Question about gymnastic levels

[DND]

I have a 7yr old daughter who I am sensing to camp this summer in the USA. Being from Canada we do not have the "level" set up for gymnasts that children in the US seem to train and compete by. My daughter is in pre-novice in Canada and trains about 16hours a week, but I do not know what to tell the camp about where to slate her.

Can anyone shed some light on where to find information that shows how the US level programs compare to the levels Canada uses to slate gymnasts.

 

[Gymnasticgrandkids]

I would contact the camp director and explain this to them, maybe go over what skills she has and find out how they would correspond to our level system and go from there. I am sure, if this is one of the camps that is utilized by our gymnasts on a regular basis, they have had children from Canada as well as possibly other countries and have the knowledge it would take to determine placement. Good Luck and tell your daughter to enjoy the camp experience.

 

[Gymnasticgrandkids]

Found a pretty cool site on the internet...here it is, maybe this will help you out. It gives Level 4 requirements and you can maybe gauge from there.

Link Removed

 

[bogwoppit]

If she is prenovice national she is about a USAG L7. Though you say she is only 7 and most prenovice girls are 9-11. WHat skills do she have right now and then I can definitely tell you exactly what level she is.

WHat camp are you looking at? In my experience the US camp evaluate on the first day and then place girls into groups based on their skills.

You will find that your gymmie has some skills that the American girls do not and she will not have some skills that they do have. BUt at her level it will not be a problem at all.

 

[bogwoppit]

I merged the two threads to save on repeat answers.

 

[DND]

Pre Novice..Canada

Thanks for your reply.

Right now my daughter currently has her round off/back handspring/back tuck; round off/back handspring/back lay out on rod floor; her front handspring/front tuck for floor.

On beam she has her back walkover and back handspring on the high beam, but the combination she has only done on the low beam. She can do a press to handstand and then lower to a stradle over the beam and she has done arials, front hand springs and working on her round off back tuck for dismounts.

Her vault is mostly done as handsprings landing either flat on matts or standing and I have heard the term half ons, but I am not really all that familiar.

Bars seems to be her hardest event; she does not have her kip yet. She can do about four giants on the high bars in the mits with straps and is working on her cast to handstands.

She has not been in this program very long (last April) is when she moved gyms from a recreation facility. I have no gymnastic background and find I am going through a full crash course blind.

The camp we were looking at is the IGC camp in Pennsylvania.

I appreciate any imput as this is all very new to me and moving very fast!!

 

[bogwoppit]

I would certainly put your girls at L7 USAG on everything but bars.

Hopefully she gets her kip before she goes to IGC, as this was a real stumbling block for my youngest when she went there. Mine had her kip most of the time, but at the evaluation they are not allowed to use a spring board and she didn't get her kip on the two attempts they were allowed. Because of that she was placed in a group at a much lower level than her skills and she was stuck there all week. My oldest had no problem at all. I had written to IGC ahead of time and they said they would make sure she was in the right group, but the evaluation is what they go by.

THere is a lot to learn, clearly your little one is quite talented, chances are she will get her kip before next summer and you will not have any issues with placements for training.

We were very happy with IGC on the whole, the cabin set up is very good, the kids are very well supervised and the extra activities are fun.

Another camp to look at is GymRep in Quebec, they place them by levels for training, and they do use the Canadian system. It is way cheaper than IGC, there facility is much smaller and is outside. You can check out their website at www.gymrep.com

 

[MaryA]

When my DD went to Woodward, there was no real discussion about what level she was. In addition to USAG gymnasts, there were rec gymnasts, prep op gymnasts, highschool gymnasts... so no standard "level" system would have worked anyway. I think my daughter ended up in the "advanced peanut-butter-and-jelly group!" And no, I'm not kidding!

IGC may work differently, but at Woodward you show up, have an evaluation period, and are then put into a group accordingly. So it may not really matter what "level" your daughter is anyway!

 

[bogwoppit]

Mary, the problem for CAnadian kids, is that kips are not big in our system at the begining, so kids can end up stuck in low level groups even though they have higher level skills on all the other apparatus.

My DD was put in a L4 group, even though she had her BWO on beam, flyaway on bars, ro bhs bt on floor, she didn't have her kip when they evaluated her. SO she was stuck training L4 all week, not the best for a kid who is trying to move up!

 

[MaryA]

Mary, the problem for CAnadian kids, is that kips are not big in our system at the begining, so kids can end up stuck in low level groups even though they have higher level skills on all the other apparatus.

Ah, I see. I can't imagine that it's unusual to have Canadian gymnasts at camps, especially the ones in PA. You'd think that they would have figured that stuff out by now. You don't want to pay $850/week to have your kid not be challenged.

Until about 3 weeks ago, my DD would have been thrilled to give the Canadian system a try. Now, all of a sudden, she's a kipping fiend!

 

[bogwoppit]

I am sure the OP's will be kipping by summer too, it is just hard for a parent to see into the future.


Yes, it was a lot to spend for her to pratice skills that she has had for two years, and to not work on things that she competed last year.

 

[MaryA]

I am sure the OP's will be kipping by summer too, it is just hard for a parent to see into the future.

Yes, you're right. If you had told me at meet #1 that my DD would have both kips by meet #2 (3 weeks later), I would not have believed you. I was beginning to give up hope that she would even get it this season! Possibly ever!!!