Parents How long to get level 3 skills?

[gymhorsemom]

I have no idea what the expectations are at our gym as far as when the girls need to have all of the skills by in order to compete in the Fall. We are now 6 months away from competitions for level 3 and I'm wondering if my daughter has a chance of competing in the Fall. Her pre team group practices 7 hours per week. When would you expect to need to have all or most level 3 skills by in order to compete in Sept?

 

[sce]

How much of her level 3 skills does she have at this point?

 

[AV24]

Our gym is choosing girls for level 3 right now to compete in the fall. They don't have all of their level 3 skills yet, but they are about to start training with the compulsory coach to get ready. So...they don't need all of their competition skills yet, but they do need certain prerequisites in order to be accepted into the level 3 training group. Does that make sense?

 

[gymhorsemom]

Our gym is choosing girls for level 3 right now to compete in the fall. They don't have all of their level 3 skills yet, but they are about to start training with the compulsory coach to get ready. So...they don't need all of their competition skills yet, but they do need certain prerequisites in order to be accepted into the level 3 training group. Does that make sense?

She doesn't have many -she's just moved to pre team about 1 month ago and just started working on lvl 3 skills. Most of her group seems to have an equal lack of skills which gives me hope as there doesn't seem to be another group training level 3 skills and someone's got to compete level 3 in the fall, right? So to answer your questions she has pullover, BHC on bars. Close to shoot through. Doesn't have MC or FHC. I know those are considered tough ones. She's learning a lot of beam stuff but not doing the dismount on her own and not getting vertical on the handstand -but those I feel she's not far from -of course I'm no coach though so I could be wrong. I am not sure if she can do the vault or not -I haven't seem this part of practice. As far as floor she has the tick tock, her handstand forward roll leaves a lot to be desired, recently got the backward roll to plank thing. She has only done BHS with assistance and even her roundoff seems to need work -but getting closer. Any chance of competing in Fall? I don't think they are planning to increase from 7 hours in the summer but I could be wrong.

 

[gymhorsemom]

Our gym is choosing girls for level 3 right now to compete in the fall. They don't have all of their level 3 skills yet, but they are about to start training with the compulsory coach to get ready. So...they don't need all of their competition skills yet, but they do need certain prerequisites in order to be accepted into the level 3 training group. Does that make sense?

Curious to know what the prereqs are if you know. I am not sure if what my daughter is in something like a level 3 training group -they train with the compulsory coach and have more hours than the 1st level of pre team. But they haven't called it this or made sort of *promise* of competing in the Fall. And we certainly haven't gotten any emails/etc saying "welcome to team and sign here and pay a lot of money" . So I'm not sure what to think. The timing seems off but I think it might have to do with some issues at the gym in the past year that led to getting this group off to a late start.

 

[AV24]

Each gym is different. Her skills sound a LOT like my DD's, but mine will not be competing level 3 in the fall. I think she *could* handle all of the skills, but the form would not be there in time. Plus, my DD isn't ready for the hours, yet. Our gym does quite a lot of hours at level 3, IMO. Hope that helps, but I still couldn't tell you what will happen with your kiddo. It couldn't hurt to have a convo with the coach. She probably has a good idea by now of where your DD will be in the fall.

 

[AV24]

Our prerequisites seem to be strength and form related - and maturity. This is all I'm guessing from a parent's perspective. I really don't know for sure. Wish I did!

 

[gymhorsemom]

Each gym is different. Her skills sound a LOT like my DD's, but mine will not be competing level 3 in the fall. I think she *could* handle all of the skills, but the form would not be there in time. Plus, my DD isn't ready for the hours, yet. Our gym does quite a lot of hours at level 3, IMO. Hope that helps, but I still couldn't tell you what will happen with your kiddo. It couldn't hurt to have a convo with the coach. She probably has a good idea by now of where your DD will be in the fall.

Thanks, you are probably right that the coach has a good idea by now and I should ask. How may hours does your gym do for level 3?

