Anon higher-level gymnast in lower level or lower-level gymnast in higher level

[Anonymous Post]

My DD who will be a junior in high school next year wants to start competing (xcel). She currently competes for her high school at the varsity level (around xcel gold level for skills). She gets skills faster than most gymnasts (according to her coach) and her ultimate goal is to do A&T in college. She almost has all her skills to be an Xcel platinum gymnast next year (needs some skills for floor and bars).

Since she only has two years left of high school and with her goal in mind, would it be better to do Xcel gold next year then platinum senior year or do platinum next year and hopefully diamond in senior year?

She is afraid that by only being in platinum in senior year, she won't be able to do A&T in college which she is really interested in.

 

[Anonymous Post]

The decision really rests on what skills she can get before the the season starts and whether she feels she can progress during the season to master the remaining skills. Her being a platinum senior year won't automatically make her more desirable to college coaches if she doesn't have the skills for that level.

 

[Anonymous Post]

There are also a lot of platinum skills she could compete as a gold - but no B saltos (so no front pike or front layouts, no back twisting saltos) - if she was close but not quite there and continue to up train.

 

[Anonymous Post]

Truthfully, if the ultimate goal is A&T team I really don't think they will care much what level your daughter competed. They will more care about her tumbling skills. They don't have any interest in what her beam or bars ability is. They will need to know that she can do the tumbling skills required cleanly. Generally, these include backwards tumbling, standing tumbling (standing back tuck), clean ROHSLO and possibly a full or specialty pass. I don't know where you are located but do wonder if another sport such as power tumbling classes, competitive cheerleading or circus acrobatics (trickier to find) would actually better prepare her for these goals than excel gymnastics will. The stunting in A&T is as important as the tumbling (albeit probably a bit easier to learn for a teen than tumbling from scratch) but if she wants to be competitive at tryouts having stunting experience along with the tumbling will help a lot. Also, if you can find somewhere she can tumble on a dead floor with shoes would be helpful as that can also be a tricky transition.