Coach's Guide to USA Gymnastics Women's Development Levels 1-10 Ages 4+ 2026-27

At every meet, dress in a way that reflects the best image of gymnastics, and remove anything that could get in the way of your duties. You may not spot during warm-up or competition while wearing a cast or medical device that limits your mobility.

State meets and above:

She must have reached the minimum age before competing in any sanctioned meet at that level. Mobility scores count only from live sanctioned competitions. AA = all-around.

Other rules:

• She advances one level at a time, except the skips above (Level 5 can be skipped with two 36.00s at Level 4, and Level 6 can be skipped with 32.00 at Level 5). She can move back and forth between Levels 5 and 6.
• Gymnasts coming from another system, including Xcel, enter at Level 4 or below.
• She can compete in at most two State Championships per competitive year (August 1 to July 31), one per season, at the same or a higher level.
• USA Gymnastics can't require a gymnast to move up. Repeating a level to gain a competitive advantage is against the spirit of the program.

General (open) warm-up: 15-30 minutes. Bars are for settings only (tap swings), no apparatus warm-up, and no diagonal tumbling on floor. Marking mount distances and line drills with simple elements are fine.

Timed warm-up per gymnast in the squad:

• Vault and floor: the whole squad warms up together. Time is set by the largest squad in the session. Block time is not allowed.
• Bars and beam: coaches may block time. Each block sets the equipment once before the clock starts, and the clock stops between blocks. Only one gymnast on the bars at a time.
• No more than 20 minutes between the end of timed warm-ups and the start of competition (or the 30-second touch).
• Over time: the timer reports it to the Meet Director or Meet Referee. That counts as the warning. Any further infraction is a 0.20 penalty.
• A gymnast who arrives late through no fault of her own (traffic, weather) should be given a safe warm-up and allowed to compete in her session.

• Use the inquiry form provided at the location announced at the coaches' meeting.
• Submit it to the Meet Director or Meet Referee within 5 minutes of your squad finishing that event.
• There is no fee.
• Don't approach the judge about it. The form is returned to you after the Chief Judge responds.

What you can inquire about:

A camera flash is not grounds to ask for a routine to be repeated.

An inquiry is a second evaluation: the score can stay the same, go up or go down. The Meet Referee may watch video first to decide whether it goes forward.

Qualifying exception: at State or Regional Championships, if an all-around gymnast finishes 0.10 or less below the qualifying score, you may inquire on her lowest-scoring event. This can't be used for mobility, or where qualification is by percentage or a set number per age group.

At any Development Program or Xcel sanctioned meet, you may request a video review (if video is available). It's done by the Meet Referee and the highest-rated judge not affiliated with that event, at regular speed, slow motion or freeze frame.

Allowed only to check:

• An element the judges may have missed that affects Start Value (e.g. no judge credited a full turn on beam, or a 2/1 twist was recorded instead of a 3/1 on floor)
• Whether she grasped or touched the bar with one or two hands before falling on a release
• Whether she landed on the bottoms of her feet first (vault, bar and beam dismounts, beam acro elements finishing on the beam, floor saltos)
• Spotting deductions, floor line violations, floor overtime (you must supply the video for an overtime inquiry), and any neutral deduction

Levels 8-10: if a first vault scores zero for not landing feet first, an immediate review is allowed if decisive, and it must finish before the second vault.

Not allowed for judgments of degree, such as the amplitude of casts and handstands, incomplete turns, direct connections, split in leaps, or timing and degree of twist on vault.

Petition the Jury of Appeals within 5 minutes of receiving the inquiry or video review result. The jury should decide within 15 minutes after the meet ends and before awards are presented. It settles the case by discussion and a majority vote.

A score can only be changed for a mathematical, recording or flashing error, an average computed from out-of-range scores, time or line violations applied wrongly, a jury penalty for attire or behavior, or a video review finding that the evaluation was wrong.

Continuing the meet: if she can't compete on one or more events, she must present to the Chief Judge and touch the apparatus of each event she's missing. A score of zero keeps her in the meet.

• If she doesn't present and touch on her next event, she's treated as scratching. She stays eligible for awards on events she already completed.
• If she's hurt during the meet and can't do any more events, she doesn't need to touch the remaining apparatus.
• You must report scratches to the Meet Director and/or Meet Referee so they're recorded in the scoring system.

Medical clearance: after a serious injury, the medical provider works with you and the parents to decide whether she can return without significant risk. If she needed a medical assessment, she may finish the routine and resume in the same session once medically cleared, and may be given a 30-second touch warm-up.

Encouraging or knowingly allowing an athlete to return to training too early after a serious injury, without medical clearance, is physical misconduct under the SafeSport Code.

Gymnasts may not warm up or compete in a hard, non-removable cast, and you may not spot while wearing a cast or medical device that limits your mobility.

Phones and video

• No phone calls on the field of play.
• You may record your own gymnasts' routines for personal use, as long as it doesn't interfere with the competition. Recording other athletes is prohibited.
• No earbuds while coaching.

Floor music

• Supply it in digital format (phone, tablet, computer, MP3 player) on a device with a display screen, in airplane mode.
• Download it to the device. Streaming over cellular or internet, and playing over Bluetooth, are not allowed.
• Check the music time on the official playback equipment before competition and report problems to the Meet Referee.

If the music fails

• Before she starts: it can be fixed and restarted.
• During the routine: this is not equipment failure. She keeps going without music, and there's no deduction for missing music, for the ending pose not matching the music, or for musicality during the part without music.

After an initial warning, each attire infraction is a 0.20 deduction.

A leotard counts as backless if the open area extends more than about 2 inches below the bottom of the shoulder blade, or wider than the vertical midpoint of the shoulder blade.

Also:

• Hair must be secured away from the face so it doesn't block her view of the apparatus.
• Leotards and/or team warm-ups are worn for march-in and awards.
• No warming up or competing in a hard, non-removable cast.

Suspected abuse: the Meet Director and any USA Gymnastics member who witnesses it must immediately report it to local authorities and submit a Safety and Response Report to USA Gymnastics or the U.S. Center for SafeSport. Members are mandatory reporters.

Athlete safety at a meet (for example, risk of catastrophic injury or a possible concussion): report it to the Meet Director. The Jury of Appeals (Meet Director, Meet Referee as president, the Chief Judge of the event, and a USA Gymnastics representative if available) reviews it promptly, decides by majority vote, and can warn the coach or act to protect the athlete. Its decision is final.

Inappropriate coach behavior is handled in steps, each recorded by the Meet Referee on the sanction report form:

1. Verbal warning
2. Floor credential withdrawn (no access to the field of play)
3. Removal from the venue, which also results in a sanction violation

Only in limited cases, and usually by petition:

• Declaration date: a State Administrative Committee (SAC) may set a declaration date before the season. Once a gymnast competes a sanctioned meet after that date, she can't drop back a level that season.
• Didn't qualify to State: you may petition to drop her back one level at the start of the next season (to the SACC for Levels 8 and below, the RACC for Levels 9-10).
• Competed at State Championships: she can't drop back without a "reason for change" petition (injury, illness or other extenuating circumstances), and then only one level. Moving back and forth between Levels 5 and 6 is allowed without a petition.
• Inactive for a year or more: she can stay at her last level, move up one level if she scored the mobility score in her last season, or move down one level without petitioning.

The coach or club administrator submits petitions on the athlete's behalf.