Justanothergymmom...sorry I didn't mean to offend you when I said let the coaches coach...and by no stretch of the imagination do I say to let them do so blindly...I have actually been in your shoes and trusted coaches completely and been burned so I educated myself, talked to tons of people (coaches, judges, gym owners, even other parents) and vowed it would never happen again. I'm sure the coaches/owners on this site are saying to themselves "Oh God, don't encourage that" but I say it it from the point of view that I hope you are with coaches that are competent and that you trust (if not, well that's another thread...) but do learn all you can about the sport and what goes on.
As far as my daughter always being on FIG settings (and she is really short too) , she did elite when she was 12-13 yo so I think that she just stayed with the same settings after she decided to return to Level 10. She does say that with the bars all the way out, she is "scared to death" to do an overshoot (bail) and she's been doing them for 8 years! Her response to me on "why are you afraid if it's only a few more inches" was "imagine hurling yourself off the high bar to the low bar like you've done forever...but it's moved 3 inches?"...so I go back to reading my book