Parents Moving gyms and general ramblings

[wallflower]

We recently moved to a new state and consequently a new gym. My daughter competed level 5 in the spring in our old state and did well (high 38 at her last meet). In this state compulsories are in the fall so it has put her in a bit of an inbetween place. In order to do level 6 she'll have to be ready by Aug/September rather than Jan/February. I don't really know that she can do that.

Moving gyms was pretty hard and I have to say her new gym is sooooo different. Her old gym was more about skills and her new gym is more about conditioning. The spend almost 40-50 percent of the practice time doing press handstands, rope climbs, holding handstands, etc. I know those are all great things and will help her in the long run. It's great for her and she loves the conditioning so it's not a problem. It's just so different because while she is in a training 6 group where the girls may or may not compete 6, they don't seem to do much skill wise related to the routines they would be competing in Aug/Sept. It seems like with the season starting in 3-4 months they would be doing more skills. Someone educate me please lol.

For example on bars they work primarily on cast to handstands. No clear hips, no baby giants, flyaways etc. I know that cast to handstand is very important and I love that they are working on it so much. It will certainly benefit the girls in the big picture. It just seems like there is no way they will get those other skills in just a couple of months when they haven't even started them. Yet I hear the coach telling her you must cast higher for level 6, you aren't a level 5 anymore.

On floor they mostly work on tumbling drills, but no actual back tucks, front tucks etc.

It's just very different compared to our old gym. While competing level 5 my daughter had her punch front, fhs step out fhs, back tuck only with a spot, all her level 6 beam skills and nothing on bars. They hadn't started working 6 skills on bars yet.

Does this seem odd? Sound like they are more focused on the big picture?

My daughter is also very young so even though she scored very high in level 5 and has clearly mastered those routines, it might be better for her to do level 5 again anyway.

End of my general ramblings

 

[Quadqueen]

Welcome to the Chalkbucket!

Skill wise, your daughter sounds about where my DD is (has L6 skills on floor and beam, needs some skills on bars), although my DD got nowhere near a 38AA in L5 this past year. As far as the timing of the seasons, she may seem to be in a "in between" place to what you're used to, but your new gym's schedule of competing in fall is not unusual here. DD's season runs from October-spring, and they are still expected to get the new level's skills by late summer/fall to compete them in the fall.


As far as doing drills more than skills at this point, some gyms focus more on drills/conditioning in the spring, and might start actual skills in the summer. I'm coming from the opposite end of the spectrum...I wish DD's gym did more drills/conditioning! They never work on cast handstands or press handstands, and I know these are important for long term success.


As to whether she should repeat L5, I would leave that up to the coaches to determine. I would worry my DD would be bored repeating a level in which she already scored 38s.

 

[wallflower]

Welcome to the Chalkbucket!

Skill wise, your daughter sounds about where my DD is (has L6 skills on floor and beam, needs some skills on bars), although my DD got nowhere near a 38AA in L5 this past year. As far as the timing of the seasons, she may seem to be in a "in between" place to what you're used to, but your new gym's schedule of competing in fall is not unusual here. DD's season runs from October-spring, and they are still expected to get the new level's skills by late summer/fall to compete them in the fall.


As far as doing drills more than skills at this point, some gyms focus more on drills/conditioning in the spring, and might start actual skills in the summer. I'm coming from the opposite end of the spectrum...I wish DD's gym did more drills/conditioning! They never work on cast handstands or press handstands, and I know these are important for long term success.


As to whether she should repeat L5, I would leave that up to the coaches to determine. I would worry my DD would be bored repeating a level in which she already scored 38s.

By an "inbetween" place I meant that her new teammates finished their level 5 season in late November and will have had from December to August without competing and just working on the next level. In contrast she finished competing in March and if we hadn't moved, would have had March to January to get ready for level 6. It's just a difference in timing. I had no doubt that she would be ready for level 6 by next Spring, but I think it's a bit too much to ask her to be ready by August and really July because I believe they will make the decision by then who competes what. It would essentially be doing level 5 and 6 all in 1 year and she only just turned 7 in time to do level 5. It's too much to ask of her in my opinion.

I'm not at all worried about her being bored if she competes level 5. She honestly doesn't care. She just enjoys the day to day training and also loves to compete. She'll be happy either way. I'm kind of the odd gym mom because if I ever questioned what level she was competing to the coaches, or let my opinion be known, it would be to say please don't push her to do level 6!

