I would just be careful of assuming you know the coach's intent. A lot of pre-team is perfecting very basic stuff- just because a kid *can* do something doesn't mean they will, for a long time. A lot of gymnastics is basic, boring drills and conditioning. That doesn't mean this gym is great- I can't say without seeing it, but there may be very good reasons for what they're asking her to do, and lowering the beams, etc. When my DD was on pre-team, her coach was a total perfectionist. They spent almost an entire year perfecting their round-off and rebound before ever thinking about introducing a back handspring....and when they did, it was very slowly. In the end, though, it paid off.
I was going to say the same thing. *Usually*, IME, it is the better coaches that take longer to introduce the higher skills. Based on what I have seen at the high power gyms around here, they spend the pre team years on basics, basics, basics, and strength, only moving on when they are absolutely perfect. It is gyms that are not very competitive, or only have rec teams that will rush the little kids through skills.
DD was at what I believe is the second best gym in the entire large metro (we are in Texas - there are a lot of excellent gyms to choose from) and they spent 2.5 years on conditioning, shapes, cartwheels and how to run and backward rolls to push up, handstands on beam, pullovers, casts and back hip circles and wall bar, wall bar, rope, more wall bar and more rope.
That is all. Round offs and back handsprings and back tucks on the trampoline were JUST being introduced at the end of the 3rd year of preteam (girls ~7 years old). We had a couple friends move from our gym to the best gym in the city, and
they are moving even slower. This changes after a few years. The fantastic basics and incredible strength, means that once they are ready, the begin to acquire new skills at a pretty fast pace. Around level 4ish?
Also, I know this will probably not be well recieved, but EVERY parent I have heard say, "She has an X, why don't they let her do her X?" Has been missing the form errors of her daughter's X - which is typically the answer to the question. If her roll on the mat has bent arms, then in the eyes of the coach, she's not ready for the handstand yet. Or at least not to do it properly.
And I sympathize, I also have a DD who falls off the low beam but not the high beam. For the same reason she can land a beautiful handstand and cartwheel on high beam, but falls off on her lever. I call it the "I don't want to die" complex. She does harder skills better than easier skills, because she knows there is a higher likelihood of injury on the harder skills, so she better pay attention and be tight. But that is her own maturity issue. It is not her coaches job to let her chuck harder skills or do skills on the high beam, just because my DD isn't mature enough to focus when it's "easy." That's my DD's job to work on. I keep saying one day it will click!!
On a serious note, thousands of high level gymnasts around the country that never did L2, so.... She will survive and so will you.
