Parents Pros and Cons of Repeating a Level

[ashyflashy]

Hello.. My daughter started a gym half way through a season as a Level 3 for the first time. She had a great year and after a good Summer in the gym, moved up to Level 4. She has had a good but not great Level 4 year so far. We have one more meet then States. She is progressing in the gym on all events but Bars. At meets she isn't even placing. So the question, I am asking myself is do I have her repeat the 4's so she has a chance to perfect her skills and place in the level. Or do I let her move to Level 5 and still but good but not great. She is 9 and although I know she wants to move up with her friends, I feel like it may be best to have a year exceling and feeling great.

Open to ideas!

 

[flippin out]

Talk to her coaches. They probably have a plan shaping up for her. They may (and I hope they do) wait til after summer training to see which level is best, but they probably still have a pretty good idea, progress in summer training not withstanding

 

[ashyflashy]

Summer training is based on the next Level though, right?

 

[flippin out]

Every gym is different and handles summer training differently. Ideally, yes. Summer training is used to train towards next level and then determine where they are in the fall. A lot of gyms train up even if they know the kid is not advancing levels next season. Personally, even if my kid were staying at X level, I would like to see them training up through summer.

Talk to your coaches.

 

[ashyflashy]

Thx!

 

[auswi]

At most gyms it's the coaches who decide move ups etc.

Repeating a level does not necessarily garantee a gymnast will excel.

I would relax, leave the move up/ or not decision to the coaches and just enjoy the ride of a little one having found a sport they are passionate about

 

[ashyflashy]

Love your answer auswi! That's part of the problem. My daughter is the type that holds it in. Hard to tell if she likes it or not as much as she did. But I do know she isn't happy about not placing anymore. tough call

 

[Aussie_coach]

It depends so much on how it's done. A second year at Level 4 should not be the same as the first year. She shoudl not be spending the same hours on the routines as she has already spent a year on them. More time should be used for uptraining.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

No such thing as (except bars), Bars is everything. I suspect her kip cast is weak, (since it's the only real skill in the routine), so yes spending an extra year working the kip cast is not a bad thing! Simply put, you can up train all you want, but if you don't have a strong kip cast..... well... it's like working a ton of standing back handsprings and back tucks, but you cannot do a round off...

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Don't know about your gym, but at our gym coach decides who moves and who doesn't. Our coaches would rather they be successful at a level then move them knowing they won't do well. I am sure team banners are nice too. But really they do want them to have the basics skills the level requires before they move to compete.

I guess I could stamp my feet and insist but I tend to leave it to them. They know a lot more about gymnastics then me.

 

[auswi]

Love your answer auswi! That's part of the problem. My daughter is the type that holds it in. Hard to tell if she likes it or not as much as she did. But I do know she isn't happy about not placing anymore. tough call

For every gymmy there comes a time when they need to formulate meet goals that aren't medal dependate- if it's not level 4, I can assure you it will happen

I would gently help her make realistic goals for her next meet so that when she achieves these she can celebrate her success. It may be as simple as only falling on the beam twice if last meet she fell 3 times!

This helps create the idea of achieving personal bests at meets.

It really does work- soon, in a year or so she will be able to formulate her own goals and if podium success happens along the way this is great but not perceived as the defining event for the meet

 

[AcroA21]

Compulsory levels are so important in building a strong foundation for those necessary basic skills on every event. Cast kip on bars, proper round-off backhand spring to even a back tuck and even your front tumble elements starting with a proper front walkover to a front walkover to front tuck combo on floor. Your basic back walkover, to back step out and back handspring then front walkover, a proper cartwheel, leaps, scale, and even handstand hold on beam. And then you have vault, your basic running form, flight form, arch, pointed toes, etc... I'm sure coaches here can add hundreds of other basic elements that must be perfected to make the harder higher level elements easier on these gymnasts. What I'm trying to say is without a good solid knowledge and perfection of these necessary basic skills the higher level harder skills with only become harder and harder without a good solid foundation. I see so many high level skills revert back to basic form all the time and if you don't have good solid basics you may find a gymnast struggle later.

 

[IreneKa]

No such thing as (except bars), Bars is everything. I suspect her kip cast is weak, (since it's the only real skill in the routine), so yes spending an extra year working the kip cast is not a bad thing! Simply put, you can up train all you want, but if you don't have a strong kip cast..... well... it's like working a ton of standing back handsprings and back tucks, but you cannot do a round off...

Coachp, would you have a gymnast who is actually good on bars but lucking on other events to repeat level 4?
DD just finished not a very successful season, and I'm having the same doubts as the OP. Should she be pushed to 5, or would she be better to repeat 4? Her kip-cast is great, but her tumbling needs work, and her vault is all over the place from 8.8 at one meet to 7.8 at next. She sticks her beam routine 90% of the time, but scoring 8.7-8.9.
I know it's ultimately the coaches' decision, but judging by our gym's history, they will be pushing her to 5, and I'm not sure I want to see her struggle through another season like the one she just had.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

Hard to say, Depends on the child.

