Please share your TOPs camps experiences

[hppy4u2]

Hello All,
We just found out that our daughter just made B camp and we are debating on whether or not to send her. What my wife and I are really concerned about is what is the camp all about for B-campers? Specifically:

1. Are the coaches the same as the ones in A camp? The reason I ask is we would like our daughter to not only learn new techniques, polish her existing ones, but hopefully get some facetime with the "celebrities" of the coaching world.

2. At the Tops meeting for parents, Gary seemed to emphasize the importance of the camp for coaches so my next question is how is it for the girls? Are the girls there to help the coaches learn their newfound stategies or are the girls seperated from the coaches and taught by the resident staff.

3. Lastly, our gym has 10 year olds who are training level 8/9 and our daughter is training level 6 (but she has only competed level 4). Are the girls seperated based on age, skill level, height. etc during the training sessions? We are concerned that our DD is going to be a little intimidated by the advanced girls.

Any and all experiences would really help us in our decision. But if there are any coaches who have been to the A camp AND the B camp your insight would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to PM us as well.

Thank you.

 

[bogwoppit]

I moved this to the TOPs specific forum "TOPs Talk", this is to help other TOPs parents find the thread more easily.

 

[gymcritter]

Hi our dd made B team too! she is 8 so this is her first time but she went to the tops devlopmental camp in july and it was very similar. it will be the same coaches from A camp. It is for coaches BUT the girls do get a lot out of it (they are the ones doing the skills!)

when my dd went she was in between level 4-5 and some of th egirls who went from her gym were level 6-7 or 7-8 so they were all in a group together but they did diffrent skills based on age and ablity.

 

[gymnastics123]

Our coach has been to both A camp and B camp and indicated it is the same training. Our dd made the B camp last year and went to Texas. She had a great experience. She also made the B camp this year and we will send her again.

I know they have the girls grouped by age. I would think the girls that make it on A or B are going to be very similiar in skills.

A huge camp benefit for us it that our DD is around other girls her age that are also talented. Our gym is small so currently there is no other 10 year olds doing level 9/10 skills. It is great for her to meet and bond with other girls her age. Also, she has stayed in contact with a couple of the girls from camp last year and even saw some of them at the larger meets. It is just one more great life experience and opportunity!