MAG Men's Elite stream vs. JO?

[Pigeon]

Could someone help me understand how the "elite" program works with JO in men's gymnastics?

This comes from a comment I heard from someone on the girls side of our gym about our boys program basically stating that any of our boys team results in JO level 10 weren't really all that impressive, as the "elite" boys weren't competing with them (but with the girls the "elites" do compete with the girls L10; so their L10 competitions are so much more meaningful ???). But I've seen results in the JO L10 competitions where it looked like those "elite" boys were competing with the "regular" boys. What the heck?!?! I'm so confused.

(For the record, my kids are still really young. I've got years to learn how this works, right?).

 

[skschlag]

So, the JE (Junior Elite) boys do actually compete with the JO (Junior Olympic) boys at most meets, and they are all in teh same groups. The JE actually starts at level 8. So they do compete against each other a lot. Once a girl goes elite, from my understanding, they cannot compete level 10 anymore, unless the petition back in.

 

[Pigeon]

So how does someone become JE? And if a JO boy beats a JE boy, what then???

Edited to add: You can tell I'm confused, right? This has rocked my world

 

[skschlag]

No problem.

JE....if they want to and the coach gets them ready. At some meets, and states and higher, they would do compulsary and optional routines in the meet, usually on 2 different days. And if a JO boy beats a JE boy..he gets a higher place

 

[ZJsMom]

It is confusing and there are plenty of ways in which the system doesn't make sense. The designation of JE vs. JO is strictly self selection and different gyms have different approaches, e.g. some all the guys are JE, or all are JO, or some of each. Just because someone is competing JE doesn't mean he's better than any JO athlete. It just means he and his coach decided to do the compulsories (called technical sequences) and registered him as JE.

 

[profmom]

Sounds like someone on your girls' side has been sampling some sour grapes. Meets on the boys' side that pull the JE guys out to compete separately are pretty rare. Yes, regionals and nationals, and a small handful of other meets, but the majority of meets in which the boys compete have all of them competing together. If a L10 guy from your gym placed well at almost any of the big invitationals, he kicked butt, plain and simple. The only context in which the comment makes sense is if it was in response specifically to something about nationals, but I'll hazard that a guy who is on the podium as a JO at nationals is doing pretty well even when competing against guys who are over on the JE side for that meet. Case in point -- we have a guy who is not JE, but has one event where he is really, really good and one event where he is really good. Medaled on the really really good event at JO nationals last year. This year, I believe he has won or come in second on that event at every meet we've attended, in every instance topping some guys who will compete JE at 2016 nationals.

As an aside . . . Did BlackJack pull out the JE guys for separate awards this year? Or did they just give the JE guys awards for techs and have everyone in the same pool for awards based on performance in the optional session?

 

[Mom2twingymnasts]

@Pigeon - It is just the opposite of what you heard. In men's gymnastics it is very common for boys competing JE to compete against boys who are JO. Pretty much in all the meets except State meet, Regionals, and Nationals you will have JE boys competing against JO boys. I believe that once a girl is elite, she competes in elite meets and not JO meets. Unless she goes back to the JO route and gives up elite.

@profmom - at Blackjack the boys that did TS got awards for TS. They then where in optional sessions with everyone (JO and JE boys). There were lots of gyms there that have JE boys that didn't compete TS at the meet.

 

[skschlag]

Our state and regionals do not separate them out either. So JE/JO compete for state titles. Then they do tech sequences, but receive no awards for them, just the opportunity to move on as JE.

 

[Pigeon]

So, it looks like the technical sequences are judged out of 10? And when you see the "elite" scores posted showing a combination of two scores - that's the TS score added to the optional score that they got when competing with the rest of the JOs?

 

[Mom2twingymnasts]

So, it looks like the technical sequences are judged out of 10? And when you see the "elite" scores posted showing a combination of two scores - that's the TS score added to the optional score that they got when competing with the rest of the JOs?

I think you would only see the combined scores at JE Nationals. I can't think of any other meet where they show the combined scores.