Vast Difference In Skill Ability In Classes

[Shelovesthebars]

In my daughter's 2 classes, there is a vast difference in skill ability. Half the class has far more advanced skills than the other half of the class. To put it into perspective, the advanced girls are working level 4 skills and the other half are still trying to master a pullover. We only have one coach for 8 girls. I realize this might be done to help the other girls get skills they need but to me it seems like such a wide difference in skill level. Does this happen commonly at most gyms?

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

This happened at my gym this year and i hated it! I was working on back layout fulls on floor while others were just learned back tucks, and next year it will be worse because girls will just be learning back handsprings.
As well as on bars one girl was just learning kips and the rest learning handstands, uprises, flyaways, freehips etc.

I think they do it with girls that have potential to become better but for the time being i think they should be in a different class. I understand how the coaches see it but as a gymnast i dont think the coaches realize how frustrated we get when the coach is busy teaching them something we learned ages ago.

This is just my opinion, but yes i think this is common.

 

[10.0]

Yes it happens a lot. It happens more in trampoline and tumbling. I have seen girls working tuck jumps while others were working double back tucks on the trampoline while the coach spent more time working with the ones learning tuck jumps and ignoring the girls learning double backs. Of coruse in t&t you can be different levels on each event so you can't have a level 4 class but most gyms seperate like like level 6 and under and level 7 and up on trampoline at least. I know the frustration well.

 

[justanothergymmom]

That does seem like a very wide difference in skills-one group working level 4 and the other maybe not quite ready for pre-team. Is it like that on the other 3 events (besides bars)?

 

[NGL780309]

I think it's fairly normal, especially if the gym is small. On DD's L4 team there are a few girls who can't do pullovers. One of them is new and she came from a cheer background. She's about a level 6 tumbling wise, but way below L4 on the other events. She was in another class for about 6 months, but her mom pitched a fit to have her moved (her words, not mine). Maybe she will catch up fast, but maybe not. It seems a disservice to her because she crys a lot, probably from frustration.

In March when my DD was moved to L4 she was pretty far behind, but she's completely caught up now. She only had a pullover, back hip circle on bars, but needed a spot for everything else. She didn't have a ROBHS on floor or her handstand or dismount on beam. It worked well for her. I don't think she would have gotten those skills in her old class. The coach really didn't care. I personally like when she's the weakest of the bunch because she does better and works harder.

I think you really see the difference when you have new kids to that level or group and then others that are repeating. In many ways it's like school. There is a wide range of levels within a class.

 

[bogwoppit]

In our gym, it is small, my DD's group has girls with L4 skills and with L7 skills, there are 8 of them and the coach manages to cope very well by setting up stations etc. Vault is the hardest as it requires 4 different vault set ups and boards. The girls are aged between 8 and 14.

I think, in smaller gyms, this is very common.

 

[Shelovesthebars]

4nsmom- They are begining handstands on the floor beam, they have roundoffs on the floor and are somewhat 'successful' on backwalkovers but they can't do forward rolls and stand up with any kind of form and forget backward rolls with good form alltogether. I don't think they have ever vaulted before and our class only does level 4 vault. Bars are a mess. Our class had previously been working high beam only but now the girls have to go to the level 3 size beams because the floor beams are next to them. My daughter was so confident on the high beams that I hate to see her take a step back and have to lose that confidence. The advanced girls are very far ahead and since summer started have seem to just be wasting time. The other girls are not improving even with the extra attention. I am just wating to see what fall brings. My dd is not old enough to move to level 4 team. Our gym has strict rules about age. The other advanced girls are old enough for team but are waiting until next year. They less advanced girls are still older than my dd except one that is the same age.

 

[bogwoppit]

AH, now I see what you mean. Our coach coaches each child at her own level, so one child doesn't hold back the rest. This is totally possible with some good planning.

Maybe a chat with the coach would be in order. You can say say that your DD misses her work on the high beam and that seems to have stopped. Just see what she says!

 

[Shelovesthebars]

I am really happy that my daughter is repeating the class again next year. It really will allow her to just step back and fine tune what she has. However, she is one of those that really benefits from being the worst with something to work for. That is just her nature. They already came to me about moving her up to level 4 team but when they found out she wouldn't be 5 by December they kept her where she was. That is the rule at our gym. She will be competing level 3 and seems to be making a lot of friends this year which I really like. She has expressed frustration though with this summer session and I can see why she may feel frustrated. I think the coach may be a little frustrated too so when fall comes, I am hoping that the groupings will be a little bit more condusive for learning for all of them.

 

[justanothergymmom]

That must be frustrating to watch. I wouldn't hesitate to mention your observations to her coach...maybe they can make some modifications to help the less advanced girls benefit from the the class but also keep the more advanced girls progressing.

 

[NGL780309]

I am really happy that my daughter is repeating the class again next year. It really will allow her to just step back and fine tune what she has. However, she is one of those that really benefits from being the worst with something to work for. That is just her nature. They already came to me about moving her up to level 4 team but when they found out she wouldn't be 5 by December they kept her where she was. That is the rule at our gym. She will be competing level 3 and seems to be making a lot of friends this year which I really like. She has expressed frustration though with this summer session and I can see why she may feel frustrated. I think the coach may be a little frustrated too so when fall comes, I am hoping that the groupings will be a little bit more condusive for learning for all of them.

