Parents not competing?

[emorymom]

If a girl wanted to uptrain but not compete is that possible in many gyms? Say a girl competed levels 4-6 and then didn't want to compete but wanted to still progress and possibly return to competition at a higher level in 2-3 years, is there a track available for that many places?

 

[mariposa]

I think there might be that possibility, but most gyms don't want to spend their coaching time on girls that aren't competing. Probably would depend on the gymnast's relationship with their gym/coaches as well.

 

[bogwoppit]

There are a couple of girls who are in our team programe who rarely compete. They have to follow the team programme though, they have routines and they have to practice as the team girls do. Otherwise there are just rec classes.

They of course only get to uptrain as much as the team does which is not a lot during meet season.

 

[gymjourneymom]

This is not an option in our area unfortunately. Although I think it would be great for girls who love the sport, but not the stress of competition. In our area such girls would have to go the prep-op route. They could go back to JO if they chose after a while. But they can't keep hopping between the 2. The thing I HATE is that the coaches tend to "put down" prep-op in this area. Making it seem like it is for "lesser skilled" girls, which is soooo untrue! But many girls around here will quit rather than go to prep-op, b/c they've been made to see it as a negative step down. I've watched some high level prep-ops & they are wonderful & look like they are having sooo much fun!!! IMHO, it's just another road on the journey. I different route to the sport those girls love. I think prep-op girls deserve more respect then they seem to get. And prep-op should be held in a higher regard by coaches & parents. Maybe more girls would take that route instead of just quitting the sport totally.

 

[JessMom]

our gym has a high school team class. they work out and progress but do not compete for the gym. I know some other gyms have advanced classes

 

[iggy1988]

Occasionally a girl in our gym will train for the whole year before competing. For example, if we wanted to, after Cait scored out of level 6, we could spend the rest of the year training for level 7 to completely be prepared.

Last year a few girls competed level 6 in october, tested out and then trained until the following December before their first level 7 meet. They were very young and training the whole year didn't hurt them at all. In fact, one was a 9 yr old level 7 state champ and the other was a 10 yr old state champ. Not a bad decision..

I don't think Cait will be 100% ready to go for level 7 end of January but she thrives on competition. It would kill her to wait another 14 months to compete...

Sean

 

[cathiann]

Not at the team level at our gym. If you're on team, unless you're injured, you compete. If you don't want to compete, but still love gymnastics, then you can go the in-house team route (they do meets with each other) or take high school level class (but not actually join a high school team).

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

We used to have couple of girls who just wanted to "be on team" but never compete. We as parents really resented that they were taking up coaching time. Eventually, there were so many (many of whom dropped out of team after L4-6) that they started a non-competitive team who had same practice times but separately coached. Many of these girls were biding time till they got to their high school team. This year, the gym decided that you either had to compete USAG/USAIGC or JOGA so the non-comp girls went to Joga because of fewer hours (6 vs. 15).

 

[Aussie_coach]

Very few gyms would have classes for kids of this level purely for learning skills and not for competing because there just wouldn't be the numbers to justify a class. Its hard to get a lot of girls who are this level who don't want to compete. So for gyms to offer it they would probably just have the non competing girls train with the competing ones.

A good coach could make it work, for example in a group of level 6's have the competing ones work routines on beam while the non competing ones would back handsprings on beam or something. But few coaches will be prepared to do this.