Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Open 4 explained

Open 4 is NOT International Open 4.

This division is exhibition only for the 2011-12 season.

The goal for Open 4 is for a place to keep competing the athletes that age out of the regular Level 1-4 divisions. The age limit for this division is 17 and older based on the August 31st deadline. If we were to make the age for this division 14 and older, then coaches would come back one year from now and complain that their athletes are leaving their main teams to compete in the older Open 4 division.

Many athletes were complaining that once they aged out of the regular division, their only option to keep competing is to compete on a L6 team, even if they aged out of a Sr L1 team. Open 4 is set at L4 because it is the highest level without including twisting tumbling skills.

You are correct, International Open 5 is 14yr and older. The reason for this is that IO5 is an International division. The bottom age for IO5 is set at 14 to give International teams enough room (age wise) to form teams. If this was to be 17 and older, then International teams would not have the numbers to field this team.


Les Stella
Executive Director
USASF Rules and Judging

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