What level does your gym/kids gym start to compete?

[Alyssa983]

Is it wierd for my gym to compete at level 5? I am a level 3, almost a level 4, and I want to compete as soon as I can. What level does your gym start competing? What is the average level for someone to start competing?
Thanks!

 

[livelifetumble8dx]

i dont think its weird! i would prefer if my gym did compete at level five and not four! more time to work on perfecting skills and not worrying about meets and routines all season! my gym starts competing level four, but recently started teaching level threes the level three routines for the end of the year competition that my gym hosts every year. most gyms i think start competing at level four though.

 

[loveforgym]

my gym started competing at level 4, i think that's usually the starting level. but at competitions i did notice some started at level 3 too, so im not really sure.

 

[Bella's Mom]

We start at L3. Pre-team is L2 but gets to participate in a recital to show off their progressing L3 routines on each app.

 

[UnoMas]

Our girls compete only at "in-house" and once per year home meets from level 1-3. Level 4 is when they start "traveling" to meets at other gyms. Many of our girls move quickly from 1-3 though. Many only spend 2-3 months at each of those levels. They are nice introductory levels and by the time they compete L4 they have some good basics and experience with competition!

 

[10.0]

Level 2 Sorry I think it is stupid. The girls all get really bored perfecting level 2 routines all year and many drop out. I'd be okay with displays or fun meets but they are serious crack down hard core on the level 2's.

I didn't start for real competing until level 5 and I had a sucessful gymnastics career. If I had it my way "levels" 1-3 would be prep levels and more about skill building and fun, I would have them start at level 4 to get a year under their belts before they have to compete in order to move up, then real competition would begin at level 5. I would have mock fun meets or displays for the younger ones since at that age the child just wants to have fun and show off and doing real meets is more for the parents anyways, plus is just adds to the expense.

I might be super bitter about it because at our gym when you get to level 2 you HAVE to compete and we don't offer rec. beyond level 1 so you are kind of out of luck if you don't want to compete and many of the parents push their kids into it to keep them in gym and the kids hate it and are difficult to coach as they don't find it fun.

 

[lhmom]

My daughter's gym starts competing at level 4 after 2 years of pre-team training. There are several gyms in our area that start at level 3 but DD's HC prefers starting competitive gymnasts at level 4.

 

[gymmutti]

My daughter's gym begins competing at level 5. They have a Jr. Pre-team (level 2/3) and a Pre-team (level 3/4) that have one in-house fun meet a year. The rec program is strong and you do not have to move over to the competitive track unless you want to. I do wish, though, that they would provide a fun meet for the higher level rec kids as well.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

My boys start at level 5.

My girls started at prep bronze this year (the equivalent of about level 3.5), but we're considering dropping competition at bronze and not competing until silver next year (about level 4-ish).

I don't generally see any need to rush to competition. Heck, in an ideal world, I wouldn't have any kids compete at all until they're ready for level 7, but I suspect too many kids and parents would lose interest before they ever got to compete if we did that.

 

[Aussie_coach]

Our gym starts competing at level 1, in Australia basically all gyms start competing at level 1 so really it becomes a requirement. You don't need to start competing until level 4, that is the first time you must compete to pass levels and move onto the next level. But you can't wait that long here, because if you do all the gymnasts that your gymnasts are competing against have already got 3-4 years of competition experience up their sleeve.

There are some disadvantages to starting so early. First of all many kids are burnt out of competition by level 5 and 6 as they have already done it for so many years. Also our lower level gymnasts must train more hours earlier on, again this can burn them out, or burn out their parents. Also it means a lot of time must be spent learning routines and perfecting routines, which could be spent on skill development.

However, on the whole I think it is a very positive thing to have them compete early, it builds their confidence and gives them goals to strive for, and most importantly they love it.

 

[ejgymmom]

At Anna's gym, the pre-team learns the level 3 routines and does 3 or 4 in-house competitions in the spring to gear them up for competing Level 4, which is really where the real competitions start. I think there are some meets around the area that let Level 3's compete, but Anna's gym doesn't participate in those.

 

[gymdog]

The majority of gyms in my state start at L4. I can only think of a few gyms that start in L5. We don't really have any level 3 competition besides unsanctioned rec meets that gyms put together that are more of exhibitions. We just recently got a prep op program going.

 

[cher062]

in my state L4 is the starting level for competition.

Once in a great while there is a nonsanctioned meet for the L1 - L3 (very rarely) which most of the gyms in my area may refer to at Pre-team with cute names for the 3 levels.

 

[emorymom]

Close to me the gyms girls start at L2 or L3. One about 25 minutes away starts L4.

Boys in GA may always start L4.

 

[CoachGoofy]

Our artistic girls start at 4.

Our T&T teams start competing at level 5.

 

[gymnastgets10]

My current gym starts competing at level 4; pre-team does 2-3 small meets at level 3.
My old gym started competing at level 4 and pre-team competed level 3 at our last home meet of the season (we had 2-3 a year; my parents hated working all those meets!).

 

[cadybearsmommy]

Our's starts at level 4. The girls learn the level 4 skills on pre-team and then when they are ready, they can compete level 4. They have to be six though, I believe.