WAG What level does gymnast compete and what skills are they training?

[Bajanswife]

Our gym is small enough to allow for the uniqe differences in training. We have level 4's training robhsbt because they tumble together as a group twice a week and girls work on their own levels. We have 5s that are training fhsft. Our sole level 8 (we love her) training level 9 and 10 tumbling because that's where she is at. The same thing spreads to beam, vault and bars. My little pre-teamer is doing squat ons, transfers and kips because that's where she is at.

Our gym is like this. The coaches like to expose the girls to higher level skills as early as possible, not to rush them to compete things too soon, but just to try to avoid some of the fears that come as kids get older. It also helps the girls to understand what they are progressing towards. It is done with safety in mind though - things are spotted heavily until competency increases. The girls have different strengths and therefore have been able to uptrain to different skill sets. DD is a bars girls, so she can almost do a level 7 bars routine even though she's a new level 5. But she still struggles with her current level 5 beam routine. Floor she's somewhere in between - she's uptraining as more of a level 6 in that she can do the BHSBT and sort of the FHS series, but is still working on layouts and some other elements needed for level 7. Her vault is barely acceptable for level 5 and needs work, but her teammate, also a new level 5, has an amazing vault.

 

[LizzieLac]

Our gym is like this. The coaches like to expose the girls to higher level skills as early as possible, not to rush them to compete things too soon, but just to try to avoid some of the fears that come as kids get older. It also helps the girls to understand what they are progressing towards. It is done with safety in mind though - things are spotted heavily until competency increases. The girls have different strengths and therefore have been able to uptrain to different skill sets.

This is what we are currently doing, too. They way you describe the benefits is spot on!

 

[krstew29]

My dd competes L2 and they are uptraining L3,4+ skills-- front hip circle, mill circle, some kip, some cast to a handstand; and underswing on bars; leaps, new dismount, cartwheel, bwo on beam; robhs, handstand forward roll, leaps/jumps on floor. They typically uptrain the week or two right after competition.

 

[nameless]

my dd's L3 team were uptraining L4 a ton and L5 a little bit, until kids were getting confused and mixing up skills (they are ages 5-7).. one really hard thing for the lil ones was on bars.. L3 does a hip circle and stops, then on to the next skill.. L4 does a hip circle then a underswing dismount.. the kids were dismounting instead of stopping.. that and a few vault boo-boos made the coaches rethink it through and go back to just L3 until comp season is over.. they still work ROBHS on floor.. my dd has trouble doing a plain RO w/rebound.. she says she feels like she's supposed to spring back when she's done.. she has some super high, sometimes sloppy rebounds because of this.. i loved the uptraining, but glad most of it is wayside for a few months.. would hate for a kid to lose points for harder skills.

 

[Kiwi]

At our gym most STEPS girls train and compete the same step. There is not a lot of uptraining. I don't know about other gyms here. I suspect some other local gyms might uptrain and compete down since many of them are so good and tend to scoop all the medals. My DD is training step 5 but might have to compete step 4 this year because she missed last season due to injury. The gym agreed to let her train step 5 because she already had all her step 4 skills and would have been bored repeating them for a whole year, but this isn't the norm at our gym. Normally at our gym if you don't qualify you would repeat training the same step. Sometimes the girls who are repeating a step get to uptrain some skills for the next step but not a lot. I think it can be a bit boring for those who are repeating. I think competing down could be quite good for the confidence of some gymnasts, they might place better as they are not still struggling with newly learned skills. Our IDP (international development) program is totally different - those girls uptrain a lot and compete way down but everything they compete has to be absolutely perfect. They start working on things like giants really early.

 

[profmom]

DD competes L7 and is uptraining twisting (halfs and fulls) on tramp and tumble track, yurchenkos on vault, and L7 upgrades on beam and bars (HS-BHS, BWO-BHS, RO). One of the girls in her group will probably debut a piked yurchenko when she starts L8. Before they got into the thick of competition, they were doing a few little things with pirouettes on bars, and the uptraining they are doing on beam is primarily geared toward getting them to the BHS-BHS.

DS competes L5 and his group, which is almost all first year L5s, is primarily training L5 bonuses. But their season ends in March with states, and after states they will go into high gear with uptraining. They do some trampoline and tumble track to work on tucks. But I'm guessing that all of the first years will do a second year of L5 before moving on to L6.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

In here the gymnast don't move up like in other countries. Usually a group is formed when the kids are somewhere between ages 5-8 and there may be many same age preteam groups. Some of the groups train more hours than others based on group's ability and willingness to train. Usually there is one or two coaches with one group. At first all the preteam kids have to complete bronze and silver level skills, strenght and flexibility. When they are done with those levels they start competing in level B. They have to score 32.00 to move up to level C, but before competing in level C they have to complete gold level testing. You are not allowed to skip any levels.

This makes the situation different to other countries. The groups stay together usually, sometimes one or two kids are dropped off or moved to another group but this is not a standard. We try to keep the kids together from the very beginning. In one group there may be some kids trying to complete silver level, some of them are competing first year level B, some are repeating 2nd or even 3rd time and also completing gold level. Some may even be first year level C:s. The kids are not moved up as a group but as individuals.

Usually we uptain a lot because competiting seasons are quite short (october - december and march/april - june) and there is just like 6 competitions a year.