Grade Levels – FAQ with Head Coach Leah Pinette

Competition season is underway!  But this year, synchronized swimming athletes across the country are practicing more than just figures and routines.  They are also practicing skills for Grade Level testing because all 13-15 Age Group and Junior/Senior athletes wishing to compete at the US National Championships in Arizona this April must pass USA Synchro’s new Grade Levels 1 through 3.

ANA Synchro Head Coach
Leah Pinette

To help athletes and their parents understand Grade Levels, we have prepared a two-part series for our blog.  In this first part, ANA Synchro Head CoachLeah Pinette answers many practical questions about Grade Levels.  In the second part to follow, we will turn to John Ortiz to give us some higher-level insight into why we’re doing Grade Levels and what USA Synchro hopes to accomplish with them.

Both John and Leah have been working with other coaches and officials around the country as part of USA Synchro’s Athlete Skill Development Coordinating Board (ASDCB).  Together, this committee has developed an important and exciting initiative for our sport – the new Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) program.  The goal of the LTAD program is to enable more athletes from more clubs across the country to reach their full potential - and therefore to also increase the number and skill of athletes that represent the U.S. at the Olympics and other international competitions.  

Grade Levels are an important foundation component of the LTAD program because they help guide coaches in developing sensible, effective, and consistent training plans for all ages.  And they help athletes measure their progress and set appropriate goals.

ANA Synchro:   First, can you please confirm who has to take the Grade Level tests this year?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  All athletes who want to compete at US Nationals in Arizona this April must pass Grade Levels 1, 2, and 3.  That means all Junior/Senior athletes and 13-15 Age Group athletes who qualify for US Nationals at their zone championships.

ANA Synchro:   Why are Grade Levels 1-3 required for US Nationals this year but not for Junior Olympics?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Grade Levels are new for this year, and USA Synchro is rolling them out in phases.  USA Synchro wanted to give the Junior Olympics athletes enough time to train for the Grade Level testing and enough time for their coaches to weave the training into practice plans.  At the same time, USA Synchro felt it was appropriate to challenge the athletes who are able to qualify for US Nationals with the additional training and testing needed to pass the first three levels this year.

ANA Synchro:  You said that Grade Levels will be phased in.  Do we know what the requirements will be next year?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  For 2016-2017, all Age Group athletes who want to compete at Junior Olympics will have to pass Grade Levels 1 through 3.  And, the current plan is that all 13-15 Age Group and Jr/Sr athletes who want to compete at the US National Championships in the spring will have to pass Grade Levels 4, 5, and 6.

With the help of USA Synchro's Grade Level Manual,
coaches can help athletes execute the skills properly.

ANA Synchro:   How many Grade Levels are there?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  There are a total of 10 Grade Levels.  You can think of Level 10, the highest level, as being for our senior national team athletes.

ANA Synchro:   Is Grade Level testing only for Age Group athletes?  Will Intermediate and Novice athletes ever have to do it?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Eventually yes.  Grade Levels 1 through 3 are designed for the grassroots teams around our country – that is, teams that train girls from the very youngest of ages.  Our committee at USA Synchro is still working out the details of how and when to roll the Grade Levels out to Intermediate and Novice athletes.  In the meantime, coaches have the option to incorporate the Grade Level skills into their regular Intermediate and Novice training anyway.  After all, having these basic skills gives you a strong synchro foundation, whether you have to pass a Grade Level test or not.

ANA Synchro:   Can you describe the testing for us?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Grade Level testing is much like doing figures at a meet in that every athlete will perform a single skill, by themselves, in front of a panel of assessors.  Typically there will be 3 assessors.  Some of the skills will be on land, and some will be in the water.  For land skills, the athletes will wear their black suits or black tank tops with black shorts.  For water skills, the athletes will wear their black suits and white caps.   For Levels 1-3, there are two or three skills in each of the following categories:  flexibility, conditioning, acrobatics, speed swimming, figures, and synchro routine swimming.  Levels 1 and 2 have a total of 13 skills, and Level 3 has a total of 14 skills.  Athletes will know at the end of the session whether they pass the level or not.

ANA Synchro:   How do the athletes know what the skills are?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Here at ANA Synchro, we have been working on the skills in practice since the beginning of the season.  All of us coaches have a Grade Level manual, which describes in great detail how the skills are to be performed and how the points will be awarded during the testing.  Many of the skills can be practiced at home, and I have encouraged all my athletes to develop a habit of practicing at home to reinforce what we do together.  More information about LTAD and Grade Levels can be found in the Members-Only area of the USA Synchro website under “Resources”.

Every Grade Level has two or three skills in each of the
following categories:  flexibility, conditioning, acrobatics,
speed swimming, figures, and synchro routine swimming.
Headstand is a Level 3 Acrobatics skill.

ANA Synchro:   How does an athlete pass?  Will they have to perform everything perfectly?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Athletes have to get 80% of the total points available for all skills in order to pass.  That means they can be strong in certain areas, weaker in others, and still pass.

