Parents My daughter is scoring low for the second year in level 4

[Gymnewbie44]

My daughter is in her second year at level 4. She just competed in her 1st meet this year and made a terrible overall score. Her coach told me she was doing great at practice and she was sure she woukd make state and mobilize this season. Our gym practices 3 days a week. No extra practice in the summer and no private lessons. I told the coach I thought my daughter needed more practice but she keeps telling me Im wrong. Bella can do all the skills but her execution is sloppy and she is not consistent. Any advise out there from other moms?

 

[raenndrops]

Just breathe.
We are at a gym that practices 3 days a week (2.5 hours a day) for a total of 7.5 hours a week ... with 1/2 of December off and all of July off.
Some Level 4s rock from the beginning and others will struggle.
Some repeat and still struggle until THAT ONE meet ... where everything just clicks.

Last year, we had 2 repeaters. One of them made the mobility score in her 3rd meet. The other one didn't get there until the 7th meet of the season, but they did both make it and are doing pretty good in Level 5 (one is getting ready to move up to Level 6 in January).

This year, we have no repeaters in Level 4, but many of the current girls will likely repeat next year. We have had 3 meets so far.
Meet 1: scores ranged from 25.25 to 35.40.
Meet 2: scores ranged from 26.90 to 35.40.
Meet 3: scores ranged from 27.95 to 36.40.
At this point in the season, only 2 of our girls have made the mobility score. By the end of the season, I expect at least 3 more girls to make the mobility score ... with an outside chance that up to 3 more will also mobilize. Out of 12 girls, I fully expect 2 to 5 will repeat, 5 to 8 will move up to level 5, and 2 or 3 to switch to Xcel Gold.

The more you stress about her scores, the more she will stress. And the more she stresses, the more nervous she will be and the more prone to making mistakes from trying to be TOO perfect. My OG was a stresser when she competed. The harder she tried to be perfect, the more falls she had (one meet, she had 5 falls on beam - including her dismount ... and 2 falls on bars - including her dismount ... and a fall on floor on her back walkover ... and a fall on vault - landed on her feet, the mat slipped, and she fell on her bottom!!)

 

[CuriousCate]

Are they doing a lot of uptraining of skills? Maybe the gym views compulsory levels as something to build to bigger skills without stressing the details? I noticed a lot of gyms keep kids moving because they don't really pay attention to the "text errors" that can crush you in compulsory gym...

 

[Gymnewbie44]

Just breathe.
We are at a gym that practices 3 days a week (2.5 hours a day) for a total of 7.5 hours a week ... with 1/2 of December off and all of July off.
Some Level 4s rock from the beginning and others will struggle.
Some repeat and still struggle until THAT ONE meet ... where everything just clicks.

Last year, we had 2 repeaters. One of them made the mobility score in her 3rd meet. The other one didn't get there until the 7th meet of the season, but they did both make it and are doing pretty good in Level 5 (one is getting ready to move up to Level 6 in January).

This year, we have no repeaters in Level 4, but many of the current girls will likely repeat next year. We have had 3 meets so far.
Meet 1: scores ranged from 25.25 to 35.40.
Meet 2: scores ranged from 26.90 to 35.40.
Meet 3: scores ranged from 27.95 to 36.40.
At this point in the season, only 2 of our girls have made the mobility score. By the end of the season, I expect at least 3 more girls to make the mobility score ... with an outside chance that up to 3 more will also mobilize. Out of 12 girls, I fully expect 2 to 5 will repeat, 5 to 8 will move up to level 5, and 2 or 3 to switch to Xcel Gold.

The more you stress about her scores, the more she will stress. And the more she stresses, the more nervous she will be and the more prone to making mistakes from trying to be TOO perfect. My OG was a stresser when she competed. The harder she tried to be perfect, the more falls she had (one meet, she had 5 falls on beam - including her dismount ... and 2 falls on bars - including her dismount ... and a fall on floor on her back walkover ... and a fall on vault - landed on her feet, the mat slipped, and she fell on her bottom!!)

Thanks. This helps me and you are right. I think She is stressing about scores!

 

[Gymnewbie44]

Are they doing a lot of uptraining of skills? Maybe the gym views compulsory levels as something to build to bigger skills without stressing the details? I noticed a lot of gyms keep kids moving because they don't really pay attention to the "text errors" that can crush you in compulsory gym...

Yes She works on a lot of level 6 skills which doesn’t leave as much time for her to master the details. I think on bar this has been ok because its similar but the beam is a problem.

 

[CuriousCate]

My older DD experienced level 4 like a roller coaster. One meet she did awesome and the next would get a full 2 points AA lower. The variation always came on floor and beam where the text errors can quickly add up. (NB I'm not a judge! I'm just a mom who listened to what the coaches told my kid.). The coaches advised us not to worry much about levels 4 and 5 scoring (particularly beam and floor) because they just didn't focus much on the tiny details of the choreography and chose to focus more on uptraining. I wouldn't worry.

