Parents How do you get there?

[Spleen]

Hi everyone, I am a new poster to this forum. My daughter is five and is in a Level 1 rec class, one hour a week. She goes to a big, well-known gym. This gym has a pre-team but no invitation has come my daughter's way, which is fine. My question, and I know it depends on the gym, is: in general, how does a kid flow from the Rec classes to the team? For a typical kid, not a hot shot. I know our gym has a Level 1 class and a Level 2/3 class. If the team invite never comes, and she gets all the level 3 skills, what happens next? I don't see a level 6 Rec class. Does pretty much everyone see a team placement at some point, or do you quit, or do you just languish in that 2/3 class? Thanks so much!

 

[Flyaway]

It really depends on the gym's philosophy. Most gyms do not have automatic movement between rec and team- you have to show interest and let the coach know. And at bigger, more competitive gyms that won't be enough. Sometimes girls are pulled from rec, but most of the time they are identified early on and put into the preteam stream at a young age. You will have to ask how your gym specifically gets their team girls and go from there.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Only have experience at 2 gyms.

First one, my girl was invited.

Next one she tried out. But at this gym everyone gets the opportunity to make team if they start little. If they have the skills they advance. If they don't they stay at whatever level they have the skills for as long as the family is willing to keep them coming. Our gym up trains so if they are not getting skills it is not because the gym is not providing the opportunity.

It's not age related or time but skill. We have a kid who is 2 yr level 2 and might not make 3 this year. She likes it, parent is Ok with it. She can stay.

 

[sce]

Every gym seems to approach it differently. It's best to ask. Just find a way to word it such that you just want to understand the program, without sounding pushy about your child.

 

[cbifoja]

The gym where my daughter started is much like what Flyaway described. You don't let littles who show a lot of potential spend session after session in general rec. Real quickly, you tap those kids for some sort of developmental program.

However, at our old gym, there was also a stream where rec kids could work through all the rec classes and be invited onto an in-house team. If successful on the in-house team, you could garner an invite to team. This was a longer path for kids who weren't identified early.

I think our new gym uses the Xcel program rather than an in-house team because I know that we have an Xcel program but they don't practice in the same facility as our team does. So I assume they stay at the rec gym and train there.

At the new gym, we have some YOUNG littles across several levels of pre-team but I have no idea how all that works since DD came to this gym as an L8.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

It really depends on the gym's philosophy. Most gyms do not have automatic movement between rec and team- you have to show interest and let the coach know. And at bigger, more competitive gyms that won't be enough. Sometimes girls are pulled from rec, but most of the time they are identified early on and put into the preteam stream at a young age. You will have to ask how your gym specifically gets their team girls and go from there.

I agree with this. I think it really depends on the gym and your best bet would be to ask your daughter's coach or ask other parents.

At dd's gym, they had an advanced preschool class that my dd was put in. From there, she moved to an advanced rec class for 5-6 year olds. Then she was invited to the training group. About half of the training group was invited to the level 2 team after 6 months. I've heard the training group is now starting with younger kids and that they are staying there longer now though.

We also have a rec team that many girls that have been taking classes for multiple sessions are invited to. They basically do and learn the level 1-4 routines and compete them against other local teams. It's much easier to get on the rec team. They also have a new Xcel team. I'm not sure how one goes about getting on there, but it is definitely for older, but talented gymnasts (probably considered too old for the usag team by dd's gym). I haven't heard of anyone joining the USAG team from the general rec program though. We do have girls from other gyms come occasionally that may be from Xcel or USAG at another gym in the area.

 

[GymDad9.9]

Sounds like your Level 1 through 3 rec class is akin to Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced rec class that I am familiar with. In my daughter's case, she started with rec class at age 6, was evaluated at the very beginning and was put in the intermediate class. Towards the end of her 8/10 week intermediate class, she was evaluated again and finished the 8/10 week session in the advanced class. As she finished up in advanced she was recommended for pre-team evaluation, which to this day I do not believe was the gym's in-house Level 1 team. A few weeks into her pre-team work I arrived to pick her up from practice only to find out she was pulled from the class, evaluated by the compulsory coaches and invited to Level 2 Team, in the lower level group. Next day she started her Level 2 Team only to be told after that first practice the coaches wanted to move her to the upper level Level 2s, which she did and went on to compete later in the year.