ANA Synchro:   Do you get do-over’s?  If you mess up on a skill, do you get to try again?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  Athletes have to concentrate and be prepared to perform the Grade Level skills just once for the assessors.  

ANA Synchro:   Do the Grade Levels have to be passed in order:  Level 1 first, then Level 2, then Level 3?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes, they do have to be passed in sequence.  But ultimately athletes will only work on achieving one level at a time.  It is only in these first couple of years, when we are just implementing the Grade Levels, that athletes have to pass multiple levels in the same season.  This will change as Grade Levels become a standard part of our season and a standard part of an athlete’s development.

ANA Synchro:   Once an athlete passes a Grade Level, will they ever have to go back and pass it again?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  Once you pass a Grade Level, you pass it for life.

ANA Synchro:   What happens if you don’t pass Level 3 this year?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Athletes who do not pass Level 3 this year will unfortunately not be able to participate in US Nationals in Arizona, even if they qualified at their zone meet.  However, they would still be able to compete at Junior Olympics.

ANA Synchro:   If an athlete does not pass the Grade Levels, will they be asked to change to a different practice group?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  That will be up to individual teams and coaches.  Here at ANA Synchro, the answer is no.  You will stay with your practice group regardless of whether you pass a specific Grade Level.  The Grade Level test results just show you what you need to work on.  When I was competing, I liked to challenge myself to continually improve.  So I appreciated knowing what I should be working on.  As a coach, I really like this aspect of the Grade Levels – they give athletes concrete feedback and goals to strive toward.

ANA Synchro:   What are your suggestions for athletes who want to pass?

Assessors will be following a strict method to award points,
so it's important athletes understand all the details involved
with the individual skills.

Head Coach Leah Pinette:   First, study up on how the skills are to be performed and how the points will be awarded.  John Ortiz and the entire USA Synchro committee spent many months to put a very detailed manual together.  All the information athletes and coaches need is in there. 

Next, I would highly recommend supplementing your regular practice time with some sessions at home.  There are plenty of skills that can even be practiced while watching TV!

Finally, on the day of test, try to relax and concentrate, just like you do for figures.  All of us coaches have seen athletes fail to pass a level because they just didn’t take the whole thing seriously enough.  Or because they thought they wouldn’t really be judged on all the details from the manual.

The assessors have a very strict method they must follow to award points.  If you study the skills, do extra practice at home, and execute the details on the day of the test, you should be in a good position to pass the Grade Level test. 

ANA Synchro:   Do the Grade Levels signal that there are other changes coming to the Age Group, Intermediate, and Novice competition structure we are all familiar with?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  No.  The Grade Levels, along with the Long-Term Athlete Development program, represent a general framework for training and developing athletes.  The competition structure as we know it will remain the same.  We will still have Novice, Intermediate, and Age Group meets.  We will still have zone meets, Junior Olympics and the US National Championships.

ANA Synchro:   Does any of this mean that the skills of the Grade Levels will become the focus of practice?  In other words, should athletes and their parents expect more skills and less synchro?

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  I know everyone loves to swim routines!  But before you can swim a routine, you have to be able to swim the figures that make up the routine.  And before you can swim a figure, you have to be able to execute the skills that make up the figure.  At ANA Synchro, we spend the better part of the fall working on general conditioning, skills, and figures.  I have seen how this results in better figures scores and better routine performances.  It’s always a balance to work on the basics versus turning on the music and working on routines, which is certainly more fun.  So, the direct answer to your question is no – the new Grade Levels do not mean that we will spend less time on routines.  But it does mean that the time we spend on basics will be better organized and more effective.  If it ever feels like we’re spending more time on skills, it’s not because of Grade Levels.  It’s because we need stronger fundamentals to do our best figures and routines.

Figures are included in each Grade Level.
"Tower"' is a Level 3 skill.

ANA Synchro:   Is there still a place in synchro for girls who love synchro, but don’t necessarily strive to be a Level 10 / National Team athlete? 

Head Coach Leah Pinette:  Yes!  Absolutely!  Synchro is a great sport, regardless of your individual goals.  It’s one of the few sports that requires such total body development in cardio, strength, and flexibility – along with the artistry, creativity, and teamwork of performing to music.  Grade Levels are simply a new way to teach and learn the fundamentals.  And just like tennis or golf or any other sport, the basics are important to enjoy the sport recreationally or to strive for the Olympics.

Goal Setting

Mary Killman (right) with
ANA Synchro Head Coach Leah Pinette

 2012 Olympian; four-time USA Synchro Athlete of the Year; three-time U.S. Collegiate National Champion; four-time U.S. National Champion.  These are just some of the accolades and achievements earned by Mary Killman, currently a senior at Lindenwood University and captain of their synchronized swimming team.

How does one get so good at synchronized swimming, or anything for that matter?  Surely, the complete answer could fill up a years’ worth of blog entries, but, for this article, we wanted to start at the very beginning of all pursuits – with the setting of a goal. 

