Coaches Practice Amount for compulsories

[Adelei]

This may have been asked before, but I can't seem to find it anywhere.

What do you consider to be "normal" or "ideal" practice amounts for compulsory gymnasts? And/or how many hours do the compulsory kids at your gym work out? Does anyone have confirmation that some gyms really do train level 4s insane amount of hours each week?

What leads me to ask is my level 4 team. Second year level 4s, that is. Who had all their level 5 skills months before last year's state championships, got 36-37 AAs at their meets last year and could easily be scoring 36-37s this year in level 5, working toward level 6/7 for next year. BUT (feel the irritation in my voice...) the gym I coach at and the state in which it's located are messed up (at least, in my opinion.) I've coached in 3 different states (3 different regions) and never come across this before. In order to win AA at states, the kids have to score 38s in most age groups. There is one gym that pretty much wins every compulsory level state championship each year. That could be attributed to several things - after winning for so many years, they've got "clout" and get higher scores just for wearing the leotard; the state judging director happens to own that gym; and rumors have it that the kids work out 18 hours at level 4. So in order to compete with them, my gym owner requires all the level 4s to do two years unless they win AA at states.

So, I'm aggravated that my super talented group of kids who could easily be level 7 next year will not even get to do level 5 until next year - and I'm curious if the kids at that gym (or any gyms like that) actually work out 18 hours at level 4. If so, obviously they're going to have an advantage over any team that works out what I consider to be a normal amount of hours.

I'm of the opinion that having perfect compulsory routines and winning states at level 4-6 is not as important as producing quality optional gymnasts. I have to spend so much time perfecting the routines (their skills are already perfect, for the most part, so we spend a lot of time making sure there are absolutely no text errors or anything of the sort) that I don't have as much time to work on higher level skills as I would like. Personally, I'd prefer to say "screw level 4-6, let that other gym win it, let's focus on basics and rock at levels 7-10", but the owner doesn't agree w/ me.

So after that long rant - do you think the rumors could be true? Could that gym be training 18 hours a week in level 4? (I'm not really talking about a small TOPs group or anything; they have a lot of gymnasts.) Or am I just crazy and everyone works out that much?

The 3 gyms I have coached at had/have the following hours for compulsories:

Level 4: 9 hours / Level 5: 12 hours / Level 6: 16 hours
Level 3/4: 7 hours / Level 4/5: 12 hours / Level 6: 12-15 hours
Level 4: 10.5 hours / Level 5: 12 hours / Level 6: 12-16 hours

 

[Aussie_coach]

Here in Australia quite a few level 4's will be doing 18 hours, I know some who do more than that. The 18 hours are not designed to win at level 4. Doing well competitively at level 4 is only a small part of what they do, the majority of their training time is more focussed on developing for later on, building high levels of strength and flexibility and more advanced skills. While our level 4 skills are similar to those in level 4 in the US our level 4 gymnasts tend to be older and very few compete into higher levels.

The average for a level 4 around here would be 13-14 hours per week, level 5 would be 14-16 hours per week and level 6 would be 16-20 hours per week.

 

[nevertooold]

4's one group is 9hrs. / one group is 10.5
5's 10.5
6's their choice either 10.5 or 14

We are under the average for 5's and 6's but for where we live it's what people want and are willing to do so it's what we do. The majority of our kids are moving up each year and achieving success at meets but it is hard to be constantly trying to figure out how to work smarter and more effectively when we know other kids in the same level have another 6+ hours per week on us.

 

[cftmoonlight]

Our level 4s get two choices 10 hours or 12 hours. Level 5s can do 12 or 16, the 6s do 16 and 7 and up do 20. I think our compulsory hours are similar to most in our state, but there are gyms who have lower level kids that do 2 a day practices. Some are homeschooled and some go in early before school.

 

[Megley]

I can only speak for our gym, which has the following hours for compulsories:

Level 4 - 12 hours
Levels 5 and 6 - 16 hours

I think this is pretty close to standard where we live, though a few gyms do a bit less at 4 and 5.

 

[Ingwe]

At our gym L4's and L5's go 9 hrs a week.

L6's/Prep Gold go 13 hrs per week


It seems to work well for our Gym.