Parents Is Competitive Gymnastics different at each club?

[GymParent0]

I’m not an expert by any means either but my daughter did level 6 at age 10 (age 11 for competition purposes) and she was still on the younger side. There were some super strong girls doing 6 at age 12 and up too. I don’t think they need to rush to 6 at all. Ideally the girls are learning skills that are a higher level than what they’re competing. The only other real benefit I can think of is fear - they develop more fears as they get older.!

Our gym does 5. It’s true that many girls skip it but ours doesn’t. They believe that the skills in level 5 contribute to a stronger foundation. It was frustrating at times seeing lots of girls my daughter competed against in level 4, skip to 6 while she had to do 5, but doing 5 made her a very strong 6.

It's a shame that gymnastics in Canada is centralized by provincial organizations that have zero financial support but issue all credentials because this blanket approach doesn't yield returns like some of the Soviet, Romanian, Chinese models have. USA does so well because they imported all of those coaches, and have financial incentive to succeed. More high level athletes, more sponsorships, more credibility, more notoriety. Canada doesn't seem to care in most sports and it's truly a shame. This whole "FUNdamentals" is more like "DUMdamentals" because the kids spend 9,12,15 hours at a gym with what is honestly, limited ROI.

Gymnastics has so many girls quit for other sports because it doesn't provide a proper roadmap or path for success. Little boys can dream of NHL, go to camps, be coached by NHL coaches and be rated young as 7 years old for AAA. Gymnastics hides all of this and doesn't really support it's athletes to encourage University and Olympic participation.