Lilou
Proud Parent
- Apr 11, 2016
- 197
- 314
I don’t think the real issue here is the specific level placement for next season. The issue is whether OP is on board with the gym’s general philosophy, which appears to include a lack of uptraining during the competitive season, a preference for very high scores in compulsories, and a rigid approach to move-up decisions. As a parent, all of this would give me pause.
This is how our gym operates too and it can be very, very frustrating. It also can kill a gymnast's motivation faster than anything when they're uptraining all summer, get new skills, get excited about them but the skills maybe are not ready to score high, and then the kid has to back track to "easy" skills simply to perfect them for the competitive season. My daughter is experiencing something similar, competed level 3 and scored all in the 9s, can do most of the L4 skills already (we don't compete for 6 month) but is being told she's is repeating L3 unless she has an amazing summer of getting the skills at a high level to compete (our area is super competitive unfortunately). We're not happy about it but we're staying at the gym because my kid is happy overall and the gym has a good optional program (if we can get there). All of this to say, if you believe the gym has good coaching overall, has strong upper level gymnasts, and may be open to uptraining during the season with your daughter to at least keep the newer skills, then just stay there. As others have said, she hasn't even competed yet so give her a year to see how she likes it.