 

[lovemygymnast]

Compulsory levels are so important in building a strong foundation for those necessary basic skills on every event. Cast kip on bars, proper round-off backhand spring to even a back tuck and even your front tumble elements starting with a proper front walkover to a front walkover to front tuck combo on floor. Your basic back walkover, to back step out and back handspring then front walkover, a proper cartwheel, leaps, scale, and even handstand hold on beam. And then you have vault, your basic running form, flight form, arch, pointed toes, etc... I'm sure coaches here can add hundreds of other basic elements that must be perfected to make the harder higher level elements easier on these gymnasts. What I'm trying to say is without a good solid knowledge and perfection of these necessary basic skills the higher level harder skills with only become harder and harder without a good solid foundation. I see so many high level skills revert back to basic form all the time and if you don't have good solid basics you may find a gymnast struggle later.

Not to highjack this thread but this is a huge concern for me. My dd is L4, scoring well on all events and placing but not exceptional. Out of our huge team, she's scoring in the top 3-7 on all events. She's the youngest. My main concern is those basic elements may be missing at this gym if we can't score 36's & 37's consistently like many other gyms. So, if they're missing these basics, is repeating even going to help? We have had several 3's repeat and this year, they're scoring basically what they scored last year, so repeating was wasted in my opinion. Move ups haven't happened yet and we do still have several meets to go, but so far, none of team of L4's have been super high scorere's.

 

[IreneKa]

Not to highjack this thread but this is a huge concern for me. My dd is L4, scoring well on all events and placing but not exceptional. Out of our huge team, she's scoring in the top 3-7 on all events. She's the youngest. My main concern is those basic elements may be missing at this gym if we can't score 36's & 37's consistently like many other gyms. So, if they're missing these basics, is repeating even going to help? We have had several 3's repeat and this year, they're scoring basically what they scored last year, so repeating was wasted in my opinion. Move ups haven't happened yet and we do still have several meets to go, but so far, none of team of L4's have been super high scorere's.

We are in a similar situation, and I have similar concerns. Only 1 girl on our L4 team scored above 36 and only at one meet this season. The majority of the team scored around 32-34 all season, while there are many gyms in the area scoring much higher. So, i keep thinking if there is a problem with the gym\coaching, or the girls are being moved up to the next level too soon. We don't have many repeaters, so it's hard to tell if they would score better in their second year. Basically, if you have all or almost all skills for the next level, you are moving up. Some girls didn't even have the kips before this season, and still were allowed to move up to 4. That's why I'm pretty sure DD will be level 5 and struggling again next season.

 

[lovemygymnast]

We are in a similar situation, and I have similar concerns. Only 1 girl on our L4 team scored above 36 and only at one meet this season. The majority of the team scored around 32-34 all season, while there are many gyms in the area scoring much higher. So, i keep thinking if there is a problem with the gym\coaching, or the girls are being moved up to the next level too soon. We don't have many repeaters, so it's hard to tell if they would score better in their second year. Basically, if you have all or almost all skills for the next level, you are moving up. Some girls didn't even have the kips before this season, and still were allowed to move up to 4. That's why I'm pretty sure DD will be level 5 and struggling again next season.

Well now I'm wondering if we're at the same gym because that's exactly the case here too! lol. Just one 36 out of the whole group and she's a repeat 4. We have maybe 4 35's. So, how do you know if they should move up or not and still do have the basics they need?

 

[2G1B]

Our old gym seemed to base this years moveups on bars for level 4. My dd was solid on bars and beam. Vault was coming along. She was the worst on the team for floor though. (Though it was little things, she could do the tumbling.)

She was moved up and girls who had higher AAs are repeating. The only thing us parents could figure was that bars played a lot into the decision. My dd was one of their top girls on bars and these other girls were strong on everything except bars.

 

[IreneKa]

Well now I'm wondering if we're at the same gym because that's exactly the case here too! lol. Just one 36 out of the whole group and she's a repeat 4. We have maybe 4 35's. So, how do you know if they should move up or not and still do have the basics they need?

No, not the same gym. Our one 36 girl was first year level 4, and beside her only one other girl scored 35. Pretty bad, I know. But again, they were all first year level 4s, and not very strong to begin with. I think if they repeated level 4, they would do much better next year. Now, if they repeated and still didn't score well, that would be a big red flag to me.

 

[Lovinggym]

Sounds like our gym. For the whole season, our level 4 girls scored between 32 and high 34 until at States, one girl scored 36+. All girls are first year. We seem have a loose standard for moving up: as long as the girls have most of the skills by Summer, they are moving up. So my guess is that all the girls will be moved up.