WAG How is your gym's practice structured at low compulsory level?

[mouey77]

I know some gyms will hold a younger kid back because they don't want to offer them higher hours until they are some age the owner/HC thinks is appropriate for going whatever hours they have their, say, L3s going. So maybe when they could compete L2, they have younger kids do L1, which they can do in 4 hours/week, and bump them straight to L3 which might train 8-12 hours/week, when they're closer to 8. I also know some parents will hold the littles back if their gym does 12 hours a week of L3 and they don't want their 6 or 7 year old doing that.

DD is on a limited hours Y team competing USAG this spring and they do little to no uptraining and most girls will start the season with some issues with their routine. It's also not usual for them to repeat what is now L3 & L4 so they have time to get it all with the time they have (though they usually do not need to repeat the L2 level because that can be trained in 2x a week). But the point is they move up without the skills, they can skip levels or repeat levels, based on what the coaches think their potential is for the next year.

That makes sense. I wouldn't want my 6 yr old doing 12 hrs/week. 8 is plenty for now. I think again this might be a regional thing as the gym seems to expect perfect form even at level 1 and that's why the progression is really slow. Maybe this will somehow pay off later?!

 

[Abby]

I have a question about what your gym's practices are like. This our first year doing team. Our gym places all 6 yr olds regardless of ability on level 1 to start competing, and they only move up one level each year depending on state score at the end of meet season. When I asked about this, I was told not to compare what our state does to other states' gyms because it varies with region/state.

So, my question(s): DD would need a mill circle for example to do level 3 next year. I have never ever seen this skill practiced in the 8 hrs of practice they do each week. I get it that they are just doing routines over and over before our first meet, but this should change once the meets start, right? Or not?

Here is a description of how practice is structured: warm up with splits, get in line and work on level 1 floor elements, go to bars and do level 1 routine over and over, move to vault and same, move to beam and same, do level 1 floor routine, and last 10 min are conditioning (some sit ups, push ups, end with splits).

So, their practices consist of practicing the routines repeatedly start to finish. If there is an element of the routine that is weak, they may have them repeat that element (like a back hip circle for example). Another thing, DD needs handstand help. Her back is arched, and she can't hold them very long at all. I do not ever see them practice holding handstands--just the two second handstand at the beginning of the floor routine. Would it be helpful to do handstand drills at practice? What should we be looking for at their practices? Thanks!

When I did compulsory gymnastics my practice went like this;
During competition season we would start with a short warmup, then stretches. Next we would go to an event and do some skills for that event, but the skills were in our routines, then we would do that routine for the event. After all the four events we might go to tramp and work on tumbling skills for the next level.
It is a little different in the off season;
We start out with a 30 min. conditioning and stretching, then we go to the events and do next level skills, say if we were in level 3 we would practice level 4 skills, then we would stretch and go home.
Our moving up levels system went like this: We would do classes until they thought we were ready to compete, my gym doesn't start competition until level 3, so we would go straight to that level. Then the coaches would move us up when we had all the basic skills after we competed at least one meet.

 

[suebee]

My dd is 5 and is competing level 1 this year (USAG). After the first meet, they started working on level 2 skills including mill circle, etc. DD actually thought they were working on level 2 skills because she thought she'd be a level 2 at the next meet, lol.

I am thinking that I wish our gym just did preteam until level 3 or 4. It seems like they also move girls one level per year.