 

[Quadqueen]

By an "inbetween" place I meant that her new teammates finished their level 5 season in late November and will have had from December to August without competing and just working on the next level. In contrast she finished competing in March and if we hadn't moved, would have had March to January to get ready for level 6. It's just a difference in timing. I had no doubt that she would be ready for level 6 by next Spring, but I think it's a bit too much to ask her to be ready by August and really July because I believe they will make the decision by then who competes what. It would essentially be doing level 5 and 6 all in 1 year and she only just turned 7 in time to do level 5. It's too much to ask of her in my opinion.

I'm not at all worried about her being bored if she competes level 5. She honestly doesn't care. She just enjoys the day to day training and also loves to compete. She'll be happy either way. I'm kind of the odd gym mom because if I ever questioned what level she was competing to the coaches, or let my opinion be known, it would be to say please don't push her to do level 6!

I get what you meant by the "in between" place, I was just saying that that's what all girls are expected to do here, so it is doable. I understand you are concerned she has had less time to work the new skills than her new teammates, but she should be ok...if you want her to compete 6. If not, then I guess there's no rush and nothing to worry about!

Our girls ended their season in April and don't do much uptraining during the season, so it's crunch time before the first meet in the fall for us.

 

[MeetDirector]

First, I am not a coach and don't pretend to be. However, allow me the use of an analogy. When you build a sturdy house, you want the foundation to be rock solid; you wouldn't want the foundation to look good but crumble at the first storm. From my observations of my DD's training (now training L9), its a lot the same as this analogy. The foundational skills need to be rock solid, especially as they move into the harder skills. The cast handstand is so absolutely essential to everything else on bars; the tumbling drills probably lead directly to the bigger tumbling. I will go out on a limb here and say that the actual skills for the routines will come pretty quickly if the foundation is strong. This is definitely another one of those "trust the coach" situations. It is hard to get to that trusting point, but so relieving when you do get there.

Good Luck.

 

[J&A's mom]

It is easy for me to 'trust the coach' because my son's gym has an incredible team. How are the optionals girls at your daughter's gym? Hopefully good, which means it would be 'easy' to trust the coach knowing your daughter will get there.

 

[iwannacoach]

I totally believe that gymnastics skills are very easy to learn if a few pre-requisites are firmly in place. Those are strength, flexibility, desire, and a coach who can meld those qualities with the laws of physics. I really like what I'm "hearing" as you describe this new program. This coach and supporting staff will wait until late July to mid August to start concentrating on the compulsory skills in earnest.

I like this approach for the benifits it provides.......

Concentrating on skills that are "long term" in learning and utility. Cast handstands are forever, the clear hip will be next unless the H/C is worried about having a "Sally" or two that can't kip, but that's unlikely with all the conditioning you DD and team are going through.

Seeing hard work pay-off. When these kids start to learn cast squat-ons, glide kips, and baby giants, they'll be far more successfull because of their strength.

Logic based confidence. If I can do a cast to 7/8 handstand, who cares if I don't have my glide kip yet. All of my friends at my old gym just barely have their glide kips, and can hardly cast above horizontal. That kip's going to be sooooo easy to learn compared to the cast handstand.

Excitement and positive mass hysteria. This group of kids will start the comp season a little "slow" and build momentum as the state meet approaches. That huge improvement in scores over a three month period is going to instill a sense of pride and confidence much more so than "flatlined" scores that barely nudge upward through the entire season.

Could I go on all day and night?....I could you know, and I just might!

But I won't unless you beg for more.

BCNU

 

[GymBee97]

From May - Aug is the time frame for gyms and gymnasts in our area to have the girls learn the next levels so its not uncommon for my area at all it is the standard actually. There is alot of focus on conditioning and usually the last 6 weeks or so before a meet they get the full routines. What I've seen is at the begining of the summer they condition with skills that are the hardest to get or condition so the muscles they need to do skills are strenghtened so they can get the skills more easily. I wouldn't worry about it so much and trust that the gym has a plan in place. usually too in our area there is a season that goes from Sept - Dec with states in December and a season that goes from Jan - Spring with states again in spring for the compulsory levels. Lots of girls can be for example L5 working L6 for the sep - dec session and then become L6 for the Jan - May session. You should ask your gym if they have 2 competitive sessions like that.

Over all however I've never seen any girl not get the skills for the level that the coach was looking to place them in by the first meet. They may not be beautiful but they do have them.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

give it more time.

 

[wallflower]

I get what you meant by the "in between" place, I was just saying that that's what all girls are expected to do here, so it is doable. I understand you are concerned she has had less time to work the new skills than her new teammates, but she should be ok...if you want her to compete 6. If not, then I guess there's no rush and nothing to worry about!

