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Men's Artistic Gymnastics

CreateMagic

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Now that regionals is over, I'm curious... has there been any info about the new compulsory routines put out there? Any speculations? My son will be a level 5 next season, and curious what changes might be coming!
 
I’ve been getting slivers of info from the minutes from the Men’s program committee on the USAG website.

From 2/24/24

d. Junior Program – Bhavsar, Klein, Pakanich, Sargsyan

iv. The 2025-2028 Junior Competition manual is being finalized. The compulsory
programs are complete, and that portion of the manual is being created and formatted . The optional /elite portion is still being worked on. The goal is to have the new program out to the community by May 1 and to hold two virtual presentations for the entire men’s community on May 22 and May 24, which will outline the new Junior program.

v. The Men’s Program Staff are working on revamping the Future Stars Camp for
2025 to include more athletes and combine with our National Coaches
Workshop. The plan will be for this event to be held in the Summer of 2025.

 
The "book" is out if anyone is curious like me. Level 5 seems to have literally zero routine changes, so that's good. Level 4 floor took out the stretch jump, which caused my son more than zero problems over the past two years, haha. Glad to see that gone! The scoring changes are interesting, and will take some adjusting too, simply because we'll need to rethink what a "good" score is! The level 6 routines are very different, but I don't know enough about anything beyond level 4/some level 5 to even know what some of that stuff is! We also don't do level 6 at our gym, so its a moot point around here.

My son is enjoying the "off season" right now and pushing for those bonuses! He's got a minimum of two years at level 5 regardless (because he'll be competition age 10 this year and no level 6 at our gym), but he wants to go D1 this year instead of D2. They won't make that official decision for a little while and he's a determined little bugger.
 
I like the new level six, but possibly just because it suits my kid. I like that the base routines are not too hard and that the bonuses allow a lot of growth. I’ll bet some kids will struggle with the required full split.


I’m not thrilled about the new take on future stars. By moving the competition from October to the beginning of the year, they are making it so the 10-year-old division will be made up almost exclusively of nine-years-olds, which is a big difference for such young kids. They wanted to increase participation but I do not understand how raising the difficulty and lowering the age wil do that. They have not released the 6E/FS routines but they are expected to be a version of the level 6 routines with mandatory bonus skills. The 6E 10yos and 11yos will have different routines and will compete in separate divisions during the regular season. In my region, the odds of having more than one 6E 10yo at a meet is very low. That means that anyone who decides to do it would bring home 7 golds, even if they fell on every event. My kid might do 6E-10yo. But I’m not excited about him going to meets without any competitors. I’m afraid it will feel like a mock meet with medals. My son has his regional select team camp next weekend. Almost all of the potential level 6e kids will be there. I hope we get some more info.
 
Where can I find the “book” with the routines? My boys (Canadian) are doing a travel meet in the US this upcoming season, and I’d like to understand what the Level 5 and 6 routines are?

(Our system in Canada is completely different for MAG)
 
Oh, thank you so much!! I really appreciate this. And boy oh boy, are the requirements / levels so different than in Canada

My younger son competed in our first optional level (Provincial 3) last year. Our “compulsory” levels are Provincial 1 and 2. But he’s missing skills for USAG Level 6 (specifically FX and HB). He could do Level 5 no problem except he hasn’t been on a mushroom in 18 months or more! 😂

My older son might be doing Level 7, but our boys don’t do handles until Provincial 5 (equivalent to your Level 8 or 9, I guess). And I hear handles are needed for Level 7 (but not Level 8? 🤪)

We’re located in Ontario.

In case you’re interested, here are the documents for Canada’s levels. I don’t know why GymCan made the WAG levels comparable to USAG, but not MAG. Makes it really confusing!

GymCan Provincial Levels 1 & 2 (compulsory): https://www.gymnasticsontario.ca/wp...thways-Level-1-and-2-2022-2023-March-2023.pdf

GymCan Provincial Levels 3+ and National Open (optionals): https://www.gymnasticsontario.ca/wp...thways-3-5-and-Open-2023-2024-July-1-2023.pdf
 
One last question: how are competitive ages determined for USAG MAG levels?
 
Your competition age is the age you will be on December 31st of the competition year. So a child born in 2015 will be competition age 10
In the 2025 season (which includes December 2024). Kids with fall birthdays are always a year younger than their competition age during the season.

Also, The green skills are “bonus skills” and are not required. Level 7 is quite a bit easier than level 6 but you have to be competition-age 12 to do it.
 
Ok. My boys are both fall babies. Younger is a 2012. So he would be competition age 13 - same as Canada.

And Level 7 is easier than Level 6? Interesting.

Level 7 needs handles, correct? And is Level 7 just x number of skills? Do they all have to be FIG COP skills, or do they allow skills that aren’t in the COP (like Moy to upper arm, for example)?

Sorry for bombarding you with questions!
 
It is a copyright violation… which is illegal… to post the USA Gymnastics routine books on the site. Please purchase them.
 

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