Parents Summer training groups?

[Lilou]

How do your gyms do summer training groups? Being new to the sport, I have general questions as to how different gyms do things for summer training.

Do gymnasts have to have the next level skills to move up to the next level summer training group?

Do gymnasts have to have all of the next level skills by a certain date to be committed to compete that level for the year?

Do you hold kids back in their existing level to train over the summer and then move them up at the end of the summer, assuming they've been able to learn some of the next level moves?

How does it work at your gym?

I know how it works as our gym, but just curious for other places.

 

[M2Abi]

Our compulsory season is in the fall, so move-ups happen in January, but no, gymnasts do not have to have their skills to move up. There is a point that they do testing and determine if they are going to remain at the training level or go back to their previous level.

 

[profmom]

Girls and boys both start competing in December. They are placed in training groups based on skill levels, and competitive levels are decided in the fall based on what they've done over the summer. Usually everyone has a pretty good idea of what's going to happen, but occasionally even the coaches aren't sure until pretty close to when the decision is made. Getting or not getting skills like giants, backwards beam series, or other gateway skills is often a deciding factor.

 

[Flyaway]

Girls and boys both start competing in December. They are placed in training groups based on skill levels, and competitive levels are decided in the fall based on what they've done over the summer. Usually everyone has a pretty good idea of what's going to happen, but occasionally even the coaches aren't sure until pretty close to when the decision is made. Getting or not getting skills like giants, backwards beam series, or other gateway skills is often a deciding factor.

Ditto for us. Dd is ALWAYS a "bubble" kid, so she needs every second of summer training.

 

[raenndrops]

Summer training groups in our gym are kind of fluid because the entire team practices at the same time.
On days when they are working hard to get new skills, the girls are put into "clubs" for the particular skills they are working on. They will be in one club for each event.
Examples of clubs:
Bars - Kip club, clear hip club, squat on club, cast handstand club, mill circle club
Beam - Cartwheel club, BWO club, BHS club, Handstand club, full turn club
Floor - BHS club, Back Flipping club, Front Flipping club
Vault - Flatback club (practices the run, the hurdle, and the actual fatback vault), FHS club, Twisting club (1/2 On, 1/2 On-1/2 Off, and 1/2 On- 1/1 Off are all in this one), "Chenko" club (Practicing Roundoff entry vaults)

When they aren't working in clubs, they are usually working in groups based on the level above where they worked last season (unless they are transitioning from L3 to Xcel Gold).

When they are working floor basics (more likely if there are not enough coaches to break out into all the groups), the entire team is together in 4-5 lines of mixed-level groups.

 

[Deleted member 18037]

You will probably find many different answers, gyms are all different.

Our groups for summer go current level/training next one up. So my girl will L6/L7.

We have a mock meet in the fall to "baseline" the kids. Actual level is decided about a month before to officially fine tune for mock meet.

And depending on the kid things can change.

We up train all year but heavy in the summer. So even with official training groups, they will also break them out by skill. So 4-8 (our current kids) could end up in the same rotation group. They all train at the same times.

 

[Lilou]

Interesting... our gym does a lot like Deleted member 18037 stated without a mock meet.

Being new I don't really understand the rhyme or reason as to our gym's summer training groups. There are girls who can't even successfully do a Level 2 bar or floor routine who were placed in a Level 3 training group, and then girls who placed at Level 2 meets being held back to Level 2 summer training. It's a bit all over. None of this concerning my child, but just hearing from other parents/kids.

Seems like there are some common themes in summer training groups (emphasizing uptraining and new skills a lot), but some differences among gyms too.

 

[profmom]

The coaches are likely looking more at what they project as training progressions for summer and early fall than meet outcomes from a few months ago. A bit of this is necessarily backward looking, but at least by us, a lot of what goes into making groups is based on what the coaches expect to happen in the next several months. You'll find that it's a wonderfully complicated and interesting process to watch how kids acquire and polish skills over time; sometimes they just get in a groove and they are moving really fast, whereas at other times, they can be pretty slow for months or even years at a time or even regress for a time. And what's happening with one event may have zero relationship to what's happening elsewhere. I have a decent idea of where both of mine hope and expect to be by around October, but that's more like saying "yeah, we are probably going to Rome" while knowing that it's possible you'll end up in Paris . . . or Kazakhstan. Nothing at all like having purchased a non-refundable ticket with a confirmed itinerary!