Five Step Team Program

We run a 5 step team program. As the athletes move through the program… they will be grouped according to these 5 steps. We do this so the athletes… coaches… and parents are all on the same page. Below are the 5 steps to our program.

This is our first competitive level at MWT – Hartland. We substitute Xcel Silver for Level 2/3 as we believe that our own system is simpler and more beneficial to the athletes. We compete our Silver Team in the spring season… in fact… we compete all of our teams in the spring season so all of our teams can be on the same training cycle.

Our Silver athletes uptrain towards our Level 4 Team. The primary skills that athletes need to achieve to progress to our Level 4 Team is the kip on bars and the ability to tumble on floor (repeated back handsprings in a row).

Athletes will stay at this level until they are ready to progress to our Level 4 Team.

This is the second step in the MWT competitive program. This is the first level that MWT competes in the USA Gymnastics Developmental Program (formerly JO). We believe this level helps form a solid foundation of basics for the future.

We compete our Level 4 Team in the spring season which means we do not attend the Wisconsin State Championships in the fall. We have found that this is very beneficial to the athletes and program for a few reasons…

• All of our athletes train on the same basic training schedule (Level 6 – 10 Wisconsin State Championships is in the spring season). In other words… our athletes are all either “in-season” or “out-of-season” at the same time. When it is “routine” time in the gym it is “routine” time for all… when it is “uptraining” in the gym it is “uptraining” time for all.
• Our Level 4 Team competes as a team at almost every meet they attend. This is different than the fall season meets where the sessions are broken down by age group. (For example… in the fall season 10 Level 4 athletes may compete in 3 different session split by age. In the spring season all 10 of them will typically compete together in the same session.)
• Our main goal is high level performance… not winning the lowest levels. Focusing on winning the lowest levels increases both athlete and coach stress levels greatly. By eliminating the State meet at this level… we instantly reduce the stress that our lower level athletes are exposed to and transform the level into one that is more about progress and learning than winning.

As athletes progress through this level they will learn the Level 5 routines so they can achieve a mobility score to move through Level 5 into Level 6. MWT does not compete Level 5 as Level 5 and Level 6 are roughly the same skill set.

Athletes will stay at this level until they are able to achieve mobility at Level 5. We mobilize our athletes at meets in the beginning of the season (December / beginning of January). Athletes that fail to achieve a mobility score will compete Level 4.

This is the third step in the MWT competitive program and the first level in which we attend the Wisconsin State Championships.

Athletes in this level are focused on both performance at Level 6 and trying to progress to our optional team.

Moving from our Level 6 Team into our Optional Team program can be very hard. The kip cast handstand on bars is just one of the difficult skills that the athletes must achieve to move into our Optional Team.

This is our Level 7 & 8 team program. More information coming soon.

This is our Level 9 & 10 team program. More information coming soon.