Hours

[GetaGrip]

In level 4 I went four 3-hour practices a week. So 12 hours.

In level 5 I went five 3-hour practices a week. So 15 hours.

In level six I moved gyms and went three 3-hour practices a week. So nine hours.

In level seven I went three 3-hour practices a week. Still nine hours.

In level eight I moved back to my first gym. I now go five times a week with three 4-hour practices and two 3-hour practices. So 18 hours a week.

Through all levels I got in the 34's at least once, but I did better when I went more hours.

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Hm. If like the OP I had two practices of 3 hrs (L6), plus conditioning practice, that would mean in each of those two practices:
15 min warm-up
30 min each event = 2 hrs total event time
30 min strength
15 min flex

So in that week I have:
4 hrs event time
3.5 hrs strength and dance and flex

In my 17hour practice week (level 6), I have:
(4 x 45 x 3) + (30 x 4) = 11 hrs event time (vault is only 1/2 hr, not 45 min)
About 4 hrs strength, flex, dance (as in ballet)

So the OP does a much higher percentage of strength compared to event work. I find it more beneficial to me personally to do a lot of event work since we do event-specific strength and I am proficient in strength with our current system, and I find doing cast handstands on bars, for example, helps me to build that muscle better than doing strength exercises for the same muscle.

I do 16-17 hrs/week in level 6 (hopefully competing L7 soon too) and will do 21 hrs/week in L7. During the school year the optionals go 18 hrs with an additional optional 3 hrs they can go if they want.

 

[gymluvr33]

Hm. If like the OP I had two practices of 3 hrs (L6), plus conditioning practice, that would mean in each of those two practices:
15 min warm-up
30 min each event = 2 hrs total event time
30 min strength
15 min flex

So in that week I have:
4 hrs event time
3.5 hrs strength and dance and flex

That's pretty close to what we did, but here is the breakdown:
30 min warm-up
2x 30 min events + 1x 45 min event= 3 events and 1 hr 45 min total event time
30 min conditioning (strength and flex)
15 min snack

So in a week I had:
3.5 hours event time
3 hours strength and dance and flex


Once we moved up to Level 7, our hours increased to 3.5 hours 3x a week. We still did 3 events, just with all the events being 45 minutes instead of 2 being 30 minutes. You also don't have to go to the extra 2 hours strength and dance practice, but you can if you want to. Now that I'm in level 8, you have to go 3x for 3.5 hours but you can go 4x a week if you want.


Oh, and we don't do a ton of conditioning while we're on an event, we mostly work on skills, which works well for me.

 

[gymluvr33]

Oh, I just thought of something...Mack, I don't know how competetive Iowa is, but I do know that New Hampshire is much less competititve than states such as Texas or California, so that adds in to not necessarily needing to do a huge amount of hours to stay competitive with other gyms in our area. Just a thought

 

[jenniffir]

As a L5, I went for 2, 2 hour practices, and 1, 2 hour practice that was just strength, conditioning, and dance (we call it tops, but not the real tops). So I was only at the gym for 6 hours a week, yet I won states my last two seasons.

What level are you and what was your score? either way state champion is amazing! congrats
PS at my last state meet the champion won with a score of 38.6 kinda crazy right? Yeah Texas is REALLY competitive

 

[All Chalked Up]

Our Level 1's (Canada) usually train about 8 hours a week, sometimes 12 and maybe 12 this year coming. Our Level 2's and up (Canada) train 12 hours. Sometimes Level 1+ train a bit more before Provincials, a important competition, Atlantics, Easterns, Nationals, etc.

 

[gymnastgets10]

In level 4 I trained 6 hours a week, 2 3 hour practices. I was 2nd at States.
In level 5 I trained 9 hours a week, 3 3 hour practices. I was 1st at States.
In level 6 I trained 14 hours a week, 2 3.5 hour practices, 1 3 hour practice, and 1 4 hour practice. I was 2nd at States.
In level 7 I switched gyms and trained 16 hours a week, 1 4 hour practice and 4 3 hour practices. I was 4th at States (but with some mistakes)
Now in level 8 I will train 17 hours a week, 2 3 hour practices, 2 3.5 hour practices, and 1 4 hour practice.

Summer hours have always been about 3 hours more than during the school year. I really don't think it matters how much you train as much as how hard you work and what you get out of practice.

 

[10.0]

It really depends on a lot of things. You, your teammates and your coach. Do you work hard? Do you run off to get a drink or go to the restroom every time something comes up that you don't want to do? I've coached girls like that, they are not champions. Or are you the type who wants to do that one more back hand spring and pushes yourself because it is something YOU want? Do your teammates work well? Are they courteous and well behaved? If they are not interested and the coach spends more time yelling at them that coaching that is a recipe for not being a champion, whether you yourself are involved in the bad behavior or not. And your coach/gym is it serious or recreational? And believe me some gyms that I would consider recreational compete and I think it is great that the kids have fun and all but they tend not to score well. Also your coach has to be serious without being mean and they have to have their heart in it, and believe me coaches are not in it for the paycheck. Example at gym today saw a class (1.5 hours) where because of the kids behavior and the coaches really not worried about it each kid probably got 3 turns on the equipment, no joking, there were 12 kids and 2 coaches doing 2 events in a circuit, it should have flowed well if the kids were wanting to work but it didn't. One last thought a lot of gyms are just in it for the money, they "compete" because parents want to see them do it and they may be the only game in town so the parents don't have any option if their kid likes it but does poorly. And some gyms are less in it for the money and limit class sizes, and hire quality staff and take it seriously and make champions, those types of gyms also don't tend to put up with athletes that don't want to be there/work or parents who insist their kid be moved up levels when they are not ready. I have been to meets where an entire team was missing essential skills to that level and yet they were moved up. I'm sorry but you should not push your kid into competing level 5 with no kip, no squat on, a vault that is not even close to going over a table, no back hand spring let alone 2, no handstand or beam dismount. But I've seen it happen all because the gym wanted the money and the parent threatened to leave. That was long winded sorry in short many factors make winners not just the sheer amount of hours you are in a leotard.

 

[gymgurl]

Well it depends i am a level 4 training 10 hours a week and i know you will think that is crazy but.....its the perfect amount we as a squad train long hours but in our gym there is an immense lack of equipment. Sometimes we stand for 10 minutes waiting for something to be free. if we only had 2 hours each training session we would be lucky to get 2 apparatus done. we spend roughly 1/2 hr on each apparatus and 1/2 hr warming up and that finishes our training. It will also depend on your squad size, if you have a large squad it takes longer to get things done.

In terms of placing i come around 3rd overall (have done in every competition except 1 and hopefully will get above that today!!)

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Oh, I just thought of something...Mack, I don't know how competetive Iowa is, but I do know that New Hampshire is much less competititve than states such as Texas or California, so that adds in to not necessarily needing to do a huge amount of hours to stay competitive with other gyms in our area. Just a thought

I don't know how competitive Iowa is since I've never lived anywhere else! I don't think it's like Texas though. Actually, I don't even know how many hours is usual since I've only ever gone to one gym... Though there is one gym I know trains a couple less hrs/wk than we do. My gym does 12 hrs for L5 and 16 min/19 max hrs for L7. We're one of the more competitive gyms in the area, along with a couple others...including Shawn Johnson's home gym, of course. All their girls are super young for their level so I never have to be scored against them.