Having said all that, many of my daughter's teammates had started rec classes at a younger age and moved up the levels at an appropriate pace and in the "system" for awhile, so to speak, and their ascension to team was never in doubt. I've seen older girls join my daughter's team, who are really athletic, and probably did not have the traditional progressions. So, it's really about skill, and age, and ability to grasp the fundamentals and be able to demonstrate progress. Hopefully your gym has a good system in place to identify children who should be moved along to a skill appropriate level. In my daughter's case, she probably could have started at advanced but I understood why she began at intermediate. But it soon became clear she probably belonged in advanced and although she got there eventually and fairly quickly, my daughter recognized she no longer belonged in intermediate and wanted to move up (ie: complained to her parents) before someone in charge was willing to sign off on it. Thankfully, there was staff at our gym who eventually got her in the right place. After that, you're in a much better place for the compulsory coaches to have an eye on you.

As a parent I did not want to be pushy about moving my daughter up. I avoided doing that but parents do it alot. My daughter had some talent and knew if the gym knew what they were doing she'd get there when she need to and did. At the same time, it was good to establish relationships with the coaches and have them provide good (and bad) feedback on progress being made.

 

[IreneKa]

As other said,
1. Ask questions and find out what the path to pre-team\team is at your gym. It's okay to ask for information, as long as you are not too pushy.
2. Make sure they know that your daughter\you are interested in a team path. Some people sign up their kids for gymnastics just for fun. The coaches need to know that team is what you want.
3. If you think she has enough skills\abilities\focus for pre-team, but invitation still doesn't come, take her for evaluation at other gyms. Some gyms are too picky, and might not invite a child who is not super talented in their opinion.
4. If possible, add another class. The more time she spends at the gym, the faster she'll progress.

And don't wait too long. I know we here often criticize 3-4 year old kids doing too soon too much. But the thing about gymnastics is that the window between "too soon" and "too late" is pretty small, around 5 to 7 years old. At 8 some gyms might tell you that your child is too old for team. You daughter is 5, which is a perfect age to start on a team path, if that's what she wants.

 

[Spleen]

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses! It never occurred to me that kids who aren't pulled out for pre-team might never actually make it to a team. I've only seen one girl actually really get noticed in my daughter's classes, and she was very young, very small, and very strong. It looked to me that the coaches were noticing her just for her physique and not so much for her focus or work effort week after week. This is a whole new world for us.

 

[Gymmommy71]

The gym where my DD first became a team track kid would identify them in a rec class and invite them into a pre-team class if they saw potential. My DD literally only tried one class of an open to everyone rec class and they came up to me at the end and said she should move to the invite only pre-team group. She was almost 5 years old. Some in her pre-team group had been in rec for a while before, but others went almost instantly to pre-team like my DD. Once in pre-team, they seemed to decide each spring which of those girls would go to what JO level, if any (many would stay pre-team for multiple years working on what are now L4 skills - backhandsprings, kips, general strength/flexibilty). This was back in the days before Xcel or the popularity of Level 2/3, so I'm sure there would be less multiple years of pre-team in that system now.

The gym where my DD is now does a mix of the ad hoc invites to pre-team and formal tryouts in the spring. The formal tryout kids are usually older than the pre-team invitees and many of them are usually put in Xcel Bronze or Silver to start and then can move to JO later if they show well-rounded skills and good technique. I don't think they turn away anyone who tries out, but they are very selective for who they put in a JO tracked group initially if the kid never competed before. Like to get put in L2, the kid would need to show some serious potential on all 4 events and really good form at the tryout, and this is rare because usually kids like this are already tapped into pre-team from a rec class.

As others have said though, you need to find out the way that your current gym does it. Sometimes parents of very young team members can explain how things worked for their daughter if you know or can talk to any of them.

