That's what I would have thought. What if the gymnast is injured and misses most summer training, or has a mental block? I would much rather they compete than throw them out at the next level and have them balk at say, the back tuck on L6. One of the girls I did L6 (on) with, had a good first year of 6 and probably got a 36 at least once, but she took the whole summer off for some family thing. They told her beforehand there was no way she would move up because she didn't have the skills for 7 already, so she obviously wasn't going to get them all in Sept when we switched back to school schedule. It wouldn't even be safe. So she repeated 6. She won AA at every meet we entered, except states, when she fell on her beam full turn. But I have seen other girls do that well in their first year, and I don't think they should automatically have to skip up. In fact, she won plenty in our year of 7, and as a first year 8. It's not the norm here to skip compulsory levels. I don't know any gyms that skip 6 as a rule, which I've heard of on boards like this a fair amount, and even with individual girls it's fairly unusual. My old gym is very competitive and I can think of about two girls that skipped a level (didn't compete the whole season in it) in the last ten years and they kind of ended up regretting it both times. As far as repeating, if someone looks to be on the edge they're rather start them off and move them up later if everything starts looking ready, although that's more of an optional thing. Mid year move ups in compulsory are more unusual. Usually whatever level is started, they do that level at states. This seems to be a pretty standard operating procedure in the state, barring exceptions.
