Coaches Stick youngin another year at L2 or move up to L3?

[GymMom&Coach]

I'll try and make this short and sweet Im just looking for advice, everyone I talk to is giving me mixed feelings..
My daughter (im her coach) is turning 5 next month. Last season she competed L2 and always blew everyone outta the water. 1st on everything including AA. Now that she is age ready to compete L3 this season, im wondering if I should keep her at L2 for the simple fact that she doesnt have her mill circle on bars. She has done it 2 or 3 times, but just cant get the hang of it.
Once my girls get to L3 I really try to steer clear of spotting them in meets, so with my daughter im even more strict on this.
Im thinking of giving her until September 1 to have it to compete L3 the season.
Besides that, she has most L4 skills and all of her other L3 skills are great! She's pulling a beautiful beam routine with a full handstand. Her floor is great and besides her mill circle, she has good bar skills. She is still trying to get the L3 vault, simply because she is so small, the large spring board and dive is giving her problems.
so......
Do I keep training her L2 and have her rock it out. especally since next year the tables are turning and it might benifit her in L3 next year?
Or should I have her compete L3 with or without 100% of her skills in place?????
Please dont send rude comments, i've got enough smart-butt comments, I just want to know what others think...im torn

 

[Quadqueen]

Plenty of L3 kids (and L4 kids) don't have a consistent mill circle. IMO, L2 has some dumb skills that don't progress to anything they need in the future. If she's good on all the other skills, I'd have her compete L3. One missing skill at that age/level isn't a huge big deal.

 

[gymdog]

I'd just have her work towards L3 in 2013 (current level 4) personally.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

you should be concerned about teaching her gymnastics. safely and proficiently. NOT what level she competes next or whether she competes at all. she's 5. learn gymnastics. that's all that matters.

eta: and are you serious about having her do "dives" from the vault board? do you mean dive rolls or something else? 5 year olds SHOULD NOT BE DOING DIVE ROLLS ON TO ANY SURFACE. and if i need to explain why that is then your not really a coach. PDP Level 1 certification comes to mind here.

and don't interpret my post as a "smart butt" comment. in over 40 years of coaching i have not seen 5 years olds do dive rolls. not here. not russia. not china. not romania. not even africa. crazy stretching? yep. dive rolls? absolutely not. that's all.

 

[gymnut1]

I think she is referring to the level 3 vault which is a dive roll onto a level 4 vault mat.

However i agree with his first paragraph. Teach her the best quality basic skills you can, if she wants to do a meet for fun, fair enough but that shouldn't be the focus at this age. I think I would move her to level 3 but train level 4 skills and let her do a couple of meets at the end of the season.

 

[bogwoppit]

and if i need to explain why that is then your not really a coach. PDP Level 1 certification comes to mind here.

.

Dunno, the way you say what what you say is much more important that what you say at times. The message gets lost in the delivery method.

 

[AmandaLynn]

Really??

It's APRIL. She's got 6 months before compulsory season starts. Keep working on the skills and don't worry about her level for next season for right now.

 

[gymmom/coach]

I think she will be fine. Try and think of her as another student instead of your daughter. I coach dd also and I am always second guessing my decision to move her up but when I think about her as just another student I feel better about it. Also ignore some other peoples comments I rarely post on this board because of them.

 

[bogwoppit]

Also ignore some other peoples comments I rarely post on this board because of them.

Good advice, the IGNORE bit that is.

However, is always good to remember that you cannot really tell people that you do not want any negative comments on a public forum. Not posting also means you lose the ability to connect and share with like minded folk. We all find a few people we share similar views with here, and we ignore the rest.

 

[Galadriel]

doesn't seem to be a like option on tapa talk but LIKE bog's comment!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

[GymMom&Coach]

I agree with you, but then why would the have a dive FWR vault at level 3? Level 3's start at 5 years old...?...

 

[Deleted member D3987]

cause they screwed up. plain and simple. the educational literature forewarns of the inherent dangers of the dive roll. the intention was never to have 5 year olds performing dive rolls. it's left to the user. and the user/coach was supposed to read all that stuff. and depending on the experience level of the coach, the user/coach may not even know what, if any, inherent dangers exist. it's quite a conundrum. this is why i'm being so emphatic about the age so that i can reach those that need to know. and i'm trying to do it in such a way so as not to scare everyone to death. there just isn't a good way to do this.