Will she be competing L3 in the Spring? I thought you had to be 5 to compete L3 so just wondering.

 

[Shelovesthebars]

She wasn't 5 by last December. She just turned 5 so she will be able to compete level 3. Her level 3 practice is separate from her regular classes.

 

[NGL780309]

Got it! I was thinking she wasn't 5 by this December and was wondering if she was competing L3 in the spring rather than the fall.

 

[gymnut1]

It is hard to teach different abilities in a class. It is a shame it isn't working quite as well as it could but great that she is happy and making friends. Maybe a quiet word with the coach would help. I set the kids in my class different tasks to challenge them at their different abilities.

 

[NGL780309]

Shelovesthebars, I agree it's a problem if the coach is lowering the standards for everyone else to accomodate the girls that are behind or at a lower level. It's like your DD having to work on her alphabet when she can already read.

When DD was asked to move to L4 we declined initially, but then changed our minds a few weeks later for this very reason. They moved up lots of new girls to preteam that needed the very basics. There were 10 girls to one coach and she had to spend her time with those who really needed the help. I was under the impression my DD could stay in preteam and keep working where she was at skill wise. In the end it worked out very well and I'm happy with where she is now.

 

[10.0]

I think it really depends on the maturity of the girls and how skilled the coach is. I don't think the coach should spend a ton of time with a girl teaching her to do a foreward roll while neglecting the rest of the class but if the coach is a good one they might be able to work it out. although in my mind it still is not ideal. For example one gym I went to all the level 6-10 girls worked out together, but the coach made it clear what each girl was to work on, made sure they stayed on task and gave proper corrections. I don't see an issue if one girl is working pullovers while another is working kips if the coach can teach both and the girls know how to work on them. It does become a problem is the girl learning the kip knows how to do it but just has not actually gotten it yet and the girl learning the pullover does not know how to do the first thing and the coach has to spend 15 minutes with her explaining it when she could be in a more sutible lower level class.

 

[NGL780309]

I think it really depends on the maturity of the girls and how skilled the coach is. I don't think the coach should spend a ton of time with a girl teaching her to do a foreward roll while neglecting the rest of the class but if the coach is a good one they might be able to work it out. although in my mind it still is not ideal. For example one gym I went to all the level 6-10 girls worked out together, but the coach made it clear what each girl was to work on, made sure they stayed on task and gave proper corrections. I don't see an issue if one girl is working pullovers while another is working kips if the coach can teach both and the girls know how to work on them. It does become a problem is the girl learning the kip knows how to do it but just has not actually gotten it yet and the girl learning the pullover does not know how to do the first thing and the coach has to spend 15 minutes with her explaining it when she could be in a more sutible lower level class.

I think it works fine with older girls, but not with 4 and 5 year olds. They need lots of hands on attention. Like you said maturity is a big factor.

I know in our case the coach wasn't very good at this. Granted it's difficult and she was a kid herself so not the best situation.

For the big girls at DD's gym L5-L10 all work-out together. It's not a problem because the coach can give an assignment and the help where needed.

 

[gymdog]

It seems like maybe your daughter is more advanced, maybe too advanced, for the class (compared to kids they are putting in the class) because of not moving up with the December rule. But it also sounds kind of disorganized to have a preteam/level 3 group where the kids can't do a pullover. I have worked in a smaller gym where we've had a little more flexibility in who we let into the preteam class, but we still had basic skill requirements (they need to pass through the level 3 skills). Larger gyms usually have pretty strict skill requirements. So it seems strange to have a L3 class without pullovers and I wonder if they had it in their previous class and have somehow regressed or don't understand something the coach is telling them, etc. For reference, in most gyms the kids have to have a kickover to move out of level 1, then working towards more of a true pullover in L2. By L3 they should have the pullover, even if that is their weaker event, since they need back hip circle too (should have back hip in L2 by USAG progressions).

This is a total guess since I can't judge what I haven't seen, but to be honest not being able to teach forward roll and pullover to kids who were progressed out of L1 and L2 skill classes, and expressing frustration (L1: fwd/bwd roll. L2: forward straddle roll, bwd roll pike - pretty standard) makes me wonder if perhaps this coach is not as well suited or experienced at teaching very developmental levels. Maybe they are more well suited to teaching kids with a little more experience. I work with toddlers through optionals but that is pretty unusual. Most people who coach higher levels of team prefer to do just that. There is definitely a learning curve to instructing classes (kids who will never be on team), developmental (class kids who could eventually be on team), and kids with the physical ability to do L4+ gymnastics. But even within team levels obviously some kids are more capable than others.

 

[Shelovesthebars]

Gymdog- I totally agree with you on the strict skill requirents so I am shaking my head too. The gym does have strict guidelines. The parents apparently complained (information directly given to me from one mom but I didn't ask) and got their kids moved up.One mother apparently started crying when one of the girls moved up and so then hers was moved up too. I think now they realize that they didn't understand what the difference was in the skill levels and are a little shocked. These girls will not be in class in the fall with the more advanced girls. They are struggling too much and it is not working out. They moms are constantly commenting/ complaining during class time about my daughter having the skills and thiers not so it get wearing. I am just very encouraging but sometimes I would like to just watch and not have to hear it.

 

[gymnut1]

That is good that you know it will be sorted out in September. Hang in there.