Intro to Gymnastics: Hopes & Elite

I have to make a disclaimer: I am not a Hopes or elite athlete's mom, so I don't know anything from personal experience. Our gym doesn't have an elite program. I've just learned a little in recent months because a few girls from other gyms who did TOPs with my daughter are trying for Hopes & elite, so I've been following their progress and trying to educate myself.

What I know now is more than I knew a couple years ago, and it's WAY more than what I knew when we first started. At that time, the path to elite seemed like this big, crazy, scary machine that I didn't understand. The purpose of this post is just to give you a bird's eye view of what Hopes & elite are so you'll be better informed when you get started in gymnastics. For 99% of us gymnastics parents, this information will never apply to our daughters and that's okay. Qualifying to be a Hopes or elite gymnast is incredibly difficult. Only the very best accomplish it, and I tip my hat to the girls and their parents who are able to make it happen and to those who are attempting it.

Both Hopes and elite follow the same path to qualify for the bigger and bigger competitions.

They start with a compulsory qualifier where everyone performs the same routine as everyone else. If they do well enough in one of these competitions, they can move on to the next step: a national elite qualifier, where they compete optional routines (read: routines of their choice) and are scored using elite/international scoring (which is a difficulty score + an execution score). You'll generally know it's elite/international scoring if the score is over 10, which is the highest score possible for girls in Junior Olympics & Excel. If they do well enough at the elite qualifier, then they're eligible to move on to Hopes and elite meets like the Hopes Classic and the American Classic. If they do well enough at these meets, they'll keep progressing through the elite season.

Both the compulsory and elite qualifier meets are based on score requirements, not on gymnasts' place on the podium. It's crazy to see girls getting first place in all around who still don't qualify, but that sometimes happens and it's the nature of elite qualifiers.


Hopes

I've come to think of Hopes as practice elite for younger gymnasts between the ages of 10-13. Basically, when they're finished with TOPs, if they have done well, they'll be encouraged to try for Hopes. Hopes is great practice for qualifying for elite some day.

(Note: You can try for Hopes without doing well in TOPs. You can try for elite without ever having done TOPs or Hopes. Like I talked about in my TOPs post, the door is never closed for girls who want to attempt an elite career.)



Junior Elite & Senior Elite

These two divisions are divided based on age. When you're sixteen years old, you will compete as a senior elite. That's where all the girls hang out who are big names in gymnastics. Out of these senior elite gymnasts come our national team members and our Olympic champions. If you qualify for elite, you'll be attending camps at the US training center regularly.


The scores required for Hopes and junior and senior elite gymnast qualifiers change every year, so check with your coach or on the USAG website for the current requirements. You can check out the 2019 USAG calendar here to see what meets are offered. I've never watched an elite meet in person, but I'm sure it would be fun! So, if there's one near you, I'd encourage you to go check it out. The big meets are often live streamed, as well, so it's possible to catch the girls competing on one of your devices. In fact, podium training for the U.S. Classic and the Hopes Championships are going on as I write this post! Good luck to all those amazing competitors!