Team Qualifications

Team Qualifications

It's going to take more than just a sparkly leotard and chalked-up hands to make it onto an NCAA gymnastics team. There are some crazy athletic and academic hurdles to jump in order to make the squad. Since the NCAA represents a college career, and colleges are typically associated with academics first (and not those silly mascots), we'll bring up academics first here, too.

Flat out, it takes hitting the books just as hard as hitting the mat to make it onto a college team. A 3.0 GPA probably won't cut it. In men's gymnastics during the 2014 season, the top team GPA was 3.622, and the women set the bar even higher (source). The top team GPA for a woman's gymnastic team in 2014 was 3.7827 (source). If A's and B's are hard to come by, it would be a more realistic goal to shoot for a NCAA Division-II or Division-III program where the academic requirements are more attainable.

As for the physical qualifications…well, let's just say a gymnast shooting to make a NCAA Division-I team has to be better at flipping then these people. A lot better. NCAA Division-I gymnasts typically achieve level-ten status in the USA Gymnastics skill acquisition program before college (source). Even for lower divisions in the NCAA, most gymnasts have level-nine skills or above.

After achieving level-seven status, a gymnast begins to learn and master specific skills that are ranked from A (which are the easiest) to E (which are the most complex). A level-ten gymnast is required to perform three A skills, three B skills, and two C skills (source). Thankfully, none of them require literally jumping through hoops. Of fire, at least.

The NCAA has an advantage in that coaches can recruit for specific skills and not all-around gymnasts, depending on the needs of the team. So do the research and find out which programs are looking for specialists in specific disciplines, and then hone your skills and schmooze with the best of them to get on the team.