Our girls ended their season in April and don't do much uptraining during the season, so it's crunch time before the first meet in the fall for us.

Your state sounds like our old state if you compete November - April. To me, this is a little different because while your girls will be starting competition in November and having until April to perfect those skills, improve etc, the state meet will be in November here. Finishing in November is way different than finishing in April.

 

[wallflower]

I totally believe that gymnastics skills are very easy to learn if a few pre-requisites are firmly in place. Those are strength, flexibility, desire, and a coach who can meld those qualities with the laws of physics. I really like what I'm "hearing" as you describe this new program. This coach and supporting staff will wait until late July to mid August to start concentrating on the compulsory skills in earnest.

I like this approach for the benifits it provides.......

Concentrating on skills that are "long term" in learning and utility. Cast handstands are forever, the clear hip will be next unless the H/C is worried about having a "Sally" or two that can't kip, but that's unlikely with all the conditioning you DD and team are going through.

Seeing hard work pay-off. When these kids start to learn cast squat-ons, glide kips, and baby giants, they'll be far more successfull because of their strength.

Logic based confidence. If I can do a cast to 7/8 handstand, who cares if I don't have my glide kip yet. All of my friends at my old gym just barely have their glide kips, and can hardly cast above horizontal. That kip's going to be sooooo easy to learn compared to the cast handstand.

Excitement and positive mass hysteria. This group of kids will start the comp season a little "slow" and build momentum as the state meet approaches. That huge improvement in scores over a three month period is going to instill a sense of pride and confidence much more so than "flatlined" scores that barely nudge upward through the entire season.

Could I go on all day and night?....I could you know, and I just might!

But I won't unless you beg for more.

BCNU

That makes me feel MUCH better. Thanks! Oh, and all these girls have glide kids already having all competed level 5 already, but I get your point.

I have trusted completely in the short time we have been at the new gym because I can see they have good gymnasts. Big level 8-10 teams and 2 elites. It has just been more of a "wow, this is so different than what we are used to seeing".

I was just curious if other parents had been through this kind of culture shock when changing gyms.

 

[wallflower]

From May - Aug is the time frame for gyms and gymnasts in our area to have the girls learn the next levels so its not uncommon for my area at all it is the standard actually. There is alot of focus on conditioning and usually the last 6 weeks or so before a meet they get the full routines. What I've seen is at the begining of the summer they condition with skills that are the hardest to get or condition so the muscles they need to do skills are strenghtened so they can get the skills more easily. I wouldn't worry about it so much and trust that the gym has a plan in place. usually too in our area there is a season that goes from Sept - Dec with states in December and a season that goes from Jan - Spring with states again in spring for the compulsory levels. Lots of girls can be for example L5 working L6 for the sep - dec session and then become L6 for the Jan - May session. You should ask your gym if they have 2 competitive sessions like that.

Over all however I've never seen any girl not get the skills for the level that the coach was looking to place them in by the first meet. They may not be beautiful but they do have them.

They do not have 2 seasons. Just compulsories in the fall and optionals in the spring.

 

[Quadqueen]

I understand what you're saying, but when does your season start if it ends in November? Ours typically starts in September/October. So your DD will have slightly less time to prepare for it than we would if you are competing in August. There still isn't a huge difference in when the girls are expected to "get" the skills. Sure, it's not ideal to have states in November, but I guess you and the coach will have to make a decision on whether you think she will be ready. I think you have to be more concerned about whether she has the skills, not whether they're going to be perfect by November, because they probably won't be. But so be it! That's when states is, and you can't change that. The season will be over so quickly and then she moves on. Or not...if you have her repeat L5.

 

[MaryA]

As others have said, look at the upper levels. If this gym has successful gymnasts at the upper levels, then trust that it's all part of a plan. Clearly your daughter doesn't "need" to repeat 5 given her scores, but it sounds like she may "have" to repeat 5 due to changing to a new gym with a new philosophy. If she's happy in her new gym, content to compete at whatever level they tell her she's competing at, and you're satisfied that the training she's getting now will lead her to bigger and better things in the future, then don't sweat it.

 

[iwannacoach]

All those in favor of 10's or elites say aye........the ayes have it!

 

[Pickle's Mom]

At Pickle's gym, the season starts in October, and the girls are doing very little in terms of skills right now. It's all about the basics leading up to the skills.

Starting the end of June they will work skills more. And then in August they start routines. I remember last year she spent most of June doing drills like jumping up backwards onto a stack of panel mats to prepare for getting her back tuck. But she didn't really work her back tuck itself until July.