You see it all the time: recruits posting training videos of new skills, combinations and never-before-seen moves on social media in the hopes of being noticed by college coaches. While those videos are invaluable, perhaps even more important is the competition season—and it’s finally here.
Coaches that start recruiting early—like even before a gymnast’s first level 10 season early—are those that see the potential in a gymnast. For me, this was Alabama and Florida. Keeping an early connection as the “firsts,” they tend to keep an eye on a gymnast during competition season, which can either foster or extinguish the interest. Other colleges may lead more logically and view each gymnast as a number. They’ll wait to reach out until they see the scores they want. In both cases this can backfire: Either the gymnast doesn’t turn out how you want them to or a gymnast hits those big marks but peaked too early. Despite the differences, every level 10 competition season usually follows a standard for all programs.
For this scenario, I’m going to be following the first year of level 10 paralleling freshman year of high school, and so on. In the first year of level 10, you want to throw the skills. Go crazy! Of course within reason and with proper pacing, but…