Another good thing to also do is to learn what different types of teams your DD's gym has - do they have both Xcel and JO ("levels") teams, just one or the other, TOPS, something else, etc.? - and then get to understand the differences between them, what types/ages of girls are on each, and their projected development paths. That way when/if your DD is offered a team spot you understand what you're really being offered. I say this because I've met and heard of more than one new to team parent this year who's DDs were offered and joined the XCel bronze/silver teams that didn't fully understand what XCel was compared to JO. They started asking questions several months in after they slowly realized that the L2 group trains a lot more hours and is made up of girls who appear to be "better gymnasts" than the kids in their DDs group :/ - I thought it was a shame that they didn't understand and/or weren't explained the difference up front.

 

[Musicmama]

From what I understand it depends on the circumstances, child's age, skill level, and the gym philosophy. My dd was older (8yo) and was pulled out of rec classes within a couple months of starting and put on a team (no pre-team time at all).

But I didn't know anything about gymnastics and clearly, in retrospect, should have talked to someone before just putting her in the beginning class. I thought everyone had to start in the beginning rec class since the description said that it was for anyone who'd never done gymnastics before and I didn't think her self-directed home activities, prior to that, counted.

So, definitely talk to someone and get more information about how it works at your dd's gym! I wish I would've talked to someone about how gymnastics works sooner.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Every gym is different.

In some gyms only kids in the hot shots type pre team programs are ever considered for team. The girls in rec are often not being considered at all. They just move through the levels and if they hit the ceiling they stay in that same level until they quit.

In some gyms, they will be selected to go into the team once they master everything in the rec program.

Other gyms will keep an eye on the red girls and from time to time selected a few to move up, but this won't be an option for everyone.

Other gyms have a program like trampoline, or cheerleading which the red girls go into once they master all that their program has to offer.

Many gyms (including mine) have a maximum age limit for team. Gymnasts need to be selected by this age or they are no longer considered. This age is not usually very old, say 8 or 9 is common. This is not a discriminatory thing, it's often a safety issue. The intesity of training steps up considerably between red classes and team. Girls going through puberty or their major growth spurt are significantly more prone to injuries, it is not a good time to significantly increase their training intensity and tends to lead to injuries. So ideally you move kids up well before this starts.

You can learn gymnastics skills at any age, but the skills are easier and faster to learn before puberty. Kids are lighter and easier to spot and don't fall quite as hard. So many gyms want to maximise this time and make sure as much of the gymnasts skill learning as possible happens before this time. It is also easier when the kids are in lower elementary grades because there is a lot less pressure on them to get homework done for hours every night. Hence the age limit in many gyms.

Most gyms have certain physical body types in mind when selecting kids, the aim is for girls who are small, strong, fast, flexible, have a naturally good posture and so on. Most gyms will still select a talented kid who is missing one of those characteristics. But if they are missing two or three they may be crossed of the list to ever be considered.

 

[raenndrops]

Definitely every gym is different. Our team was built from our rec program. We don't have a "pre-team" program at all.
We have Toddler classes (with an adult partner… ages 18 months -3 years - but, if the child can handle it without the adult partner, they can move up to the preschool class early).
Preschool Class (3 & 4 years old, but if the child can handle 15 more minutes of practice and is coachable, they can move into the regular rec classes early). This class teaches the same shapes and skills as the Level 1 rec class, with the exception of NO BRIDGES. They don't go as many minutes and they are younger, so it can take longer to get the skills.
Level 1 Rec (ages 5+). Works on the basics… USAG Level 1 gymnastics skills, plus drills for higher skills. A child coming from the preschool program may or may not start here. (If they are being moved up early because they have mastered all of the required skills, they can skip this level. If they are moving up because they turned 5 or because they are just ready for more TIME, then they start here.) This is also the level where complete beginners 5 start. 75% Mastery is required to move up.

Level 2 Rec (ages 5+). Continues working on the basics…. thru USAG Level 2 skills, plus drills for higher skills. Students coming into rec for the first time, especially if they are 8+, that can do a cartwheel, handstand, and bridge on floor, walk on the beam without being scared, and can pullover (with or without a spot) and cast on bars can usually start here. 75% Mastery is required to move up.

Level 3 Rec (ages 5+). Works on perfecting L1 and L2 skills and learning L3 skills. This is our final level of Rec. All girls are trained with the ultimate goal of moving to team - IF THEY WANT.
From this class, in April, the parents of girls who WANT to be on team attend a parent meeting to find out what team is all about… time commitment, financial commitment, etc. Then they sign up for individual tryout time slots. HC evaluates them at the tryout. If they have 75% Mastery, then they get invited to team. They have May - August to work on the missing skills, learn routines, and decide if they want to compete or just train for the season (team season commitment papers are due the beginning of September). Either way, they continue working on skills and routines until the season starts at the beginning of November.