 

[Gymnewbie44]

My older DD experienced level 4 like a roller coaster. One meet she did awesome and the next would get a full 2 points AA lower. The variation always came on floor and beam where the text errors can quickly add up. (NB I'm not a judge! I'm just a mom who listened to what the coaches told my kid.). The coaches advised us not to worry much about levels 4 and 5 scoring (particularly beam and floor) because they just didn't focus much on the tiny details of the choreography and chose to focus more on uptraining. I wouldn't worry.

Thanks for all the encouragement. Hearing from other moms feels like a lifeline right now. Im amazed at how stressful this feels as a parent sometimes, but seeing how much she loves it makes me want to stick with it. I will try and not focus on scores so much!

 

[Deleted member 18037]

It’s the first meet of the season. That alone is stressful. My daughter went 3 days a week until she was a Level 7. Now she is a L8, 4 days, 12 hours a week during the school year.

High scores and medals are no doubt, fun. And it’s not about scores at Level 4.

There are many high scoring L4/5 kids, who never go any further.

 

[Gymnewbie44]

It’s the first meet of the season. That alone is stressful. My daughter went 3 days a week until she was a Level 7. Now she is a L8, 4 days, 12 hours a week during the school year.

High scores and medals are no doubt, fun. And it’s not about scores at Level 4.

There are many high scoring L4/5 kids, who never go any further.

Thanks!

 

[bagira]

We had a girl in our gym that was not a high scorer in compulsories (level 4 and 5) because of her form. However, she had no fear. Mom wanted to pull her out from gymnastics because of poor meet performance, coaches suggested otherwise. Fast forward few years, she was gaining skills steadily and by level 8 was top scoring gymnast. Her form also improved as she matured. You just never know how gymnast is going to progress.

 

[cp13]

My daughter did 2 years of L4 and I got concerned at the beginning of her second L4 season because her first couple of meets were not very good. Midway through the season, everything clicked and she was very successful for the second half. She also had a teammate that season who was repeating L4 too and she started the season with 9.4s/9.5s on a couple of events. Towards the end of the season she was scoring high 8s and she spent most of the end of the season upset with her scores because she expected more. So you don't know which way it will go but it's much more fun to start slow and improve than to have high expectations and then be disappointed. Both girls moved on to L5 the next year and the teammate is an optional this year and my daughter moved to Xcel due to some of her fears about the harder skills.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

Sometimes kids hit an age or maturity level or fitness level and just start to bloom. If she is happy and willing to put in the work then I'd just let it ride and see.

 

[Gymnewbie44]

We had a girl in our gym that was not a high scorer in compulsories (level 4 and 5) because of her form. However, she had no fear. Mom wanted to pull her out from gymnastics because of poor meet performance, coaches suggested otherwise. Fast forward few years, she was gaining skills steadily and by level 8 was top scoring gymnast. Her form also improved as she matured. You just never know how gymnast is going to progress.

I really appreciate all the input. My husband and I were struggling with that and her coach keeps telling me she can do so many hard skills, just give her time. I tend to compare her to other gymnasts and I think what Im hearing from her coach and all of you is that gymnasts really progress in different ways. Thanks!

 

[PeanutsMom]

My daughter is a level 6 now and was always middle of the road in levels 3-5. Her first meet as a 6 was a DISASTER if we look at scores. She only scored a 31.595 AA. However, her floor routine includes one level 7- 8 pass (front pike front pike) which she put her hands down on when she landed too far back on her heels, and her bar routine was changed 3 days before the meet because she was getting too much height on her cast flyaway that her coaches felt it safer to put a clear hip flyaway in 3 days before the meet. It did not go well, but they are working on her giant flyaway for the next meet to harness some of the energy. She came away from the meet in tears, but understands it is just the beginning of the season. She started level 4 with a 29.8 AA at her first meet of the season and scored a 34.8 at the last meet of the season. We watched her AA score at each meet and it often went up a full point or more. Second meet was a 31 something, third meet 32 then a 33..we focused on progress not scores. She could see her progress and how much she improved so even not keeping up with the first place finishers, she was still proud of what she had accomplished. I hope your DD has a great season and you see lots of progress even if you don't see lots of medals.

 

[Gymnewbie44]

My daughter is a level 6 now and was always middle of the road in levels 3-5. Her first meet as a 6 was a DISASTER if we look at scores. She only scored a 31.595 AA. However, her floor routine includes one level 7- 8 pass (front pike front pike) which she put her hands down on when she landed too far back on her heels, and her bar routine was changed 3 days before the meet because she was getting too much height on her cast flyaway that her coaches felt it safer to put a clear hip flyaway in 3 days before the meet. It did not go well, but they are working on her giant flyaway for the next meet to harness some of the energy. She came away from the meet in tears, but understands it is just the beginning of the season. She started level 4 with a 29.8 AA at her first meet of the season and scored a 34.8 at the last meet of the season. We watched her AA score at each meet and it often went up a full point or more. Second meet was a 31 something, third meet 32 then a 33..we focused on progress not scores. She could see her progress and how much she improved so even not keeping up with the first place finishers, she was still proud of what she had accomplished. I hope your DD has a great season and you see lots of progress even if you don't see lots of medals.

Thank you! I will defintely start focusing on progress not scores!

 

[Avasmom]

Level 5 has been similar for us. My dd has not scored very high but she has consistently improved unless she fell on beam in every area so that is what I try and look at.