Your Level 4 gymnast walks out of the gym on a November Saturday with a ribbon and a 34.40 all-around. She wants to know if she just moved up to Level 5. She did not.

That score came from a mock meet. Clubs run them in November, the month before the January invitationals on our gymnastics season calendar.

Why the number does not count. USA Gymnastics lets a gymnast advance one level at a time, and only by reaching the mobility score “at any USA Gymnastics sanctioned competition,” per its Women’s Development Program rules. An in-house mock meet with no USA Gymnastics sanction is not that.

For the 2026-27 season, the entry and mobility chart in the Rules and Policies sets 34.00 all-around at Level 4 to move to Level 5. Level 5 to Level 6 takes 32.00.

All-around means vault, bars, beam, and floor added together at one meet. Her best beam score from November and her best bars score from February do not combine into one total.

What the mock meet does tell you. Coaches use it to find what breaks under pressure. The beam routine she lands every Tuesday wobbles once a judge sits down and the bleachers fill up.

So ask one question afterward: what has to be fixed by January? Write the answer down. Two items on beam and one on bars is a real list (a ranking against her teammates is not).

Run the logistics like it counts. The mock meet is the cheapest place to rehearse meet day. Practice the hair, the competition leotard, the arrival time for warm-ups, and the snack bag now, while nothing rides on it.

Our guide to meets that run all day covers the long-session logistics. If a routine falls apart on the floor, the drive home matters more than the score, and what to say when she doesn’t land it has the words.

Before January. Confirm three things with the coach: the level she competes in January, the date of the first sanctioned meet, and the meet fee. Still sorting out Development Program versus Xcel? Our levels explainer walks through both tracks and the time each one asks of a family.

Then put that first sanctioned meet on the family calendar. Its all-around is the first one USA Gymnastics will count toward a move up.