ANA Synchro was fortunate to have Mary Killman deliver a seminar on goal setting at one of our recent summer camps.  Goal setting is particularly relevant now because ANA Synchro is gearing up for another busy season of competition.  Athletes here and around the nation are working hard toward a range of goals they set at the beginning of the year.  Some want to make national teams; some want to improve their figure scores; and some want to be a good friend and teammate.  These are all great goals, and they all start with an important decision to just go for it.

Please read on as we ask Mary Killman to share what she has learned about setting and achieving goals. 

Mary:  When Leah asked me to speak about goal setting, I thought “how do I make this fun?”  It was the first day of camp, and I figured the girls would either have a ton of energy or be shy and not say anything.  I gave them all a sheet of paper which basically had a little cross on it, and in each of the four boxes, there was a question.  One was “What is your goal?”  The overall thing I was trying to get across with them was that they should be setting a goal for themselves.  They shouldn’t be looking around to other people’s papers and copying what someone else wrote because it sounded good.  And they shouldn’t be setting a goal that their coach or parent or somebody else told them they should do.  It has to be their own goal.  They have to want it. 

ANA Synchro:  It’s great that you emphasize that a goal should come from the athlete.  It’s easy to see how athletes in any sport could easily repeat what their coaches or parents say and want them to do.

Mary:  A coach is not there to tell you how to think.  Your coach can give you feedback on your goals, but they can’t set your goals for you.  Once you set a goal for yourself, the coach will be there to guide you in the direction of where you want to be in the end.  But it starts with you.  You have to make a conscious decision that you want to aim higher.  I knew that I wanted to go to the Olympics.  I had some issues in figuring out the exact steps of how to do it, but the coaches helped me with that part of it.  But the original goal was mine.

ANA Synchro:  What were the other three questions?

Mary:  “Why do you want to accomplish your goal?”  If you have no idea why you want to do something, then it probably wasn’t your idea.  “What will you do to accomplish it?” Write it down!  You may or may not like it at the time, but seeing the steps helps you know what it will take to reach your goal.  Finally, “What should you avoid?”  If you don’t know what to avoid, you’re not going to get anywhere.  Thinking it through like this works on anything from synchro to life in general.

ANA Synchro:  What happened to the goal worksheets after the seminar?

Mary:  After we made sure everything on the paper was coming from them and in their own words, I had them all sign it at the bottom.  I told them now it shouldn’t be a paper that you just put in your bag and never see again.  I suggested putting their goal sheet somewhere they would see it, where it will remind them why it’s there.  For example, if you want your timing to be better in synchro, then put your goal sheet on your mirror to remind yourself to land drill.  If you want to be a happier person, then put it next to your bed or on your ceiling so it’s the first thing you see.  If your goal is to go to the gym more often, put it on your door so you see it every time you leave the house. 

ANA Synchro:  It’s not like anyone else is checking whether you have your goal sheet hanging up or not.

Mary:  Right, it’s all your decision.  I stress constantly that you can keep your goal sheet in a prominent spot, or you can throw it away.  It’s your decision to learn and pull things away from this or any other seminar; I was going to be there talking anyway.  Likewise, it’s your decision to listen to and learn from your coach during practice time; the coaches will be on deck no matter what.  The bottom line is it’s your decision to get better or not; your decision to work toward your goals or not.

ANA Synchro:  Goal setting can be a scary thing – it’s a ton of work to go after something, especially if it’s a big something; plus it stinks if you don’t achieve your goal.

Mary:  One of my dad’s favorite quotes to this day is by Henry Ford:  Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.  In other words, if you think you can’t do something, then you probably won’t achieve it.  How you think about things makes a huge difference.  If you doubt yourself, it hurts your performance.  Nobody is 100% confident and positive all the time, but if you decide to do something and think you can do it, then you’ll work harder and have a much better chance of achieving your goal.  I’ve grown up with this, and my dad was right.  Your brain is telling you so many things that you can either pay attention to, or you can just ignore.  When you make a goal, make yourself a promise that it’s OK, it’s what you’re going to do, and then go for it.

Mary Killman (third from left) with ANA Synchro athletes
at last year's US Nationals.  The girls appreciated learning
about setting goals and working toward them from such
an accomplished athlete as Mary.

ANA Synchro:  And when it gets hard?

Mary:  My advice is to learn to want to learn.  Understand that you don’t know everything.  Learn to want to be coached.  You never know what’s going to work for you unless you open up and want to learn about other people’s ways of looking at things.  Of course, you can’t be afraid to look like an absolute idiot sometimes!  This has been a challenge for me, and I can be my own worst enemy when learning new things.  Even though I’ve been to the Olympics and I’m at this crazy-high elite level, there are times when I’m going to be below my knee in a vertical because of something I did wrong before.  I’m still learning to be OK with learning new things, even when I’m not good at them.  Now I say I’m just not good at them yet.