Is anyone else's daughter starting her gymnastics season this weekend? UPDATE p.2

[missypie]

Hearing your dd's score on floor makes me chuckle because here in NJ an 8.9 will win for you on floor or at least place you in top 4, depending on the meet. The scores that I have read above for some of the meets that people have gone to in this post are insane. I guess that the NJ judges are far more harsh on the girls. Maybe we should move to those other states. AA scores in the 35's or 36's are winning AA and if scores are hitting the 9's, we assume they are scoring easy, especially on floor and rarely on bars.

It would be interesting to know if the NJ judges are harsher, or if some of the Texas girls are just better.

The girls from WOGA are awesome. Remember, WOGA trained Carly Patterson. And current National and World Champion Nastia Liukin. And former World Champion Holly Vise. And they have another girl on the National and World teams. In other words, they are training among the best in the nation.

The girl who won All Arounds at DD's age group - with a 39.150! - trains at Eagle's Wings. I went on their web site. Their Level 6-9 team trains 32 hours per week. That is not unusual down here. LOTS of girls train 24-32 hours a week. They are either home schooled, or go to private academies where they go to class for 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day. My DD trains 12 hours a week and I could tell by talking to other moms at State that that is NOTHING.

 

[carone0318]

It would be interesting to know if the NJ judges are harsher, or if some of the Texas girls are just better.

The girls from WOGA are awesome. Remember, WOGA trained Carly Patterson. And current National and World Champion Nastia Liukin. And former World Champion Holly Vise. And they have another girl on the National and World teams. In other words, they are training among the best in the nation.

The girl who won All Arounds at DD's age group - with a 39.150! - trains at Eagle's Wings. I went on their web site. Their Level 6-9 team trains 32 hours per week. That is not unusual down here. LOTS of girls train 24-32 hours a week. They are either home schooled, or go to private academies where they go to class for 2 1/2 to 3 hours a day. My DD trains 12 hours a week and I could tell by talking to other moms at State that that is NOTHING.

Could be a combination of both! My personal opinion is that if a girl is scoring a 39.150 at AA, she is in too low of a level. She should of scored out of 6 and gone to 7. JMHO.

I am personally ok with the fact that possibly those girls are better, but to me it is at what price. I would never sacrafice my dd's childhood for something like gymnastics even if she was on track for the Olympics. That is way too may hours to spend in the gym for a Level 6 or for any level in my opinion (and I am fully aware that my opinion matters to no one, but I had to put it out there.)

Early on dd would say that she wanted to go to the Olympics, what kids wouldn't, and my reply was honey I would prefer if you just focus on going to college. If you would like to do gymnastics in college great, but going to college and doing gymnastics would be a good thing to strive for.

My dd is in the gym for 14hrs a week at Level 7 it will be 18 hrs. With the exception of our elites the most that any level is in the gym is 20hrs, which is probably the least compared to a lot of the other good gyms in NJ. But in the end the amt of hrs in the gym doesn't really matter, our gym has been state champs 4 years in a row at Level 10, which speaks for itself. I guess it is the same ole saying - quality of time as opposed to quantity of time (I am not taking anything away from the gyms that you mentioned above, just our local area.)

And to what you said about your dd and the conversations that you had with other moms at State, with all the difference in hours and your dd's end up right at the same place - States! Good for her!

 

[missypie]

What a lot of gyms do for Level 6 is to have them compete at one District Qualifier, then train Level 7, then come back to Level 6 for Districts, North State and State. They'll compete Level 7 starting in January. We had 5 of our Level 6s do that.

I don't really begrudge them that. If you had a daughter that you thought could place high in State, wouldn't you want to let her?

 

[carone0318]

I guess that is the same here for our 7s and 8s. 7's compete in the fall and 8's compete in the spring so it is not uncommon to have 7's who are ready for 8 to compete the season as 7's in the fall and then go right into 8's.

For us here is wouldn't be possible to compete as a 6 then 7, because they are at the same time. You have to wait the year to go to 7 the following fall.

We do have some professional 4s, 5s, and 6s around the state as we refer to them as. Usually they are the gyms that don't do optional. At our gym they prefer to get you moving through compulsory to optionals.

Different strokes for different folks. It is so neat to hear what is going on in different parts of the country and the girls are essentially doing all the same stuff.

 

[missypie]

Do you have a "rec league", too?

We have the USAG season, which is in the fall for levels 4-6 and the winter for levels 7-10. We also have the Texas Amateur Athletics Federation (TAAF) that has a Level 4-7 (maybe 8?) season in the spring.

There are some gyms (and city rec centers, etc.) that only do TAAF and some that have separate TAAF teams that work out fewer hours than the USAG teams. Our gym uses TAAF to get ready for the next season. For example, as soon as our girls who just finished Level 6 but are just starting to train Level 7 get their skills and routines, they'll do a couple of TAAF meets.

TAAF is where you see the really scary stuff...girls from city rec clubs who need spots on back handsprings, bad falls from beam, etc. The parents from our team sit there and realize why our coaches won't let a girl compete until she is truly ready.

 

[carone0318]

In NJ we have JOGA, which is consider at our gym to be more of a rec program. The commitment isn't the same. Our competitive is USAG Level 4 - Elite, JOGA is a year round thing too and they go by letters, there is Level A, B and C. I think that A is the lowest and is close to our level 4/5 and C is the highest, not quite sure of the equivalent. In JOGA you do compete, but only in state and you go by NJ high school rules. JOGA allows a girl to do other things besides gymnastics. You have to practice I think 3 nights, but you choose the nights that you go.

I think that our Level 5's put more time in that JOGA weekly and our competitive team is a much greater commitment. For the most part if you are USAG, gymnastics is all that you do. There are some exception in that a few of our girls play on a competitive soccer team (including my dd), but that is only because my dh is the coach and tailors the practice schedule to the gymnastics schedule. It is basically understood though that dd can probably play through level 7 before having to commit to just the gym. Dh doesn't think that a child should commit to any sport at such an early age, like gymnastics basically makes you do, so for her to hold out to committing until she is 11/12, then that isn't too bad.

I can only speak for our gym in saying that you are either USAG or JOGA, you never do both. I really don't think that it is possible with the way the schedules are set up.

I would think that your USAG girls really rack up at your "rec" meets. It must definitely be a confidence booster....

 

[missypie]

They don't always dominate the TAAF meets, because they are just trying out routines. If a girl who only competes TAAF has moved from level 6 to level 7, she has trained for close to a year. Our girls will train for maybe four months, then try out their routines at TAAF. I remember last year we had a group of about 7 new level 7s at the first TAAF meet. All but one fell on her beam routine. Sometimes they'll even go in knowing they're going to scratch an event - ie. if everything else is ready but they don't have their giant on bars.

Also, TAAF groups them by skill level rather than age. Everyone starts at the bottom at their first meet, then moves up levels according to their all around scores.