Form or Difficulty?

Hi there forum people,

I have a question regarding training methodology in the US.

Quick background, I live in ze Germany, been training gymnastics myself for 3 1/2 years now, and am now at around level 8, except floor and vault, where it would be more around 7 (VT: height is sufficient for training handspring front, but no foam pit ) I have also been asked to supervise a group of 7-10-years on saturdays, and am just kinda going through the basics on each apparatus with them.

Now for the question. I noticed while watching vids on youtube, especially around level 8 or so, that the (admittedly young) competitors perform skills with such little tension and overall form that it is actually quite worrying to watch, especially on HB :? . Not only that, I cannot imagine that the 0,1 points added by swapping an A- for a B-skill is worth the deductions. Quick example: cartwheel without pointed toes: -0,1pts. Cartwheel with crooked knees: -0,3 pts. It has always been noticable, at least here, that the clean, simple routine beats the difficult yet sloppy routine 9 times out of 10. Also in training, if we cannot perform the element to a satisfactory level of perfection (coach decides, obviously ), we cannot move on to the next element, forget about even thinking of showing it in competition. Personally I agree with this approach for 2 reasons. Firstly there is simply the concern for the athlete's health, the more correct the element is performed, the safer it is to perform it. Secondly, there is also the aesthetic aspect to be considered. It is called artistic gymnastics for a reason.

So my question, mainly obviously to the coaches on here is: what do you value more in training, difficulty or form, and why? Is the attention to detail only a thing judges do over here?

L8 men's is an interesting level. It's not exactly a step up from L7, it's more of an alternate route from L6 or L7.

So many boys skip L8 and go straight from L7 to L9. L8 is for older boys, aged 12 and very often for those who do not want or need to compete in the compulsory levels 4-7.

So many boys in L8 (because of how routines can be made in L8) would not do well in L7 because of the mandated routines so they L7 and do L8 routines which sometimes are harder than L6 but not quite L7 difficulty.

It used to be called Open-Optional for a good reason.