USA Gymnastics’ women’s Junior Olympic / Development Program starts with compulsory levels — a shared set of routines every gymnast performs the same way — before athletes move into optional levels with their own routines. Here’s how the early levels fit together.
In compulsory levels, every athlete competes the same required routine on each event. The value isn’t creativity — it’s clean fundamentals: shapes, body positions, and the basics that everything later is built on. Judges score how well the athlete performs the identical routine.
Each level raises the bar on strength, flexibility, and skill difficulty across vault, bars, beam and floor, while keeping the compulsory format that ensures every athlete masters the basics.
Skill requirements, routine text and the scoresheet are set by USA Gymnastics and updated on their cycle — always confirm the current requirements against official USA Gymnastics materials before coaching to a meet. KINETIC’s USAG Reference keeps the levels, events and difficulty side by side so you can plan quickly, then cross-check against the official source.
In compulsory levels every gymnast performs the same required routine; in optional levels athletes compete individual routines they build within the rules for their level.
The early Development Program levels (roughly 1–5) are compulsory, with athletes moving toward optional routines from around Level 6. Always check current USA Gymnastics materials, as the program is periodically updated.
Requirements are published and periodically revised by USA Gymnastics. Use official USA Gymnastics resources as the source of truth for meet preparation.
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