an upcoming meet, they have over 100 girls competing Bronze, silver and gold, but only 5 level 10's.

We do not live in FL, so we don't compete against these gyms, but I was genuinely curious why these gyms are so popular.

We have a gym in our area that does something similar. Their teams are big because they hold the gymnasts back in levels 2-4 for several years to dominate the podium. These girls are scoring 38s & 39s and according to their coaches it’s not good enough. One parent told me that they have to score over 9.7 or higher on each event several times in the season to be considered to move up to the next level in addition to having to have the next level skills. Most of the gymnasts are on the older side due to the years of repeating levels. It’s sad and I’m sure it doesn’t help their confidence to think that scoring a 9.6 on an event isn’t good enough. It’s pretty hard to find that perfect all around gymnast who is strong on every event.

 

[Anonymous (9ac6)]

There is one gym in my state known for this. Large compulsory teams, but they burn them out by the time they get to Optionals and so very few make it to level 6 or 7.

 

[Anonymous (92ec)]

There is one gym in my state known for this. Large compulsory teams, but they burn them out by the time they get to Optionals and so very few make it to level 6 or 7.

We have one in our area as well. It used to make me mad when my kid was competing in meets with that gym, but since she's in the higher levels now her scores are on par with theirs. They like to brag they got "first" in team, because they were the only ones who had enough gymnasts for a "team" but those of us who know just laugh.

I honestly feel bad for the parents of that gym with kids in the lower levels. I have no idea what they tell them that makes them think it's worth their time and money, but I know that if my kid had been held back levels she would have gone insane with boredom.

 

[Anonymous (38d8)]

We just returned from a meet where one girl has repeated the same level for 5 years. This is her 6th. The others on the team at least once if not twice or more.
They aren’t scoring low either! 37 and 38’s. But maybe there is a reason? Idk. Not sure what it could be.
For more context- this is the xcel platinum.

 

[Anonymous (59e0)]

We just returned from a meet where one girl has repeated the same level for 5 years. This is her 6th. The others on the team at least once if not twice or more.
They aren’t scoring low either! 37 and 38’s. But maybe there is a reason? Idk. Not sure what it could be.
For more context- this is the xcel platinum.

I would guess their gym does not have diamond/sapphire, and/or they don't want to commit to DP or a different gym. If she is older, she could also just want to stay at a lower level to preserve her body, rather than risk getting injured at near the end of her career.

 

[Anonymous (bee8)]

There are also times, especially with older gymnasts, when it becomes really hard to learn new skills, whether it is physically or mentally to an extent they are able to put them in competition. In my country I see it a lot of times and the level many times might be close to that of platinum.

 

[Anonymous (92ec)]

I would guess their gym does not have diamond/sapphire, and/or they don't want to commit to DP or a different gym. If she is older, she could also just want to stay at a lower level to preserve her body, rather than risk getting injured at near the end of her career.

Repeating higher levels multiple times seems more reasonable--especially in xCel, which is designed to be more flexible. We have several gymnasts competing Diamond multiple years in a row because they also play high school sports like soccer and basketball and there are only 24 hours in a day. It's when you see gyms with high levels of lower level repeaters who repeatedly get high scores that you start you start to wonder.

 

[JBS]

Championship low level teams are the best marketing possible to other parents that are in the same exact stage with their kids. While we don't do any of this to the level of what is being said... our club runs Xcel Bronze / Silver and then goes to DP Level 4. If you are training for L4... Silver is very easy. Our kids that repeat Silver because that don't have their L4 skills almost always get ripping high scores with ease.

To answer the question about Bronze numbers that make it through to L10. There is absolutely no correlation between the score that one can get at Bronze and the ability to make it to L10. Typically clubs that have a track record in L10 will have young L8's (under age 12)... this is your true path to L10... optional level basics at a young age.

The TOPs program is still a great guideline to upper level gymnastics... below is the bars testing for 9 & 10 year olds...



Here is the program home page...

TOPs Program • USA Gymnastics

usagym.org

These TOPs style kids / young L8's... that is where you start seeing actual stats on getting to L10... and even with them you are only around 50/50.