 

[AV24]

I've heard it's about 14 hours, and she's doing 3 now, so.... that's quite a big jump. I hope I'm wrong about that, too!!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

I think hours depend on your gym and coaches. Our gym level 3&4 do about 8 hrs a week. They can elect to do more and usually do, if you include gym camp when school is closed and summers. And of course if you want to send your kid more they will happily do so. But 8 hrs is minimum.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

JMO, not that it counts for much. I think the hardest skill is the darn mill circle. I have seen kids doing their kips and not be consistant with the mill circle. So glad to be done with that.

BHS was easier for most of them as well.

 

[billise]

Depends on the gym. Our old gym moved DD to level 3 before she had her FHC or ROBHS. She got the FHC consistently about 3 weeks before 1st meet. Her ROBHS remained spotty throughout the season (she need a spot at some of her meets). Our family moved over the summer and new gym would not put her on level 3 despite the fact that she had all the skills and had competed level 3 the previous season. For them, her skills simply were not clean enough (and I didn't disagree when you compared DD's skills to the skills of the girls on their level 3 team). New gym will not move a girl to level 3 until her level 3 skills are very strong. DD's skills look much better now but at this point we still do not know if DD will compete level 3 next season.

Gyms have different standards and different approaches (especially when it comes to compulsories). Neither way is necessarily right or wrong, it's just the way it is

 

[2gymkids]

I think it just depends on the coaches and philosophy. Our gym didn't have anyone competing level 3 the last two year b/c nobody was ready (they just started a new group of preteam girls in fall 2013 but they weren't ready by last summer), but I am under the impression that at least some of group will be moving up to L3 for next comp season (starting late fall/early winter next year). They don't have all their skills but they're working on the last few (hitting HS on beam, ROBHS, and that dang mill circle).

 

[Deleted member 17723]

She might. Front hip and sole circle are definitely hard, but with the proper conditioning and drills she can get there. Form issues are common with younger kids, and I'm sure it can be cleaned up in a few months. As long as she has a good attitude and work ethic, she has a chance of competing! Good luck!

 

[IreneKa]

DD competed Xcel bronze before we switched to another gym for JO. She switched at the end of May. At that point she had pullover and BHC, but didn't have any other bars skills, they just weren't required in Xcel, so they never worked them. She had good round off, and standing BHS, but couldn't connect them. She didn't have beam dismount, and her handstand wasn't even half way up. They put her in level 2 in September, because she still didn't have all skills, but she got them by the end of October, and was moved up to L3 mid-season. So, basically, it took her about 5 months to get all required skills for L3.
As Xcel bronze she practiced 5 hours a week, and as L2 6-8 hours.
Good luck!

 

[momto8in10]

FWIW, my daughter moved to (old) L3 in March (a few years ago) after only having been on pre team(or any gymnastics at all, for that matter) for 3 months. She competed L3 that fall, with all of her required skills (although the MC took until State to be consistent).

 

[mom2newgymnast]

My dd is a level 2 and competed last fall. Her group has been training level 3 skills since January. They will find out in May if they will be competing level 3 or not. So they will have had about 4 to 4 1/2 months to learn the level 3 skills. They will still have almost 3-4 months after moving up to level 3 to perfect the skills and learn the routines. She currently goes 9 hours a week, but it will increase to 12 hours a week if she moves up to level 3. Her gym doesn't do any uptraining during the season and they focus heavily on form and conditioning.

As far as skills, right now they've been introduced to almost all of the level 3 skills, but they are definitely at different stages as far as learning them all. Luckily, since they all competed level 2 last season, they do all have their mill circle and back hip circles at least. So on bars, the focus as been on the shoot through and they are just getting into the front hip circle. They haven't worked on the dismount yet either. On beam, they have spent most of their time on the handstand. They all know the mount and dismount. On floor, the back handspring is the main focus, although they have worked on most of the other pieces frequently too.

We just had 2 new girls join the team from other teams in the area and both successfully competed level 3 last year. They were trying out for the level 4 team, but dd's gym said they weren't ready for level 4 yet and so they both joined the team training for level 3. The gym has pretty high expectations and it seems likely that some of the group will not be moving up in May.

 

[sce]

JMO, not that it counts for much. I think the hardest skill is the darn mill circle. I have seen kids doing their kips and not be consistant with the mill circle. So glad to be done with that.

BHS was easier for most of them as well.

It really is kid dependent. My dd had a mill circle LONG before her FHC. As well she struggled with a consistent BHS and handstand on beam.