Parents Knowing if the gymnast is ready

[vbdb]

Our gym doesn't scratch kids, they also don't move them to levels they aren't ready for. My DD competed most of last season level 5 with a spot for flyaway due to a fear that's still lingering around and still won first AA a few times. The idea that a kid has to be "on" constantly must be exhausting to them.
We do lots of prep work leading up to our provincial championships (your version of States) but the kids are rewarded for sticking and doing routines well, not punished with repetition that builds and builds leading up to the meet.
The idea that a young level 3 is in essence punished by being scratched from an event because she has an off day is ridiculous to me.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

This sounds very reasonable.

The longer I stay around here the moreIrealize how reasonable our gym is.

But then I’m still trying to wrap my head around scratching at level 3 and having them practice for 4.5 hours. My daughter only did 7.5 for the week at L3.

 

[thefellowsmom]

Our current gym is much more like you're describing, but not quite as strict. They assess the girls a few weeks out to decide if there will be any scratches, but they are very clear that if it's a rough week on an event prior to the meet for whatever reason, they have the right to scratch them. As far as I know there aren't number criteria but there could be, I guess. They have also said that there may be rare times when they have a girl scratch an event at a meet based on a really bad warm-up. They are very clear that they want the child confident heading into the routine. They do also have to attend all practices prior to the meet, unless they are ill, and if that is the case it will be a judgement call as to how they're feeling, how they come back, etc. And we do have practice the night before a meet. Our last meet was 9am about an hour away, and the girls got out of practice at 8 the night before. This was also the case at our last gym.

This is pretty close to how it is at our gym, but my kid is also high level not compulsories. Not sure what the policies are for compulsories. The level 3s don't even work out at our facility. When we first started here I thought this was harsh and I know other parents complain about it but what I have come to learn is that the kids' safety is of the utmost importance to their coaches. They are not willing to risk their minds or bodies over a regular season meet and I have really come to appreciate that about them. They want them mentally ready and physically healthy when post season rolls around, as much as they can control anyway. DDs teammate was sick earlier this week and will not be competing this weekend and another teammate had a really scary practice the other night and she won't be competing this weekend either. Is anybody happy about that? Of course not, but it was the right thing to do. They have strict policies but the kids understand them and the coaches work with them and the coaches encourage the girls to communicate with them what is going on with them. Better to have a bit of a cranky coach (or parent or kid for that matter) than a mistake that could cause a major injury.