 

[notthatmom]

As everyone else says, it totally depends on the gym. For us, DD was invited to Preteam straight from beginner. The kids in advanced rec, and the Preteam kids are all invited to tryouts for team (tryouts are once a year). Sometimes they have the "extra" talented kids start training with the team earlier without a tryout but it's rare.

The best thing to do is ask, because at least then they know you're interested in more than just rec classes.


Good luck!

 

[gymmomtotwo]

Some gyms have secret societies where how to get on preteam is a mystery (you have to wait to be invited)and other have open tryouts. I personally prefer the latter type. DD was not under consideration at our first gym. Tried out at the second gym, did preteam and is currently a 9 year old Level 6 with 3 state championships under her belt. If you want team go with the gyms with the open process.

 

[suebee]

Dd's gym sounds like yours, in that there are no higher level rec classes. Rec classes are pretty much just for younger beginners. There are no rec classes for kids older than elementary school age and no rec classes for any skills higher than JO level 2-3, and honestly, I don't think they even do J9 level 3 skills in the advanced rec class. Maybe BHS.

Young kids with potential quickly get shifted into the invite only JO preteam program. Unlike at other gyms I've read about here, there is no particular skills that are needed for preteam and girls, like my dd, are often moved up in during their first session of rec at 4 years old.

Girls who want more than rec but are not invited to JO preteam can go to Xcel Preteam and then Bronze. From what I understand, Xcel preteam is also invite only, but they'll invite almost anyone if you show interest. This is not the case with JO preteam at dd's gym.

So rec is really just the gateway to team, whether it be Xcel team or JO team.

 

[ProudDad]

It sounds like DD had someone looking out for her. As everyone else has said... YMMV, but we took DD to a purely rec gym that also had a STARS program (which we knew nothing of) just to see if she would like it and could burn off some energy. After the 45 minute tumbling class the HC/Owner pulls us aside and tells us about the STARS and says we should really have her on the team, we waited two weeks to see if she even liked it. We thought it odd that after one class he was so eager to put her on team and figured it was just a sales pitch to more than double the cost... but she loved it, so we signed her up.

By the end of the season HC said that we needed to look for a team gym and gave us tips on how to scout out ones that would work for her. We set up the try out sessions with 7 gyms in the area over the course of late spring early summer... DD, DW & I picked our top 2 favorites and tried them both again, then decided on one - shes been there the past 3 years and is heading to states this weekend as a L6. She's a solid performer, but not a phenom, so it sounds like we were really in the right place at the right time for DD and gym to mesh. None of our other three daughters were into gym, so we had no idea what we were getting into.

 

[gymmutti]

My DD was old for gymnastics - starting rec in 2nd grade. She wanted team but was never pulled out of class or spotted by coaches but she did move up that school year from beginner to intermediate to advanced. Right after spring break she asked if she could do a couple of privates as we had gone on vacation and she wanted to catch up before the spring rec showcase. During the first private the preteam coach spotted her doing cartwheels on the beam and pulled her out to evaluate her. We got the invite for pre-team shortly thereafter. They moved her directly into the higher level preteam and after 6 months she moved to team. I truly believe that without the private, she would never have been noticed. It was pure luck.

 

[duyetanh]

Here come the flames...
Unfortunately, at many gyms (NOT ALL!) the coaches do tend to look at the younger girls who are smaller than average that seem to be skilled. Please note, I am not saying this is fair, and I do believe that girls who are older and/or taller than average yet skilled could be missed and miss opportunities to be incredibly talented gymnasts. My child's gym didn't used to be this way, team was open to anyone who wanted to give it a shot. As the team developed, the coaches now seem to want the younger ones for J.O., and the rest are offered xcel opportunities. Only you know how your gym is...and if you don't, I would start looking into it, if that is indeed something your dd wants. If she does want it, and it doesn't look like her path would end up that way, she is young enough to find another gym that will provide her with the opportunity. Good luck.